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The brunette was going mad. This little backwards town in the middle of nowhere was driving her stir-crazy. She had been packaged off here the moment her older brother had caught wind of a gateway to the faeries opening near the city. To protect her, he said. Fat lot of protecting it was doing- the sleepy little town had the distinct thrum of magic flowing through it.
That was about the only interesting thing about it, though. It was otherwise a sleepy little town nestled in the countryside, bordered by rolling fields of wheat and corn on one side and a little forest on the other. She had been sent to a quaint country house on the edges of town and had nobody to talk to other than the housekeeper, who was only there half the day, because apparently no outsiders had stayed in the town for at least twenty years.
The evenings were the worst. She was always more awake at dusk, and that was when everyone in this boring place would retire to their houses for the night. She had started hanging around the old library in the study over the past few days, desperate to find a book to keep her mind occupied. So far she had come across only one that didn’t bore her to death- a small, handwritten book about all the creatures and spirits of these parts. There were supposedly lots of phantoms in the woods- most notably, beautiful people who had red eyes, dreamwalkers who would drive you mad with desire.
She had been itching to do something reckless and thrilling. There wasn’t much to lose. She wanted to see them for herself.
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She set out one particularly lazy afternoon. The forest was only about five minutes of strolling away, and she soon found herself surrounded by bushes and trees that rays of the sun filtered through. The light fell onto the well-trodden path as she made her way deeper into the forest.
There was a strange scent in the air. It was sweet and intoxicating. She went in its direction. The air had become ever so slightly colder as she pressed on, now almost stumbling in search of the smell. It became suffocatingly thick. She breathed it in deep.
After a while she saw a cottage ahead of her, hidden behind hedges of berry bushes. She walked right through the unlocked gate-- and straight into someone.
This was, apparently, what it took to break her out of her little daze. As she scrambled up, she seemed to realise that she had walked into a stranger’s house in the middle of the woods. She backed away and started to apologize. She barely made it a word in, though.
The person was a woman who looked about her age. She had golden hair that swept down to her hips, long, fluttering lashes and a cherry red mouth.
Her eyes were an enthralling crimson.
The woman parted her lips in faint surprise, before narrowing her eyes ever so slightly and smiling softly. The brunette froze in fear and awe. The seconds felt like an eternity as she gazed into those bewitching eyes.
A drop of rain hit her cheek, breaking her out of her trance. She glanced at the sky; dark clouds were gathering. The woods were a bad place to be in storms. Especially with spirits.
She turned and ran. She only stopped when the house was in sight again, out of breath. The rain had started to drizzle now. She stomped up the porch and into the empty house. She didn’t stop to breathe till she had locked the front door behind her.
That night she collapsed onto the bed and fell into dreamless sleep far quicker than she ever had. It wasn’t peaceful for long, though.
She was in the bedroom, laying on the bed. The soft light of twilight glowed through the windows. The woman leaned over her, still smiling.
She was paralyzed. The blonde hair fell on her chin- but she couldn’t feel it. The red eyes were still hypnotic. The spirit’s face was getting closer. And closer. And closer and closer and closer till their lips touched---
The brunette woke up with a start.
A ghost of a kiss still lingered on her lips.
She didn’t bother trying to sleep again, instead choosing to spend the rest of the night digging through the old library for any other mentions on these red-eyed tormentors. She wasn’t particularly upset, though. The red in her tormentor’s eyes was beautiful.
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She slept fitfully the ensuing weeks, but no strange dreams came after the first. This came both as a relief and annoyance; she had sort of been counting on the spirit being a distraction. Now left with practically no other source of entertainment, she whiled away her time napping and writing letters. She wrote letters to her brother, begging him to bring her back to civilization. She wrote letters to her friends. She wrote some she would never send. It got tiring fast.
Then, one night, the spirit seemed to take pity on her misery, and paid her a visit. She dreamed once again of laying on the bed at dusk, except this time the red-eyed woman sat at the edge of the bed, by her feet.
“You’re interesting.”, said the prettiest woman the brunette had seen in her life. “What’s your name?”
The woman’s voice was musical, every bit a gorgeous as the rest of her.
The brunette made an awkward noise. She opened her mouth to respond, before common sense took over for once. Giving your name to magical and potentially malevolent entities was always a bad idea.
Instead, she tossed the question back. “What’s yours?”, she mumbled.
The woman seemed surprised at this. Her cheeks flushed. They matched her eyes, the brunette noticed distantly.
The woman parted her lips to reply. “Cerise.”, she whispered.
The brunette woke up. She chuckled deliriously. “Cerise.”, she said to herself. “Pretty.”
She proceeded to lay down and go back to sleep.