you're too young & eager to love

I have to decided to read Rice's Vampire Chronicles again. So, starting with Interview, I felt inspired to write a Claudia-based snippet. It's nice to remember why I love these characters, this series. Also, I love snippets. They allow you to write as little as you like, relieving any potential pressure.

I, apparently, love parenthesizes too.

And vampires.

--


There was something soft in her still.

A smell of violets and crushed chrysanthemums.

The way she moved her small hands was unnerving. Cunning and elegant, like an adult. Lestat loved those hands and the startling amount of strength they possessed; Louis was troubled by them until, before the death-like sleep claimed them like lovers, she would curl her fingers around the ends of his hair. Thirty years, and she still persisted in that affectionate claiming. In his adoration, Louis could never understand (he was always one to be blindsided).

He watched her (velvet and damask dresses, lace details that Louis shaped into bows), had heels fashioned in every color she desired delivered at dusk (so small, her white feet. Whiter than the chaste silk stockings they, as fathers, preferred her to wear). And he did not noticed when her bemused allowance turned to boredom to disdain. Now, she brushed her hair, more golden than saffron, and contemplated the complexity of her reflection. Her eyes betrayed her, revealed the struggle she fought within, but Lestat would say something charming, something devilishly tempting, and Claudia would smile. Laugh with her tinkling, silver bell of a voice. Like a mourning widow, she hid her trouble behind a veil.

The monstrosity of being her.