[BOOK TWO]
"Anniversaries to some are like counting the years spent doing something great, years spent together, or years spent alive." I started slowly, voice dropping to a drawl as I peeked cautiously out of my bedroom blinds, scanning the road to...
MUSIC PLAYED BEAUTIFULLY loud the very second in which Calvin had heaved open the doors. Immediately, I was allowed a view from the second floor of the ballroom, standing right by the stairs as it led down to the main dance floor. For a brief second, my smile faltered when the ballroom's view transformed into that of the boathouse, and I could feel my heart stopping when fear rushed in like cold water being poured over me whilst I still slumbered. It was only when I felt Calvin's hand rest upon my shoulder had I snapped back into reality, a pair of concerned eyes observing my every move.
"Addison," Calvin started slowly, his hand slowly lifting from my shoulder once he was sure that he had garnered my attention. "Are you sure you're okay? If you want I can bring you back to the room, you know?"
Flashing on the brightest smile in which I could muster, I nodded once before adjusting my hair once more. "Of course, Calvin. I'm perfectly fine, and I will be even better after I have downed a few shots of vodka. Being part of the 'in clique' back in school meant that I had to be okay with daily parties, you know? No need to baby over me."
I didn't bother to add in the fact that I had been backstabbed and kicked out of the said 'in clique' by my own best friend, but that was also a fact in which Calvin can go on living without ever needing to know.
Ever so carefully, I placed a hand on the wooden handles before gliding down the steps as elegantly as I could, tilting my chin up high as if everyone below me were just as such: below me. The art of walking in sky-high heels soon became an easily mastered skill, having served me well enough for me to not trip over my dress and tumble my way down. The very second in which my feet touched the ground level, I could barely even resist the temptation of just dropping down to the ground and kissing it. As much of the fact that heels were fashion must-haves, they were also dangerous contraptions that could mean certain death.
Men and women of all ages were gathered in the gigantic ballroom, the orchestra softly playing melodious music in the background as light polite chatter filled the extra spaces. I could feel a few eyes on me as I crossed the marble flooring, all likely to be wondering why on earth was I dressed in such an outfit when everyone else was dressed in respectable late 1800s fashion. Women were decked out in jewels to represent their wealth, fashioning gowns of lace and silk that was worn upon a corset to give them a shapely figure. Their dresses puffed up beautifully, seemingly straight out of a fairytale. The men, however, were dressed in tuxedos that ranged across the timelines of the new world. Some looked perfectly tidy with a classic tux from back in the days, while others were decked out in red carpet-ready suits.
From barely even a distance away, I could feel Dimitri's gray eyes trained on me without even needing to turn over and double check. It was the same feeling in which had threaded itself down the back of my spine back at the boathouse. And when I finally turned, our gazes met in a collision, causing a smile to slowly spread across my face as Dimitri's smirk matched mine.
He crossed the room in seconds, slowly maneuvering himself across the slightly translucent figures of the guests before stopping right in front of me with a small smile on his face. Without a single word, he held out a hand to me with a small bow, the music in the background slowly changing to that of a waltz as the older men and women placed their drinks to a side, all pairing up for a dance.
With the smile never leaving my lips, I placed my hand in his, allowing him to pull me in his hold. His cold fingers rested just above my hip as I took in a sharp intake of breath, placing my other hand on his shoulder.
"My, aren't you looking awfully dapper today?" I mused, slowly moving along to the music as more couples started to join in in the background.
"Are you insinuating that I don't look dapper every day?" Dimitri laughed, an eyebrow raised in a mockingly questioning manner. He faked a hurt look, sighing gently as he twirled me around before placing his hand on my hip again. "I'm hurt, doll."
"Those were not my exact words, but then again, if you're Cinderella, wear the glass slipper."
"Now I do believe that you are Cinderella tonight. Everyone's got their eyes on you the very moment you stepped in with your hand looped around Calvin's. Now remind me to give him a good lecture for that." A small glint of mischief lit up in Dimitri's molten silver eyes, almost sparkling even while we were under the bright lighting of the crystal chandelier above us. "I, on the other hand, am just hoping that I could be your Prince Charming."
At that, I started to laugh almost insanely at Dimitri's smooth save, and this caused a few surrounding people to turn around and eye us for the commotion.
Shaking my head in disbelief, I offered Dimitri a mocking roll of my eye before retorting just as playfully. "You are incorrigible, did you know that?"
"I've been told through my many centuries alive," Dimitri agreed. "It's just that I've never cared what other people said about me until you came."
"How strange that is," I mused, slinging both my hands around Dimitri's neck as both of his hands rested on my hips. "That Death is actually alive."
He was on a roll, easily swooping in with a buttery smooth reply the very second those words had escaped my lips. "I'm only alive when I'm with you. The other days, years, they all felt as if I was a dead man."
"Oh, you don't want to be that smooth, Dimitri." Breaking away from his hold very much reluctantly as the song ended, I took a step back before offering him a smirk. "I might just fall for you. And we can't have that, can we? After all, I won the game fair and square."
Dimitri was just about to reply with something witty of his own before his eyes shifted away from me, landing on someone that was behind me. Unable to shove down the curiosity, I, too, turned on instinct to see who it was that Dimitri was looking at.
From a few couples away, there Fabian stood. He had the beginnings of a scowl twisting his lips, his eyes fixated on us before he tore them away. And he was off, feet moving quickly past the crowd, heading towards the giant doors in which separated the ballroom from the balcony.
"If you would excuse me." I could barely even think of a reply before Dimitri gently moved past me as well, hot on Fabian's heel as he too headed for the doors.
Curiosity burned brightly in the pits of my stomach, an eager need to know what it was that made Dimitri go after Fabian. It took barely even a few moment's worth of consideration before I was off as well, curving past all the guests in an attempt to reach the two brothers. When I came to a stop in front of the tall doors in which I knew they had disappeared behind, I placed a hand on it, pushing it open as silently as I could.
And I peered in.
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