Blood Feather

Invitation

"Have you decided yet?" The young woman asks, fluffing her cotton candy pink hair while admiring her aqua contact lens asks. She moves on to applying foundation on her face, perfectly masking her real age of 27. Instead, she looks a rebellious teenager.

"I'm not sure mom." The dull brunette leans against the door with a poker face, watching her beautiful mother while questioning why she did not inherit any of her amazing beauty genes. Her only real asset that can be considered 'pretty' are her mysterious violet eyes, caused by a rare condition. Except she doesn't like attracting attention to her boring self, so she wears contacts to hide her real eye colour, like her mother, but for the opposite effect; she uses icy blue contacts to hide her real self. The 11 years old looks at the deathly pale skin on her hand, wishing for lovely tanned skin like her mother's. Skin that doesn't burn after a few hours in the sun.

"Well, you should decide on a junior high soon. You have great grades, Lucy." The only advantage over her mother, Lucy is certain of that as the young mother begins applying mascara.

"I don't know. I don't really want to choose a middle school based on my grades." She sees the life ahead of her as a maze, and she has no idea which direction to head in.

"How about going to the same place as your friends? What was it called again?" The beautiful woman puckers her lips, making the most of the yellow bathroom lighting, while carefully checking every inch of her face, insuring that there are no flaws.

"Brook Middle School." Lucy sighs, using her hand as a fan to cope with the still hot summer heat, wanting to back to the basement where it's cool and not have this conversation with her mother. She knows that registrations for junior high are long over, but the mother doesn't. Not yet. And she doesn't plan on telling her.

"That place." Lucy knows her mother doesn't plan to remember the name, and it adds to the irritation from the heat. "Just go to that school. Hang out with friends."

Except she doesn't consider them as friends. Not a single one of them. But she wants friends. People to talk to, and people to care about her and to care for in return. But she's hesitant at the same time, not wanting to be hurt again.

"I don't think so." Lucy finally replies. "I don't really want to go." She blurts out, becoming horrified once she realises what she has done. Her eyes grow wide and her eye brows shoot up.

"What do you mean?" The mother finally turns to look at her, with a face as serious as a teenage face can ever get.

With her mother's full attention on her, Lucy becomes nervous and frantic for a way to escape. Her eyes shift nervously as she rolls on her heels, wandering the floor and the walls- anywhere away her mother.

Then it comes. A message from heaven; the doorbell rings. Lucy takes off towards the door, not bothering to say 'I'll get it', not wanting to say anything at all. The mother sighs as she watches her daughter run down the hallway, and stop just before the door. She follows Lucy's trail, at a steady pace as to not produce any form of sweat before her date. She sees her daughter opening the door, and she also sees that no one is outside.

Another prank? The mother's lips purse, preparing herself for her daughter's furious reaction. But it doesn't come. Instead, Lucy stares at their place mat. After a few hesitant moments, her mother joins her.

They both look at the black letter on the ground, then back at each other, with confusion stamped on both of their faces. They share a common reaction, for once, but then the daughter's violet eyes, since she had not put her contacts in that morning, become wide with apprehension. She knows what the letter is for. But the mother does not know. She frowns like the child she always acts like at her daughter, who chooses not to look into her mother's eyes again.

Instead, Lucy bends down and picks up the letter, still in disbelief, and rips the envelope open. It's an acceptance letter to a junior high, written in a copper ink. In the middle at the top of the letter is a unique crest in scarlet with the earth in the middle, an image of the stars in the top left, an ocean animal in the top right, a bird in the bottom left and a wolf in the bottom right. This isn't just any junior high, this is the unique stamp of The Michael Junior High. The school no one really knows about, and the students are unknown, unidentified. But everyone knows about the school. The students live in dorms and the entire school stands on a huge area of land in the remote town. There is a huge 15 feet tall wall surrounding the entire property. And they are famous for their mysterious coat of arms in the town. Rumours say that it is a prestigious school for famous people or royalty, hidden away from the public eye. Other rumours say it is actually a prison, in disguise as a school. Even more rumours say that, those who enter the gates, never come back alive.

Lucy, sensible as she is, thinks she knows better than to believe in simple rumours, but she's not sure anymore.

She tells her mom. "I've been accepted to Michael Junior High." Her mom's mouth widens in a happy smile, glad that the affair is over and she no longer has to worry about her child's future turning out like her own. At least not for three years. It makes her so happy that she does not worry about possible wrinkles settling in her face.

Lucy, however, is not so sure about this, and she bites her lower lip. According to her letter, she gets her uniform tomorrow and a driver will pick her up to settle in the dorms. But she concentrates on the fact that, she never applied to go to Michael Junior High.

On the bottom of the page, Lucy sees a message written in a strange colourless, translucent ink. It finalizes her decision to go, because it tells her in order to quit the school, or have questions answered, she has to go directly to the school and talk to the principal in person, but that's not the only reason. Despite the great differences between her and her mother, Lucy still loves her deeply for all the years she has single handed tried to bring her up and can't bear to tell her that she did not plan to return to school- any school. The second reason is the girl's sense of curiosity, for she loves mysteries more than her favourite dishes. And the mysterious school, has piqued her interest.