Sun was about to go down, the two cloakmen were just sitting around at a couch cleaning their gun and Perfida was sitting quietly in between them with her hands still tied together and the hankerchief on her mouth. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, the leader and the henchman looked at each other, "they're here", the leader said. The henchman stood up, walked to the door and opened it.
"My lady", the henchman greeted this person and gave a light bow, "please come in", then a woman in her late forties with a beautiful porcelain features wearing platforms, she had golden long blond 1930's style hair wearing a white robe dress, Perfida was wowed by her beauty, she was like a celebrity standing before her.
"Thank you, my child", the lady said to him with a posh accent, she was accompanied by two lady-in-waiting and they are also cloak without the gold vest but they show their faces with this lace mask covering them except their eyes, nose hole and mouth, also wearing red lipstick and their hair were properly bun, one of them looked a little older and the other one looked a bit younger.
"My lady, here she is", the leader pointed at Perfida, the lady saw her and Perfida just doesn't know what she will be doing to her so she doesn't try to retaliate. The lady walked to her her heart was pounding in fear that the lady could've heard it then she put out her hand to her face, Perfida felt that this doesn't feel right, the lady can actually smell her fear like a dog.
"Sshhh", the lady told Perfida and put her finger to her mouth to tell her to stay quiet then untied the hankerchief on her mouth then gently grabbed her face, "look at me, my child", and Perfida just followed and looked at her, "what's your name?".
"Perfida", Perfida stuttered at the lady.
"Perfida", the lady repeated and gave out a friendly smile, "what a beautiful name for a beautiful girl", she turned her head to the right then to the left and wiped some dirt on Perfida's face with her thumb, "yes, she is perfect, she just needs a bath, combing and a pretty dress", the lady turned to her lady-in-waiting, "Helen, Dorothy, prepare her bath and make her wear the dress", she ordered.
"Yes, Lady Erza", the two ladies answered then the henchman pointed that her room was in the second.
"And you too", Lady Erza turned to the cloakmen, "prepare the ceremony in the basement of this house, the items is in the car just get it".
"Yes, my lady", the two cloakmen said then they gone outside to so what she asked for. Lady Erza sat next to Perfida who was still shaking, it was strange to her that she seem so nice but her two followers were so cruel that they killed her father and her sister.
"My child", Lady Erza talked to Perfida then put her arms around her, "you are given to me by the creator to make me the most precious gift of all, youth and beauty", then embraced her like she was her daughter. Perfida was getting weirded out by this and a question running in her head, what did she mean by what she just said? then Lady Ezra kissed her forehead and kept embracing her.
Later, Perfida was brought upstairs back in a bathroom with the two maids, they undress her and placed her in a metal tub, the young maid, Dorothy, put her dirty pajama in a black plastic bag then Helen, the older maid, bathe her with warm water and she washed her hair then helped her scrub the dirt off her skin. After the bath, Perfida sat on her bedside wearing a bathrobe looking so clean since last night, Dorothy dried her hair with a blow dryer and combed it, Helen came in the room holding an antique lace dress and a flower crown then placed them on the bed, "you have such beautiful hair, you are truly a gift from our creator", Helen commented, Perfida really couldn't understand what she meant about the second part she just said so she kept quiet.
Perdita on the other hand found herself in a different place, a darker place, she was in a morgue staring at her dead body and tears coming out of her eyes saddened by the idea that her life was robbed from her. She then heard voices outside the morgue, it was from a door with a light coming out from it so she peeked through it, "poor girl, she doesn't deserve this", a mortician said, Perdita was listening.
"By how she die at least", said the other.
"Regardless, what happened happens. There's nothing we can do now", the previous one replied, Perdita was upset by what she heard because she knew they were right, there was nothing they could do. Her emotion increased then a glass of water behind them where the morticians were standing mysteriously shaking then exploded. The two morticians jolted then looked back and saw the little pieces of glass and water were scattered everywhere, Perdita was surprise too as she saw the glass exploded, "what? what was that?".
"I..I don't know", the other stuttered, "but we are surrounded by dead bodies".
"Don't joke like that? there's no such thing?", the first mortician replied nervously then the two got back to work. Perdita had no idea that she made the glass exploded.
"Come on, our work is done here, let's go home", the other mortician said.
"Alright, let me just get my stuff", the first mortician agreed. Minutes later, the morticians was about to leave so Perdita got out of Morgue since they can't see her and then as they opened the door to their office she ran out pass them, the morticians suddenly stopped and felt the breeze from her run, they both felt weird, they looked at each other, "did you just feel that?".
"Yeah, it's kinda cold all of a sudden", the second mortician replied, "must be a draft".
