Claire stiffened when Kate grabbed her arm. She would have thought Kate would be smart enough to not touch her when she was behaving like this, but maybe the pervert just wanted a chance to grope her again. She did remove her hand again, and Claire felt disgusted with herself for thinking such a thought about her best friend. She had said she would be fine with it if Kate wanted to touch her when they were in the dream. Funny how reality was able to mess with her mind and confuse her feelings even more than a nightmare.

Claire listened to what Kate and Elijah had to say, with her head turned, not looking directly at them. She didn’t know if what Kate suggested she do what was she wanted to do. How could she not understand that she might need time to process everything that had happened? Maybe Claire needed to tell her to back off and give her a chance to think, because at least then she would be left alone long enough to consider the odd prospect of them being more than friends.

“I never said that’s what I wanted, Kate. Maybe you need to stop talking long enough for the rest of us to think!” She muttered. “That’s what I want to do, so leave me alone to do so.”

She wanted to walk off and leave them standing there, but then they had some good points. Someone had just been murdered brutally, and that wasn’t the only unexplainable event that had taken place lately. Claire could claim they were illusions all she wanted, but it clearly would not stop them from hurting her or possibly ending her life.

“Fine then. I suppose sticking together is best for now if you’re afraid of being alone.” Claire finally said and sighed. They needed her with them more than she needed them with her when she had her big cats. “I wouldn’t be alone either way though. I’ve got my family of kittens to protect me. Maybe they’d protect you too if you behave.”

Claire straightened her clothes, and then she headed towards the part of the circus where the animals where kept. There should be nothing to fear. She wanted to think it so badly that she would likely think it until death was staring her in the face. She could try to escape with her cats, but this was her home.

“What do you suggest we do then?” She asked, going back to the conversation they had had about how they should get to the bottom of things.

Kate sighed and stepped away from Claire, shaking her head to herself. As much as Kate didn't want Claire to go off alone and be a potential target to whatever forces were at work here, she couldn't ignore the cold tone and distaste that Claire was directing at her. It was clear she didn't want to be anywhere near her at the moment, but they were under some unfortunate circumstances.

Claire was right though, she probably would be perfectly safe surrounded by her big cats. If not for their fierceness, the sight of them alone would be enough to stave off any potential attacker who was not familiar with them. Kate supposed that if she wanted to be left alone then she would give her space once they made it to the animal keeps.

"Fine. If you want to be left alone with the cats then so be it." Kate mumbled before walking in the direction of the cages. She cared about Claire's well being, but she wasn't going to stick around if she was going to be treated coldly by her most valued friend. Kate supposed that once Claire was safely with her creatures, Kate would leave her alone as she wished.

The effects of the dream seemed to have no negative effect on any of the trio's awakened life except Kate's. Elijah and Claire had been freed from a fear, while Kate's was slowly developing before her eyes. It scared her, but she decided to not worry until Claire had had time to process what exactly Kate had admitted to her in the dreamland.

Kate didn't feel like talking anymore after Claire's comment, so she left the answering of her question to Eli. He followed behind the girls and shrugged his shoulders.

"Well first we need to figure out what we're dealing with. And I think in order to do that we need to figure out what kind of mumbo-jumbo Elena was rattling off in the big top. But I doubt she'll be willing to just tell us, so you two better grab your spy gear." He chuckled, trying to lighten the damp mood that was surrounding the group, but to no avail.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, arriving at the cages a few minutes later. There was a peculiar feel to the area, but Kate attributed it to her general nervousness. Kate stopped when they got nearer to Solomon's keep and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well here we are, if this is where you feel the safest then Eli and I will leave you to it. Besides, it would serve us well to go gather some of our blades to keep on hand anyways." Kate didn't bother making eye contact with Claire again after the looks of resentment that she had already thrown her way, so she turned to walk towards their training area where the weapons were kept.

"We'll be back later, holler if you need."

Yes, I do want to be left alone to think. Thank you for finally listening to what I’m saying, Kate. That’s so very considerate of you to do after forcing me to snap at you. She tightened her fists as she thought about screaming those words at Kate. Ugh, she was being even more insufferable than she usually was when Claire turned her down.

“That’s nice.” Claire said.

It was all she could manage without screaming at Kate that maybe finding out someone you’d known since you were children suddenly wanted to fuck you wasn’t something a normal person would react any better to than she had. She was so glad when Elijah interrupted the silence and actually answered her question.

