Annaliese was found when she was a baby by a woman named Martinique. Martinique, the owner of a place called Cyrkuss, took Annaliese in and raised her as her own daughter. However, Cyrkuss is not an ordinary place--it's a traveling carnival where miserable people go and hope to have a new life as an attraction, like Lady, a cheery acrobat whose body is nearly covered in piercings. It's also filled with demons and spirits, like Deen, an fire-eating octopus demon, and Arabella, a swan demon whose singing can hypnotize any man she wants. When Annaliese was ten years old, Annaliese grew fox ears and a tail. Martinique then trained Annaliese to do stunts and and tricks, eventually becoming the most popular attraction at Cyrkuss. When Cyrkuss is docked in New York, a boy named Parker and his sister Thisbe see Annaliese's perfomance. Parker is absolutely captivated and can't forget Annaliese, and neither can Thisbe. After the show, Thisbe sneaks backstage and finds Annaliese with a chain around her ankle, locked in a cage. Horrified, Thisbe sets Annaliese free and smuggles her into the back of an oblivious Parker's car. Not until they get home does Parker find Annaliese and does Thisbe realize how much trouble they've gotten into for stealing her. Martinique has sent her scouts, bat-like creatures with no eyes but an incredible sense of smelling and hearing who enjoy the taste of human flesh, out to find her, sending Annaliese, Parker, and Thisbe on a run as fugitives.