Bad Blood

The Masquerade

The night was warm, a telltale sign that spring was just around the corner. The stars glinted and sparkled in the light of a Cresent moon, a sliver of silver in the night sky. A large meadow, normally quiet and uneventful in beautiful stillness, was alight with excited activity. Large poles were erected, encircling a large area that held up an abundance of stringed light. Below the grass and flowers were left untouched, only disturbed by various tables for guests to rest their drinks and a few canopied tents that housed servers and the choice of drink for all the guests.

Partygoers were dressed in elaborate and elegant costume-like attire, sporting matching and expensive masks that either partially or fully covered their faces. Unless one was quite familiar with that vampire, they could float through the crowd, utterly unrecognizable. It was the one night of the year, the one party that the Council hosted, where nobility of all ranks could relax and allow themselves to be rid of the rigid social rules that ruled their life day after day.

Fabulous scandals and passionate romances that happened at the Masquerade would be the topic of gossip for months to come. A much welcomed change of topic that Marie was hoping would happen as she arrived with the next wave of guests.

As if Titania, Queen of the Faires, arrived herself, Marie was dressed in a most ethereal gown of light blues, purples, and greens. The dress was long, floating over the grass effortlessly, as if the fabric itself was made of something as light as fairy wings. There were speckles of fine gold dust all over that gave the dress a beautiful shimmer with every step. It was not all one piece straight down but layered with leaf shaped pieces all the way from the sculpted bodice down to the free-flowing bottom.

Her mask matched her dress, the same soft colors bleeding into one another. Sculpted to her face, various leaves and flowers covered much of her, leaving only her right cheek and lips exposed and uncovered. The entire mask was trimmed in a soft gold that reflected the sparkles in the dress. Her usual dark locks were tucked away under a long, golden blonde wig. She was completely transformed, walking freely into the sea of other vampires. Unless one paid close attention to the color of her eyes or the natural royal aura she gave off, not a single person recognized her. Not until she ran into Julia.

"I almost didn't recognize you," she whispered. Julia was dressed in all black, her gown sprouting inky black feathers and a mask that matched and covered her eyes.

"It seems I can never fool you," Marie replied just as quietly, a playful smile bending the corners of her pink lips.

"You almost did. The blonde suits you."

"As does the dark hair on you."

The two laughed softly together, relishing in the fun of the masquerade. A gentleman in an all black tuxedo and a black mask that covered his eyes approached with two, full, crystal wine glasses, handing them to both of the women.

"Well, don't you look dashing, Damien!" Julia exclaimed as she delicately took a glass from his hands. He bowed with a smile towards her as Marie took her glass from his outstretched hand.

"As always, not a thing goes past you, Lady Julia."

"I have quite the observant eye, or so I'm told," she beamed proudly, taking a sip from her cup. Marie chuckled as she turned her gaze towards the crowd. Although she merely wanted to see the costumes of the others, subconsciously, her eyes were searching for something familiar.

"Marie," Julia started, grasping Marie’s attention again. "I'm going to steal Damien for a little bit, if that's okay."

"By all means, steal him away. Perhaps someone might start a rumor about you and a mysterious man walking about."

"Exactly!" She exclaimed, taking Damien by the arm and towing him away and into the crowd. This allowed Marie to move freely without him fluttering around her constantly. Although she was appreciative of his attentiveness, it was almost suffocating these past few days after her resurgence.

She walked towards the opposite direction, melding into the crowd, blending into the maze of bodies. The laughter and carefree energy was infectious, so much so that Marie found herself matching it, briefly allowing herself to forget about her life, living in the moment. She laughed with masked strangers, clinked glasses with passerbyers, and for once enjoyed the attention she received from others.

She made her way towards the break in the crowd, watching as bodies twirled and danced in an erratic and almost confusing waltz as dance partners changed hands quickly. She was not standing there alone for long as a masked stranger grabbed her hand, removed her glass, and pulled her into the fray, twirling effortlessly. Around the corner, she went, and another man swooped her up and into his arms, continuing the movement of the waltz without a hitch or a misstep.

One after the other, she must have exchanged partners about a dozen times. Perhaps it was the ecstatic nature of the waltz, the infectious energy, or simply the carefreeness that the Masquerade embodied, she had found herself laughing. A sound that Marie thought she would never be able to hear again after Adam’s rejection. At first, it caught her off-guard, the strange, bubbly sound deep within her chest. She allowed it to form fully, erupting out of her like light at the end of a long and dark tunnel.

