"Oh, I think we shall have fun." The unblinking, lacquered figure of the doll peered down, an impossible smile carved into her facade. The black and red, form fitting dress and jacket showed the perfect figure into which she had been shaped, lacking the sorts of wrinkles that one would see when draped over a softer body. Her chest did not rise nor fall, nor did her form change ever from fidgets of tedium or discomfort--stood perfectly, a model of beauty from every angle.
Her head cocked slightly to the side, an answer expected of her guest.
Cindy's eyes flitted up to peer into the doll's glass stare, the smile holding ungiving as the eyes glinted with some sort of cold fire. "...y...Yes, Mistress...." She tried to hold the gaze but could not, quickly dropping her head back down to the mistress' waist, the finely chiseled white fingers there weaved together, palms resting on the hard belly, elbows out to the side.
"What would you like to wear?" Mistress Arlecchina's head moved back the center, taking in each fumbling movement and hesitation of her new student.
"...what?"
"To shop in, dear. Come tell me. We have everything here, and..." Arlecchina's chin lowered to peer at her coquettishly from under the doll's lashes, "you are never allowed to be shy about making yourself the little papillon, glistening in the dark."
"Um...eh?" The blond girl's eyebrows pushed together, trying to press her thoughts through the glittered fog which she had been in since the white limousine had appeared, black-garbed figures bearing draped masks lined before it, leading her to the mansion in the middle of the city that morning. Futile? "Um...papy-own?"
"A butterfly." The strange figure of the--surely masked--woman spread her painted fingers in the air over her shoulders like one spreading a bamboo fan. Shaking her head slowly, chin still lowered near to her neck, Arlecchina continued, "And I don't think you would want me to decide for you my dear. Come, let's see your wardrobe."
Turning on a healed boot, the tall, lithe figure strolled across the hard wood floor of the room, entering and leaving the shadow with each click of her heals, a faint light coming in through the magnificent tinted windows covering one wall--the city showing behind the black forms of pinnacled trees. Cindy found herself following just behind, her body moving as though in a trance, lowering her gaze further as one of the black figures opened the heavy wooden door leading to a hallway, letting them pass further into the strange dwelling.
The halls curved as they walked down them, obscuring ones vision so that she did not notice the inset doorways and windows lining the corridor until it was almost past. Darting her eyes from side to side without turning her head, the girl tried to catch sight of the goings-ons in the rooms that showed through the small sheets of glass, the dwellers inside, below, on a different floor so that she could only see their heads. And each glimpse she caught--imperfectly seen--would change from colorfully delighting her to being dark and macabre, though enticing still the same....
A door opened before them and the mistress glided inside, Cindy one step behind, seeing only the dark boots of the person who held the way open for them to pass.
"Raise your eyes." The doll turned on a heel to again face the young woman.
Surrounding them were racks upon racks of clothing, hanging, of all colors and patterns, glistening and fluttering in a breeze that was not there, beckoning her to take and cover her body with it. She gulped, eyes flitting to the doll's, fearing them, and looking back to the floor.
Suddenly, she felt her head being held, thick black fingers pressed up under her ear, a thumb on the other side--an inflamed heat pulsing below her jaw and along the back of her neck. From the corners of her vision she could see veins pulsing along the side of the massive fingers. The dark figure behind her rocked slightly, his shoulders shaking--tensed in restraint against some driving force within. She could feel him like a black smoke burning as a shadow behind her.
Teeth clenched, jaws shivering, she finally met the eyes of the wooden figure before her, panicked desperation filling her face, begging the woman to do...something. To save her from the black shadow.
"That clothing won't do here, I'm afraid." She mistress of the manor shrugged, turning her attention to a row of clothing, running her fingers along the fabric.