• Madame De Bleu

    Prologue

    The Angels of the Night.
    Employees of Madame De Bleu, a place for the Children of the Darkness. During the day, disguised as a small diner on a busy New York street. During the night, a place where the Children could freely devour the souls of the twilight.
    Edward Montesquieu, owner of the diner, wasn't an Angel. He was the Crimson Phantom. His eyes were a dark shade of red, piercing and magnificant. His hair was long, black, and streaked with blue. And he had fallen for one of the Children.
    Her name was Autumn Leif.
    I was her.
    And little did I know that, no matter how safe I felt at Madame De Bleu, I would never again be able to feel the true joy of freedom. I would become a Child of the Darkness, slave to the Underworld and all who resided there, and my artistic writings would mean nothing to them.
    Yes, I would never again feel the joy of my words as my pen flew across fresh pieces of paper. Nor would I ever again get pleasure as my typewriter clicked and clacked, putting all my life's work into paragraphs for the public eye to devour and do with as they pleased. Truth is, I enjoyed their judging me. For good or bad. At least it made me noticed at all. Not like before, when I had been alone and pennyless. When just a simple "hello" was enough to make my spirits soar.
    But I had left that world behind years ago. I was now in the place of mistresses and demons. One very special demon, by the name of Charlie. He, in all his wonders, wanted my love more than his money. However, it eventually become apparent that the reason for this was he loved me for my money.
    When I refused his proposal, he became jealous, certain it was another man that had caused me to not want him. He was, indeed, a vain man. And I rued the day I denied his "gracious proposal", because now that I had fallen in love with another, he would become even more jealous, and want no more than my new infacuation dead.
    Edward,(whom I simply called Eddie), was also a jealous man. Jealous that I, though no longer with Charlie, had once been in love with such a powerful and beautiful man. And though Charlie worked for Eddie, every day of his life from that point on Eddie would feel the need to oblige to all of Charlie's wishes, for he feared daily that Charlie would one day be the one to kill him in his sleep.
    However, I was typically the one to force Charlie away from even speaking to Eddie. Boss or not, I was certain Charlie could do what was needed to be done without being told by the gracious Edward Montesquie.
    It was on the day that Walter Florence arrived to join the Angels of the Night that Charlie Nightengale mysteriously vanished. Weeks later, his dead body was found, heart removed from his very chest. Many other troubling characters were soon to follow, for instance, Richard Crane, killed for robberies that weren't uncovered until his death, and Alexander Michaels, killed for vicious murders, also uncovered until his death. But though these deaths had purpose, was Charlie's jealousy truly to be judged with capital punishment? I thought not. There was something else about Walter. Something mysterious that only Charlie knew. I made it my duty to figure out what, before something terrible happened to everyone residing in Madame De Bleu.
    But Walter would not be the only strange thing to happen in the months ahead. The creatures of the darkness would arise once more; creatures that are said to only be dark things of fairy tales. I was one of the included. But I didn't know that at first. I didn't know that one day I would awake to be someone else entirely. Someone that I couldn't even look in the mirror to see anymore, as I would see only death.