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Midnight Vanity: The Masquerade — Lilian's Search for Gerard Continues
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Have you met Lilian? If not, read her introduction here before diving into this next chapter of her story.
Since the night Gerard kept his promise the only way he could, Lilian has moved through Society searching for him — waiting for the moment he told her would come, when it was finally safe for them to begin their forever. Tonight, that search brings her to a masquerade.
The Masquerade
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The gown is the most extravagant thing Lilian has worn since before the turning — black silk that falls in a sweep to the floor, its back plunging dramatically low, laced closed with crisscross ties down the length of her spine. She has always loved a beautiful gown, and there is a strange comfort in indulging that love again tonight, even masked as she is, even searching as she is.
Her mask is fashioned from black swan feathers, layered and overlapping until it catches the candlelight like something alive, gold gilding worked delicately around the eyes. Beneath the gown, just visible with each step, are her boots — the same ones from before, when the world was simpler and she was only a girl waiting at a window. Her black top hat, roses and tulle pinned along its brim, sits at an angle that draws more than a few admiring glances as she moves through the crowd.
She is searching, though no one watching her glide through the ballroom would guess it. When she woke that first night with the hunger already settling into her bones, he was already gone. All that remained was a note on her night table — elegant calligraphy on parchment, sealed with a large red wax seal bearing a rose and a bat, the same design she'd recognized at once from his ring.
I will find you when the time is right and all is safe, and we will begin our forever. Love eternally, Gerard.
She has read those words more times than she could count. Tonight, masked among hundreds of other masked faces, she lets herself hope that somewhere in this crowded ballroom, hidden behind someone else's disguise, he might be searching for her too.
The Best Friend's Warning
A man approaches and requests a dance. She almost declines — she has declined a dozen already tonight, unwilling to spend her searching on idle conversation — but something in the way he holds himself catches her attention. As he draws closer, bowing over her offered hand, she realizes with a jolt who he is. Gerard's closest friend, a face she hasn't seen since before the turning.
He says nothing to give it away in the open ballroom. Instead, speaking low, he guides her gently through the crowd, away from the candlelight and the music, into the hushed quiet of the library beyond. The moment the door closes behind them, Lilian's shock gives way to something sharper.
"You knew," she says, striking at his chest in frustration. "You knew what he was, and what you are, and now what I am."
"Lilian, I don't have much time before they catch me," he says. "Gerard asked me to find you — to tell you he loves you, and that he's trying very hard to escape the dungeon he's being held in. They've hunted us mercilessly for years, and they finally caught him."
Lilian crumples into the nearest chair. All these years of searching, and he has been held in some decrepit dungeon this whole time — not avoiding her, not biding his time, but trapped and fighting to return to her all along.
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"I must go now," the friend says. "Guard your secret above all else, Lilian, or they will start hunting you too."
And with that, he disappears out the door, leaving her alone with the fire and the weight of everything she now knows.
Gerard is alive — and hunted. What comes next for Lilian, now that she knows the truth? Come back soon for the next chapter in her story.
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