Chapter Text
Luminita knew it was too late for her.
Though she knew she was bound to do this ever since Miranda showed up at her doorstep, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was extremely odd; she felt as if she did have a choice but she had just taken the wrong one.
She looked at herself in the mirror, hoping that she didn’t look bad to Mother Miranda. Would the other woman forgive how tired her face looked, how her long blonde hair just seemed to be going in every direction except down, and how her green eyes weren’t the main focus of her face but rather the big rings under them? Luminita wasn’t sure, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
Luminita went around her room one last time, afraid of forgetting anything important, but she was sure that she was bound to forget something considering the size of her bag.
She had taken most of her clothes, a couple of toys, Marcel’s ring, and her mother’s brush that she inherited last year. Before she could check again, a couple of hard knocks on the door interrupted her. She panicked, unsure if everything was in order and extremely hesitant about whether this was the right choice.
She knew she was stalling, delaying the inevitable with Mother Miranda on the other side of the door nonetheless, so she rushed to it, thinking that by how long it took her to open it she should’ve just put a note on her forehead that said that she wanted to be killed right there and then.
"Oh, so you are actually alive." A masked figure stated when Luminita opened the door. It was a golden mask, probably made of pure gold, that resembled a bird of some sort. The edges of it weren’t straight, but rather a series of circles that started above both ears and finished right in the middle of the face. Instead of covering just the main features of it, the mask had an elongated nose that continued until the beginning of the neck. It also had some circled lines that sprung under the eye holes from the mask, which permitted the view of the bottom part of the face of its user.
"Mother Miranda, I am sorry for taking so long I-" She started, only to be silenced by a raised hand from the other woman.
"Enough chatter, child; are you ready or not?" Miranda inquired, annoyance clear in her voice. Luminita only nodded, to which the other woman gave a satisfied smile. "Come on, follow me." With that, Miranda turned around and began walking slowly back towards the center of the village. It took a bit until the blonde woman followed her, but she quickly caught up with her pace, although she kept her distance.
The walk to get outside of the village took less than half an hour, which probably wouldn’t have felt that long if someone had just talked through it.
Luminita was acutely aware of the villagers’ glances towards her, as well as the presence of Miranda; she knew that anything she did would be under scrutiny, so she was glad when they finally got out of it.
She wasn't bothered by the tombstones near the Lord's house, though their proximity to it was a bit surprising. With each step they took farther from the village, the desolated road started to get filled with dolls. Some of them were broken, some fully intact, but most of them had lost their colors due to how long they had been outside.
Luminita only dared to speak once, just as she stepped into an elevator and pressed the button. "Why me?" she asked. It took Miranda by surprise, who looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "Why are you helping me, Mother Miranda?" She forced herself to look into the half covered face of the other woman.
"Do you not want me to help you?" Miranda taunted her, as she wanted to know why she was questioning her.
"I- I- It’s not that I don’t want your help…" She trailed off, gathering her words. "It’s just that I wonder, what do you see in me? Why me? I don’t think I have been extremely devout or that I have done something that earned this. So, why?" Miranda was silent, keeping her hands in front of her body. It took her a while until she could answer.
"I don’t know if you deserve it," She stated once the elevator reached the top. Luminita took her time breathing in the scenery of the big waterfall behind the house. "But I know how you feel, and I know that anybody who does feel like us shouldn’t be facing such a burden alone." The masked woman started walking towards the house once she finished that sentence, leaving Luminita behind. Once again, she rushed to be behind Miranda just as the other woman knocked on the door.
"Sì Donna, vado a scaldare i cannelloni, non rompermi le palle. Ora aspettami, vado a spaventare lo stronzo che ha bussato alla porta e mangiamo, va bene?" A childlike voice was heard on the other side, to which Miranda sighed. Just as the voice stopped talking, Luminita started to feel an intense amount of pressure on her head, as if a hand had posed in it and started squeezing it with all of its might. "Now! Who dares to... Mother Miranda," Although she had heard stories of the infamous Beneviento doll, hearing her speak shocked her.
The doll was made of porcelain that clearly was not holding up well to the passage of time. She was around half a meter tall, and she was dressed in a bridal dress with a long train that followed her. Once she stopped looking at the doll, she realized that the pressure was long gone.