"Yeah, yeah", the first mortician stuttered then coninued to lock the door then left abruptly. Perdita was in the hallway of the hospital where there was more light, she decided to find Perfida so she started to roam around the hospital. She was getting lost, she then heard a loud beeping sound so she followed it, there was a room with a big window she walked to it and saw a patient was fighting to be alive but the beeping at the heart monitor got faster and faster then a man appeared on behind her wearing a hospital gown, he looked confuse.
"What's going on? where am I?", the man asked, Perdita was startled then turned around and saw the man, he saw her too. Perdita didn't undertand what was going but then she looked a little longer at him while he was still puzzled at what was happening, she turned to the patient lying on the bed then back at the man then back at the patient then at the man behind her again. The man finally figured it out that he was out of his body, "No..no..no.. this can't be happening", he shouted, doctor and nurses were running with a defibrillator, they went inside to revive the man. Perdita somehow felt sorry for him but then he grabbed both of her shoulders then gave her a very viscious look, Perdita gulped and suddenly got scared as his grip was getting tighter but she doesn't feel pain anymore or at least any physical touch even though other spirit can touch her. "Help me or I will kill you", he threatened her, Perdita's fear increases.
"Let me go!", Perdita squirmed then started to shake for him to let go. Suddenly, a black vortex appeared and Perdita's eyes were popped out as she saw it behind him then dark shadow figures came out from it then pulled the man away from her, Perdita was free but he wasn't. The man tried to fight to be free but those things that was holding him didn't let him and the beeping at the heart monitor was getting louder and faster. The man was already pulled in the vortex along with the shadow figures and it was gone just like that. Perdita stood stiff as things was getting weirder to her then she heard the flat line sound so she looked at the man's already dead body in the room.
"Time of death: 3:26 a.m" a doctor said to the nurse then they covered the body with a white sheet, Perdita just witnessed the inferno.
In the abandoned house, Perfida's hair was dry enough to style it, Dorothy detangle her hair with a comb then spritz on some texturizing spray. She parted her hair down the middle, picked up a 3-inch section of her hair from one side and comb it neatly andtwisted the hair and pinned it up at the back, she repeated the same on the other side and tied both the twists together with an elastic band thus is gave an elegant looking half ponytail with a twist. Helen was carrying cosmetics and make-up stuff and put them on the bed then grabbed a face powder, dabbed the powder on her face and Perfida was scrunching her face trying to avoid going inside her nose, "close your eyes", Helen told her and she did, they put some brown eye shadows then thickened and curled her eyelashes, she even gave pink blush on her cheeks and finally, they applied red glossy lipstick on her. Perfida looked like a young Gibson girl, or maybe an old porcelain doll, then they put a flower crown on her head.
"Very captivating", Helen said while properly fixing the headpiece, "you're ready". Perfida doubted that she will be going to a party by wearing this get up, and of course, that wasn't the weirdest thing that happened that time, Lady Erza suddenly came in the room wearing a black robe and her make up was getting gothic with red lipstick and she was brought a cup of yellow paint and a brush, she saw Perfida, she seem to like what she was seeing.
"Gorgeous little girl", Lady Erza smiled at Perfida, "good job, Helen, Dorothy",
"Thank you, my lady", Helen and Dorothy said.
"I wish to be alone with her", Lady Erza told the two maid.
"Yes, my Lady", Helen and Dorothy replied then left the room leaving a very nervous Perfida and Lady Ezra alone. Lady Ezra sat next to Perfida and started dipping the brush in the yellow paint
"Do you know what vain is my child?", Lady Ezra asked then started painting on her forehead.
"Liking too much of how you look", Perfida answered.
"Beauty and brains, you are one of a kind", Lady Erza said, "Vain is what I pray to and it gives me this face, what do you think?".
"It is very beautiful", Perfida answered, she thought responding to what she liked to hear would just might not get things worse.
"Thank you!", Lady Erza replied, she started drawing an eye on her forehead , "I am giving you the Vain Eye, this eye is only given to the gifts that are given to me from Vain, it means that beauty is the most powerful weapon and people only respond to it". In the basement of the abandoned house, there was a pentagram drew on the ground with five candles placed around it and there was a cauldron big enough to make a feast for a whole town in the middle with water with petals of flowers and leave in it, there was fog coming out from it. The leader was waiting to the others then the henchman came down carrying Perfida with the two maids and Lady Erza right behind him. The henchman put Perfida on that chair and tied her hands, feet and mouth again, Perfida was getting more anxious and was getting shakey again, Lady Erza noticed it, "let us start, I am about to rot again".
"Yes, my lady", they all said to Lady Erza, then the two maids and the cloakmen stood around the pentagram and Perfida was watching them from behind then they started chanting.
