Argent Eye II

29

Ronan had landed us just round the corner from the town hall, for obvious reasons. He helped me with my mask, and we made our way.

"My name is Sally, by the way." I said, as we approached the door.

"Sally?" Ronan asked. "You could have picked any name, and you went with Sally?"

"What's wrong with Sally?" I asked, but Ronan had no time to answer as two hurly looking men approached us.

"Do you have any ID with you?" One of them said, looking at both Ronan and I.

"Is this enough of an ID for you?" I asked, holding up a burning fist. For some reason, I imagined the other candidates being quite cocky when it came to this kind of thing. Not sure why. Ellie came across as such.

The men both smiled.

"Very good." One said. "What about you, sir?" He was looking at Ronan.

Ronan smiled politely. "I don't think that will be necessary." He said.

For a second, both of the men's faces relaxed, before returning back to normal again. "Very well." The second man said, and both started leading us inside.

When we walked through the door, we were greeted by waiters holding trays of champagne, and so Ronan and I both took a glass- not necessarily because we wanted to, but to fit in. Everyone else was holding one, after all.

The hall was grand, to say the least. It had black and white chequered floors, and balconies lining either side of the entire entrance, held up by white pillars- the grand staircase leading up to these stood straight ahead of the entryway, and split left and right. The ceiling comprised of three domes, each with a glass circle in the top to let in enough natural light to fill the room during the day. At the moment, the room was lit by huge chandeliers, but it was dim- my guess was so that it would match the masquerade mood, disguising people's masked faces in the darkness even more than they already were.

People were standing with glasses in their hands, talking to other people, with gentle music playing quietly in the background- they would occasionally look up as we walked into the crowd, seeing and probably judging what we were wearing, before delving back into their conversations. Everyone looked really formal, with long gowns and big, fancy masks. All the women were wearing super high heels, like they were in competition amongst themselves of who could wear the highest. The men, all wearing tuxedos and shiny shoes, had their hair gelled back.

The majority of people were young, and I had no doubt that most were students. Those who didn't look like students looked very important, and they looked as if they knew they were important, their noses raised ever so slightly. Not that I'd recognise them if they were famous, what with the masks.

I spotted Ellie at the back, talking to a couple of other girls, although if I could help it, I didn't want to draw her attention. She might not even recognise me with all the makeup and the mask and the dim lighting- I only recognised her because her mask was on a stick, and occasionally she'd pull it away. Her dress was much longer than mine, and was a deep shade of red with rhinestones covering the top half. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled up in a high pony tail, but despite this, it still reached the middle of her back.

I looked up- the balcony was also populated with lots of people, including the one and only Doctor Geralds. He was standing right in the middle, his arms spread on the banister, and was looking over all his guests as they came into the hall. I just hoped he wouldn't recognise me from where he was standing.

"Sally!" I heard the name being called, but it took a second for me to register that I was Sally for tonight.

I turned, and saw Ellie coming towards me, a big grin on her face.