Disclaimer: I don't own the Night World

Façade

Carter and Mackenzie were probably the only ones who knew that Emerald lived in the Marriott. Because she knew that she could trust them. It was just Emerald didn't really want anyone knowing that she lived on her own. It'd give her attention. And attention to Emerald, positive or negative, was torture. She absolutely hated attention.

Both of them came to Emerald's suite at exactly eight-thirty. It was kind of scary how punctual Carter was sometimes.

"Oh, no," Carter said pushing Emerald back into her suite. "You are not going to the masquerade dressed like that." Carter walked in followed by Mackenzie who were both wearing dresses whereas Emerald was wearing some generic, plain black dress.

Carter looked stunning, kind of like a princess, in her spaghetti strap, black dress. A large ribbon with gold, flower designs wrapped around her stomach, the skirt of the dress stopping just below the knees, slightly poofy, with the same gold designs as the ribbon. She wore glittering gold, dress heeled, sandals that really helped her look like a very prim, proper, sophisticated princess. Her mask was also gold with some white feathers on the left side.

"This is the best dress I could find. Can't we just leave it and go now?" Emerald groaned as Carter opened her closet up and started sifting through her clothes.

"Well you want to look stunning don't you?" Carter asked her eyebrows rising.

"I don't need a boyfriend." Emerald responded flatly, reading between the lines.

"It's a very up-there masquerade though, you want to look nice for all the elites. It shows them that you are mature and you respect them, too." Mackenzie chimed in.

She was wearing a strapless pink dress that accented her bust area and waist. The lowest part of the skirt went down to just below her knees and shortened diagonally as it went up, the shortest part stopping mid-thigh. If you looked close enough it would scintillate when the light hit her just right. And it really brought out her golden brown highlights, almost making them look blond. Her heels were about two inches high, silver, evening sandals. Her mask matched her heels and had a chrome-colored rose on the right side.

It was kind of shocking for Emerald to see her friend wearing a dress and heels. It was kind of creepy too. Like the world was going to end.

"You know, I've been thinking," Emerald started.

"Mm-hmm," Carter replied, still sifting.

"You should call Anthony, I'll give him my ticket, and then I won't have to go anymore. How does that sound?" she suggested.

Both Carter and Mackenzie turned to glare at her.

"No way. Besides, Anthony made plans since he couldn't come." Carter still sounded a little bitter about that.

"Yeah, and you're the one who got me into this." Mackenzie said. "I'm not going to let you get off, leaving me still having to go."

Emerald sighed heavily just as Carter let out a frustrated, half-squeal, half-groan. "Do you have any other dresses in here?" she queried spinning around to face Emerald. Emerald shrugged and smiled smugly at Carter. "All I see are skirts and none of them fit the occasion!" she exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air.

"Oh, well," Emerald mock sighed. "I guess I'll just go in this." She hopped off the bed but Carter caught her arm.

"Not so fast." she growled. "I know you have a dress in there somewhere. Where are you hiding them?"

Emerald looked at her with wide, innocent eyes. "Why, I have no idea what you are talking about, my dear friend, Carter."

Carter's grip tightened on her arm and she continued to glare at Emerald. "Mackenzie, go check…" She trailed off looking around the room trying to think of where Emerald would hide her dresses. Being her friend, she knew she'd only have a few, therefore didn't need a lot of space to hide them. But she wouldn't hide them in the obvious places that Carter would think to look.

Her eyes caught the bed and Carter smiled wickedly. "Check under the mattress."

Emerald narrowed her eyes and glared daggers at her, now smug, friend. She let out a frustrated hiss.

Carter release Emerald's arm as Mackenzie grunted, pushing the mattress off part of the bed. Sure enough there was one of the dresses that Emerald owned. With the help of Carter they flipped her mattress over and there lay, flattened, about five dresses.

"Now," Carter panted, catching her breath. "We'd better choose quickly so we have enough time to get to the masquerade."

With a mental groan, Emerald fell into a chair and watched in misery as Carter and Mackenzie listed the pros and cons of the dresses. Then they'd come over to where Emerald was sitting and hang it around her neck and scrutinize and talk more about it. It was absolutely agonizing! She felt like she was dying, or that they were going to spend all night doing this and never make it to the ball (which was actually good for Emerald, in a way).

But looking at the clock, it had only been about ten minutes. Emerald couldn't repress the groan of pure agony that rose in her throat and escaped from her lips. Thankfully, Carter and Mackenzie looked too stumped to noticed.

