Dean was taken aback to find that the inside of the marquee appeared even larger and more expansive than the outside. It was brightly lit with a sandy ring in the centre and elevated seats doughnutted around the edge.

"I want to be near the front!" Viv insisted as they pushed their way forwards, unintentionally destabilizing several young mothers with precariously balanced babies. Dean had to keep rushing back and help steady them all, much to their coos of delight and Viv's frustrated huffs.

"Maybe you could ask them to get their husbands to hire you?" Viv hissed as they slipped into the line of wooden seats right by the ring's edge.

Dean rolled his eyes at her before standing, waiting with his arms folded over his chest for her to pick the seats with the 'best vantage point'. It took a while, Viv didn't even seem to be concerned with the build up of impatient audience members behind them.

"Get a move on doll!" a man called out from right behind Dean, before commenting loudly on Viv's legs to his friends. Dean turned round to glare at him with an icy look, quelling their musings on whether or not she was looking for a date.

"These ones!" Viv announced triumphantly to Dean, before seating herself on the same stalls he had picked right in the beginning. Viv let out a satisfied sigh, right before the lights started to dim and everyone else quickly shuffled into place.

The tent fell quiet, save for the rushed murmurs of exited whisperings and the occasional baby's cry.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Children of all ages!" a booming voice made everybody jump, a subsequent wave of nervous titters washed across the audience.

"Welcome to the opening night of The Greatest Show On Earth! - Cirque de la Lune here in Weiser, Idaho!"

There was the obligatory round of appreciative applause as Viv poked Dean hard in the ribs and then pointed up to the scaffolding like structures either side of the ring, where he could now see dark figures moving and climbing about.

Sequinned outfits glinted in the low light, barely visible but tantalising in their promises of the excitement to come.

"I am the Ringmaster! The Monsieur Loyal! And I will be here with you all night -pontificating the phenomenal in profusions of poignant prose! But you can call me Salvatore!"

A barrage of thunderous applause and laughter cascaded across the audience. Whoops and cheers went up from all corners of the tent as a dark haired man, wearing a shiny black top hat and bright red riding jacket appeared in the centre of the ring in a puff of sparkling smoke.

"Ooh!" Viv chirped beside Dean, she leaned towards him, "He's the one in charge of the circus," she whispered with a knowing nod.

Dean found himself smiling fondly at her.

"Tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight, you shall bear witness to the unusual, the extraordinary, and the unimaginable! For tonight you will see things that tomorrow you shall believe you had dreamed!"

There was an awestruck moment of silence as everyone held their collected breaths. Suddenly, a smothered squawk let out from somewhere up on the elevated platforms. Dean didn't think many people could have heard it as they were all still focussed intently on the illuminated ringmaster.

The ringmaster himself, however, glared upwards for a fraction of a second, a shadow passing across his features. It was replaced quickly a moment later with an exaggerated smile that belied a darkness underneath.

"Sounds like someone slipped!" Viv hissed, she must have heard it too. Dean glanced up at the shadows moving in the darkness, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching him.

"Without further ado, I shall introduce our first act, however, I feel it is my duty as a gentleman to warn any ladies out there with fragile dispositions to exit the marquee immediately! For our first act is none other than the Flying Foxes themselves! Trapeze artists whose routine is so dangerous, so daring that it has caused widespread fainting in every State where we have so far performed!"

An appreciative 'coo' went up from the audience, followed by some rousing shouts of enthusiasm from a few of the men.

The ringmaster beamed round at the expectant faces, a twinkle in his eye, before taking a deep breath and bellowing, "I give you The Flying Foxes!!!"

He waved his hand across the ring as huge humming spotlights suddenly switched on, illuminating the lofty heights of the Big Top and its dripping icing of steel wires with metal hoops hanging down like candied jewels.

"Well that looks safe," Dean remarked drily as he scanned his eyes across the airbourne contraptions to where the performers were standing, ready and waiting.

He took a sharp intake of breath as he recognized one of the acrobats as the same brown haired boy he had seen watching him and Viv sneak into the circus earlier.

The boy was wearing a leotard of midnight blue, a decorative lightning flash of silver sequins forked across his chest. Dean's eyes trailed across the exuberant outfit, noting how the material clung tightly to the boy's body, which was lithe and agile looking.

