Chapter I

The chandelier stirring, Rose tiptoes out of her room and under the baby dawn. Its light warm on her eyes, nourishing to her hair, she slides past Akuma (sleeping on the sofa with a blanket hugging him) and Sao (slouched with his eyes closed on one of the chairs). She reaches the bathroom door and opens it, gently lowering the handle to silent the click as she slips inside the space.

Her hand fidgets by the door, feeling her fingers around the switch, turning on the light where a chrome bath with rose gold petalled around the edges in sprinkles. Through them she trails her fingertips forming a meandering river. She follows the river to the tap, which she twists letting down a steaming waterfall. She lifts her feet from the grating drains over the bath and her river into the boiling water, jolting back her leg as she blocks a scream at her mouth. Seating down on the edge, smudging her river into a marsh, she inspects the bottom of her feet, the marks of the drain faint as red diamonds on her golden skin. On her hand her foot feels rougher than it used to, canyons formed from a prairie. She turns on the icy water and waits.

The light feels dark.

Realising she had forgotten she locks the door and leans up against it. She closes her eyes, but the light feels brighter – when she opens them it feels dark again.

Sleep stays in the corner of her eyes. Clamping the bridge of her nose between her fingers, she draws out the sleep. Yellow lumps – they revolt her. She paces to the sink and washes away the sleep.

Dryness irritates her eyes. She rubs them sore, running water over her fingers and rubbing her eyes again. Droplets trickle down the side of her cheeks but her reflection in the mirror harshens her glare. The more it harshens the more the reflections blurs. It smudges and softens until she sees herself once more, except the reflection is of a young girl, eight or nine, looking back, cursing behind its smile. The image blurs again, and when it returns it's her father banging his fists on the mirror with eyebrows like arrows, their poison dripping beside his nose in clear droplets. Rose spectates unresponsive to the mirror's torments. The mirror blurs again and again, revealing a new old face, from her butler and maids to the faces she would see in the village, but with each one their faces become blander, missing specific details, and towards the end, faces appeared with no nose, no mouth, no eyes, until a final face is shown. It's empty: skin grey without any facial features. Assuming it to be mocking her, Rose looks deeper, trying to piece together a face, but dirt begins to fill the mirror, sounds of horse wailing, wood cracking, meat gushing and bones crunching. Rose panics backwards, tripping her knee on the toilet and thumping to the ground. Her vision dances to jazz and the mirror shatters, the figure crawling out as dirt falls from their shoulders. Its limbs wrench: the elbows and flat chest point towards Rose while its knees and face point away; its back begins to crack and it snaps backwards, its empty face locked on Rose. It resets itself, everything facing where it should and the signs of stretching disappearing. Then, after staring for a moment, it takes a step forward. Then, it takes another. Then another. Another. Right foot, left foot. Right foot, left foot. Right. Left. Right. Left. Then it stumbles, gathering itself – Rose left frozen, clinging to the bath – before resuming its walk.

As it nears Rose backs herself further into the corner between the wall and the bath. The kicking of her legs edges her way further up the wall as it reaches out its hand to Rose's cheek. Jolting her head away, Rose falls into the water, now freezing, throwing her head upwards heaving for breath, eyes shot open, water trickling down her face. Spiralling back, it's gone. The mirror is fixed, and the floor is clean. The water tumbles over the sides of the bath and washes itself down the drain.

Still in her nightgown, Rose crawls out the bath and takes it off, wrapping a blue towel around her and turning off the taps.

Knock. Knock.

"Are you okay in there?" Sao asks.

"I'm fine," answers Rose. "I'll be out in a minute."

Rose pulls the plug on the bath, picks up her nightgown, bursts open the door and rushes to her room.