Gray Descent
Prologue – April 8, 1993 – Camille
“Cami?” The sturdy knock on my bedroom door was followed by that voice. My brother Reed, said first-born son and the only person I would think to talk to in my current state, sprawled out on my bed with a tear-soaked pillow.
My fingers trembled as I roughly wiped the remaining tears from the corners.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the vanity mirror, and the embarrassment hit full force.
Green eyes, tinged red from my humiliating sobs.
My thick, dark hair was matted in spots and sticking up in others, likely from pressing my face into the pink silk pillow for the last fifteen minutes.
My face was always pale, but my flushed cheeks from the uncontrollable tears made my freckles stand out like a Fourth of July night.
“Cami, can I please come in?” Reed pleaded from the other side of the door.
I sniffled, slapping my cheeks lightly with both hands before shuffling from my bed to the door. My arms moved before my thoughts as I turned the doorknob, and Reed nearly fell forward into my arms.
Reed. My “Irish twin,” born only nine months before me.
We could’ve passed for twins, aside from his clear complexion compared to my freckles.
His hair was always perfectly set, slicked back from his forehead as if he were red-carpet ready any given day of the week.
Polished. The perfect heartthrob when we were in school together.
He thrived on attention, and everyone knew about his various flings.
Brushed under the rug, yet I would be publicly hung if I dared.
My brother straightened his back as he welcomed himself into my room, taking the door from my frozen grasp and shutting it quietly behind him. He was at least six inches taller than me, and compared to my slouched form, he appeared even taller.
I couldn’t meet his eyes as I tried to busy myself with the task of straightening my hair out in the vanity mirror. Reed watched with bated breath as I awkwardly picked up my hairbrush and ran it through my hair until our eyes met in the mirror.
“Let me.” He held his hand out for the hairbrush.
My eyes slowly moved from his warm gaze and subtle, movie-star grin to his outstretched arm before I dropped the hairbrush into his open palm.
He closed the gap, putting one hand on my shoulder as we looked at ourselves in the mirror.
Southern aristocracy, but with our dark hair against ivory skin, we were more like closeted vampiric royalty.
Or porcelain dolls in a glass case. Less like the sun-kissed locals of our quaint Mississippi town.
That’s all I’d be, a porcelain doll in a glass case with the Chambers name.
From a young age, I knew my purpose was to sit still and look pretty.
Seeing myself like that in the mirror… it wasn’t exactly what my parents would consider acceptable, and I would need to compose myself before facing them again.
“Sit down,” he murmured. “I’ll take care of you.”
Comforting. I hoped my nose wasn’t leaking as I choked back my tears, and I found myself reaching for my discarded handkerchief and blowing my nose before sitting in the vanity chair.
Reed’s hands were gentle as he separated sections of my hair and began to stroke out the knots and mats from my pathetic tantrum.
“Are you going to tell me what they said?” Reed asked, the question lingering between us despite his focus on smoothing my hair.
“As if you don’t already know.” I choked on my words, letting them come out in a gritty whisper to prevent the tears from pouring again.
“I knew they would never approve,” Reed confirmed, fingering a section of my hair between his long fingers before brushing it down again. “But other than that… no.”
I huffed. If anyone else saw me like this, I would be mortified. But Reed was my best friend. My knight in shining armor. My confidante. A beacon of light in the storm. He always had been.
“Aaron Bennet isn’t ‘noble’ enough to court for prom,” I muttered, holding back the defiance in my spit as I remembered the interaction with my parents.
Reed’s lips twitched, causing the dimple in the right corner of his lip to deepen, as if he found my response comical, but not enough to make me feel worse about it. “Well, he doesn’t have a father… and his mother is a bank teller. That’s scandalous, Camille Elizabeth Chambers.”
I couldn’t fight my own lip from twitching in response as I watched him in the mirror.
Fingers smoothing down my hair, brush following gently.
He was right. Maybe it was a slight rebellion to ask if I could go to prom with Aaron.
He wasn’t part of “The Circle” my parents were in.
I’m not sure what came over me to ask in the first place, knowing their distaste for the status of half my peers.
Reed finished brushing my hair before his hands came up to move another strand from my temples, returning it to the back of my head. His light sage gaze lingered on mine again in the mirror as his fingers grazed the side of my face. Soft, warm.
My lips parted to say more, but I quickly closed my mouth as his eyes turned vacant and his fingers continued stroking my cheek. I shuddered, the voice in the back of my head warning me that something was off.
“Do you want ribbons?” he finally asked, breaking the distant look as his hand came down to my shoulder again.
“That sounds great,” I responded, forcing my smile as my brother reached for the drawer and pulled out a handful of green ribbons to tie into my hair.
“I wouldn’t have taken ‘no’ for an answer,” he chuckled as he began to tie the bows into my now-silky soft hair.
My smile faded as I continued to watch his actions in the mirror. Reed always loved playing with my hair, but this time it was… sensual. He rubbed a few pieces between his fingers before knotting the ribbons, almost in slow motion.
This was fine, right? We always did this. It was my imagination making me think this time was any different. He was being brotherly. Reed adored me, and I adored him. My brother was the only one who would somewhat understand my sulking brought on by our parents’ most recent rejection.
But… I didn’t know then that the voice in my head might hold some merit. Or that he would one day become my worst nightmare.