dusk until dawn (the selection)

o prince helios please look upon me and marry me as soon as possible

"Julia!" Dawn happily adressed her friend from Fennley.

Julia put a finger on her lips. "Not too loud! I'm supposed to be a maid you've never met." she hissed. Then she stood straighter up and looked at Dawn through the mirror. "We can cut it if you want?" she measured Dawn's hair. It was long—nearly down to her waist, maybe it was indeed time for a change.

"Yes." Dawn agreed.

"Shoulder length?" Julia suggested, pretending her fingers were scissors she put them around Dawn's hair a little below her shoulders.

That was a lot of hair to chop off in one go. Maybe it was time.

Dawn agreed.

Julia got one of the hairdressers, and soon enough strands of dark hair fell to the ground around her. It was terribly relaxing to be taken care of like this.

"You're from Fennley, right?" Dawn looked up to two girls that had appeared in front of her, one of them was dyeing her hair and was wrapped in foil, the other had curlers stuck on her head. They both looked pretty funny. She hadn't heard them approaching.

"Yes." Dawn confirmed.

"We heard about the attack on the city yesterday night!" the foil girl said.

"We're glad you're okay though. Do you know anything about it?" the curler girl asked curiously.

Dawn had no idea what attack they were talking about. "Thank you, but no. I don't." she gave a small smile. the girls looked at eachother before hurrying away again, without another word. An attack. By who? Why didn't Dawn know this?

Julia didn't mention it again after the girls left again. Could it not have been that important, then? An attack?

There wasn't much changed about Dawn's appearance besides her hair. Although it looked and felt refreshing. Julia applied a very simple make-up look on Dawn, and gave her the sparkly, dark blue dress she would wear for the rest of the day. There was no time to look into the mirror after that, the girls were led out of the room, back to the entrance hall, when girls all around Dawn gasped.

It didn't take her long to find out prince Helios was present. He wasn't looking at any of the selected. His blue eyes were fixed on some point in the distance, yet all the girls were patting their dresses clean and fixing their hair as if the prince was about to look straight at them and ask them to dance as if this were a fairy tale ball.

As a disappointment to many of the girls, prince Helios did not speak to them. Jilles Mackerman was yet again talking, fullfilling his duties as host. He told them that there would be a group picture taken of the whole group of selected with the prince and Jilles Mackerman himself, and afterwards, the girls would be brought to their rooms and were expected to resurface at dinner. As soon as he finished speaking, an official photographer appeared from one of the rooms, followed by the endless swarm of show camera's to record the girls' every move.

Dawn wondered how much exactly would be recorded and broadcasted of their stay at the palace.

The photographer placed all the girls on the stairs, on different heights. It seemed like he managed to pick every Two present to be close to the prince on the lowest part of the giant staircase, whereas girls like Bella and Dawn were put higher up the stairs, away from Helios and Jilles.

When the picture was taken, the group scattered, some girls, like pigtails and Jessica, went after prince Helios, but it was no use. He was gone as sudden as he appeared. He had no interest at all in the selected. Maybe Julia and Elise were right. Maybe he didn't want any of this.