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Yet another story I am having difficulties with... darn male vampies....
"Oh! I'm so excited! Aren't you Christine?" Gloria chattered as she piled even more powder upon her cheeks. Christine sat before her vanity, staring at her reflection. The golden light of the candles played well upon her golden hair. Her hair itself was done up in some confection of curls and sweeps that she had never thought possible before this very moment.
"I suppose…" Christine whispered. Her white-gloved hands closed around the locket in them. Just a few weeks ago she had been living happily with her aunt, and then those people had come. They had stolen her away with nary a word of goodbye to be said to her beloved family and swept her here… to England.
"How can't you be excited Christine? The very king is to be in the audience tonight!" the other girl giggled. Christine frowned in vexation.
"Oh… bugger the bloody king! Who cares about him? He'll likely only ask one of us to be his mistress, and destroy us if we refuse!" Christine replied, standing up from her stool. Gloria's perfectly manicured hand flew to her mouth in shock.
"Christine! You mustn’t say such things!" Gloria chided. Christine looked away. She caught sight of herself in the mirror again. A pretty noblemen's daughter stared back at her, dressed in the grand silks and pearls of the opera. Two weeks she had been the daughter of a father she had never known. Two weeks she had been a noblewoman, no longer a simple merchant's niece.
"I'm sorry Gloria… it must be the nerves…" she sighed. The Opera… how she loved it…. The acting! The singing! It was a combination of the sincerest joys in her life! And it was among one of the few things that wouldn't disgrace a noblemen's daughter. All she hated was the viewers. None of them had any originality… none of them! They all pranced around, perfect little imitations of each other, and ultimately the king and his queen.
"Tonight we'll be performing the Dracula!!!" Gloria giggled. Of course she liked the play. There wasn't much in Gloria's head other than…well… glory! After all, didn't Gloria get to be Lucy Westenra? Of course! The beautiful young victim of dracula, whom all loved! Meanwhile, Christine played Williamina Harker. Williamina, heroine of the story whom no one found beautiful but all found honorable. At least her songs were beautiful!
"Places Madmosiles!" the director called to them. Gloria ran off in a flurry of skirts and giggles. Christine took her place with much less to-do. The curtain was rising. Henry was walking onto the stage. The castle Dracula loomed not far away, off stage.
Henry was good, quite good actually. He had the voice of a king, a prince, a god! Christine admired him, but he was not as good as Dimitri, who was coming on stage at that very moment!
Dimitri rose out of the mists like a creature of the night himself. A hush fell over the audience as he loomed above Henry… and then he lifted his voice to the music. His voice wove a spell around the audience. It slipped amungst them like the tendrils of mist around their feet. He pulled them in with his voice, dark and powerful. They were his to command, and Christine felt that he could have ordered them to do anything at that moment if he had wished, and they would have obeyed.
Dimitri's head turned as he sang. His eyes locked with Christine's. For a moment she thought they were ruby… but that must have been a play of the light. No, now that she looked again they were brown, just as they always were…. And deep….
Christine felt as if she were falling. Was it her imagination, or was he smiling? No! Christine wrenched herself free of the fasination with a shake of her head. Good lord, what was that? She asked herself. The dark haired singer's voice took on a tone of annoyance then. For a moment she thought that the annoyance was for her, but when she looked she realized it was simply that part of the play.
"What has gotten into you? Let's not become like Gloria, given to flights of fancy at a moment's whim!" Christine scolded herself. But 'lo! It was her time to arrive! She threw off her momentary misgivings and floated out onto the stage. For now, it was Gloria's time to shine. In just a few acts, however, it would be her turn!
Christine felt the warmth of the lights above drape over her, and she lifted her voice to the skys above.
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End Chapter One
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Gloria burst into their dressing room. She was flushed with excitement, and probably no little amount of drink.
"Oh Christine! This was our best yet!!! We'll be famous now, for sure!" she cried exuberantly, throwing her arms wide. Christine frowned good naturedly at the other girl.
"Why Gloria…have you been dipping into the wine a slight too much again?" Christine asked with a laugh. There was almost nothing that could bother her now. Her spirits were still light from the play. Her heart was still giddy from the joys of singing and acting together as one!
Gloria stumbled haphazardly across the floor toward her bedroom. Christine fetched up beside her, darwing the other girl's arm over her shoulders as to keep her from taking a nasty tumble. The two girls managed somehow to get through the doorway and get Gloria into her bed.
"Christine, Christine! We're famous!!!" Gloria crowed.
"Yes, yes…" Christine laughed at her friend as she dropped her onto the bed, "Good night Gloria!" she called as she slipped back out the door, shutting it behind her.
"Famoussss!!!" Was Gloria's parting cry.
Christine laughed all the way back to her bedroom, shaking her head the entire way. She shut the door quietly behidn her to block out the noise. As she changed and climbed into bed her heart was light and her spirits even lighter. Maybe tomorrow would bring a good change for her life.
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Something was wrong. Christine woke from a sound sleep with that conviction in her mind. She slipped from her bed quietly and tread to her door. The large oaken thing opened surprisingly quietly as she pressed gently upon it.
There was no one in the hallway, but there appeared to be light coming from Gloria's room.
"Gloria?" Christine whispered quietly. She walked quietly to the door of her friend, peering around the corner and through the crack of the slightly open portal. A copery scent asaulted her. At first she couldn't place the source of the smell, until she saw the man bent over Gloria.
Christine stepped back from the door in shock. She quickly turned back down the hallway and started to run back to her room. She didn't know why, but she immediately knew in her soul what the man was doing. He was killing Gloria… in the way of the vampire.
Suddenly she made the choice to turn away from her room and run out of the shared suite all together. She hid herself away in one of the costume closets. In that cramped confines she stayed until the light of morning. She was woken by the screams…
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"I don't know!!!" She cried for the last time in distress. The marshall seemed convinced she had had something to do with what had happened.
"Her throat was ripped out! By some sort of madman!" the man roared back. It was all simply too much for Christine, who broke down in tears for the third time that day.
"I…told you! Someone locked me in the closet!" she managed between sobs. At last the marshall leaned back.
"Hmph… Alright." He said. In his mind, the woman simply would have told him the truth by now. No woman could handle so much stress and still lie. At least, that's what he thought.
"You're free to go Ms. Walker." The gruff man said. Christine looked up at him from behind her fingers. The look she gave him, half obscured as it was, might have been mistaken for fright. In truth it was a baleful look. She stood and rushed out of the room, refusing to look at the man as she left. Let him think it was fear, instead of the hate she felt for him.
Stupid man… let him forget that I am an actress… she thought to herself. She knew no one would believe her if she told the truth. At the best she would be scoffed at… the subject of rumor after cruel rumor. At worst she would be locked away in some asylum and be subjected to all of their curitive methods.
No, this dark secret would remain hers and hers alone.
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End Chap Two
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 Themascura · Thu Jul 19, 2007 @ 09:07am · 1 Comments |
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