Masquerade's Mansion of Freaks

Chapter 2: Anticipation for a Guest

Symphony wheezed a little as she continued running and turned a corner that lead to a staircase. Oh she knew she didn't need to keep running, it wasn't like Masquerade was running after her or anything but, she also knew that the quicker things were done the happier Masquerade would be. So she continued running, even as she went up the stairs to July's guest room. Despite the fact that she was in now way used to running, her birds usually got her something that would need her to run. No chance of that happening now.

While she continued running in this giant maze of a house she thought back to how all this had started.

She had been resting in her room, which was on the west end of the house and greatly resembled an atrium or greenhouse, after her performance. It hadn't been long since it ended, she was still in her performance outfit after all. Her performance outfit being a soft pink empire waist dress, which ended at the top of her knees in the front and pooled on the floor in the back, along with a greek style wreath in her hair. She had been sitting on the floor, leaning back onto the fake large oak tree in her room. Symphony's eyes had been closed and she'd been ready to fall asleep, when she heard it.

The sound of wings flapping straight through an open window in her room. She slowly opened her eyes, expecting it to be one of the her birds, coming back from flying around to rest as she was but, it wasn't any of her birds.

It was a crow.

A jet-black crow.

She quietly shrieked as she back away from it, despite already been several feet away from it already.

Before she had ended up in Masquerade's mansion performing, she had always been taught to be superstitious and so she became wary of anything that could be a bad omen.

Taking a deep breath she decided she had to be brave and approach the crow. She got up slowly and carefully started tiptoeing to the black bird. Once she was in front of it she reluctantly knelt down to get a closer look at it.

When she did that, she realized it had been carrying a letter, Symphony didn't know how she hadn't noticed before, the letter was in a normal sized envelope after all. As she tried to take the letter, the crow snapped its beak at her, an attempt to bite her she guessed. She quickly snatched her hand back and fell back onto her butt. She winced at the pain a bit before she fearfully looked at the bird, who seemed to be protecting the letter. Swallowing her fear once again, Symphony got closer again, to at least see who the letter was addressed to.

Her eyes widened when she saw Masquerade's name on it. Not his real name mind you not even she knew what it was, only Marie did. Knowing that if a letter addressed to him didn't reach him just because Symphony was superstitious, he'd be furious.

She brightened up a bit when she realized what she could do. She could sing to the bird to calm it, her voice had a great power afterall. It was something that Masquerade had forbidden her from doing to humans unless it was only to soothe them. He had given her full permission to use it on animals if she pleased and she intended to now.

She begun to sing in the language of her people, a language long forgotten by society. Her lips turned up in a faint smile as she saw the bird being lulled into sleep. As soon as the bird fell asleep, she quickly snatched the letter off the floor and ran out of the room in full sprint, heading toward the direction Masquerade had left.

Now she was running again, though she inwardly celebrated when she saw July's room was only a couple feet away now. After reaching the door, she didn't immediately knock. She was tired and extremely out of breath, she leaned her forehead against the cool door and took deep, wheezing, breaths.

That turned out not to be the best idea, as she squeaked as she felt the door give way. Barely catching herself from falling, she looked up and jumped slightly when she saw July looking down at her with her ocean blue eyes, hidden behind black rimmed glasses, and a soft black eyebrow raised in question.