I never have been around so many people, or at least that my memory allows to serve me. The longer we stood next to our car waiting for the sun to slowly come down under the hills that seemed to engulf the tents. The sun was cool against the wind that lightly hit my face as I listened to the music that pounded from the center of the festivities. Saint had vanished hours ago in the endless crowd of half naked women, and people who dressed in strange colors. They wore bright greens and gowns that looked like they had been worn during the witch trails held decades ago. Ash had been dragged off by a bunch of women who complimented on her hair, and ever since then she had vanished. Zaire stayed with me in the car with little interest of going out in what seemed to be a giant costume party. Even though we sat alone for hours we rarely shared words, and even then it was usually followed by a comment to make the other one become silent. I had no pleasant thoughts towards the male who stood outside my windows seat with another cancer stick hanging out of his mouth. I couldn't tell you completely why I hated him so, but knowing that I did was enough for me to ignore him.

I looked at the sky that had become a light orange color because of the hills blocking the sunset, but the clouds seemed to be decorated in a lovely lavender. Strange, it was, that something that to me was so vile was able to have a scenery that seemed to be hand painted by God himself. 'Maybe he isn't watching' I thought to myself as I closed my eyes, but I knew that wasn't true. I was taught a long time ago that eventually all my sins would catch up to me, but the funny thing was I wasn't even running. I wasn't scared of what was to come of me because I knew either way I would be remembered because I was hated so. "Hey Manic," I opened my eyes lightly at the sound of my name, but closed them as soon as I saw Zaire poking his nose through the crack of the window. I know that I am supposed to treat everyone brotherly, but some people just need to get cracked upside the head. "Did you even want to come here? Honestly the only reason I am here is because me and Isiah had another late bill...," he stopped before turning away to light the cancer stick in silence. 

"What do you mean late bills?" I questioned after the sound of the wind echoed with the seconds that were wasted between the both of us. He kept his head low as he slowly breathed out the smoke before looking at me lightly over his shoulder. For once I saw something through the shield that Zaire seemed to have up no matter the circumstance, and it was a depressed man I saw. That pride I had become so used to fighting didn't seem to matter as he threw the fresh light on the ground to stomp on it with his shoe. "I'm going to find the jackass and his girlfriend," he said before turning away from me to head towards the main event. I watched the tall figure stumble slightly on the uneven ground, but before long he vanished a long with the rest of my friends. I sat alone with my feet on the dash and my head resting on my shoulder as I looked at the bright lights that engulfed the tents. I wanted to find them with Zaire, but I didn't want to get out of the car. I didn't want to see a world that I couldn't begin to understand, for once, I missed my small home back in that small town. 

"Alone...," I whispered to myself as I let the silence speak to me on the light winds that made the grass wave lightly together. I hated being alone because when I was alone it was a time for my mind to speak up when it usually remained silent. That silence, that speaking, becomes screaming that rings in my ears making my heart bleed and my head pound. I sighed as I slowly opened my door with a cold chill running up my spine as the door creaked open, and I slowly stepped out. 'I'm going to find Saint' I thought to myself as I slowly brought myself to walk towards the bright colors and drums with a bass so strong it made my heart ache. The light was warm against my skin, the colors hurt my eyes with splashes of purple, green, red, and blues that mixed together with the gems bordered in the fabric. Women dressed in see through clothes and skirts that hung low on their hips with bras decorated in gems that jingled when they clanked together. Their hair tied back in ponytails that were decorated in strings of cold or beads, and the few with short hair spiked in up and hid it under a see through bandanna. Men wore pants that hugged their hips tightly and no shirts, the few that wore shirts were see through and showed each curve of their well sculpted bodies.

'My God' I thought to myself in a breathless tone as I kept my head down so I wouldn't see anymore of the people in front of me. I couldn't tell what was worse anymore, the growing embarrassment of seeing so much of these people or the shame in my own body. "Hey you!" I stopped when I heard someone yell and rose my head to see the woman that Zaire insulted earlier. Her hair was long and curled with a couple strands of gold that lightly cupped her face. Her top was yellow silk and lightly tied around her neck so I could see the bottom of her firm breasts. Her red skirt hung off her well sculpted hips and was tied up by a small strings that look like it could easily be broken. Her lips were as red as blood it seemed and it clashed with her deeply intense eyes as she stared into mine. She smiled as she noticed she had my attention and put her arms above her head to show her many bangles that slid to her elbows. My heart raced as the people around me turned their head and slowly made a small area around us, and her hips slowly twisted from side to side. The drum pounded in my ears and I could hear people around us screaming as Cynthia slowly took a step towards me. Her eyes deeply seductive, and her body pulsing as she twisted her body to the fast theme of the music. 