“I don’t know. I think she may be willing to talk if she’s still around.” Claire said. “Elena never seemed like an evil person to me, even if she may be hard to deal with at times. Competition is fierce even when you’re the biggest and best like we are.”

Claire shrugged. They could always try to talk with Elena afterwards too, as long as they didn’t get caught trying to find out what the woman had been doing. They were more than her as well. Claire didn’t want to start a witch hunt, but they could probably rile up enough people from the circus that wanted answers as well. Elena would be pressed to answer them somehow then.

They reached the cages, and Claire sighed in relief to find the area undisturbed. She’d not been all that afraid that something may have happened to her kittens, but at least there were no nasty surprises waiting for her either.

“Of course this is where I feel safest.”

Claire smiled with her whole being. It was her home among home, her sanctuary where she could feel protected and be left alone when others wanted to bother her. It was where her family lived, even though she had never had a large family she had one when she had her cats.

“Cheer up, Kate.”

She sighed, but apparently it had to be this way because Kate couldn’t give her even one hour to gather her thoughts. It wasn’t like she could do anything about the confusion she felt. If Kate wanted to distance herself from Claire because of it, it would be a shame, but it would not be her fault in the end. She hoped this would just be another one of their fights years from now, assuming they had survived the events at the circus by then.

Claire entered the cage of Solomon, after making sure the rest of her big cats were well fed and alright. She sat herself with her back against his stomach where he was lying. She spent a long while trying to gather her thoughts, but she felt mostly annoyed by the way Kate had acted. Finally, she managed to gather her thoughts about the two of them together as more than friends by talking to Solomon. She kept her voice low and whispering.

Elijah and Kate walked mostly in silence as they weaved their way between wagons and tents towards the weapons range. Kate's mind was heavy as she trudged along, her eyes aimed at her feet while she silently cursed and had arguments with herself. Why was is that she was the one being punished here? She hadn't done anything wrong, other than profess her suppressed feelings for her best friend. Ugh, if she had just suppressed them further maybe they would have disappeared altogether and they wouldn't be in this mess right now.

Of course it was her fault, she couldn't just be 'normal' like all the other people in the world. No, that would be too easy. Instead she had to have the most difficult rendering of reality possible for her. Then again, she didn't deserve the disappointing look that Claire threw at her either. After all, if she hadn't done what she had they would probably still be trapped in that crazy nightmare, forever doomed. She continued to mumble to herself and throw her hands around like a mad person while she walked.

Eli raised an eyebrow at her but let her be while they walked, nodding to passing coworkers while they walked through a commons area and shrugging when they pointed at Kate with a confused expression. They arrived at the place where they kept their weapons and practiced their acts all too often. But something was off. There was some type of gelatinous goop covering the chests that the weapons were kept in, and the wooden targets standing several yards away appeared to be bloodstained. Kate approached cautiously, blinking several times and rubbing her eyes before turning to Elijah.

"You... see this too, right?" She asked.

"Unfortunately, yes..." He approached the chest and opened it up. The contents were liquefied, the slimy substance coating the entire thing and filing it nearly to the brim. Eli grimaced, but kicked the chest over to empty it out. It nearly appeared as if the weapons had been dissolved by whatever the stuff was. It spilled out in a giant plop, coating the ground.

"We should get out of here before whatever did this comes back... I've got more blades at my wagon, we can stop by there before heading back to Claire." Kate said as she had to keep herself from gagging at the sight of the gelatin goo that spread from the crate. Elijah nodded and wiped his hands with a kerchief from his pocket, tossing it to the ground after his hands were cleaned.

They made it to her wagon and both entered, cautiously at first after what had been witnessed earlier near the wagons. Once Kate saw it was safe, she closed the door behind them and opened her closet. She retrieved her own throwing blades and holster before handing a larger knife to Eli, which he placed at his side.

"You know, Katie, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself." Eli said after a few moments of silence. To which, she raised her eyebrow in speculation. "With Claire, I mean. Give her some time, you just dropped something big on her. 'Bout damn time you did too."

"Wait, you knew?" Her mouth fell slightly agape.

Eli chuckled and nodded, "Well, it wasn't that hard to figure it out. Not after the multitude of times you ignored my attempts at flirting that is." He smiled softly, "I wondered why you blew me off, but then I started to pay attention to the way you looked at her, every time she was around."

Kate's face turned red and she let her jaw drop. It had never occurred to her that Eli had tried to make advances on her, though now that he mentioned it... she swallowed the lump in her throat and had to sit down. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He shrugged, "What was there to tell? I love you Katie, but I've moved past those feelings for you. You love her, you just need to let her realize that."