"None of these are going to work!" Carter griped. "How can that be?"

Emerald's lips turned up slightly.

"Wait, wait," Mackenzie said examining the mattress they'd pushed, off carefully. Emerald's smile dropped and she prayed with all her might that she wouldn't find—"Well, would you look at this!" Mackenzie exclaimed pulling out another dress.

Carter squealed and Emerald buried her head in her hands.

"It's perfect!" she exclaimed.

"No," Emerald moaned.

"Yes," Carter whispered her eyes bright as a forest fire.

Emerald shook her head. "No." she said again with more conviction.

"Yes!" both Carter and Mackenzie declared.

Fed up with all this back-and-forth nonsense, Carter stomped over to Emerald and pried her hands away from her face before dropping the dress in her hands. "No more debate." Carter said roughly grabbing her dark-haired friend's arm, pulling her out of the chair and promptly shoving her into the bathroom. Before Emerald could gather her bearings Carter pulled the door closed. "I'm not letting you come out until you put that dress on!"

"Then I guess we'll be here all night!" Emerald shouted back, refusing to change.

"Emerald," Mackenzie called. "We can do this hard way, or my way."

"You guys don't scare me."

"Emerald!" Carter whined. "Don't ruin the fun! Just take a chance for once in your life! Don't be afraid to leap! You can't go on living like this!"

Emerald tried not to let those words get to her, but they did. She felt like such a dud, always afraid to do anything. But she had a good reason to. A reason that not even Carter knew. No one knew, but her…. Well, at least the people currently surrounding her; there were people from her past that she knew, knew what happened.

She always seemed to get hurt when she took a risk. That's why she stopped taking them in the first place!

But something, something deep inside her, whispered a desire: a longing to go to because something amazing was waiting for her. It was kind of nightmarish, but the feeling, in contrast, was warm and nice. Emerald didn't think that she'd ever felt this before. It made her heart pound, her face flush and her breath became slightly ragged.

Pull yourself together, you idiot! The cold voice of reason blew through her mind, halting all those weird feelings in their tracks and pushing them down.

With a sigh Emerald slowly got ready, finishing everything off with a plain black mask.

Carter and Mackenzie were waiting just outside the door, Carter with a pair of heels in her hands. She almost dropped them, though when Emerald stepped out. Both their mouths dropped to the floor.

"You changed your—" Carter started.

"I know." Emerald interrupted.

"And your—" Mackenzie pointed.

"Yeah." Emerald, she cut her friend off. She took the heels out of Carter's hands, sat down and slipped them on. She stood up again.

"Okay," Emerald muttered a little darkly. "Let's get going before I change my mind."

"You ready?" Christian asked when Storm opened the door.

"Yeah, yeah, let's just get this over with." he muttered stepping out and locking the door.

"Where's your mask?" his friend asked.

Storm took it out and put it on.

"Ah, nice choice, the ladies will go crazy over that." he laughed.

Storm rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's go pick Tasha up." he said heading toward the garage.

"I totally take back what I said then." Christian followed quickly. "You can't pick up girls if you've already got a girlfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend. She just happens to a friend that's a girl. She's a… a… a gal-friend." Storm explained slipping into the car. Christian swiftly copied knowing that if he took too long Storm would leave without him.

"Yeah, but still, if won't look good if you go in with a girl." Christian stated shaking his head sadly.

"Get out." Storm said glaring at his friend.

"Oh, don't be that way. I was only joking." The glare didn't lessen. "You seriously need to have a sense of humor, man."

"You're lucky I'm even coming with you to this stupid thing." Storm growled backing out of the garage.

"I'm surprised you haven't backed out yet." Christian remarked.

"Well, I've already invited Tasha. She needs to get out of that house of hers." Storm muttered. Christian opened his mouth but Storm glowered at him. "Say another word and I swear I'll kick you out and make you walk to the Marriott." Christian closed his mouth again. "Wise decision."

Storm knocked on Tasha's door. Christian was waiting in the car.

Aunt Jodi answered. She looked at him with contempt. "She's upstairs. Probably hiding in her closet like the infant she is." she directed in a sour tone before walking off into the living room.

"Thank you, Miss Redfern." Storm mumbled politely stepping in, closing the door, and heading up to Tasha's room.

She flinched when he opened the closet door.

He knelt down next to her. "It's okay, it's just me." he assured in a quiet voice. "We don't have to go if you don't feel like it."

Tasha stood up. "Oh, no, I still want to go. I need to get out of this house."