"Vain, I have received my gift and I want to thank you", Lady Erza prayed, "I will use this gift to obtain my immortality and youth, her blood will be yours and mine, and her hair that helps binds us of our bonds", Perfida gulped, she could feel her heart was about to burst out of her chest just observing this ritual then she looked at the pot and asked herself, are they going to cook her?
The chanting was getting louder and louder, "let's put her in!", Lady Erza said loudly, it somehow confirmed Perfida's fears, then the two maids walked to Perfida and they hold her still, Dorothy brought a gold chalice. Perfida started screaming and tried to let go yet then as bad as it was already, the leader took out a pocket knife and Helen hold Perfida's shoulders to hold her down, the leader grabbed a big clump of her hair and started cutting them with his knife as she started to tear up then walked to the cauldron threw it there then came back and Helen held Perfida's right arm next, the panicked as she knew what it was going to happen so she was trembling like a lunatic and the leader was struggling to do what he was suppose to do, "my son, you can silence her if you want", Lady Erza said to the leader.
"Yes, my lady", the leader smiled then raised his palm and slapped her face to stop moving too much, Perfida was dazed from that slap so she stop squirming but started crying and her left cheek was red then a spot of blood was on her lips. The leader placed the knife on her wrist and began pressing it into her skin until her blood was spilling out in the chalice, Helen then squeezed her wrist like an orange so more blood were coming out of her but Perfida can't take this torture anymore. The blood just kept pouring and it reached three inches in the chalice then they're done, Dorothy then carried the chalice to the cauldron and poured the blood there, Perfida was panting in agony then the whole water unusually turned red since they only get three inches not her whole blood.
"Great job, my children. Now, all of you! leave me! Dorothy, Helen, get her back to her room and take care of her", Lady Erza ordered then she looked at the cloakmen, "you two! just wait for me and gaurd the door, I will start my bath". Blood continue to drop on the dress that Perfida was wearing and she was in a state of disbelief then Dorothy and Helen carried Perfida from her seat and they all got out of the basemant leaving Lady Erza alone with the cauldron. Perfida was back on her room with an electric lamp giving light in her room and she seem to stop crying but felt traumatize, Dorothy took care of her wound by wrapping gauze bandaid around her wrist but blood stain was showing on the gauze and Helen cleaned her face with a moist towel then combed her uneven hair, they even changed her clothes with a linen long-sleeved night gown but Perfida just seem to have enough of this ridiculous people for one night. After cleaning her up, Dorothy fed her for dinner but from the slap earlier, Perfida was leaning on the headboard of the bed and had a hard time eating and swallowing but she felt so weak because they took her blood.
"Please, I want to go home", Perfida sulked at the two maid looked at each other blankly.
"My dear, you made our lady very happy", Helen said to her.
"She's right, you are actually helping her", Dorothy said, Perfida was confuse as to what did they mean that she was helping her. Later, Perfida was tucked in bed with a cleaner sheets, a pillow and blanket but she felt like she was in her deathbed then Lady Erza, wearing a satin robe and a towel wrapped her hair, entered her room with a storybook in her hands and Perfida was feeling uneasy again then she sat on her bedside and put her hand on her face and stroked her hair and gave her this endearing look.
"Hello again, my child", Lady Erza said to Perfida with her loving voice, "tonight is just the beginning so let me read you a story before you slumber, this was my favorite what I was your age", Perfida was taken aback by what she just said because it meant that this was not the end then Lady Erza kissed her forehead and opened the book and started reading,
"The wind in the willow. The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him.."
Perfida was listening her read the book a loud, her voice was so soothing that she it was like she forgotten what happened down in the basement, Lady Erza stopped reading, "that's it for now, I have to go, my dear", she leaned in and kissed her forehead then took the lamp and left the bedroom yet the moonlight was still shining through the window.
It was day time and Perdita continued to walk out the hospital while few different people passby her, she was just thin air to them and she never felt so empty before. She happened to be at the busiest and somehow crowded area of the hospital, which was the waiting area, there was a small flat screen television there at the upper corner of the wall in the area and the local news was on, "The victims of the car crash by route 13 are still under investigation yet police believed that it was foul play", the local newscaster reported and show their picture live on air, "Here is the photo of the family. There were no phones or any devices found in the car, possibly it got destroyed from the crash, to contact any other family member or friend to claim their bodies, Authorities need your help to find and contact anyone who knows this Spyro family".
"This is sad, I mean they look like such a beautiful looking family", an old lady said, Perdita was listening and of course, they didn't know that she was there, she also noticed that they didn't mention her sister, which meant that she wasn't found yet.
"Yeah.. who would do such a thing", another lady replied.
