To Cut Blood Ties

Chapter 16: Everyone Wears Masks

August 1, 2016

Los Angeles, California

4:12pm

"You look absolutely beautiful," Sam said, her eyes wide as she stared, the fake eyelashes that she wore reaching all the way up to her brows.

Alice stood in front of the mirror and turned slightly. She was wearing a golden gown with long sleeves and a slit for the right leg. The back was open, exposing her beautiful phoenix tattoo, and the opening in the dress was purposely over her bare leg. She hadn't wanted to rub it in anyone's face just what had happened over the summer. She had tucked her hair to the side, braiding one side of it. Her eyes were covered in eyeliner and gold glitter. The foundation lightened up the majority of her freckles. She liked the way she looked tonight. "Thank you, but I'm nothing compared to you."

Sam laughed, "Hell no." But the purple mermaid styled dress clung to her curves extraordinarily well. She had bound her unruly hair in to a tight knot, keeping the eye shadow light but she had splurged on dark red lipstick, which honestly, was perfect.

Alice turned, double-checking her hair. It was then that a knife came into her vision; she turned to glance at the other woman holding it. She was no longer smiling, "You need to put the setogram on."

"What? Why?" Alice frowned, shying away from the blade.

"Because as much as you want to pretend the rumors haven't reached your ears, or that it isn't true," Sam dropped the knife slightly lower, but she didn't let Alice retreat, "because it is. And you need to put on the setogram so that it can be announced that it is true."

"But..." Alice hesitated before realizing that she could not find words. Of course she had heard the rumors of her being called The Reaper, but she had written them off because it wasn't something that was exactly comforting. But just because you ignored rumors, didn't make them go away. It sent a chill down her spine even thinking about it, because it wasn't what she wanted to be known for.

"Please?" Sam asked quietly. "I won't force you, but I want you to wear this. I think it will make your father happy."

There was a prickling, burning sensation in the backs of her eyes as she took the knife and she knew that at this moment that she was signing away what was left of her innocence. And the ache in her chest was near consuming. She didn't know how she felt about this other than the pain. This hadn't been the plan, this wasn't what she had thought would happen. She simply wanted to impress her family and help wipe away the embarrassment of her being human.

Alice nodded, walking towards the bathroom and closing the door. She didn't want Sam to see what she did, what she had to do in order to get the setogram to work. She also wanted privacy because she had to figure out how to do all of this without ruining her dress or makeup. She had perfected the movements that helped give energy and protection leading up to making the symbol. She focused on the four elements: water, earth, fire, and wind. Candles were set up on the five points of a pentagram and she would do the vrisksasana movement, a bowl of water was set up for her to reach in and draw on her forehead. For earth there were two stones, black obsidian and hematite that she held in her palms while she was in child's pose. Along with the crane pose that represented wind. She performed all of this and afterwards, with the feeling of this energy inside of her she would draw on the setogram.

It didn't seem incredibly complex, but it was draining in some ways. The setogram took all of the energy that had been channeled in her body and transferred it to her eye. While her body leveled out, it always took a few minutes and during that time it was nearly traumatic as she went through her paces. It was a vulnerable moment, and it was one of the few times that recently Alice felt anything. Despite the fact that the emotions she went through were fear, regret, a bit of anger, and sadness. Recently she had been feeling waves upon waves of sadness when she went through this. Alice didn't really understand why she felt so incredibly depressed in these moments, and while at first it had brought a wonderful amount of release afterwards, it no longer did. That sadness stayed with her once her body got back to normal, and it dragged on her limbs. She should probably look in to this, but she honestly didn't want to.

Alice stood, looking into the mirror after she had finished. Some sweat had spotted on her forehead; both her eyes had a shine to them. She tilted her head back, blinking rapidly to clear the tears. She took a deep breath, taking another look in the mirror to make sure everything was okay. There was a slight roll in her stomach at the sight of the setogram but it was something unavoidable so she simply moved on.

She walked out of the bathroom, finding Sam sitting on the couch, scrolling through her phone. She paused for a second, watching the other woman. It was rare that Alice was actually able to observe her friend without the mask on. Sam often hid behind it, not letting anyone in. In some ways, she thought that the other woman had become so accustomed to the mask that she had lost some of herself. In the years that she had known her, the smiles and laughter came less frequently. Sam had once been someone with a joke resting on the tip of the tongue, but that had softened until it was near nonexistent.

"Hey," Alice stepped forward, not letting on to the fact that she had been watching.

Sam looked up, "Alright, let's go."