cascade | kotlc

Prologue

masquerade | kotlc is here!

- F. K.

'Family' was always a strange word to Faye.

Family. What was a family?

She thought she had one before, in those daisy plains, with the wind so cold to her ears. She thought she had a family before, the Kiaras, and she thought she was safe, beautiful, loved as she sat with them, cradling their faces...

No matter how hard she tried, she never forgot how Aisy's face looked in the moonlight, aghast with a hint of convoluted anger.

Those words. Those promises.

"I'll be here forever for you," her sister would whisper, leaning ever so close to her in the cool wintry wind, on the silken couch, wearing her white-lace sandals and delicate sleeves. "Whenever you want me, just call. I'll be here."

She had called, called her name to the valleys and mountains, grass and flowers. The leaves shied away and the branches swayed, crackling with the sound of crunching petals, and there was no response.

Pretty words, pretty promises.

"I promise I'll make it up to you," Aisy would say as she looked over Faye's shoulder and at the smashed menagerie laying by her feet. It used to be her favorite glass animal, and Aisy had accidentally dropped it when she was cleaning the shelves. "I'll buy you a new one, alright? Larger and prettier. Don't cry, come on now, let's get you to bed..."

The glass menagerie had remained smashed, and Aisy never had time to buy her a new one. The shattered figurine of a raven still laid by her feet.

Sweet words, really, but worth nothing.

"I love you," Aisy muttered to her, when they were drunk on the summer night, the fireflies glittering soft orange and the stars glittering in the sky.

Faye had leaned closer, kissed her cheek, taken her hand and returned to watching the birds fly over their heads. The lingering sweet taste in her mouth never faded, as far as she remembered, until the night had passed and she was hungover in her bed.

Then she left, left her alone crying in the white marble mausoleum, told her to kill herself with all the malice and spite in the world.

What happened to the promises, broken and left to gather dust by the dead riverbanks? What happened to it, what happened to all of it, did Aisy really mean any of it, the bittersweet words and fading memories?

"I've got to leave," Aisy had said briskly to her, snatching her makeup bag off the counter, biting a stick of gum in her teeth. "I'll be back in an hour, alright? When I get back I'll do fun things with you. Whatever you want."

Faye had waited excitedly, gazed at the clock hanging over their double doors, waited and waited and waited, until her eyes turned grey on the marks and outside the sun set into shadows. She had fallen to sleep on that couch, her eyes still trained over the door, and the next morning the doors were left ajar and Aisy had locked herself away in her room.

"Got to do some shopping," Aisy said to herself once.

"Can you wait?" Faye called after her, reclining on her arm. "Stay with me a little longer, sis, hmm, ple~ease?"

Aisy giggled. "Alright, little sister," she chuckled, and let Faye lead her away. Afterwards when Faye excused herself to use the bathroom she heard scurried footsteps, and when she washed her hands and emerged the doors slammed shut and the Leapmaster glittered with remaining blue.

Some years ago, when Faye had returned from Atlantis with tears brimming in her eyes, distraught by a gown she wanted being sold out, Aisy had hurried up to her and held up her head. "What's wrong?" she had asked, and Faye cried with her petty pain, confessed and complained and cajoled.