"In other news, the Ares Space Administration are getting ready to welcome our new friends from outer space and we will go live in few days for the conference party to get to know more of our new friends from the stars".
"Wow! time finally came that we are going to live among them", another person said.
"It's the future", the other just said back, Perdita looked uninterested at the topic and continued to walk away but then she saw other children were having fun at the play area, there were slide, monkey bars, sliding pole, building blocks, reading and drawing area, that's when she realized that she will never live a normal life like them anymore.
It was night time again, the second night of Perfida's abduction, the two maid prepared her again for the ritual and they made wear that same lace antique dress with the stain speck of blood from her first cut in her wrist, they fixed her hair and put make-up on her and of course lastly, Lady Erza painting an eye on her forehead with yellow paint, Perfida was nervous again. They took her to the basement where everything that was needed for the ritual are ready so they out her in a chair trying struggling to escape and the followers started doing their chants around the pentagram and the cauldron that was filled with water and other ingredients then held her down again to cut her another clump of her hair and this time they slit her forearm adding another blood stain on her dress, Perfida was wailing as she felt another stings from that cut but the leader got annoyed at her so he grabbed her neck, and so she choked, "you better shut up when I let go", the leader threatened and tighten his grip so Perfida nodded at him so he let go leaving bruises on her neck and tried not to do anything that could provoke them. After that second time of torture, the two maids cleaned her, heal her wounds, changes her clothes, fed her and put her to bed with Lady Erza reading to her again,
"Leaving the main stream, they now passed into what seemed at first sight like a little land-locked lake. Green turf sloped down to either edge, brown snaky tree-roots gleamed below the surface of the quiet water, while ahead of them the silvery shoulder and foamy tumble of a weir, arm-in-arm with a restless dripping mill-wheel, that held up in its turn a grey-gabled mill-house, filled the air with a soothing murmur of sound, dull and smothery, yet with little clear voices speaking up cheerfully out of it at intervals..",
Perfida couldn't help but felt comfort with her voice then after Lady Erza read to her, she kissed her forehead again and was gone.
The night after that, they all did the same thing to Perfida, the dress, hair and make-up, the eye painting, the ritual setting, chanting, the hair cutting, and slashing her wrist at the left arm, Perfida tried hard not to feel feel that knife going through her skin to avoid getting hit on the face by the leader and after that, the maids took care of her and Lady Erza continuing her reading,
"'Ratty,' said the Mole suddenly, one bright summer morning, 'if you please, I want to ask you a favour.' The Rat was sitting on the river bank, singing a little song. He had just composed it himself, so he was very taken up with it, and would not pay proper attention to Mole or anything else. Since early morning he had been swimming in the river, in company with his friends the ducks. And when the ducks stood on their heads suddenly, as ducks will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, just under where their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced to come to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite ALL you feel when your head is under water. At last they implored him to go away and attend to his own affairs and leave them to mind theirs. So the Rat went away, and sat on the river bank in the sun, and made up a song about them, which he called",
Then she gave a sweet farewell to Perfida before going away. Perfida was starting to look and feel so sickly, her color was off and her hairstyle was getting a shorter and not in a good way, she doesn't know if she wanted to stay alive to live another day to go through the same agony but she was more afraid of dying, she doesn't know yet as to what happened when people die.
The Fourth night, Perfida was reliving this nightmare that doesn't seem to end, it felt like she was in that nut house for ages not days and, her was chopped off again then her left forearm was going to be gashed again but it was like she was letting them do this to her and get it over with and the stinging feeling was not as bad as it was the first two nights and stained the dress again, it made her look like something coming from a horror film. They put her in bed again, all clean up and tucked in, but life was draining out from Perfida as blood lessened up night by night and Lady Erza resuming the story,
"Very faint and shrill it was, and far behind him, when first he heard it; but somehow it made him hurry forward. Then, still very faint and shrill, it sounded far ahead of him, and made him hesitate and want to go back. As he halted in indecision it broke out on either side, and seemed to be caught up and passed on throughout the whole length of the wood to its farthest limit. They were up and alert and ready, evidently, whoever they were! And he—he was alone, and unarmed, and far from any help; and the night was closing in".
An hour later, she kissed Perfida's forehead and got out of the room but Perfida couldn't sleep but she was that she was about to go and so stared at the moon and just started crying again, she suddenly yearned her father, her sister and also her life that she used to live but now it all changes and she knew she can't do anything about it. Perdita just kept walking then just became psychologically tired so she sat on a bench, not knowing what to do, she never felt this lonely in her life and she started thinking about her father and wondering what happened to Perfida, she missed her so badly. The twin girls wanted to be with each other which meant their bond as sister was something so precious and now that they're apart it was like a part of them just died.