I usually liked romantical setups, but today it made things difficult. Today I needed to find him. I knew that it would be almost impossible. The only source of light in the ballroom were candles. There were many people in the room. The walls were fully covered by mirrors. If I didn’t find him by now, how was I ever supposed to do it before the last dance.
The Earl, the host of the party announced that the capella would play the last song. The song he picked was awful. It would’ve been so much better if they played our song. But I would consider this evening magical nonetheless, if only I could find him and dance with him, even to this awful song. I looked left and right, but he was nowhere to be seen. I looked down and sighed. Where was he? My gaze traveled back up.
His eyes locked with mine. He was in the middle of the ballroom. I took a short breath. All the stress that I felt a moment ago was gone. My head wasn’t working properly, the only thing that it was set on now was getting closer to him and dancing with him. I did not register that my feet were slowly carrying me in his direction. Almost like his emerald eyes were hypnotizing my body to move on its own. I was close. I instinctively stretched out my hand to him.
“May I have the last dance,” Someone grabbed my other hand from the behind and spun me around, “Lady Woodward.” It was the Marquess, again.
How dare he ruin my evening?! I was about to give him a piece of my mind, but then I heard a deep voice behind me say, “Lady Woodward already promised her last dance to me.”
The Marquess started protesting, but I wasn’t paying attention to him. He stretched his hand out to me and I happily took it.
“I was waiting for you,” there was an unspoken reprimandation in my voice. He smiled, the capella started playing, but it was not the song that the Earl announced before, it was our song.
“I am sorry, darling. Let’s focus only on us for now then.” I smiled. I did what he said. I kept my eyes locked with his, and I was only focusing on moving my feet and the rest of my body in unison with his. I was living out what I only dreamed of for ages. It felt unreal, like any dream does. I didn’t care what others thought anymore. I closed my eyes, and laid my head on his shoulder. I cared only about us in that moment.
He lifted me off the ground for a twirl. I caught his emerald eyes for a moment before I was lifted above everyone else’s heads. In one moment everything was perfect, even the reflection of my perfect porcelain and usually expressionless face was smiling back at me from the mirror. Everything was perfect, but then it all crumbled. Everyone disappeared. I was the only one in the mirror.
He put me down. I frantically looked around. The people that were there moments ago disappeared, I wasn’t only imagining it. Something else was also wrong. I looked into the mirrors and realized what it was.
Even though I could feel his hand firmly gripping mine and his other hand on my waist, his reflection wasn’t there beside me, it wasn’t there at all.
I moved my gaze back to his emerald eyes to make sure that he was still there, that is was just an illusion, but the eyes that met mine were not emerald.
A scream rang in my ears, it was coming from my lips. The eyes that were emerald moments ago were bright red, and they had dark circles under them. The face that once looked tan from all the hunting and sports, was now as pale as first snow in the winter. There were sharp fangs sticking out from under his lips.
“No, this cannot be happening,” I repeated over and over again in a whisper, like a chant that might get me out of this nightmare, this illusion. But I knew that it wouldn’t because this wasn’t a dream, nor was it an illusion. This was real.
A/N: I saw a tiktok yesterday, and I knew that I just had to write this. If you are interested back story of how the characters got to this point you can tell me in the replies.