"the orange trees refused to blossom
unless we bloomed first
when we met
they wept tangerines
can't you tell
the earth has waited its whole life for us"
- Rupi Kaur
The golden strands that framed Ophelia's pale face fell carelessly as she ran her slender fingers through the long lengths of her hair, she looked in the mirror at her reflection, finalizing her makeup, poking at the freckles that were sprinkled lightly across the bridge of her nose. When she decided that she was content with the way she looked, Ophelia turned her attention toward the calendar.
"October 30th, final exams. I couldn't wait to get this test over with. I had been cramming for over two weeks, medical school was the only job route that seemed worth something," Ophelia thought to herself. She was always left feeling bored, and unexcited, like the world was missing something. She turned her crystal blue eyes to the admire the story that lay on her bedside table, The Abduction of Persephone by Hades.
"There was always something dramatically fascinating happening in Greek mythology," thought Ophelia.
Ophelia stuffed the book into her bag for reading during free time between classes.
"You're not going to sneak out without telling me if you're going to the Halloween party tonight, are you, Ophelia?" Serena, Ophelia's social butterfly of a roommate, pressed her as Ophelia attempted to escape the dorm room. Serena seemed she was holding something behind her back, it looked like clothes of some sort.
Ophelia was on her way to becoming a doctor, in her second year of college. While Serena Matthews, her roommate and closest friend, was a nursing student. Serena stood several inches taller than Ophelia who was 5 '2 . Serena's hair was wavy, medium length, and light brown in color, the hue complimented her olive toned skin and hazel eyes. Serena and Ophelia became good friends in the sort of way that opposites attract. While Ophelia regarded herself as somewhat of an introvert but she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, Serena was outgoing to the point of not knowing when to shut up, always babbling on about gossip. Serena was careless where Ophelia was responsible. Serena was manipulative and could be bratty, where Ophelia cared to earn the love and respect of others, treating everyone how she would want to be treated.
Ophelia yawned thinking about another party full of mindless idiots, "I don't know, Serena, what's the point?" Ophelia's aquamarine eyes darted toward the clock above her head, she was going to be late for her exam.
"The point is that it's Halloween, and I got us matching costumes," Serena rolled her eyes. Ophelia attempted to move past her but she quickly blocked the doorway with her arm, not taking no for an answer.
"Okay," Ophelia sighed, "I'll indulge you, what're the costumes?" Ophelia laughed a bit at her intensity for something as silly as Halloween.
"I'm going to be a naughty devil, and you're going to be a sexy angel," Serena presented the hidden costumes to Ophelia, a huge smile on her face, while Ophelia remained unimpressed.
Before Ophelia could even begin her tangent about why none of this was going to happen, Serena interrupted her, "you always complain about how boring everything is, at least try to have some fun before you say no." Ophelia decided she had a point, so she agreed and Serena nodded happily.
With luck, Ophelia was able to make it to her exam on time even though it was halfway across campus, even managing to be the first one to finish the test. Her professor, Dr. Baxter, a fifty-something year old gentleman who wore very outdated suits and glasses that were much too big for his face, was more than impressed which left Ophelia feeling a rush of confidence. She had only been in the exam room for all of two hours but found that she had a whole string of texts from Serena about the party details. There wasn't much known about it except that it was off campus to be held in some kind of creepy Victorian mansion. "How fitting for Halloween..." Ophelia thought.
The moon replaced the sun as night fell while the two girls got ready for the party in the hours that followed.
Ophelia added mounds of sparkles and shiny highlighter into the corners of her wide almond shaped eyes and onto the prominent points of her face, she smeared a thick coat of high-gloss lip gloss onto her pouty pink lips smacking them together creating a popping noise. She applied long and wispy false eyelashes along the edges of her real ones, batting her new eyelashes in the mirror to adjust to the feeling.
The "angel" costume consisted of a thin off white satin hip-hugging dress, some glittery fluff at the hem, a few silver arm bands for decoration, and of course, a pair of cheap wings and a halo headband. Ophelia added a pair of platform silver heels to complete the ensemble.
"How did your test go?" Serena asked as she applied the finishing touches to her look for the evening.
"Good, I was the first one to finish," Ophelia rightfully boasted as she was the top of her class for the second year in a row, Serena rolled her eyes in response in a playful way.
"Overachiever," She fake-coughed the word, causing them both to laugh.
Ophelia followed Serena to her car parked on campus in the student parking lot and they discussed the party. Ophelia found herself feeling a bit of a rush, this was going to be more thrilling than the usual fraternity parties that were going on.
"So who's throwing this party?" Ophelia asked Serena as she looked out the window at the blurry scenery in the dark while they drove to this mystery mansion.
"I don't know, I just know everyone in town is going to be there tonight," Serena mashed her lips together in the rear view mirror.
"Hmph," Ophelia turned on the radio, scanning for a station that she enjoyed.
There couldn't have been a better setting for a Halloween party, as they drove up to the house, the street was lined with cars and people in sexy, silly, and creative costumes walking up and down with plastic cups in their hands. The house was something out of a horror movie, a large, gothic Victorian mansion smack in the middle of nowhere on a private road in the woods. The mansion was black from the trim to the concrete steps that led up to the double doors.
The music was loud enough to be heard before the girls entered the party. People shouted and laughed loudly inside. The mansion was creepily decorated for the holiday with pumpkins, graves, bats, spiderwebs, ghosts, and goblins on the outside. In contrast, the inside needed no preparation as it looked like it was abandoned hundreds of years ago with the outdated furniture still inside. The place was full of dancing bodies grinding to the house music, Serena wasn't kidding when she said the whole town would be here tonight.