Storm stepped back to allow room for her to step out of the closet.

"You look magnificent." he commented smiling.

Tasha was wearing a velvet royal blue dress that went down to her knees. It had lavish, French designs on the top of the dress, thinning as it went down the middle, stopping at about mid-thigh. It also had the same designs on the small sleeves. Only someone like her could pull off wearing a vintage dress in the 21st century. Her shoes were rose petal-pink (just like her eyes) flats with a rose on the end. Her hair was pulled back into a Bohemian-fishtail braid. The mask she was going to wear was just plain and silver.

Tasha's eyes lit up when he said that.

"Thanks," she muttered biting her lip, blushing slightly.

Storm held out his hand a warm smile on his face. "Come on, we should get going."

Even in stillness she was something to look at. She wore a flattering strapless red dress that stopped just above her knees. The skirt of the dress, which was ruffled, was separated by a red ribbon tied in a bow and put off slightly to her left. It was simple, yet elegant, and made her look older and more mature.

The dress and medium brown, short, curled hair really emphasized her pale skin. And, even in the dim light of the ballroom, her skin was that of ivory and vanilla. Today her eyes were a soft forest green, with an outline of moss green on the outside of her irises. Her long, extravagant legs were stretched out, ankles crossed.

"Fancy meeting you here." a familiar voice said from behind.

The girl turned with a sly smile, her eyes smoky.

"Yes, it sure is." she replied sarcastically, as he walked around the chair.

"What, no stilettos to stab with?" he asked not failing to notice her shoes tonight: black, with an inch-and-a-half, wide heel, and a small satin bow on the tip.

She rolled her eyes. "This isn't exactly the occasion."

"Care to dance?" he asked holding his hand out as the song, "So Close" by Jon Mclaughlin, started to play.

She pursed her lips. "Why not?" She finally agreed, taking his hand.

In one swift movement, he pulled her out of her chair, putting one hand on the small of her back, and held her left hand firmly in his right. She slowly put her free hand on his shoulder.

"Mister Smooth today, are we?" she asked as they twirled onto the dance floor and swayed to the music.

The Reaper merely smiled and said, "You're looking especially stunning tonight." he complimented. "You're hair changed, though."

"Wig." the Vigilante informed.

"Of course, I should've known."

"A fedora to a masquerade? Really? I'm disappointed in you." she continued. He was wearing a different kind from the last night they'd met (his hair was still the same curly, golden-brown).

The Reaper cocked an eyebrow. "You want me to take it off? I'm not hiding anything."

"No, it suits you." she told him grudgingly.

The Reaper smiled. "That's what I thought."

"Can I ask you something?" she spoke after a moment of silence.

"Shoot."

"That night, in the alley… why didn't you kill me?"

When he didn't answer for a while she looked up at him. Today his eyes were a shocking steely gray. They looked deep in thought. But as the time passed and they continued to dance, she figured he hadn't heard her, or just wasn't going to answer that specific question.

He spun her out and when she twirled back in, he held her closer to him; wrapping his arm completely around her waist, and pressing her to him. Her heart rose into her throat where it sat there, thumping, and those weird fuzzy, warm feelings resurfaced as his smoldering gray eyes met her own. She became hyper aware of his strong arm around her waist and how his hand in hers felt… wonderful.

Their faces were so close together any closer and they'd be kissing.

"I'll tell you when I have the answer." he finally told her quietly, his breath blowing into her face, making her dizzy and dazed.

They stared at each other for another moment and she thought for sure they were going to kiss. Thankfully, one of the parents there came up to them.

"Keep it G, you two." he said in a low voice. "There are children here."

She smiled and nodded, looking at him. "Of course."

The song ended.

The Vigilante stepped back, taking control of those emotions and pushing them down. He was a vampire that killed her kind, the kind just-like-her; she couldn't afford to lose it with him. To think what would happen if she did! This was probably how he did kill them. Charming them and gaining their trust before snapping their necks.

"We can't keep doing this." she told him calmly, keeping her eyes frozen over. "The next time we meet one of us isn't leaving alive."

The Reaper stepped forward, took her hand, and kissed the top. "As you wish." he said smiling.

She ripped her hand out of his, gritting her teeth, her hand feeling warm and tingly from his touch.

"If you'll excuse me," she said crisply before turning her heel and walking off. The Reaper chuckled as he watched her go.

Hope you enjoyed! Visuals on my website/Hope Page (link should be at the top of my profile).

.happiness.

~ See you at the Millennium!