make me stay.

five

♜

to my pure luck, the weather was cold that morning. it was the perfect excuse for wearing a thick turtleneck beneath my sweater to hide the burning mark on my neck, and none of the other seemed to notice anything. at this point, the skin on my neck had an obvious discolouration i wouldn't be able to explain my way out of. even i, myself had no clue why and where the mark had come from, and i saw it as an unnecessary worry for everyone else, if they discovered it. 

it wasn't even a mark, as the colours didn't seem to form any pattern or stamp. it was just a red, burning spot. 

i wasn't one to carry a grudge, but being completely honest, the mark would give our group something to discuss, and i would prefer to complete the rest of the walk in silence. i hadn't come all this way to lose my friends in unnecessary fights, or be the usual grey they all seemed to hate so very much. 

i wanted to have fun for the first time in too many months. i wanted colour back in my life, even if just for the short week we would be here. 

after having breakfast, i had found a tree stump only a few feet from the house, where i had been waiting for a short while, when the others finally seemed to be ready to leave. 

graham's grandparents would only be attending the festival for the last two or so days, so we had to find our way up there on our own. graham had known the way so far, but only because he had travelled with his parents through his childhood to visit them. they had never gone further up. 

"ready?" graham was the first to speak up, and his question was directed at me. behind him stood lily, who was being supported by wesley, harvey standing next to them not daring to glance up even for a second. 

"more than any of you," i mumble, getting up, and turning towards the direction we were going. we had been given instructions, or at least, i had been given the directions by delia earlier. it was likely the others have been given the same before they left. 

they all followed closely behind me, but i kept a constant pace that seemed to challenge, especially lily. she did only have one foot to fully stand on, but it seemed a lot better now than as of yesterday. and i no longer had any patience left in my body. 

two rights turn whenever the path showed different directions to follow, and soon we began to hear it. all of it. the cheering, the yelling along with the music that was being yelled over, the noise of hundreds of people, some dancing, some running, some just walking. behind the closely growing trees, we moved upwards as the path seemed to cline more and more, the higher we got. we had slowed down the last few minutes, but the sound gave a sudden, needed push. 

and without warning, the open gates showed up. 

the first glance i got of it all, even outside of the town, was enough to knock you over. that, and the fact that two children had been running ahead of their parents and were too excited to finally be here, to notice me standing in their way. one of the ran straight into me from behind, and landing on his back within a split second. i turned around instantly, dropping down onto my knees to help him back up. he shot a goofy smile back up at me, apologising. 

"i'm so sorry, miss. i-"

i softly placed a finger on his nose, which made him swallow all words he had on his tongue. 

"don't even think about it. nothing's broken," i winked at him, and with a short laugh, he was gone. he sprinted right through the gates, catching up to his brother in no time, and suddenly he wasn't just out of reach, but also out of vision. 

they both got swallowed up by the crowd that had formed in between all the stands, and it was no wonder where all those people had come from. 

the first few steps in were overwhelming, but it quickly pulled you in by the hair. 

different smells that had come far from the other ends of the mountain were mixed together, a new one appearing with every step you took. baked goods to the left, sweets and liquorice to your right. everywhere stands had been set up, each one completely different from the one next to it. 

colour was everywhere you looked. everyone was dressed in costumes, as colourful as a summer garden. bold yellows, magenta, emerald green and cyan. some stands even sold the costumes along with feathers in every colour imaginable, scarfs, shoes and jewellery.  

some had even painted their faces with dots or stripes, or put on a mask or a hat.

stilt markers were making their way through the crowd, bending down mostly to shake the hands of children or lift the hat off of  a stranger. one of them was busy blowing bubbles which had the children surrounding running around with no clear direction to pop them before they hit the ground. 

the music, however, was the heartbeat of it all. people were dancing, singing either along to songs or simply just making up their own lyrics to a melody that had none before. on every corner of every street, every booth, every building, a new band of a few people were playing. the songs did not match, but it couldn't have seemed to matter less. with every moment passing, with every movement you made, even if it was just turning around in your spot, your eye caught something new, your ears heard something new and your nose smelled something new. 

in between people performers of all kinds were making their rounds. magicians, jugglers, mimes and dancers, alone or in groups, holding out a collecting hat in front of your nose whenever they passed you before moving on to the next person behind you. 

i had never seen anything even remotely like this before. it truly was a day where extraordinary was a norm and being alive was a riot, and we still had six more days to go. 

my mind was buzzing, my fingers electric, as excitement had pushed aside anything else in my brain currently. smiles were shared between every single person here. 

"holy-" lily had breathed out within the first minute, but no one had replied. no one had even had enough focus to even think about replying. it took us up to an hour of wandering around, simply trying to take all of it in, before we found a bench that would fit all of us, where we could sit down and breathe. 

"what is happening?" wesley began, running his fingers through his hair with a deep sigh. 

"i have no clue," graham replied. "i can't seem to follow one thing for more than a moment. i mean, you see this magician, right? and you start following his tricks, but then this mime tickles you from behind, and then a man on those stilts takes your hat, and your nose catches the smell of some baked goods and a few people singing pass you, and then your focus is suddenly lost." he was shaking his head, almost as if not believing any of this to be real. 

"there is so much happening in one short moment." lily agreed. 

and suddenly, all their eyes fell on me. my smile was from ear to ear, my eyes sparkling with joy, a feeling, a rush of butterflies i couldn't calm down. 

"this is one of them." i began, my smile only spreading. i let my gaze go around, looking all of them in the eyes. "this is one of those butterfly moments, where you wish you could just stop time because you realise you're standing in a perfect moment, and it'll be gone in a moment more." 

"then why are we still sitting here wasting our moment?" graham replied, getting up before he even finished his sentence. we all followed him in between all the other visitors, but at some point, we all took a different turn that the rest.