My heart stopped as she slowly held out her hands to me, her nails grazing my skin as I took a step back into the pulsing crowd. Her eyes tearing into me as she slowly pulled the gold strand out of her hair to make her way towards me to wrap it around my neck. I could feel her breath with how close she pulled me, and her hips lightly moving against mine made me very uncomfortable. The other women around us lightly danced with one another in a similar manner and for once, I wondered if I was in a nightmare or if this was real life. I yelled when I felt her hands linger up my chest and I grabbed her arms to pull them out of my shirt. She smirked at me before lightly turning with her hips lightly popping with the drums that I wished would just stop. "Brooks!" I stopped when I heard my name, and I sighed in realization that I was being rescued as Saint burst through the crowd of people. His hands were covered in green paint, I sighed, and somewhere a long the line his shirt had become history as well. Ash followed close behind in a small white dress that hung off her shoulder, and her hair had a strand of beads that jingled as she walked. I swore I had never been happier to see my friend than at that moment, but the music stopped as soon as he grabbed my shoulder. 

"Now you've done it Brooks. I told you that we weren't supposed to draw attention to yourself idiot," he mumbled in my ear and I opened my mouth to protest but closed it when people began to leave with a gleam in their eyes. I had only just arrived, and I already wanted to leave what I believed had to be hell on this earth. "Where's Zaire?" Saint asked as he looked frantically at the people who brushed past us with worrying in his eyes. Ash froze as she looked at me with a small smile as she slowly pulled the gold strand off of my shoulders. Cynthia remained facing us with disgust on her face as she tightened the string she had tied around her skirt. "Zaire!" Saint yelled and looked around across the crowd to only be followed with slim disappointment. "God damn it," he said and grabbed Ash's hand before looking at me, and I was busy staring at Ash who held the strand in her other hand. Saint glared at me for a moment, but soon smiled trying to ignore the burning that was building up in his throat.  He was always bad at hiding what he was really feeling, but I wasn't in the mood to draw anymore attention to myself today. Ash smiled at Saint before lightly kissing his cheek only to look away back into the crowd. 

"I'm worried about Zaire. We should find him Saint," she said in a light tone that made my heart flutter, but I looked away before brushing past her. I could feel her eyes in my back as I turned a corner to the middle of the tents were an oddly maroon colored tent stood in all its glory. The top was dressed in gold with beads hanging off that waved with each breath that wind took, and there was a small red flag attached to the side. The tent was slightly bigger than the others that surrounded it, and the fabric had beads of many colors that shone off the light. The entrance was a small beaded curtain and a red cloth that seemed to be made of the same cloth as the skirt the women wore. "What in the world?" I whispered to myself as I slowly walked towards the entrance to see if Zaire had happened to wonder there. My heart stopped as I heard the sound of laughing, and lightly pressed my body against the tent to see through the crack of the cloth entrance. My heart stopped as I saw Aspen sitting on the floor wrapped up in a black fur coat that hung loosely off of his shoulders. 

"Hard to believe that someone like you would travel with people who have little to no belief in our ways. You are quite spiritual Zaire," Aspen said while I stared at the black tattoos that littered his chest of leaves and vines that wrapped very carefully around his neck. Zaire remained silent as he looked at the man that was in front of him, but I would admit that the small white smile was new on the male's face. "They may not be the most... interesting... but they are the closets thing that I have to friends," he said as he slowly ran his fingers over his pale lips. Aspen smiled and looked behind him at the wine that he had set on the table, and a few plastic cups that sit beside it. "Ah, a friend of good drink," he said with a smile before reaching over to pick up the bottle, and his hard chest shone against the lights through the tents fabric. My heart stopped as I watched Zaire's eyes slowly trace the older males sculpted pale body, and I was truly disgusted. Not only were they both male, but it was disgusting to watch a man look at something like a wild animal on the hunt. I bit my lip at the thought of my brother who had to be tossing in his grave with his supposed to be husband prowling like a wild animal. I turned away before throwing my fist against my thigh as I walked down the crowd towards the only salvation I had- the stolen van.