"I think I see Christian," Serena gave Ophelia the biggest pleading eyes I had ever seen to go abandon me to flirt with Christian Holmes, he was in most of my classes, second in our class behind me and probably the second biggest flirt at our university, behind Serena, of course. Ophelia rolled my eyes at Serena in a friendly way, as she didn't mind, she wanted her to be happy.
"I'll be right back, swear! Get us some drinks," Serena gave Ophelia a brief hug on the side of her body before running off to chase after Christian.
Ophelia looked through all the people for a familiar face of her own but she wasn't fortunate enough to find one, so she pulled her phone out of her purse in an effort to look busy and unapproachable as she made her way through the crowd searching for the kitchen. She found that most of the doors were locked and the hallways were eerily empty and dimly lit by a few flickering lights. The walls carried creepy old paintings of people who were now long gone.
Ophelia's fingers just barely touched the cold brass doorknob to a set of double doors when she jumped as a voice echoed out from behind her,
"Can I help you find something, Angel?" The voice was deep and smooth, but harsh at the same time, like an aged whiskey. Ophelia turned around and faced the grim reaper, well, a man dressed as the grim reaper.
He was tall, probably well over six feet, and his hair was dark, a single curl wavering over his forehead. He had a painted skeleton smile, and his eyes were different shades of gold. He was charming, he smiled at Ophelia, his demeanor seemed inviting, he took his hood off as he was wearing a black and red robe while carrying a scythe. Both his hands were inked with tattoos, his fingers spelling out the word "hell", and an upside down cross underneath his left eye, this stranger would probably look like the grim reaper every day of the year.
"I was just looking for the kitchen, this place is huge," Ophelia couldn't deny the heat she felt spread throughout her body as he looked at her.
"Let me help you, this is my party, and my house. I should warn you, Angel, you shouldn't go sneaking around other people's homes, you might find something you don't necessarily want to see," The grim reaper's words were ominous, he gestured slowly with his pointer finger for Ophelia to follow him.
"Well, grim, your party isn't exactly that easy to navigate," Ophelia followed him through a push open door that led to a spacious kitchen that was surprisingly modern compared to the rest of the house.
"My name is Damien, I'm shocked you haven't heard of me," Damien scoffed at the idea of someone not knowing who he was like a God of some kind.
"That was strike one for grim," Ophelia thought.
She snorted in derision, "Why would I know who you are?"
"Every woman should," He reached down into a bowl full of pretzels tossing a few into his mouth, a cocky smile settling on his face as he waited for Ophelia's reply as if he was baiting her into something but Ophelia wasn't quite sure what it was yet, she was sure she wasn't going to stick around and find out.
"You're something else, aren't you?" Ophelia gave him a nasty glare, she couldn't believe the audacity of this one.
"You have no idea. So, why so miserable at my party, hmm?" Apparently Ophelia didn't look thrilled to be having a conversation with someone she viewed as a narcissist. Ophelia squinted her eyes at Damien, she was feeling regretful of how he made her blush earlier upon finding out how unbearable he is. Ophelia rolled her eyes, pushing past Damien to grab two beers off the table and turned to make her way back to Serena without giving him a reply.
"You're not going to tell me your name? Guess I'll just keep calling you Angel," Damien called out to Ophelia, but Ophelia didn't turn even turn her head to look back at him. He was just another rich asshole to Ophelia, and Ophelia had already gotten her heart broken by a rich asshole. So she swayed her hips to the music not giving Damien the time of day as she went to go find her friend.
Ophelia found her best friend in the center of the makeshift dance floor, her waves bouncing around with her body to the music, her devil horn headband hanging half off her head, she was in the zone. Ophelia smiled at Serena across the dance floor as she maneuvered her way through the crowds of people.
Ophelia moved her hips to the rhythm of the music, shaking off what she considered, a rather unpleasant interaction with Damien.
Ophelia and Serena laughed as they danced with strangers and some familiar friends when Ophelia's locked eyes on that grim reaper smile, Damien had been staring at her from across the room for how long? She didn't know, but his gaze never left hers despite that, Madison clung to his arm, Madison was a nursing friend of Serena's, she was dressed as a generic black cat, her fake blonde hair flowing out of the cheap looking ears, her drawn on whiskers smudged now across her cheeks, and her black nose had worn away. Madison didn't seem to notice Ophelia as her brown eyes were fixated on Damien's sculpted jawline, while Damien's golden eyes were chained to Ophelia's pale blue orbs.
Damien finally broke the stare with a taunting smirk set at Ophelia, he then led the black cat upstairs.
Ophelia snorted at Damien's character and the fact that he thought she would care who he slept with.
She enjoyed the rest of the evening with Serena, dancing the night away, having a few drinks, and socializing with a few friends from their university that attended the party but most were people they had never met before.
As the night came to an end for Ophelia and Serena, they locked arms giggling and headed for the door, their heels clicking against the sidewalk, nothing but the moon and their phones for light. A figure approached them as they turned the corner for Serena's parked Corolla, it was Damien, and he stopped short when he saw Ophelia, "Hope you both enjoyed yourselves." He said with a smirk, "I'll be seeing you, Angel,"
Before Ophelia could even catch an attitude with the man who would "be seeing her around" after just spending some intimate time with a different woman just a few hours prior, Serena dropped her phone, our only source of light. Ophelia swore under her breath, "shit," and helped her pick it back up, but when we shone it out again, Damien was gone, the sidewalk empty where he had stood, and the street quiet and dark.
"What the hell was that?" Serena asked as they got into her car.
"I have no idea," Ophelia blinked fast, questioning what she had just seen.