The Witches Heart

The Wedding

Three days passed in a flash, and Claudia still thought about what happened in the forest. As silly as it was, she had started having nightmares about that crow. It seemed she just couldn't get a break, in the day she was worried about her wedding and at night she was plagued by nightmares.

Speaking of the wedding, the dreaded day had finally come. She had a few hours to get ready, and then she would officially be married and taken away from her village. It seemed no one in her family was excited and Claudia didn't know if she would've preferred them to be or not.

Her father was sort of just standing around idly. Claudia's father was a short man, and he had black hair and eyes as well as pale skin. Claudia's mother would often joke about him being a ghost haunting the house because of it.

Claudia was pretty much her father in female form while her sister, who had shut herself in their room, took after their mother. Her mother was sitting at the table, her skin was brown and her hazel eyes were cast downward and her curly brown hair fell in front of her. If the sun had a human form, it would be her.

Suddenly she stood up.

"We need to start getting you ready for the wedding," she said.

"Yes mother," Claudia replied, moving to join her mother.

Her mother began to lead Claudia into her parents' room. Her father simply watched them with sad eyes, though it was hard for Claudia to feel bad for him considering he had made the decision to sell her.

Claudia was almost never allowed in her parents' room, she didn't know why but she had always gotten yelled at if she tried to go in as a kid. Really, it wasn't much different from her and her sister's room. There was a bed barely big enough to hold two people, a dresser, and two windows on the otherwise dark and empty walls. Her mother walked over to the dresser on the left side of the room.

"We'll do your makeup first, your fiancé was nice enough to buy a dress for you so we'll put that on after," she said.

Claudia heard her, but she wasn't really listening. She could only stare at the floor and fiddle with her hair, something she only did when she was nervous. Sensing her daughter's unease, her mother wrapped her in an embrace.

"..I'm sorry Claudia," her mother mumbled into her shoulder.

"It's not your fault," Claudia reassured, her own arms coming to hug her mother.

"But it is, I..I should have tried harder. I should have told that old man to go fuck himself right then and there," her mother said.

Claudia laughed, "are you referring to my father or my fiancé?"

Her mother laughed too, "both."

The two came apart and Claudia watched her mother wipe her eyes before turning to the dresser to get out her makeup. Claudia had been under the impression her mother didn't care, that she had simply went along with her father's decision, but now she realized her mother was truly anguished to be losing her daughter. She was only pretending to be strong so as to not worry Claudia.

The process of doing Claudia's makeup took nearly an hour. First her mother put some cream and powder on her face to cover up any blemishes, then some rouge on her cheeks to make her more lively. Her mother then used a small brush to apply petroleum jelly and coal dust to her eyelashes, supposedly it made them longer and darker. Finally her mother used the same rouge she'd put on Claudia's cheeks on her lips.

They did not have a mirror, so Claudia could not see how the makeup turned out but her mother looked satisfied. Then her mother started digging through the dresser and pulled out a fancy white dress.