Demonic

1 | LIAR

IN MY YOUTH, I was told that having a pretty face was the best weapon a woman could possess. My stepmother as she tucked me into bed each night would kiss my forehead, smoothing her worn fingers against my cheek, whispering how fortunate I was. I was beautiful she told me, and in her gaze I could see how much prospect she saw in my soft cheekbones, pink lips, and wide eyes. 

"In this world, you have to take what you want." She used to say, the pink glow of the gemstone lantern on my nightstand winking back at me in her eyes. Her red hair and fair skin took on an alien luminance, so dreamy I wondered if she were real. "They will steal from you as long as you let them. Are you going to let them cheat you, Cybele?" 

I shook my head, the dark tone of her voice frightening me. She never said who would take from me, who would put on this mysterious guise of the thief. I pictured a cloaked figure striding through the shadows of my bedroom, tiptoeing along the edges of my cerulean carpet open palmed with willing fingers. This figure would come like a mirage, so fleeting that you questioned if it had breathed at all.

"You're a beautiful girl, crafted by the Goddess herself. No one will ever see you coming." She said, patting my shoulder as she rose to her feet. "The prettiest girls are the most invisible."

"I'm invisible?" I said, sitting up in bed to look down at my dainty hands. They too glowed, rosy under the light. To my eyes they weren't translucent, a mirage. 

"Not in that way." Parisa said, her cold fingers resting under the tip of my chin. She tilted my head, her blue eyes seeing through me. "You'll understand when you're older."

I narrowed my eyes, scrunching up my nose. Crossing my hands over my chest, I whined, "I am older!"

"Not old enough. There are plans for you, Cybele, plans only the Goddess could foresee, and one day you'll be able to comprehend them. For tonight, I want to know one thing: will you listen to me?" I nodded my head. "Are you lying to me?"

"No!" I gasped, shaking my head viciously. She stared at me for a moment longer, and though I knew that I was honest, her gaze made me wither as though I were guilty. 

Her response has echoed in my head for years: 'lies are a method to hide incompetence'. To this day I can't tell the whitest of lies. My stomach starts to constrict and my palms start to sweat, cheeks turning rouge, nostrils flaring, eyes slowly sliding to the floor. Parisa has identified these traits in me all before, gazing at me with her unwavering eyes of steel.

Those eyes. Just like when I was a child, her glare makes me itch even if I haven't done a deed deserving her punishment. I can't look into their violent hurricane when she grows angry. I fear what rests beneath them.

As I sat at my vanity, I noticed that her calm gaze was focussed on me through the mirror. I smoothed my dress along my knees, flexing my fingers in and out along the itchy material. She rested her strong hands on my shoulders, her scarlet red lips coming close to my ear as she brushed one of my blonde curls from my face.

"You better behave yourself. Tonight is very important to me, and the entire Council will be in attendance along with the other elite. If you so much as put a single toe out of place..."

"I won't." I replied quickly, "I promise I won't. Tonight will be perfect just like you wish."

She gave me a thin smile, one that only showed me how little I had convinced her. "Good girl. I can't afford anything other than perfection or else I'll be made a fool in front of the councilmen and the neighboring kingdoms. We can't afford to look like naive women, can we?"