The acrobat turned and signalled across the vast expanse of the ring to where another, similarly dressed youth stood on the other side. The other boy was darker skinned, like the Mexican workers Dean and Viv had spent some time travelling with.

Both of the trapeze artists had painted designs across their faces and a thick black stripe smudged across their eyes and noses - making them look like their namesake, foxes.

Before Dean had a chance to mention any of this to Viv, the act had already begun. The first brunet boy leapt across the air, his feet arched like a ballet dancer's before grabbing firmly hold of a swinging bar. Dean let out a relieved breath along with the collective gasps of the audience as upbeat piano music began to play loudly.

"There's no net," Viv remarked suddenly. Dean frowned as he realised this was indeed the case, he glanced up again and watched as the boy began kicking his legs out, gaining momentum and swinging in wider arcs across the vast ceiling of the big top.

Suddenly, the other Hispanic boy leapt from his own platform towards his swinging partner, catching hold of his legs and letting them both soar through the air.

"Oh wow!" Viv exclaimed delightedly beside him. Dean shook his head as he realised that he was sweating.

The rest of the act continued in an escalatingly dangerous fashion as each boy took it in turns to catch or throw each other, occasionally aided by the different dangling hoops and bars.

Dean found himself staring at the brown-haired boy, transfixed by the way his body moved through the different positions and leaps.

He realised that the trapeze artists must have to be exceedingly strong to be able to hold themselves up the way they did. Yet neither boy looked particularly built, they were both just lean, tightly packed muscle, coiled and ready to spring into acrobatic action.

The audience gasped and screamed as the boys feigned falls and pretended to almost miss their targets, always grabbing on at the last minute with a crooked elbow, or in one particularly daring show of skill - the brunet boy's chin.

"That has got to be painful," Viv snorted as she waved the popcorn vendor over and purchased them a couple of steaming bags.

"Jesus!" Dean shouted out as the boy did a mid-air somersault, landing on his partner's shoulders mid-swing and continuing to balance there whilst smiling coyly at the audience.

"Why do people watch this for fun?" he hissed at Viv, "I think I'm going to have a heart attack!"

"This was your choice baby brother," Viv chortled, stuffing a handful of caramel into his face and making him splutter indignantly. Dean brushed as much of it off his shirt as he could before looking up again to see the brown-haired boy staring at him...or at least at his general vicinity of the audience.

The boy probably couldn't make people out clearly anyway, what with the bright lights shining at his face.

Dean swallowed hard as the boy dipped forwards to catch his partner on an under-swing, throwing his head back and laughing as the other boy seemed to miss the mark and caught hold of his knees instead.

"I can't tell if this is all intentional or if they really are narrowly escaping death." Viv murmured, sounding amused. Dean nodded in agreement but didn't take his eyes off the trapeze artists as they catapulted themselves into what looked like the grand finale, both of them spinning rhythmically on metal hoops before they simultaneously let go.

Dean flinched forwards in his chair before he realised both boys had hooked their left leg over each respective hoop, and were now just dangling upside down.

Viv let out an excited laugh beside him, "Calm down Dean - they've got this."

The brown-haired boy looked like he was gearing himself up for something. Dean watched, captivated, as the boy's muscles tensed, trembling under the leotard before he flipped himself upwards and leapt in a somersault towards a nearby hanging bar.

A woman behind Dean screeched as the boy was propelled through the air, one of his hands slipping from the cylinder of metal and swooping down to grab at the other boy who reached up just in time to let their fingers connect.

Suddenly both of them were spinning across the roof of the tent, the darker-haired boy letting go first and landing with a somersault onto a lower platform. The first boy subsequently let himself fall backwards, flying back across the ring in a pendulum swing.

Dean's eyes caught his once more, he was sure the boy was smiling at him before his hands fell free and his body went spinning out of control downwards in spiralling motions. Dean jumped up out of seat, spilling popcorn everywhere... when the boy's feet hit the far platform safely with a thud.

The entire audience erupted in screams and cheers. Viv stood up, clapping enthusiastically beside Dean, he twisted his head round in disbelief to see her laughing loudly at him.

