The Saga of Darren Shan
Cirque Du Freak (book)
Before the Cirque, Darren would hang out with his three friends:
Steve Leonard
Tommy Jones
Alan Morris
The four were soccer fans, and had a lot of fun together. Darren Shan lived a happy life with his Mom, Dad, and younger sister,Annie.
When Alan brings a poster to school advertising a Freak Show, Steve manages to raise the money to buy the tickets. However, they were only given two by the sales person, due to Special Conditions. They decide to compete for the tickets, or rather ticket, as all of them agreed that Steve deserved a ticket for raising the money in the first place. Darren wins, catching the ticket by chance. They go to the freak show, but Steve realises that one of the performers, the spider-wielding Larten Crepsley, is a vampire. After the show Steve stays behind, telling Darren to go home without him, but Darren disobeys. He sneaks up to the balcony and sees everything unfold from above.Shocked to know that Steve wants to be a vampire (and that Steve has evil blood), Darren flees home. That conflict is put aside, as Darren then realizes that he can in fact ownMadam Octa, Mr. Crepsley's deadly performing spider.
Darren steals Madam Octa the spider from the Cirque du Freak and develops a telepathic connection with her. However, when he is demonstrating his control over her to Steve, Annie startles him, and his control over the spider is lost, giving Madam Octa the chance to bite Steve. He goes to hospital but none of the doctors can figure out what type of poison it is. Darren goes to Mr. Crepsley for the cure and the vampire gives Darren an offer: Darren must become his assistant in order for him to be given the antidote. Darren agrees and is blooded by Mr. Crepsley. He fakes his own death and leaves his hometown to follow his life as a vampire. After three days, paralyzed in a hospital bed and then in a grave, his actions to save his friend Steve backfires, and on his way he is ambushed by Steve, who is unwilling to kill Darren. He thinks that Darren plotted against him all along, and promises that he will someday find Darren and have his revenge.
The Vampire's Assistant
With his peaceful life gone, Darren starts anew with his master, Mr Crepsley as his new assistant. Darren is still struggling with his new life but is beginning to cope up as a vampire's assistant though he refuses to drink human blood. He still hates his companion, Mr Crepsley, for turning him into a half vampire which has led him to faking his own death. Eventhough he is far more stronger and faster than any human, as he discovers,he's finding it hard to adjust his life. He's unnatural strength causes him to be alone, as he can't be friends with humans without breaking their bodies. Mr Crepsley teaches him all about vampirism and sometimes showing regret for blooding him.He understood Darren's problem and decides to take Darren to Cirque Du Freak.
There,Mr Tall led Darren to Evra's tent and soon after that, they became good friends. Evra Von is the snake boy who preformed at the Cirque with his gigantic snake. He is then dutied to do some chores around the Cirque with the help of Evra Von. While doing some of their chores, they spotted a boy hidding in the bushes as if spying on them. They pulled a quick prank on him but backfired. The boy introduced himself as Sam Grest, a village boy living with his parents and lots of pets.
Tunnels of Blood
Mr. Crepsley then has to leave on a mission, and takes Darren and Evra Von with him. They arrive at a city, apparently the city from which Mr. Crepsley was born and raised. While Darren and Evra explore the city on their escapades, Mr. Crepsley is secretly busy on his mission. Darren quickly befriends a human named Debbie, and they develop a relationship. Darren has less and less time, even more so when he finds on the news that bodies had been found in the city completely drained of blood, to which Darren is horrified, jumping to the conclusion that Mr. Crepsley is behind it. Like most plots in the Darren Shan series, the situation quickly spirals out of control, ending up with Darren ambushing Mr. Crepsley just as he was about to capture a Vampaneze, injuring Mr. Crepsley and greatly agitating him. When Darren finds out what is really going on, he quickly forgives Mr. Crepsley, and starts helping him. Darren, now having even less time for Debbie, is worried. Debbie invites Darren to her Christmas party, but Darren, excepting the inevitable, that he will have to leave eventually, decides to tell them he is moving again. Debbie, greatly disappointed, tries to convince him to stay just that one day, but Darren disagrees. Finally, Darren decides to tell Mr. Crepsley, about Debbie, to which he surprisingly finds that Mr. Crepsley is not mad, even delighted that he brought up the topic. After a brief talk with him, they both resume tracking down the Vampaneze. However, they meet some bumps along the road. Evra gets kidnapped and when darren and Mr. Crepsley are searching for him Darren and Mr. Crepsley get into another argument, an ensuing fight leaves the vampires one-up to the vampaneze. You then find that it was all one massive plan to capture and kill the Vampaneze. However, Darren admits that there were certain parts that were left to chance, and that the plan could have failed at anytime. Then it is shown in this passage of how Darren says goodbye to Debbie.
