Crimson

Chapter 1

I felt as if my breath was being taken out of my body as my aunt Elizabeth fastened the red whale bone corset around my waste. The more she pulled on the delicate looking strings of the preposterous contraption, the more I felt like my ribs were going to collapse in on themselves. I held onto the cherry wood bedpost as she yanked, and drew the the corset as tight as possible without my death being the aftermath of being fashionable.

"Does this really have to be be this tight aunt Elizabeth?" I questioned breathlessly as she smiled her catlike smile and patted me gently on the shoulder. After my mother's death, my father became nothing but a broken man who stared into a fireplace. The people in Corinaldo had spread many rumours about him, how after my mothers death he had lost his sanity, whispers of this spread all across the city and I couldn't help but agree with them. In the years following the tragedy, my brother had been summoned by the military to go to war. He had never come back. My aunt Elizabeth was the only person left in my family, she took both my father and I in, and though my father still silently sat at the fireplace, staring into the flames as if some manifestation or epiphany might appear to him, my aunt had given me life once again.

"Darling, if you are going to a ball, whether it be for an assassination or not, as your aunt I will simply not allow you to look as if you are a cinder girl." She said as she grabbed my shoulders, spun me towards the closet and walked me to two large doors.

"Open it Cecilee." Ordered my aunt. Inside the closet lay a red dress, the same blood red colour as my corset, the same red colour as the eyes of a vampire needing to feed. It was the most hauntingly beautiful thing I had ever seen. The sleeves of the dress were made of a red laced material that was completely interwoven with golden threads as undertones to the crimson colour, the sleeves ended at a point with a small circle at the end of them to place your middle finger through. The rest of the dress was red silk, cut to accentuate every curve of the person who wears it. Intricate designs of golden thread covered every inch of the garment, giving it a kind of shine that was rather sensual opposed to the puffy, scratchy material of the ball gowns that were usually worn by women my age. It was simple, yet elegant, and even though the prospect of putting on a dress caused me to gag, I found myself excited to see what I look like in this one.

"It's beautiful aunt Elizabeth, it's absolutely beautiful." I turned and embraced her, her short arms coming around my waste, her head reaching up to rest on my shoulder. Aunt Elizabeth had always been a small woman, and rather than having the trademark black hair and hazel eyes of our family, she had inherited hair like fire and eyes like the ocean. My father used to tell me that every man who lived in their town used to wish for my aunts hand in marriage, but in those days my father was the secret hero of Italy, in those days my father was truly alive.

"Now, now Cecilee, let's get this on you before the carriage arrives. We can't have you late for the Kings ball." She squealed and reached into the closet, delicately handling the crimson fabric and holding it out to my body. Though I may not be have the smallest and most delicate frame, fully equipped with not too bulky muscles that have been built during years of training, and carrying out the life of a vampire hunter, I could tell that this dress would be just as flattering as Aphrodite dressed in her best clothes. My aunt ordered me to lift my arms above my head as she slid the fine fabric onto my body and over my corset. Her fine fingers worked carefully and quickly, fastening the buttons that lined the back of the dress from between my shoulder blades down to my tailbone. With the dress finally on my body, I spun around and peered into the looking glass that had previously stood behind me. What I hadn't noticed before was that the dress had a slight trail behind it, causing it to resemble a wedding dress that had been drenched in fire, and rather than being burned, it had just absorbed the fierce colour.