Shaking his head, Dean looked back up at the boy who was grinning along with the audience before taking a deep bow and cart-wheeling backwards out of sight.

"The look on your face was priceless!" Viv snorted. "And you said we were too old for this shit!"

"They should have a net," Dean retorted grumpily before plonking himself back down, realising too late that he had just sat on most of his caramel popcorn.

The next act was introduced as 'Anita and the Arrows', it was another choice of Dean's. A father - daughter team up, both of them mounted on horseback and shooting arrows at moving targets.

It was impressive certainly, but the entire thing passed Dean by in somewhat of a haze. His heart still hadn't calmed down from the trapeze artists, and his eyes kept wandering upwards to the now empty platforms.

After that came "Lola's Lions', the ringmaster waved on a particularly pretty red head wearing a bejewelled white dress and feathered head band. She was accompanied by two proud looking lions, whom she announced to the audience she had named 'Arnold and Willard' in honour of the circus' resident identical twins.

Lola also brought on three large grey wolves, who seemed to be mainly there for show rather than for the sake of any tricks.

"Is she actually sticking her head in the literal lion's mouth right now?" Viv squawked beside Dean as she clutched at his arm. She seemed far more concerned about this than she had been during the acrobats' performance.

"Relax Viv, she's got this," Dean parroted back to her with a satisfied smile, served her right for teasing him earlier.

At one precarious moment whilst 'Lola' was balancing a brightly coloured ball on one of the lion's noses, the ringmaster Salvatore decided to crack his large black whip.

There was a moment of panic as the lion reared back, snarling ferociously and throwing the ball across the air. The moment was saved, however, by one of the wolves racing forwards and catching it in his teeth before it hit the ground.

This earned a round of delighted applause from the audience but Dean couldn't help but notice the flash of fear in the girl's face as she coaxed the still growling lion back down.

"That ringmaster's a sap," Viv hissed angrily, gesturing to the arena.

"I think he did it on purpose," Dean muttered, eyeing the red and black clad man.

After the animal act came the clowns. Dean was not amused.

"Don't be such a wet blanket!" Viv laughed as the entire troop of Frank’s Fools came dancing into the ring.

The final clown, with a painted sad face and the knack of making bouquets of roses disturbingly appear from various orifices was just leaving the ring when 'Salvatore' announced that the next act would be the contortionist.

"Ooh, another one of your picks!" Viv said excitedly as the lights dimmed down again, leaving only a single spotlight pointed at the centre of the ring.

"I give you Billie Mantei - the elastic boy!" The ringmaster shouted loudly as the brown-haired boy made his way onstage, now wearing a different leotard of shimmering green.

"Hey - it's the same trapeze artist!" Viv laughed, "I thought he looked pretty bendy up there!"

Dean swallowed uncomfortably as he focussed on the boy, who was staring out at the crowd, his eyes scanning the audience as if he were looking for someone.

The music quickly started up however and, Billie, Dean now knew his name, began to stretch and contort his body into positions that Dean would have sworn were not physically possible.

Dean watched, mesmerized as Billie folded himself in half in order to fit inside smaller and smaller chests. His legs coming to wrap around his torso as if he were indeed, made of elastic.

"Oh that's just not natural," Viv groaned as the contortionist managed to wriggle his way through a hoop held up for him by the ringmaster, before hooking his feet around his head and turning himself into a perfectly formed sphere.

"Probably why he works in a circus Viv," Dean replied without looking away from the curving sinews of the boy's body. The green material caught the light and made Billie look like a snake coiling in on itself, slithering and writhing.

Dean supposed the effect was deliberate, come to think of it, the boy now had a new design painted on his face that could be interpreted as decorative scales.

The act was over all too soon as the boy straightened himself up and bowed low at the audience, his smile was wide and pleased, and unlike the ringmaster's, looked positively genuine. The lights switched back on and Salvatore announced the end of that evening's 'Big Top Shows'.

"What a blast!" Viv laughed as she stood up, clapping Dean on the shoulder and dragging him towards the exits before the rest of the crowd could get in their way.

Dean wrenched his head back round to spot Billie again, but the contortionist had already left the stage.