"Hello to you too, Angie. Now go and inform Donna that we’re downstairs." Miranda said as she stepped into the house. She turned around as if expecting that Luminita followed her
"Hi, Angie." Luminita muttered as she followed the masked figure, not daring to look at it just in case. Instead, she focused more on how the entrance looked: white walls that were contrasted by the shades of redwood on the pillars, stairs, and under them. There was a small round table above an olive green carpet accompanied by a rocking chair right in front of the door, and some paintings were hung on the walls at various points. Most of the paintings were actually quite boring to Luminita, she wasn’t an artistic person, but there was one that caught her attention.
Right in the middle of the stairs there was a big, but not excessively so, painting of a woman and a doll that looked a bit too much like the doll that was running through the stairs right now. But the doll wasn’t what caught Luminita’s attention; it was the woman—that imposing woman dressed in a black shirt with probably too many buttons.
She had a milky white skin tone, which made her look like a ghost. Her hair was up in a bun by the looks of it, and while she might look extremely articulate her hair wasn’t, some strands went their own ways. The woman also had slightly thin eyebrows that complimented her almond-shaped brown eyes, which danced between gloomy and vengeful. Her nose was slightly shaped downward, and her lips looked plump but small. She was beautiful; everybody could see it, but Luminita’s focus was still on the woman's emotions. If she were to describe her, she would say that she looked disappointed, angry at times, but mostly restrained, waiting for the right moment to strike. It was safe to say that the portrait was probably of Lady Beneviento herself.
Almost as if Luminita had summoned her, the woman presented herself with Angie in her hands while going down the stairs. Unlike the painting, she was covered from head to toe; she had a long black gown that almost reached the floor, which also covered her arms, and a black veil that was not see-through.
Luminita glanced at Miranda, trying to avoid the master of the house’s looks, she knew that it was obvious she had been entranced by that portrait. Miranda had that confident smile on her face.
“Good morning, Donna. I have some news for you.” She said to Lady Beneviento while she was walking down the stairs. When the lady got down she stayed still at the bottom of the stairs, probably looking at Luminita. “There is something we need to discuss… privately.” Miranda looked at Luminita and kept her gaze. “Angie, would you like to show the house to Miss Ionescu over here while we discuss the matter at hand?” The doll didn’t answer, she just got down from her master’s hand and grabbed Luminita’s, pulling her away from both of them. “We’ll probably be done in about an hour or so, got it?” Without waiting for a response, she just walked through the door under the stairs. Lady Beneviento stayed still for a bit, and with a barely audible sigh she followed her.
For the first twenty minutes that they interacted, Angie was rather worried for her friend, or rather her master? Luminita wasn’t sure, but luckily the woman was able to distract the doll by asking her if she could show her the house. They spoke about shallow things: what was Miss Ionescu’s name, what color did she like, the rather sore subject of her having a boyfriend, and if she liked to play cards, which was what they were currently doing, playing cards in the kitchen.
"Damn goldilocks, you’re actually bad at this; I thought you were letting me win." The blonde woman probably shouldn’t have taken the game seriously, but it was difficult when this was the seventh game in a row she was losing; it was also hard not to when Angie really enjoyed thrash-talking.
"Well, maybe if cardboard Pinocchio actually taught me how to play this shitty game instead of just making her own rules, it would be much different." Luminita said while shuffling the cards. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that she realized what she had said and to whom she had said it. She fearfully looked up from the cards and found the doll with her mouth wide open. It was actually weird to see something not human be so expressive. Another few seconds passed until Angie started laughing. The sound was rather demonic and disturbing, but somehow it made Luminita start giggling herself before fully laughing.
“You’re fun goldilocks, it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a game of briscola. Donna doesn’t leave her studio anymore.” Before the woman could ask about either her or the Lady, the door behind her opened, which made her stand up immediately.
Once she stood up, she had a clear vision of Mother Miranda, now without the mask and with a slight grimace on her face in disgust; probably related to the fact that her discussion with Lady Beneviento had taken almost two hours. Without the mask on her face it was easy for Luminita to see that Mother Miranda was, in fact, really beautiful despite her clear appreciation for strong dark shadows in her eyes.
“Well, Donna and I have… spoken in regards to Miss Ionescu’s situation.” The woman started, garnering everyone’s attention. She took a dramatic pause where she looked at all of them, building suspense in Luminita and the doll, but she spoke only to the woman. “We have decided to let you live here for a year as a trial, Lady Beneviento will keep track of you and she will decide whether you stay here or you meet an… unpleasant fate. You’ll be in charge of everything she needs, if she tells you to. But now,” Miranda put on her mask and started walking towards the door. “I have to leave, I have some urgent matters to attend to and I am already late. Do not disappoint me.” And with that she left, leaving the three in a rather uncomfortable silence.