Here it is--- what you've all been waiting for. I wanted to make the Introduction short and sweet (and to leave you all hanging there pleading for more, lol) and I wrote it, wrote it again, reviewed it, threw it out, wrote it again, and finally came up with something I thought was enigmatic and dramatic.

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I N T R O D U C T I O N


The night droned on. Rain beat the smokey windows of the mansion, singing a lullaby, calling Alaina into a deep sleep. She kept dozing off, only to re-awaken five minutes later hung over the same book in the same black leather chair that was still cracked in places. She shifted in her black lace dress and tugged at the high-collar, fingering the red rose embroidery absent mindedly.

With a yawn and crack of her neck, she rose to her feet, stretching before snatching the shawl off of the arms of the chair and lacing it around her arms. Straightening the flowing gown, she started towards the door, book in hand; it was an easy trek out of the mansion in the dark, guided only by the dimly lit candles. She was used to it by now. Her sandaled feet found their footing over the broken glass bits easy enough.

The sound of hollow footsteps echoed throughout the painting-less walls. Alaina knew what this place looked like in the light—it wasn’t something to be proud of, but it wasn’t a cave, by far, either. The scarlet wallpaper on the walls had been peeling and tearing in bits for some time now. A hook hung here and there where a picture once was. The floor was made from stone—simple as that. Dull, grey cobblestone. On the ceiling hung chandeliers of ivory candles, some were broken, some were burnt down. The whole three stories of this dark mansion were like this.
Alaina’s room was the most kept in the whole house as she was the only one who lived there. A canopy bed was set in the center of the room against the northern wall- opaque white veils looped around the metal poles to veil the inside of the bed. Crimson silk sheets and pillows graced the room, probably standing out the most. Next to the bed was a nightstand with a few books and a glass and pitcher full of cool water. A large, high-backed black leather chair reigned in front of a creaky, smokey window where the rain beat to get inside from the outside. A bookcase sat near the chair, stockpiled with as many books as it could hold. Their leather binds were cracked, thoroughly read again and again. A desk sat in the west side of the room, next to a large picture of a woman sitting on a stone bench, sunflowers in her dark brown hair, in her hands, and at her dirty feet. The clean tan dress clung to her thin, yet not gaunt body. Her beautiful face expressed happiness even though her state expressed her financial state. On a small gold platter that had been nailed into the frame read something in another language, not quite distinguishable except an ‘i’ and ‘oaiu’. Upon the desk is an ivory brush and some red roses that look fresh despite the age of the rest of the possessions in the house. A gold framed mirror hung over the desk and a small bench with creamy cushions was neatly tucked beneath the desk.

The soft ‘click-click-clap-tap’ of Alain’s shoes gliding down the spiral stair case echoed in the stair well. Her lace dress flowed down the steps she had graced moments before, stirring up trails of dust. The den was small and crowded with unhung pictures that were covered with a linen sheet. Alaina opened both of the glass-and-wood doors and immediately Wove a shield of air all around her. The glass windows in the front of the house all flung open immediately in some sort of magic. The wind and rain drifted harshly through the open doorway and windows and in a ghostly affect of picking up the white viels covering the windows and stirring them dramatically.

Behind her shield, Alaina smiled at a shadowed form facing her in the doorway. Unclasping her paws from the sides of the door, she leaned comfortably against one, the wind and rain not touching, but only bouncing off of her invisible shield. Dark eyes glowed softly and shimmers of grey from reflected light explained large iris' from under the hood of the cloak of the figure facing her.

“Hello, Bluez. How good of you to return.”

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`Wildie