The Cruxshadows - Deception
In a small, old-fashioned village just outside of Paris, a young man meanders through a dreary, lamplit park. Kept sleepless by his worried thoughts, he wanders the park until exhaustion allows him to quiet his restless thoughts and give him the slumber he needs. A soft breeze sets of pair of swings into motion, drawing the weary man's attention to the only other occupant of the small park.
Cecilia upon an old merry-go-round, her milky blue-white gaze focused blindly on the doll which danced effortlessly at the whim of the many silvery threads wound about her thin fingers. Her white gown is spread out around her like the fog creeping along the grass and a pale white veil obscures the Romani's pale face, but it is the doll which draws one's eye. China white with ebon' hair and attire, the doll could almost be called an inverted replica of her unearhly puppeteer were it not for the marionette's six, slender arms and four, slitted, ruby eyes. Despite her lack of sight, Cecilia manuevers the marionette with enraptured perfection; not bothering to shift her attention even as the curious insomniac began to cautiously approach.
The beautiful, gypsy-like girl and her strange six-armed doll left the troubled man wondering if were perhaps already asleep and dreaming or, perhaps, the thrall of a sleep-deprived hallucination. Yet, the closer he came to the young female, the more certain he became that she was indeed a real child and not a figment of his imagination. Yet, that realization alone was nearly more disturbing than the thought of hallucinations for the child was decidedly strange though the man could not figure out what it was about her which disturbed him so.
The naive curiousity that he directed toward her disgusted her, making it hard to keep from sneering as she idly toyed with her puppet in forced ignorance. Yet her disgust is not directed only at him but at herself as well, for she knows she cannot be trusted. Humans had forsaken her for her differences for as long as she had remembered, turning her into the the teenager she was today, and in turn she had become cold and deceptive. Mortals were nothing more than prey to her now and soon he would know what a foolish mistake approaching her was.
The closer he came, the more his feelings of unease rose...and yet he could not pull away. As if hypnotized by her strange puppetry, he draws closer and closer until his curious gaze discovers the source of his strange unease: the gypsy child is blind. Her milky blue-white eyes start blankly ahead, not focused on her doll, but peering through it.
Like many others, he thought her blind...but Cecilia had many secrets and her sight was just one of them. Blind she might've been, but only during the day. Beneath the moon's white light, Cecilia could see the flow of energies which composed the mortal world; a grayscale haze of true sight, but it was still sight. That sight, however, deteriorated completely beneath the sun's scornful blaze. It was ironic, Cecilia often thought, to be blind in the light when others could see and to see when others were blind.
Drawn in now by his worry more than his curiousity, fearing that his blind child had become lost in the park, he appraoches to stand within a few feet of the gypsy youth. "Child? Are you lost?"
His words do not cause her to flinch in surprise, as some blind might. Instead she lowers her doll and lifts her gaze, watching the stranger with her blank gaze. When at least she speaks, her words are as soft as moonlight and enchantingly surreal, but she does not answer his question directly, instead responding with one of her own. "Are you, sir? You've been wandering since the moon rose...and still your mind denies you sleep. I can give you peace of mind if you want it?"
The blind child's response leaves the stranger momentarily dumbfounded, and in his silence he finds himself steadily beginning to believe that this child is perhaps not as real as he first thought. Yet, as baffled as he is by her strange comments, he can't help but reply. "Yes." The longing in his voice is faint, but present. Sleep has elluded him for so long, could she really change that for him?
On the outside, Cecilia smiles to the stranger, but inwardly she is disgusted with herself and with the man before her. The manipulation of another's mind is a sorrid deed, but the weakness to be controlled...that was just as displeasing to Cecilia. Yet, regardless, he had spoken the truth: he wanted peace of mind and he wanted to rest. She could give that to him, but it would -like all things- come at a price. "Very well."
It happened all at once, the silence that followed in the wake of her words...and that horrifying sensation of spiders infesting his mind; filling him with a creeping sensation intense enough to make his stomach churn. For a moment he tried to form words, tried to make her stop...but just when it seemed the most unbearable, it stopped. Just as abrutly as it came, it had gone and he found himself crumbling to the ground. His mind was blissfully blank as the world faded away into the hazey darkness of dreams, Cecilia keeping sightless vigil all the while.
Cecilia stares down at the fallen man, studying him curiously from where she sat. His life was troubling, she had seen it all within his mind as she temporarily wiped his woes aside...and she would only make them worse by the time she departed. Sliding from post upon the merry-go-round Cecilia searches the man from head to toe; removing everything of value while hugging her spider-like doll close to her white-clad form.
She knew she should've felt remorse or pity, but she didn't. Instead she was left with only cold disatisfaction as she filled the small pouch tied to the slender belt around her waist with the man's money and more expensive trinkets before rising to her feet once more and turning away. Not once did she look back during her long walk through the park toward the neighboring woods. There her caravan awaited her, the only humans she trusted...or rather, the only ones she respected enough to associate with.
While they were not her blood relatives, they were the closest thing to a true family that Cecilia could ever remember having. Her biological parents had abandoned her shortly after she was born, terrified by her odd appearance and daunted by her lack of sight. Later in life, she had come to understand why her parents had done as they did...but the late realization did not save her from becomming the misanthropic youth she was today.