Path of the Vampire forum

Emerson was busy swirling the color out of her brushes when Robin started to speak, and thus, she hadn’t caught the first part of getting Maddison for help. The brunette started grabbing everything she would need for makeup. To achieve the look of a fawn, she’d stick to earthy, cool colors and feathery strokes. “Oh, ‘course. Welcome,” she said to the male with a smile. Doing his makeup was nothing out of her way, and it was fun, so she obviously didn’t mind. And it meant that Maddison wasn’t going to have to be paying for someone else to do the job. A win-win-win situation. Soon after, she noticed Robin leave the kitchen. She dug around a bit before pulling out a small mirror that was propped up on the table. Her reflection was shown in it as her appearance was seen in the eyes others. A gift, a power, a convenience - whatever someone wanted to call it, Emerson had it, and she was thankful for it. She knew other vampires weren’t as fortunate, as she was herself until she pushed through to finally find herself as she truly was in what stared back at her in the mirror. A fluffy brush was swiped with cool brown toned powder and swept across her cheeks, the sides of her temples and her nose, and just beneath her brows.

The girl was not much of an eavesdropper, but she couldn’t help tuning into the conversation between Robin and Maddison when her name was mentioned. She didn’t catch much and figured that Robin was telling the blonde that Emerson would need her help, although she was in quite the opposite boat, busy with using a brown pencil to draw on a deer nose. She looked up just in time to see Maddison entering the kitchen and offered her friend a smile. “Silly goose, that boy of yours is,” she giggled, turning back to her mirror. The white cream paint she had used on Robin only moments before was applied in small ovals across her cheeks. “Can see me perfectly fine,” she explained. However, if Maddison were to step in the view of the mirror, she herself would’ve seen how the brunette’s reflection should have looked on the reflective surface - a rotting, disgusting corpse. “M’okay. No help. In fact-” After a few touch ups here and there, Emerson was satisfied with the completed makeup. “All set. Looks good?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.

Rising from her seat, Emerson tidied up her space as best she could. With her costume completed, she was more than ready to go. Maddison’s excitement made her smile grow, and she followed the pair out the door. She ended up a few steps behind them, however, having to pause at the door to reach down into the bag she had brought. Her fingers found the handle of a slightly smaller white cloth bag, decorated with cute little spiders, witch hats, and ghosts. She’d bought it with the intention of using it to collect candy. With her height, costume, bag, and forever youthful personality, Emerson could easily be mistaken as just another child going out and about on her Halloween.

The air was cold, the brunette had to admit, but it didn’t bother her much. She was too excited and felt too cute to let it. There was no use in complaining because she was the one who had forgotten to bring a jacket, making it her own fault. “Me too.” Emerson agreed with Maddison with the nod of her head. “But it goes by too fast. Winter is coming,” she said, scuffing one of the fallen leaves. She just so happened to be one of the people that obsessed over Halloween for the entire month of October, and by the time November first came around, her mind was in total winter-holiday mode. Shrugging her shoulders, green eyes looked about. The streets weren’t packed, but you could tell what day of the year it was. "Here's good,” she agreed again, picking out a house with its outside light on and door open as candy was given out to the other trick-or-treaters. That would be the first one, she decided. Easily slipping past the couple, Emerson set out for it, a slight skip in her step. “C’mon, c'mon!” she giggled over her shoulder.

Emerson was well aware that from time to time, if not all the time, she acted much younger than what she really was. She’d be turning nineteen in the next couple of months, making her not that far off from actually being a child, but her behavior and personality greatly differed from that of those her age. While many nineteen-year-olds were off in college, either studying hard or attending a late night party, Emerson preferred to be at a park, threading flowers together into a crown and running through the trees, her laughter carried in the wind. A lot of people couldn’t understand that and brushed it off as her having something or another wrong, but wasn’t it oh so very right? To want to be happy and young and free, without a care in the world?

The brunette arrived at the house first, just behind a few younger children that scurried away from her with excited chatter. Her bag was held out expectantly to a tired-looking middle-aged woman, who managed to smile at the sight of her. “Trick or treat!” Emerson said. There was a pause, as if the woman was going to refuse, but then she reached into a large bowl and dropped the handful of chocolates and caramels into Emerson’s bag.

“Cute costume,” the woman said, retracting her hand. “Don’t see many of those anymore.”

“Oh, thank you. Happy Halloween!” Just as she was about to turn away and look for her pair of friends, Maddison’s familiar voice could be heard. Stepping out of the way, the girl watched as the blonde was also given some candies after saying a silly little jingle. She followed behind to get off the porch and start for the next house, but all of a sudden, she heard Maddison swear. The few parents that were out that night looked over with not so happy looks on their faces and hurried their children away. Frowning, Emerson complied to Maddison, who was waving her over, and tried to figure out the problem.

