𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐊⠀ ⁽ ¹ ⁾

TRAPPED

As far as plans go, this is beyond risky. Aunt Patty comes up with a plan to go undercover as a reporter in the circus, fake but believable. With a forged ID made by Allison, and borrowing Arthur as her cameraman. It doesn't take much to make his role authentic, he simply borrows my camera.

As for the rest of us, we buy ear pieces and listening devices to plant. Then we all head for the circus, doing our best to come separate for now. When we see Aunt Patty and Arthur get out of their car and make their way towards the massive tent, the rest look at me as I make a gesture to silently follow.

Coming here disguised in our wolf forms was a great idea, the smells are familiar, and we can even track our own scents right to the very spot we we're headed. The cages. Taking a subtle look around, I made sure we weren't followed before venturing further. "These things look horrifying." Allison says, walking up to the bars. Her hand wrapping around one of them, before immediately pinching her nose. "It smells so bad too." My nose is burning with every inhale, but it must be even worse without an enhanced sense of smell if Allison can pick up on it. 

"Wolfsbane." Darlene says, keeping her distance just as Dirk and I were doing. "That's why it smells."

"That and blood." Retorts Dirk, as he nudges his chin to the inside of the cage. "It's mostly Vincent's, they probably use the wolfsbane to keep him subdued. No way they could control him like this without it." 

"That's just sick." Allison scoffs, dropping her hand from the bars. "What is?" A deep, serious, gravely, voice says behind us. Whipping around, we see a tall, muscular man, with thinning dark hair on his head, with fading white sideburns. His cold brown eyes look at us intensely. "You know, kids aren't allowed back here."

Whereas for my cousins and I, no one can come up with a believable excuse as to our being here, because we're mostly distracted by the fact no one smelled him coming.  Thankfully, we have Allison. "We're activists." She says confidently and certainly. "We heard about how the circus here is caging up creatures against their will, and torturing them inhumanely."

The man looking at us sneers. "Is that so? Well, missy. I can tell you that I'm the bouncer here, and if you and your little friends don't get out of here in the next five seconds, we're going to have some problems."  You can practically see the anger forming in Allison's brows, as she uses them to glare at him. "I'm not moving until something is done!"

He leans down looking at her, before smiling slyly. "Something is about to." He's trying to patronize her, and damn him it's working. I come up behind her, placing my hands on her shoulders. "C'mon, getting kicked out of a circus isn't worth getting a good grade on our humanities essay. Let's just go." He still has his eyes on hers, and I'm certain that if I wasn't holding onto her right now, Allison would've lunged at him. Even I feel tempted to. "I suggest listening to your boyfriend, and getting out while you still can."

"Will do, sir." I say, forcing Allison forward until her feet take on the rest of the way. Glancing back at him, the man walks towards the cage, and strokes it with his hand. Then he looks right back at me. He crosses his arms, and watches as we leave, as if he knows something.

At the cars, Aunt Patty and Arthur arrive a good two hours once we do. She pulls the hair tie keeping her sophisticated ponytail up, and shakes her head ruining the neatness of it. "I would say good news and bad news, but we really aren't the type of people to have good news." She says as she approaches us.

We all huddle on the ground. "What did we miss?" Arthur asks, gingerly settling down the camera on his lap and joining us. "We met Wallace Gates," I tell him. Seeing how even the mention of Gate's name is forcing Allison to ball her fists tightly. "What happened?" Aunt Patty asks as she quickly sits down, leaning into the conversation to hear more of it. "He caught us outside the cages while Allison was planting a bug," I say and look at her.