Pink champagne flowed freely from
the crystal cruets that graced every tuxedoed waiter’s silver tray. Strains of laughter mingled with whispered
lines of romantic poetry as masked lovers exchanged sultry glances. The thickening twilight danced outside the
floor-to-ceiling windows of the great hall, echoing the enchantment that
enveloped the scene on the other side of them.
And there he stood in the midst of it all, feasting his senses on every
ounce of it—a boy, not quite an adult, but far from a child. His lanky form swam in the tuxedo that was
too big for him. A dark mask concealed
his face, wrapping elegantly across his hollow cheekbones, the black swirls beautifully
contrasting his pale complexion. Across
the expansive dance floor he watched as beautiful women twirled, their skirts
billowing across the golden marble.
Greens, blues, scarlets, and deep purples painted a rainbow that pulsed
throughout the ballroom.
The boy looked above him. Chandeliers the size of small rooms were suspended
above the scene, dimly watching the party-goers from their vantage point high
in the ballroom. The boy could not count
how many there were exactly, for they seemed to stretch endlessly on into a world
behind the mirrors that graced the ceiling and far walls. As the boy staggered around the hall, he
noticed paintings between the mirrored sections of wall and ceiling. Above him, the crystal chandeliers
illuminated depictions of God and angels and replicas of the artwork of the Sistine
Chapel. The cherubs and seraphim gazed
down upon the revelling party guests, laughing along with their cacophony of
merriment.
The orchestra that played reminded
the boy of heaven itself. Deep cellos
complimented the harpist and violinists as dancers swayed and twirled to the ¾
waltz that was piping throughout the ballroom.
The boy’s eyes fleetingly met with those of a dancer—a slender blonde
woman draped in a copper gown, her ringlets swept gracefully into an effortless
arrangement on top of her head. Her face
shimmered with a faint sheen of glitter, and a mask of crimson ribbon and
golden feathers hid the rest of her beautiful face from sight. But her fiery green eyes pierced through the
mask and met the boy’s own dark ones for a split second. That second was all it took for him to see,
in those glowing pools of emerald, things he’d never seen in the world
before—beauty, enchantment, and forbidden things. Then, just as quickly as she had
appeared, she was gone again, twirling into another man's arms.
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