It didn’t take much to figure it out. By peering at Robin’s face for no more than a few seconds, Emerson could see right away that his eyes were swollen, and they were swollen badly. His makeup had been smudged, but that didn’t matter. This was her fault. It had to have been. His eyes were perfectly fine before she had done anything to them. She’d used clean brushes and new makeup that was safe for around the eyes. Where could she have gone wrong?

“I dunno,” she mumbled, shaking her head. “I thought… This didn’t happen to me. When I tried it.” Then again, everyone’s skin type was different. Everyone’s skin could react differently. “I dunno, I dunno,” she repeated, voice quieter. “I left makeup wipes back at the house.” That was the only thing Emerson could think of doing. Get all the makeup off, wash his eyes out with cool water, and wait and hope that everything worked itself out. And not go trick or treating. She didn’t deserve that if she were to ruin it. “M’sorry.”

“I know,” Emerson sighed. It wasn’t her fault, really, but it felt like it was. “I just feel bad about the whole thing. Like, it didn’t happen until after I put all the makeup on, y’know?” Avoiding her headband, she threaded her fingers through her hair. A habit - and a nervous one, at that. “I dunno what to do,” she repeated, “but if you think you’ll be okay, we can keep going.” She nodded her head at Maddison’s suggestion. Although she was concerned for Robin’s well-being, which was expressed through a quick once over of his swollen face, the excitement that bubbled in her entire being about going from house to house in the tradition of collecting candy was only temporarily extinguished by the minor setback. (And besides - she didn’t know how to exactly handle allergic reactions. The only thing she knew she was allergic to, as a human, at least, were felines, and that was cured quickly with some medication. That’s all that she remembered). Before she knew it, the girl was being dragged alongside Robin by Maddison to the next house.

Smile on her face, Emerson followed up onto the porch beside the tall blonde. She held out her bag expectantly as the door was opened, lips parting to properly ask for her treats, but was cut off before she could even begin. If Maddison was angry, Emerson was furious. Her brows scrunched, and her smile contorted into a tight line. The young girl didn’t hate much in the world, but if she could pick something, people with zero respect for others would be at the top of her list, especially if people were disrespecting those that she cared about. Emerson would take the disgusting comments if that’s where they were thrown, probably able to get over them after allowing herself to be upset for a bit, but since Maddison had to deal with them, the whole thing was unacceptable. Fingers curled tightly around the handle of her candy-collecting bag.

]“Hey,” she interjected, stepping around her friend as if to block her from any further blows. The male was much bigger than her, but she could care less. “Watch your mouth, yeah?”

Wherever that came from was beyond Emerson. She stood her ground as the boy, not much older than her, ducked down to be more in height with her, clearly to mock her, and laughed in her face. “Gonna go cry to your mommy about it?” he jeered, putting the bucket of candy back on the small table in the safety of his home. Once again, Emerson could care less. She didn’t want candy from him. From anyone like him.

If Emerson got any blood on her, it was in the smallest of amounts, barely-noticeable flecks littering the exposed skin of her arms and narrowly missing the white fabric of her dress for the night. That didn’t, however, make it any less disgusting, and she took a step away from the situation, just barely avoiding knocking into Maddison in the process. The girl was in a state of what she could only pinpoint as shock as the scene unfolded before her eyes. She couldn’t quite process what was happening until Robin was being sent to the ground. Emerson’s anger slipped away, along with the short-lived confidence the accompanied it. She heard Maddison yelling, and was more concerned with how angry the blonde’s tone was than her words or who they were directed at. There was no real reason for Emerson to want to curl up into herself, but she did just that, taking another step further away from the situation.

Home. Emerson bit the inside of her cheek lightly to keep from pouting and nodded her head. Going home meant not going trick-or-treating. Emerson had really ruined everything after all, hadn’t she? If she hadn’t done Robin’s makeup, he wouldn’t have had the bad reaction. If she hadn’t tried to stick up for Maddison and instead pulled the blonde and the boyfriend to a different house, Robin wouldn’t currently be lying on the ground, coughing up blood. And Maddison wouldn’t be angry.

Angry. Blood. Emerson wasn’t sure why the whole thing was bothering her so much. She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t bring herself to go over and help Maddison direct Robin home as she had been told and wanted to do. All she could do was continue to tightly clutch her bag and look from the closed door to Maddison to Robin and then back again. It took a few moments and a few shallow breaths before the brunette was able to collect herself enough to move closer and help. “Okay,” she mumbled, practically forcing her fingers to release from their small fists. The bag fell to rest in the crook of her elbow as she reached for the male’s free arm. “Okay,” she repeated, quieter, half in attempt to tell herself that everything really was okay, and half in attempt to agree with what she had to do.