"How ironic," I said to myself as I walked past a couple of girls who smelled of the booze and ran their hands erotically over their thin frames. This has never been my thing, not parties, not pagans, and most importantly not people. All these people around me, all of them so different, and for some reason my fear of them died down as my fist clutched against my thighs. "Stupid piece of human trash," I muttered to myself as I imagined his hands running all over that whores body. "Disgusting," I whispered to myself, but not about Zaire. Who was I to judge him more than I already have? I just can't understand why anyone would- I stopped as a gun shot rang through the crowd. The sound barely broke through the music, people looked at one another in confusion, and a scream rang through the middle of the crowd. I fell to the ground as I was pushed down by men and women who were running towards Asphen's tent. My heart pounded as I felt nails run down my back, hands grab my hair, and my clothes being pulled at through the chaos of the crowd. 'Oh my God' I thought to myself as I felt hot liquid run down my neck as I clutched my head and put my face between my knees. 

"Brooks! Zaire! Asha!" I stopped when I heard Saint calling, but I didn't dare try to move my head before the crowd slowly past. I felt blood on my hands as I slowly removed them from the back of my neck to see them covered in smeared make up and my own blood. The ground was littered with scarves, make up, coins, food, and the tents laid in shambles from the rips in the fabric. My body shook as I saw a couple people laying on the ground, their clothes ripped and ragged, the only thing holding them on their bodies was there own blood. "Oh my...," I paused when I slowly looked over my shoulder to see Saint running towards me with tears in his eyes as he slid down to his knees next to me. 'What happened?' I thought to myself as I remembered the sound of a gun shot, but there was only one... right? Saint slowly wrapped my arm around his shoulder before heaving me up, which was problematic because I was shorter than he was. I quickly looked him over as he dragged me with each step, and he was okay except for an ugly black eye that blemished his once "perfect" face. My heart stopped as I noticed his eyes scanning the people who laid on the ground and the wreckage.

"You must have been there for awhile," he said with a shakiness in his voice, for once the man's confidence had been broken. "The blood on your neck is dry. I thought that police would have found you by now, it has been almost an hour since the party was shot up by a couple of protesters," he explained with his lip shaking with every word that he spoke. My heart stopped, it couldn't have been that long since this all happened because I could still feel the heat of the crowd on my skin. "This world is cruel Brooks. I know you are all into God and all that but never forget that the worst of things happen to the nicest of people. Just don't scare me like that again," he said as he looked away so that he wouldn't be able to see the light in my eyes from the sun that had came into dawn. I knew this was a bad idea, but for some reason I couldn't shake off the feeling that Saint wasn't telling me the entire truth. This couldn't have taken such a long time, and I could see by the fear in his eyes that Saint was hiding something from me. "You need to rest now-"

"Saint, Where is Ash!?" I stopped by digging my feet into the ground once I realized that Ash was no where to be seen. My heart ached, my skin crawled, and a sense of overwhelming regret washed over me as I looked into his eyes. He looked down at his hand that was open for a moment before shaking his head in such a defeated way. "They haven't found her," he said with his eyes closed so that he wouldn't have to look at me any longer. "I lost her in the shuffle, and before I could see anything else I had to find cover or I would have gotten shot. I had to chose and I...," his lips quivered as a few small tears slowly slid down his cheeks as he saw flashes of the women that dropped dead in front of him. The heat of blood was something he had never forgotten, but it wasn't something that he ever wanted to relive. Tears glossed over my eyes because of the pain that had appeared in my chest, I was never going to get to see her smile ever again. My lips turned into a small smile at the thought of the one woman I had found interest in laying in a pool of her own blood, what is wrong with me? Saint remained silent as we walked past the tents that laid in shambles, and the once handmade necklaces and bracelets now crunched under our feet. I looked at the once proud tent that had been Aspen's. 

My heart ached as I looked at the pots that laid broken and the people who now laid breathless, once so full of precious life. "Is Zaire-" I stopped. Zaire had passed, but so had the man he laid with. The laid naked in one another's arms, but their faces remained matted with the blood of new lovers. 'Karma's a bitch' I thought to myself with a grim look on my face as I looked at the fingers that dug in the older male's chest. The blanket stuck to their bodies with blood, but at least I didn't have to see all of Zaire in his glory even in death. Saint kept his eyes forward with nervous look on his face as he bit his lip, I could tell that he had seen the two before. I closed my eyes and my heart stopped as I could see Cynthia with he hips twirling slowly, and he golden fleece slowly moving with her. A glisten was on her hip if I recalled correctly, and I could see now that I had missed one vital detail. She had a gun handle sticking out of her hip, and she was the one who aimed the gun at the back of my head.