Fleur-de-lis

Vanity fair

The picture above is Vanitas

Vanitas's p.o.v.

"Van. Come down stairs for breakfast." My mother calls, disturbing the already thin reality of my dreamscape.

I sit up in my bed and wallow in silent shame. I'd had another wet dream...or nightmare. I didn't know what to call them anymore. All I knew was that in it, I was in a bar, fighting of the advances of a gentleman and he gets pretty aggressive so I leave and he follows me to an alleyway and continues to come on to me. Let's just say that I don't fend him off successfully. What I couldn't seem to understand was why I woke up covered in my own fluid. There was definitely something wrong with me.

"Van?!" My mother shouts again.

"I'm coming!" I call back.

The sheets cling to my thighs as I pull them back. I get out of bed and head to my closet, where you'd never find clothing of mixed fibers no matter how hard you looked. I grab some random clothes and head for the shower.

My name is Vanitas Rogers. I know it's a strange name but my parents named us all for irony. Hoping that we'd turn out to be the opposite of what our names suggested. Kinda like girls named angel or chastity being evil bitches or whores or guys named Christian being atheists.

My name meant Vanity. My parents hoped that I'd care about others and make something of myself. My younger brother was named Azazel but we called him Zel for short. Our parents wanted him to be a man of little sin. Our baby sister was named Wiccan and like our parents wanted, she was very pure of heart. Eve was my younger sister; She was a good judge of character and wasn't one to make foolish decisions. Our oldest sister was Lilith. She was kind hearted and devoted to her husband; Nick.

We all technically had an older sister but our parents disowned her when I was just a kid so I barely remember anything about her. Her name was Grace. Let's just say she was the reason that our parents started naming us after negative things in hopes that we'd be the opposite.

Our family was extremely religious and didn't exactly tolerate anyone who strayed from the path they set for us. I guess we were all the type of people to protest a funeral with signs that said "GOD HATES FAGS" on them. I myself wasn't exactly sure what God hated but I went along with it for fear that I'd be "graced" as we called it.

I finally climb out of the shower and throw on my boring clothes before grabbing the sheets and heading downstairs.

"Good morning, Van." Azazel greets as I come down the steps.

Even though Azazel was my younger brother, you'd never know it because he was taller than me, stronger than me, had a job, a car and was generally the favorite because he was the least troublesome out of the four of us that were still living here.

"What's up." Is all I offer.

"Come on. Is that anyway to greet your little brother?" Zel comments.

I roll my eyes. "Good morning oh brother of mine." I say sarcastically.

"That's better." He approves. "What're doing with those sheets?"

"Washing them." I reply, simply.

"Jeez, again?"

"What? I like clean sheets." It wasn't technically a lie.

Zel just shakes his head as I head to the basement. Once there, I throw my sheets into the wash, splash some washing liquid over them and start the cycle. I go back up stairs and to the kitchen.

"Good morning mom." I say, immediately going for the fridge.

"Morning, Van." She smiles.

Her smile is absolutely gorgeous and bright. You'd never know how scary she was sometimes just by looking at her.

"Ha! Look at this." She says, pointing excitedly at the section of the morning paper that she was reading. "Says here that a man broke into someone's house, stabbed him and his wife to death and then tortured their eighth year old daughter until she died." My mother smiles even brighter than before. "You know that God sent that killer because the mayor signed that bill that lets fags adopt children."

"Yeah, probably." I say haphazardly as I pour myself a glass of orange juice that I got from the fridge. "Where's dad?" I ask, putting the juice back and sitting down to a plate of food that my mother had cooked.

"He's over at Adam's house." She answers. "Speaking of, after your dad gives his sermon we're all going over to their place for dinner tomorrow."

My dad kind of ran a church that we all were apart of called "The Church of Azrael". It was mostly Puritan and somewhat baptist based.

"Oh gosh. John isn't going to be there, is he?" I ask.

"Well of course he is." She confirms.

I just groan and eat my breakfast. Without warning, my baby sister, Wiccan comes bursting into the kitchen, as sprightly as ever.

"Good morning, Van!" She smiles brightly.

"Good morning, brat." I say before putting a fork full of food in my mouth.

Wiccan was only fourteen years old but she and I were still really close despite our age difference. In fact, she and I were more close than anyone in my family.

"Whatever. I'm still the cutest." Wiccan says.

I give a small laugh.

Zel also comes into the kitchen and grabs a breakfast bar from one of the cabinet. "Are we still going to protest that kid that died from cancer's funeral on Monday, mom?" He asks.

"Of course we are." Our mother smiled. "We have to show their family love and support by letting them know that their child is burning in hell, right?"

"Good." Zel nods. "Anyway, I'm off to work." With that he slips out of the kitchen and out of the house.

Wiccan sits down to eat her own plait of food beside me. "Where's Eve?"

"Watching some fag tv show." Mom replies.

"That's basically all that's on tv." I comment.

"Well as long as none of you mimic the behavior of those sinners."

"There's my beautiful family." Dad says as he steps into the kitchen, having come back from Adam's house

"Good morning, dad." Wiccan and I chant.

He goes to give our mother a quick peck on the lips. "Oh. Before I forget. Lilith called. wanted to know if it was appropriate to bring some wine to Adam's tomorrow?"

"Of course." My mother happily permits.

I finish my breakfast. "Hey Wiccan. You wanna play scrabble or something?" I suggest.

"When I'm done eating." She says.

This is our familie's everyday life...here at 7031 NW 7th st, Kamika Kansas, 99905 (fictional).