Masquerade

Chapter 1

        The carriage ride was originally relaxing and peaceful at first, but now it was starting to become almost unbearable for Rosaline Lyndon. Every bump, every slight turbulence was a step closer to a headache of pure and utter boredom.

The best part of the ride was at approximately three and a half long hours when the red-haired girl's eyes finally shut and a light sleep drowned her consciousness... only to wake up, check her pocket watch, and realize that only a mere twenty minutes had passed since the time she dozed off.

Despite the long ride, Rosaline did not, by all means, regret her decision to move to the empire of Magnolia. Like the elegant flower it was named after, Magnolia was supposedly beautiful; when she was little, everyone who has visited there never seized to claim that the air always smelled fragrant and floral, and the people who lived there were constantly merry. Business flourished, the streets were cheerful, flowers lined the sides of the gravel roads and occasionally when a breeze swept through, colorful petals would flutter into the air.

Magnolia always thrived as not only as having the largest flower exports but also as an opportunity sanctuary that everyone seemed to be drawn to.

It would be a fresh start.

A clean slate.

A new home.

Home is a place of sanctuary, a place of rest, safety and nothing but pleasant comfort. The town which she grew up in was just that; a quiet and safe environment and a doting adoptive father, or "Pop", she used to call him, undoubtedly adored her to the moon. See, the man was getting rather old, he was not a young chap, and being a timid little girl she was, Rosaline didn't want to call the man a name like "grandpa" in fear of degrading him.

She recalled a memory in which the word almost escaped from her mouth, her face was instantly filled with regret. However, Pop merely chuckled and bent down to smooth down her younger self's hair. After being in a rundown, tiny orphanage ever since she was a newborn, he seemed almost like her rescuer of some sort, a father figure.

Pop once gave her a wooden necklace a few days before his death. It was glazed in clear resin, was a rather simple design: a diamond just a little smaller than the size of her thumb. Rosaline absolutely adored it, for it was the first gift she had ever received. Once Pop had placed the necklace around her neck, the little girl burst into tears.

He was beloved by everyone in the town. She loved her life, that little town she called home, and Pop... It hurt to think of him after his passing.

Her stomach turned and she quickly banished the thoughts from her mind. Rosaline refused to let thoughts and memories like those decay her hopes for Magnolia, knowing that regardless, later on, if they will be impossible to avoid when she lays awake during the night. Rosaline unconsciously rubs her thumb against her thumb, an old habit she picked up that was supposed to distract her from any bad thoughts.

Golden flecks of sunlight spilled on Rosaline's head, making her crimson, wavy hair look like a flickering flame. The 19-year-old redhead allowed her slender fingers to coy around the book on top of her lap. A book she had read a hundred times and a hundred times before. The slightly frayed corners were graying and the pages were developing the smell of old paper. She listened to her fingernails run against the grooves of the old, leather cover as she poked her head out the window.

"Ms. Lyndon? We have almost arrived." The coachman quickly tipped his brown wide-brimmed hat back and turned his head around to look at her.

She smiled at the older man. "Have you been to Magnolia before, Mr. Samuel?"

"Of course," Samuel replies, returning his focus back to the road, his hands gripping the horse reins. "People loved to travel to this empire, it has become almost a tourist attraction in itself."