Freaks on Witch Mountain

Untold Past

In a camp that, in a way, looks like it could be a huge circus, a boy named Darren Shan was thinking about his former friend, Steve Leonard. Most of the time, they knew each other they were inseparable, even when his parents thought they had gotten them to stop hanging out for Steve being a bad influence. Even though he was a bad influence, Darren didn't mind it. Steve was the one person who could get him away from his strict lifestyle at home and learn to have fun.

Unfortunately, about a month ago something happened to change everything. The two of them had decided to go to a "freak" show in town one night. The "Freaks" were another word for creatures or people with strange appearance or abilities. While they both enjoyed the show, the two friends had different things that caught their attention the most.

While Steve was geeking out about the host being a vampire, Darren's attention was on a certain blue and red spider that was in the show. There was one moment when the spider went towards the audience and landed right in front of the two boys. Steve had tensed up due to not being a huge fan of spiders while Darren just looked at it. But after the show, he got so interested in the spider that he snuck into a room and stole it. However, this would be a decision he'd regret for the next day. The spider was let loose, not only causing panic but also biting Steve. The host had warned that a single bite is instant death. Once Steve was bitten, he collapsed, fallen into a coma as the bite mark worsened.

Darren was able to get the antidote for the price of becoming a vampire. As he went on with his life, he started noticing his vampire senses were trying to take over. This caused him to fake his death by drinking something to paralyze him and also snapping his neck to make it realistic. Although the world thought he was dead, Steve was the only one who knew what was going on. When it comes to vampires, Steve had done enough research to tell what was happening.

For a while after his supposed death, Darren had to get used to life as one of the freaks. But at the same time, he didn't know that Steve had started changing to be worse than before. He was lashing out, silent, and nearly committed suicide before getting an offer he couldn't refuse, an offer that would make the two of them become enemies. There are two types of vamps, vampires and Vampaneze. The Vampaneze are on the darker side of the vamp lifestyle. The only time a vampire feed is for surviving, Vampaneze, on the other hand, will not only feed whenever they please but will even kill.

Now, Darren sits in a tent, wondering what he could have done to change things. Just then, Rebecca, his girlfriend who also had a monkey tail, came in and sat by him. "Still worried about him?" She asked. Darren looked at her and sighed. "I know it's stupid." He said. "I mean, he wanted me to kill you." He added. Rebecca nodded. "But you wanna believe he's still in there." She said. Darren nodded. "As much as I hate it." He said. "I can't help thinking he's still in there." He added, remembering why Steve tried to be turned into a vampire.

He said that his mom was always drunk and his father was long gone, then what Darren did just pushed him over the edge. "He never actually talked about his family at all." He said. "Come to think of it... I never even went to his place." He added. "My parents would just drop him off at some street when we were done hanging out." Rebecca looked at him and nodded. "Okay, so let's go there and see if his mom has seen him." She said. Darren looked at her worriedly. "You sure you wanna come?" He asked her. "Someone's gotta keep an eye on you with Crepsley gone wherever he went to," Rebecca replied with a laugh.

A while later, they got to the street and walked around. All they noticed was an apartment building at the end and walked in. "Excuse me, we're looking for Steve Leonard," Rebecca said. The worker looked in a book with the names of people in the apartments. "Sorry, no Leonard's here." He said. Darren looked at him confused. "Are you sure?" He asked. The worker shrugged. "Any chance you have a photo?" He asked. Darren pulled out a photo from his pocket of the two of them he found before leaving home. "Oh yeah, poor kid." The worker said. "Kept finding a way to break into rooms, so I just ended up keeping one saved." He added. "Only he told me his name was Jess." Rebecca and Darren looked at each other and then at him. "Do you know where he came from?" Darren asked. "Some town called Lark Creek." The worker said. The two left and used Darren's speed to get to the small town.

Once arriving, Darren needed to catch his breath. "You okay?" Rebecca asked. Darren nodded as he caught his breath. "Yeah, just a bit further than I'm used to." He said before seeing something on a wooden pole. It was a missing person photo of Jess Aarons. "The right place." He said. They headed to the address on the photo, leading them to a farm where a man was working. The man looked over and saw them. "Hi there." He said to them. "Something I can help you with?" He asked.

"Hi, uh...I'm Darren, and this is Rebecca." Darren said, holding the photo. "Playing cop?" The man asked. "Or are you just carrying my son's photo around?" He added. "We know him," Darren explained. "Except he introduced himself by another name." He added. The man didn't believe him and started walking off. "Get off my property before I call the police." He ordered. "Sir, wait," Darren said as he pulled the photo of him with Jess.

The man looked at him and held the photo in his hand. "How is he?" He asked. "Honestly, we don't know," Darren replied. "He just vanished about a month ago." He noticed the man started having tears in his eyes. "Well uh...there's this spot in the woods he would hang out in." He said. "Maybe if he came home, he'd be there." Rebecca looked at him. "Don't you wanna come?" She asked. The man shook his head. He hadn't gone there since his son left. "I'd be surprised if he is thereafter what happened." He explained before walking off.

Darren and Rebecca walked through the woods before seeing a girl walking by herself. "Excuse me," Rebecca said. The girl looked at her. "Are you lost?" Rebecca asked. The girl shook her head. "I'm heading to Terabithia." She said. Rebecca and Darren looked at each other in confusion. "It's the spot dad was talking about." She said. "I overheard you talking about Jess." She added. "I'm May Belle." She introduced herself.

As the three of them walked to Terabithia, May Belle told them about how Jess and a girl he met had made it. She talked about how she made Jess feel happy and showed him some fun for once. "So what changed?" Darren asked. "He wasn't exactly the happiest person when we met." He added. May Belle was silent for a moment, remembering what happened. "She died...Leslie, the girl." She answered. "I guess he decided to run away because he still blamed himself." She explained while telling them what happened. "One day he just left... and never even said goodbye." She said.

The three of them crossed the bridge to Terabithia and eventually reached a treehouse. Rebecca looked near the treehouse and noticed a blonde-haired girl around her age looking at it. "Who's that?" She asked. May Belle saw the girl and stopped. "It can't be." She said. The girl turned around and looked at May Belle. "Leslie?" May Belle asked in confusion. "But you...how are?" She asked. Leslie looked at her with a regretful expression. "It's a long story." She said. "But I can explain everything." She added.