(c) Carnival [PG]

by tea-boy. Thu 29 Oct 2009, 10:16 pm

Title: Lost.
Rating: PG
Author: Me.
Genre: Original Fiction.
Status: one-shot.
Summary/Excerpt: Childhood.
A/N: Bit of a fail.

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It was the kind of cloudy night where the wind blew just right making her dark hair fly lightly against her cheek as she stood in the way of the gust. She looked around at the flashing lights and whirling rides, causing her to close her eyes from dizziness. Upon opening her eyes again, she bit her lip and stood on her toes to look around. She furrowed her brow upon not seeing her target and started walking around. She passed dinging game booths and spinning metal monsters as she navigated the busy sidewalk of the fall carnival, eyes roaming through the mostly jubilant faces of the crowd surrounding her.

She stopped at a familiar setting; her eyes dilated and stared at the sight in front of her. Delicately, she ran her hand up and down the ivory colored post and stared at it for a few minutes. The sentimentality of the spot caused some vines in her mind to loosen their grip on past memories. Bruises on her heart reappeared, prominent and vibrant in color. The stitches on the scars of a past life unwound and stabbed at her again, from somewhere deep within her chest cavity. The pain did not reach the surface, but clanged and banged through her cavernous insides. A dull sting crashing against her soul in waves.

She absentmindedly bit her lip and stared into the whirling ball of childhood conquests and chipped paint. The run-down horses were as graceful as they’d always been in the minds of the attendants; they seemed to treacly dance in the October wind, whirling past her in pairs. Her eyes watered a bit from staring so long.

She felt someone lie their head in the crook of her neck and she half-smiled. He sighed lightly and sunk into her shoulder contentedly. They stared at the whirling light for a few moments and let the tangled orchestra of sounds float through their ears.

“Do you miss I sometimes?”

The man furrowed his eyebrows.

“Miss what?” he asked.

She paused for a moment, her mouth drawn in a thin line, choosing her words.

“Childhood,” she decided, finally.

The boy pushed his mousy brown hair out of his eyes and turned around to look at her.

“What do you mean?”

She was hesitant to meet his eye.

“This place is just sort of,” she paused, “haunting, I guess. I always came here when I was a little girl. I’d go on the ferris wheel and feel like I was in the heavens. I’d be so astounded by the lights and sounds, wondering if it was a new world all together. I used to think there was no place more beautiful. Then I grew up, and logic destroyed everything. Now it’s tainted, tarnished. I don’t like feeling like this. I want it to be magical again. I want to be a child again”

The small boy stared into her eyes; a confused ocean of green met his gaze in reply.

“I can’t turn back time, but I can sure as hell try.”

She stared at him, slightly confused, and he smiled. He tucked a piece of long curly hair behind her ear and smiled brightly.

“Come on, let’s go be seven again.”

And with that, he took her hand and led her to the carousel ride.