The light was snuffed out as fast as it came when her hand was placed into a new one. The tingle, the tug at her heart, heavy and dull, brought everything back into reality as she looked up to the man who wore a golden mask that covered his face completely. His eyes stared back, and the familiar deep pools of dark liquid that she once gazed into so lovingly now gave her a sinking feeling of despair.

She steeled herself at once, emoting no emotion, simply going through the motion of the waltz, not acknowledging his presence.

"Marie, can we talk? Please?" He whispered under his breath, quiet enough for the both of them to hear, yet drowned out by the music to the rest.

"I'm not sure what you would wish to talk about, Mr. Vulpe. I, for one, may not be interested in hearing what you say."

"Please, Marie." He pleaded more desperately, urging her with his eyes to agree. She tried to avoid his look, but with one twist of his hands on her hip, she was forced to catch his gaze. Despite the ice around her heart, it couldn't help but beat warmth for him, and she reluctantly nodded.

With a sigh of relief, he led her back into the crowd, holding onto her hand as they squeezed through the masses. They walked for a little bit, going beyond the boundaries of the lighted area, disappearing into the trees of the surrounding forest. The contrast of the darkness among the trees compared to the soft warm glow of the stringed lights was drastic. A human would have run into a tree her, but their eyes adapted quickly, the darkness barely a problem as they walked deeper in.

He stopped finally, some 800 feet away from the party, and turned to face her, removing the mask from his face. She opted to keep hers on, using it to aid her in keeping up her own personal mask against him.

"Marie, I...I'm sorry."

She scoffed.

"Wait, please," he continued. "I am sorry. I am sorry that you fell in love with me. I am sorry that I wasn't man enough to be honest with you. I am sorry that I left you behind, and thought that you would move on. But you didn't. You were loyal to me, and I never deserved that, I never deserved you."

"Honest with me? Do elelaborate."

He hesitated, mentally trying to find the right words without digging himself deeper into the hole he was already standing in.

"I thought that maybe your love for me, our relationship, would force me into enjoying the lifestyle of my parents, the lifestyle of being a noble. All the parties, the rules, the etiquette, the quiet hypocrisy of it all. I thought that maybe having you by my side would allow me to swallow it down more easily. But you're a Royal. It's multiplied by tenfold with you. And then everything started moving quickly, and I found myself thinking if I was ready to commit to it all while trying to maintain face to the public, to you. But, I couldn't hide it from you. You knew something was wrong, and I took advantage of it. Please, don't think I was planning on leaving you, us, behind," he mentioned quickly, noticing her face darken at some of his words. "I truly thought that maybe a few months, a year or so to get everything out of my system would be enough, and I would return home, return to you content and ready to face my fate."

"But the more I traveled and experienced life all around me, carefree, without the need to follow social etiquette to the tee, the more I hated the fact of returning home to it."

"And what about me? What about our love, which now I doubt truly existed in the first place? What about the bond we created?" she asked, unable to hide the c***k in her voice.

"I loved you, I truly did, but you became a symbol of everything I resented."

"Then why are you back? Why are you here to torment me?" she spit through clenched teeth.

"It's complicated, I had to return for the safety of..." He paused, realizing he spoke more than he should have.

"Safety for your human, you mean? Do you think Edenvale is a safe place for humans? You truly did forget everything about being a noble or a vampire."

He looked at her, his eyebrows scrunching together. She smiled, narrowing her eyes.

"I would love to hear what the Council has to say about all this." His face went through an array of emotions, from surprise to horrid realization, and then dread.

"Your little human lover is more unsafe here than anywhere else. You will be forced to turn her or allow her memories of you to be erased and returned to where she belongs. Such a choice shouldn't be a problem for you, though. You're already an expert at throwing away the things you claim to love."

He stepped forward, the distance between them closing fast as he was barely a few inches away from her. She was already having trouble being in the same vicinity as him, let alone so close to him. It was like a need, an urge to press into him, to re-establish what little of the bond remained. Yet it was laced with the utmost deep and hollow sadness, knowing that it would be in vain to even try. Her chest rose and sank rapidly, the only thing betraying her discomfort as she held her head high, her gaze stern, and her lips pressed tight.

