The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 7

 It was late the next morning before she returned, and although I wanted to ask her where she had been all night, I figured I was in no place to do so. She flew in through the half open window before the big black bat fell apart, it seemed to dissolve into a thick smoke that sunk down to the floor and recollected into into her black cape and body. She went to the dresser and threw on a white nightgown before turning to me. "Why are you still awake?"

"I couldn't sleep," I lied. I could have slept if I had tried to, but I hadn't felt like I wanted to risk what my dreams might show me when I didn't need to. She heaved a tired sigh when she flopped onto the bed, and tucking the covers in around herself she looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. "Is flying that tiresome?"

"No, flying is fine, everything is for that matter. I get incredibly tired once the sun comes out completely, we all do really," She replied, "Vampires don't have to sleep during the day, but it's very difficult to stay awake, and once I'm asleep, I'm dead until the sun sets." I remembered seeing her in the carriage, and shuttered at the remembrance. "Turn that way," She said, raising a limp hand to point towards the window. I turned without protest and felt her strong arm pull me close to her, wrapping around my waist with a strange softness to it's cold, iron grip. There was no pulse, no breath, no sound from her, and her limp arm weighed heavily on my side.

I shouldn't be blushing, I thought. I should be terrified, disgusted, anything but what I was feeling. I took a deep breath and waited for my face to loose it's heat before carefully turning over under her limp arm. Her soft white eyelids lay shut, her red lips hung open, revealing sharp white teeth, and her curly black hair fell over her white nightgown in loose coils, half obstructing her face. I am in no place to be thinking like this,. Here I was in some unknown land, the pet of someone who had probably murdered more people than I had ever met, and I was laying here with my heart beating out of my chest because she looked so pretty. Was I really this shallow? And beyond that she was over a millennium old and the daughter of my mother's killer. Could there be anything more wrong with me, to lay here and blush that her frigid hand was on my waist, and think she looked so peaceful in her sleep.

This was the being I had watched gorge herself on her own mother's blood, yet all I seemed to want to think was that she was forced, and it wasn't her fault. She had threatened me, pinned me to walls, and gave a good yank to my chain at least once an hour. Why did I like her? Do I like her? It didn't matter. She's practically a god, or a demon for that matter. I'm just once of her slaves, and she's probably being courted right that moment by some relative of mine. There was no place for these feelings. I turned myself over and gave my all to sleep, and even if it took till noon for it to overtake me, it did come eventually.

* * *

It was late the next evening when I awoke, and Master was already gone. I found a note on the table telling me to return to my room, and talk to Diamond about that evening's plans. I descended the staircase until I reached the parlor and slipped away into other servant's door. It was nine o clock and I came back into my room to find a dress and jewelry already laid out on my bed. The blue dress was soft and fell to my feet, opening with a slit that began at the waist band to show a lacy navy fabric underneath. At my feet it was patterned like simple, overlapping flowers and on top it lacked sleeves and instead sported a bow that tied at the back of neck, leaving my upper back exposed. I slipped it on with the blue heeled slippers fairly easily, and found a light blue, almost transparent sash beside it to droop over my arms at the elbow.

I slipped on the silver, sapphire incrusted bracelets and went to the mirror to ensure my chain was hanging right on the dress. But when I got there I almost let out a yelp, as in the mirror was reflected only the dress, and it looked hollow, as though it stood with no one in it, the collar of my chain hanging in midair above it. I focused on making myself appear so I could put in the pearl earrings and check my hair, but after that I let myself disappear again. I decided it was a better use of my time to go find Diamond instead of sighing at my invisible self in the mirror, wondering what had become of the old me. I left my ring on the bathroom counter, and slipped on a random one I found just to keep my finger from being lonely.