Prologue

 

I woke up feeling groggy. I opened my eyes to look around and see where I was and even though I was in a bed, I promise it wasn’t mine. The bed was a four postured bed that was at least a queen size. The head was surrounded by pillows and it was covered in soft blankets. Everything was black with a hint of purple and with silver dots, it looked like I was amongst a midnight’s sky.

A maid walked up to me, “Glad to see you are finally awake miss.”

Miss? I thought and then said, “What time is it?”

“It’s about 26:192.” I gave her a puzzled look and she said, “Oh, dear. You are that girl from…well, in your time it would be a little after noon. Why don’t you go into the bathroom and refresh yourself and then we can get you dressed.”

She pointed towards a door and I got up to go to it. I opened to the door to see a luxurious bathroom. There was a large tub in one corner; it even had jets like a hot tub and a flat screen TV was pointing down on it. A shower with a clear glass door on it was in another corner. By the sink and a large counter was a mirror that led from the ceiling to the counter. She noticed that the counter was lower then usual, almost like it was made for her short figure. She saw a handle towards the bottom of the mirror she pulled it and it opened to a cupboard with a toothbrush and toothpaste and a couple of washcloths and soap.

She turned the cold water on to brush her teeth and when she was finished she splashed some water on her face and dried it off and truly looked in the mirror and gave a little gasp/scream at what she saw.

The maid knocked on the door, “Is everything alright miss?”

“Yes.” I said looking at myself very carefully.

I was unusually short, barely reaching less than 5 feet tall. I had dyed brown hair that was curly and no matter how much I straightened it, it would go its natural fizzy ugly state every morning. Last time I had seen her hair it needed to be dyed again, instead of the deep mahogany it was dyed to it was going back to its dull dirty blonde. Normally my eyes looked a little Asian but didn’t seem to match with my round face with cheek bones higher than normal. My eyes also weren’t the same shape which bugged me on a daily basis and were an odd blue/green/grey that seemed like they could never decide what they wanted to be. I was also a little heavier then I should be.  

But now when I looked in the mirror I didn’t believe it was me. My hair was a deep rich mahogany that it could have never reached even with the dye and was generally straight with a little wave to it and was longer then it’s normal barely shoulder length. My eyes looked definitely Asian but just a little bigger and were the same shape and bright vivid green that hardly seemed real. My face seemed almost narrower and my cheek bones higher. I was also skinny and lean; I didn’t think I could’ve weighed more than 100 pounds. I seemed…beautiful, like super model beautiful, but just shorter, although the shortness and pettiness seemed to add to the whole charm of myself.

The maid knocked on the door again, “Miss, the make-up artist and hair dresser are here.”

I opened the door to see her standing there. I took a good look at her. She was short, taller than me though and plump, but pleasantly so. She looked very motherly; she had normal colored brown hair that was loosely pinned up. She had a roundish face and was dressed in an old fashioned maid’s outfit. 

She motioned me to go behind the screen. I went behind it and she asked me to take my shorts and t-shirt off that I was sleeping in. She tied a corset on me and slipped on an under dress before putting on a hoop shirt and finally an over dress.

I looked at the dress; it was a dark black with purple accents like the rest of everything. It also had lace and frills; it looked like something people would wear in the 17^th century….I think.

I stepped put once I was fully dressed. I looked at the two people standing there who were talking amongst themselves. The one guy was tall and slim and looked very gay and the other person was a female and very tall and also slim. They were also dressed in old fashioned clothes but the woman wasn’t quiet as dressed up as she was and lacked a hoop shirt and all the lace and stuff she had on. 

They ushered me to sit down in a chair. The man started on my make-up while the women messed around with my hair. I gave a second look around the room. It was an odd mix of modern and old fashioned stuff. For example they had that hot tub and shower in the bathroom, but no electric lights, only windows, which the maid had just opened, and gas lights.

I peered out one of the windows and saw a beautiful garden with pathways and flowers and fountains and butterflies.

I realized the people around me were still talking and listened in while the women with my hair spoke, “Well, Jacques I told you not to judge a book by its cover. Apparently she is the one and it looks like she is suited well here.”

The man, I think his name is Jacques, said, “Caren, it was I that told you that she would bode well. Not the other way around.”

The maid said, “Hush you two. Can’t you tell that the girl is confused? She doesn’t know where she is or what she is going. And now you two are talking so suspiciously, but can’t tell her anything.”

“Marie.” Both of them said at almost a whine.

“Hush now.” She leaned down to me, “Are you hungry?”

I shook my head. Both the people announced they were done. The maid, I think her name is Marie, helped me out of the chair and led me to a full length mirror. I looked perfectly pale and flawless, my usual red complection completely gone, and my eyes had a thin line purple eye liner with a thicker black line around it. My lips were a little darker than usual and I noticed that my thin upper lip was gone. My hair was mostly down and straight with a little half up thing in the back with curls coming out of it.

The door knocked. I looked at Marie who hesitated and said, “Come in.”

A man walked in who look strikingly familiar I tried to place where I had seen him before when he said, “Ah, I must say you look beautiful. I shall now take you and Mr. Belette.”

Tasogare Kurai Belette, or as I knew him most often called Maranwë.  I thought as soon as he said the name, I see this guy hanging around Maranwë or Tasogare. I don’t know what he is usually called here. But what I am doing here that has to do with him? Is this the plan that he was talking about a couple weeks ago. But why am I here? I thought back, maybe there was something I had forgotten. The guy held out his arm and she took it as she thought back to the first time she had met him almost a year ago…