Requiem on Water [Book I]

Chapter 10

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. 
― C.S. Lewis

Chapter 10

It wasn't as if Alice didn't enjoy being pampered and spoiled, it was just that she couldn't shake the gaunt feeling slithering up and down her spine. Two hours had passed since her latest encounter with the fog, and still she couldn't refill the disquieting emptiness she felt within her. She had been thinking about death a lot in the past two hours, but also about the effects it had on her. It was draining, to say the least, and Alice was certain that the fog only made itself known in the presence of death.

She speculated that the fog was indeed, death itself.

It didn't come to a surprise when Rose and Azure burst into the room while Alice was drowning her cries into the pillow; Immortales had exceptional hearing. She had tried to come up with an excuse for her screaming, but she had no idea how to validate her strange behaviour. She was different, and everybody around her was slowly taking note of that fact. She had merely shrugged it off, said that she was overcome with exhilaration after the feed. Alice had made it clear that it had only been her second time drinking human blood, but they hadn't been convinced.

Alice sat in front of the dressing table, watching as Azure's skilled fingers styled her hair into a fashionable side Dutch braid. Her hair had been washed, highlighted, treated and cut beforehand. She had also been soaked in a bubble bath, with various ointments to soften her skin. Rose had waxed all hair from Alice's body, plucked and tinted her eyebrows. Now Rose busied herself with an assortment of eye shadows, evidently in two on which colour would suit Alice more flawlessly. Alice had suggested a blue, she liked blue, but the suggestion was dismissed at once.

"I think," said Rose, tapping her pointer finger against her bottom lip, "we should go with something darker. Let's make you mysterious and sexy, what do you say?"

"Cliché," said Azure, rolling his midnight black eyes.

"Look at her Azure," said Rose, walking a circle around Alice. "She cries innocence. We need to make her seem more vampiric; camouflage the child burning in her eyes. I say we make Alice an Immortale woman."

The manner in which Rose said 'woman' made Alice nervous, which was an evident sign that she was, in fact, still not one. She was innocent, yes. She was childlike, of course. But she had merely been a teenager when she had been turned. From what she had gathered of her human life, she had not experienced life in the slightest. But something at the back of her mind stirred. She was no longer the sixteen-year-old human girl she had been. She was an Immortale, who was beautiful, strong and powerful. Alice immediately knew that she wanted to change, that she needed to change.

"I want to be an Immortale woman," she said, looking at the mirror and staring herself confidently in the eyes. Rose smiled delightfully and Azure resigned, knowing he couldn't win against the two women.

Rose didn't waste any time. She selected her dark shades of shadows, instructing Alice to close her eyes. And she got to work, expertly applying Alice's more mature face. Azure didn't comment as Rose worked; he sat on the edge of the dresser, his eyes fixed on Alice's face. Of course, Alice couldn't see him staring at her, but she could feel his stare and it made her most uncomfortable. After what felt like a lifetime, Rose instructed Alice to open her eyes, and for several long, agonizing moments, she stared at Alice, frowning, pouting and lastly smiling in satisfaction.

"Well, what do you think?"

Alice turned to face her reflection and for a moment, she didn't recognize the face staring back at her. Her black eyes, which were rimmed with long, thick lashes, stared widely back at her, searching her face for any flaw. Her slim lips seemed more bursting than it did before, standing out strikingly red against her pale face. Her cheeks were artificially flushed a soft pink, but not so much that it seemed overdone. She was astounded; Alice couldn't deny that she looked like a woman. She smiled in satisfaction. The fussing didn't stop with Alice's makeup. Rose spread three dresses out on the bed, one white, one black and one red dress. Alice's first instinct was to choose the white, but Azure quickly stopped her and smiled.