Killing On Command

Chapter 3

It was difficult for Alex to get the morning's events out of her head; especially when it was the only thing on her mind while she was being strapped into corsets which were a few sizes too small for her, and were making it difficult for her to breathe properly. To make matters worse, not a dress in the entire shop had suited her so far. Her Father and sister had been sitting outside of the fitting room for the last two hours.

She sucked in a deep breath as Maria - Garim's daughter and old friend - pulled the lace on the back of the white corset she was being strapped into. Maria was a half-elven girl around the same age as he and Zack, and they had grown up together. Her pointed ears were hidden under dark brown ringlets which fell down around her shoulders and her purple eyes showed Garim's elven blood coming through in her daughter.  Alex could barely exhale the breath she had just taken in, and it was painful. She was already feeling light headed too, which didn't help the situation at all.

"I'm sorry, Miss Cheshire. This should only hurt for a moment longer," Maria told her in her high pitched voice. She was being extremely formal with her for some reason, but Alex guessed that it was because of her job and wating to show her mother that she was being professional. Maria pulled the lace again, causing a high pitched and painful sound to ring from Alex's mouth. 

"Is there a problem in there?" Grogg asked from outside the grand fitting room she had been taken to. Alex tried to word a reply, but no sound left her mouth no matter how hard she tried. Then, in one swift movement, the corset became a little more loose. She exhaled a sigh in relief. 

"I'm fine, just finding it a little difficult to breathe, that's all. I'm sure I don't really have much choice in the matter though, do I?" She asked. Grogg chuckled in response, and Alex smirked, although he couldn't see her. Maria had left the room to look for another dress, and she was left alone for the moment. She looked at herself in the mirror, disgusted at what she saw.

It wasn't as if she had a disgusting figure, or even the fact that the corset looked horrible. It was pure self hatred. She didn't like the way she was being forced to dress, or being forced to be happy about herself, and what was worse was that she was potentially being forced to give herself away to another person for the rest of her life. She looked at the beautiful patterns in the lace of the corset, looking at the pure white material admirably as her fingers traced the lace which lay over her ribs, but it didn't suit her more masculine frame no matter how much of her chest area was showing. In fact, she disliked this more than anything she had ever worn before.. 

"This one should do, it will match your eyes a little better, so you might suit the thing more than the others," Maria told her, bringing in a dark blue dress. She was right about it suiting her eyes. The colour practically matched her eyes, but it wasn't that which she was worried about this time. It was the frills on the sleeves and the disgustingly long material at the bottom, which ruffled up. Maria pulled it off the hanger gently and held it up against the Alex's skinny frame. She shook her head, putting it back on the hanger.

"I told you that you'd find nothing in here," Alex told her, sitting on the love seat in the corner of the room, her back facing the door. She put her head in her hands and felt a twinge of pain as she began to get a headache from thinking. "I don't even want to go to this stupid dinner anyway." She muttered before sighing. She'd given up on the fancy dresses and corsets now. She just wanted to go home. Or to work, but preferably the former.

"Maria, what is the problem?" Grogg asked again. Maria scurried across the room and poked her head out of the door.

"Its Xan, sir. No dresses I've picked up even remotely suit her. She must be disinclined to wearing them for a reason." Maria explained to Grogg quietly. Alex could almost feel his frustration heating her skin as she sat on the love seat alone. Quiet ironic really; seeing as she could be getting married in a few days and still felt more alone than ever and less in love than she'd ever felt; considering she didn't believe in such a feeling.