"Don't," she raised a hand to stop his speech as his lips moved to say something. "You have already said enough, twisted the knife even deeper into my heart."

"Marie, please don't think this doesn't affect me as it does you."

"Yet you have your human, your convenient shoulder to lean on, to keep you company. I have no one, Adam. I am left utterly alone now."

He said no word after that, lowering his gaze shamefully to the floor. Someone must have told him what had happened in his absence. She merely looked upon him, shaking her head in utter disappointment.

"I'm sorry," he muttered quietly again.

"Enough," she responded shortly, getting annoyed. "I came to the masquerade to forget, and I would like to continue doing that, especially since I have more to try and forget now." She turned around and began walking back towards the meadow, pausing after a few steps to turn her head around to him.

"I am glad that you did me the favor of removing yourself from my life now rather than later. You are a coward, a spineless creature who would have sullied the Gravenreuth blood. My mistake of choosing you would have been the downfall of my ancestors' dynasty and my family's future."

With that, she turned away once more, briskly walking. She knew her words were harsh. She meant for them to be harsh. It was more for her rather than him, really. She needed to distance herself away from him physically and mentally, or else drown in her feelings and die.

The lights and sounds of the masquerade slowly appeared as she reached the edge of the forest and back to the meadowed clearing. She paused, eyeing the best way to enter back without causing a commotion. She was banking on the hope that no one recognized her, besides Julia. If that was the case, no one would bat an eye at that her. But if anyone had recognized her, gossip would spread like wildfire. She made her way around, slinking back into the crowd from in between the various tents.

No one made a fuss about her. She was seamlessly blending into the crowd again, laughing, dancing, and smiling with the others once more. But this time, it wasn't genuine. Waltzing was just a dizzying array of sound and movement that kept her tears at bay and her heart from shattering all over again for the moment.

The night went on, and the partying didn't stop until the first rays of light reached its fingertips over the mountaintops. Tired, yet still giggling and laughing away, they all migrated over to waiting staff and drivers who hurriedly drove their employers home.

Damien craned his neck upwards and over the heads of the exiting mass, trying to catch a glimpse of Marie. During the night, he heeded Julia’s advice against his own better judgment and left Marie alone to enjoy herself. He watched from afar as she danced with multiple partners and how she finally smiled. He relished in the sounds of her laughter, a noise that he could pinpoint in a crowd of a thousand laughters. He was happy that she was finally allowing herself to feel some sort of happiness, yet jealousy rose it's ugly head when it was them and not him making her smile. His skin boiled when he watched as she held the hand of a man who led her away.

Damien wanted to follow, but the crowd was thick, and he had lost sight of the two. He kept looking, a mixture of panic adding to his jealousy when he overheard that two strangers walked into the forest. The gossipers giggled like school children, trying to figure out who the two were, while Damien’s heart sank. The attack on Marie’s parents happened early in his rebirth. He had always feared that one day, the killers would want to harm her as well. He made his way to the edge, circling the entire perimeter about a hundred times before he stopped, watching as she walked back to the party. Her energy had shifted so much, a wild contrast from before. Who would even dare, he thought as he clenched his teeth and slinked into the darkness of forest.

He followed her scent trail until it stopped. Looking around him, he noticed no evidence of a fight or altercation, only the scent of another. It was all together strange and familiar, a scent he could not pinpoint to a specific individual. Although unsatisfied at not figuring out who talked to her and what happened, he was content enough to know that she was not hurt, physically at least.

Now he stood in the middle of what was the dance floor, finally spotting her mask. He shouldered his way past many to stand next to her, taking in every detail of her skin and attire, once again making sure she wasn't hurt.

"Are you ready to retire home, my lady?"

"Yes, quite."

The road home was long and silent. The house was still dark, only a few people up this early to get things started. Marie said her good nights to both Damien and her driver and headed up the stairs, like a ghost, slow, and solemnly. With a soft click, she shut her door behind her, leaning against it as slow, heavy sobs escaped from her lips. They grew in volume, her mask breaking as every little feeling she tried to hide clawed their way out in loud and desperate screams. Desperate screams for it to stop, for the pain to go away.

She wanted it to end. But would it ever?