Valencia

1

    Victor didn't stand out in the line. His pale skin and dark hair were painfully average. His eyes were brown, his height was normal. He was certainly nowhere near special. Instead of an extraordinary teen, he was, well, an extra ordinary teen. And he was aware of this. The line shifted forward. He fidgeted a bit with his pocketwatch. Three eighteen, it read. Or had it stopped? He had no way of knowing. Not that it mattered. Time was always slow in a line. The line shifted forward. He huddled up as yet another bone chilling breeze split through his skin. Out of sheer boredom, he attempted to make conversation with another patron in the line. He was unsuccessful. The line shifted forward. He shakily handed his ticket to the barker. The barker was a rounder man with rosy cheeks and a thick brown beard. His eyes were quite cheerful and his crow's feet were set in deep into his skin. He took Victor's ticket and smiled, waving him through the gates.
As soon as he stepped within the borders of the fence, a sudden warmth came flowing over him. He marveled at all the brightly colored tents and the smell of popcorn and caramel wafting through the crisp air. He fished a few pounds out of his pocket and strolled over to the place where the smell was emanating from. Behind the counter there was another boy who couldn't have been much younger than him. He had dark, freckled skin, messy brown-ish black hair, and scars all along his arms. He was unusually short for his age, about half a head shorter than Victor. Upon his head was a pageboy cap that was clearly faded from years of wear and tear. He noticed Victor staring and rushed over to the counter.
"Hello there mister, can I get you anything?" he said, fully focused on Victor. Victor had never been fully focused on. It was quite a pleasant feeling, he thought.
"U-uh, well what have you got?" Victor asked. The server's eyes lit up. He smiled widely, revealing his slightly crooked and oddly sharp teeth.
"Well, we've got cotton candy, chocolates, popcorn, peanuts, eggs-"
"Wait, eggs?"
"Yessir, wanna try one?"
"Are they, er, cooked?"
"No, that'd burn the shell, obviously."
"D-do you know- ah, nevermind. I'll take the eggs, since you seem excited about it." Victor responded. The server immediately burst out laughing.
"Dios mio, I thought I'd never get someone to say yes!" He cackled, wiping a tear from his eye.
"What?" Victor cocked his head a bit.
"We don't actually have eggs. But we've got Kegs! Root beer sucker, want one?" He held out a medium sized lollipop with a brownish red tint. Victor hesitated a bit before taking the treat. He slowly unwrapped it and stuck it in his mouth. At that moment, he felt any cold from the outside slip away as he tasted root beer and sweet vanilla, and a tad of cinnamon and rum. The seller had to stifle a chuckle at his wide eyed reaction.
"So, whaddya think?"
"How did you- how did you-"
"How did I know exactly your favorite kind of root beer drink? Magic, mi amigo. It's a secret," he mused with a wink. Victor smiled a bit. He barely knew the boy behind the counter, but he still felt important to him. He waved slightly as he went off further into the carnival, still sucking on the lollipop.
An oddly shaped, droopy tent caught Victor's eye.He walked in, only to become a droplet in a sea of people. He could've sworn that the tent was smaller when he first saw it. He attempted to push through the cloud, to little avail. He could see the main event fairly well, however. A man stood in the center of a fenced ring, smirking slightly at the oohs and ahs flowing from the crowd. He turned to an assistant, conjuring an ornate silver knife from his sleeve. He bowed to the audience before he blindfolded himself. With a flick of his wrist, the knife flew from his hand and struck directly in the center of a thin wooden plank. The audience roared with applause and whistles, making the knife thrower smile brightly. He brought out three more knives from between his fingers like inhuman claws. And without a moment of hesitation, the knives formed the points of a perfect triangle around the central blade. Victor was lost in a sea of cheering as the man bowed and started to open a curtain off to the side.
"Grazie to all of you. The show changes each day, please come again!" The boy yelled before disappearing behind the curtain. Victor was quite disappointed that he hadn't seen the full display of aerial cutlery. However, he knew he'd be back. He listened in to the crowd's jubilant banter.
"Did you see the way he just created that knife out of thin air?"
"I did, I did! Luca is truly something else." Luca, Victor thought. An unusual name. He liked it.
Victor decided to see one last tent before calling it a day. He chose a small one. Victor pushed aside the beads hanging from the entrance of a blue and purple tent. There was an eye shaped weathervane atop the tent, spinning slowly in the warm wind. He stepped into the dimly lit space, looking directly at a woman hunched in a blue shawl. She looked up at him with a thousand year old gaze. Her eyes were icy blue and glossy, standing out from her dark and wrinkled skin. She smiled a wide smile that warmed the room, yet sent chills down Victor's spine.
"Welcome, young one. Come, come sit," she croaked out. Victor shyly sat on a velvet pillow in front of the woman. Her face was illuminated by a blue glowing ball that sat between them, foggy inside yet polished outside. She stared at him. He stared at her. A deafening silence filled the tent. The woman smirked. "Young Victor, you are a highly troubled soul. You fear you do not belong here, you fear you are not spectacular enough to set foot in this circus. Well, fear not." She waved her old and long fingers around the ball, and a butterfly sprouted from it. It fluttered around Victor's head as she spoke. "This circus is a melting pot of illusions. We make ourselves seem glowing and divine, yet we are as you are. And you can be as we are. Have no worries, Victor." Victor did not think to ask how the woman knew his name. He only thought of her words. You can be as we are. It echoed in his head as he left the circus.