Kate was still a bit embarrassed, but she was able to gather her thoughts and talk to Elijah about it. Strange as it may be, it made her feel better about the situation. She realized she needed to back off and give herself and Claire a break. They finished their chat after a while and decided it was time to head back to the big cat enclosures to make sure nothing strange happened there like back at the practice range.

Claire feared what would happen if things didn’t work out between them, even if Kate got what she seemed to want there were no guarantees. They had worked great as friends for years, so perhaps they would work just as great as a couple. What if they didn’t though? What if everything continued to fall apart after they solved this situation? Maybe they had been inevitably pushed down a slippery slope towards an end neither wanted by all of these events, but then she should try to hold onto her friend through the fall, right?

Another aspect to consider was how thoroughly inexperienced she was with any of this. Her first kiss had been in a strange shared nightmare, like half an hour earlier, so by any count it probably hadn’t even happened yet. How could it have if it was a dream? She wondered if Kate was more experienced than her, or if it would dissuade her from pursuing any relationship with Claire. Weirdly, that made her feel a bit sad and angry at the same time. She’d been led to believe men wanted to marry inexperienced women, so why would Kate think she had any right to judge her based on that?

She calmed herself down by telling herself all of those concerns were in her head. She couldn’t possibly know what Kate wanted in a partner. She thought she could have once, but clearly she must have been so wrong. Claire had teased her for being into Elijah, assuming they did things together when she was not around that would make others blush. Now she had to wonder if all they ever did of that nature was talk about what Kate wanted to do with Claire. Were they like two guys in that way? That made her blush.

Claire went to retrieve her whip after she had remained motionless in thought inside of Solomon’s cage for what felt like too long. She needed to distract herself from thinking, not think more; especially not along the lines she had been doing it. She found snakes where she would have usually stored her whips. It confused her at first, but she picked them up and threw them in a nearby barrel. Only one of her whips were still around, apparently someone had thought they were being funny when they exchanged the rest with snakes.

She returned to Solomon’s cage, where she found her friends waiting. Claire didn’t know what she was supposed to do to show she was at least accepting of Kate as she was, no matter what that meant. In the end, she went up to her side and took her hand in her own, squeezing it lightly.
“So what do we do now? Go slay the evil witch?” Claire made a bad attempt at a laugh, which sounded more false and nervous than anything else. “I don’t think Elena is any worse than any other boss normally, so maybe we should hear her out before we do anything drastic?”

Elijah and Kate had made their way back to the animal enclosures and poked around to see where Claire had run off to. Eventually she resurfaced, whip in hand. This time, Kate stood still and kept quiet instead of opening her mouth again. What Eli had said still sat fresh in her mind and she knew she needed to leave Claire be.

It took Kate by great surprise when Claire took her hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze. She did her best not to react too greatly to the gesture, simply smiling ever so slightly and returning the squeeze. Her heart thumped in her chest at the notion that things were going to be alright. Hopefully at the very least their friendship would remain unharmed throughout the process, she could only hope.

"Well, I didn't bring my pitchfork with me or else I'd say we should burn her at the stake." Elijah returned the nervous laughter with a less awkward chuckle, shaking his head. "We might as well see what she has to say, at the very least she may have some answers that could prove useful to us." He shrugged his shoulders.

Kate nodded in agreement, "That's true. I don't suggest we act until we have an idea of what's really going on." She doubted Elena had done anything like this on purpose, and it was hard to believe that she was capable of such magic. That is until recently, of course. Too many oddities had occurred to deny such forces could exist.

"Very well then, let's go pay the boss a visit, yeah?" Elijah tucked the blade that was on his waist into his trousers and covered it up with his shirt. No point in looking threatening if there was no need, especially not with all of the cops patrolling the grounds for their investigation. He set off leading the way, checking over his shoulder to make sure the girls were following.

"Well, what are we going to say to her? We can't just knock on her door and say 'Hey Elena, mind telling us about that voodoo stuff you did the other night? Seemed a little murderous if you ask us.' She'll probably send us to the same fate as that poor woman earlier." Kate questioned.

Elijah raised an eyebrow at her, but kept walking. "I think maybe you should leave the talking to me or Claire, Kate. Your way with words seems to be fleeting today." He flashed a grin, which she returned with a huff. "We should probably start vague, wait to see if she fesses up before we have to bring it up ourselves."