 The portal from the Shadow Realm entrance swirls with blacks and eerie glowing greys and white. It spits you out harshly and the landing sends you to your knees. Your hands hit the cold stone floor and it sends a dizzying shock through you. It is no earthly cold that befalls you and it courses through your blood turning it to ice. You reel and fall back into blackness. A warmth envelops you as you stir beneath a fluffy covering. Your head pounds and your muscles ache from the fall. You cringe at this mortal pain but realize the horrible cold has left you. You open your eyes and sigh in relief when they do not meet a cold, forbidden darkness but a dimly lit room. You sit up, keeping nestled in the black fur caressing you, and look around. The circular room is a small cavern. The dark slate blue stone glows in some unearthly fashion. A thin mist dances from the entrance tunnel and another tunnel off to the East. You sit on a red couch and before you is a glass table held up by bones. You blink to see a similar couch adjacent to yours, also red, supported by bone fragments. On the wall behind you, North of the entrance tunnel at your feet, is a fireplace with a healthy set of flames. A crow clicks its beak at you from atop a skull on the mantle and it beats its wings to extinguish one of the many candles resting around it. Its dark, doll-like eyes seem to laugh at you. You reluctantly turn away to look around the rest of the room. Against the western wall, a bed, hidden behind semi-translucent drapes, rests quietly. Next to it is a mirror and a dresser. By the bed is a nightstand and next to it, a bookcase. You follow the wall it leans against, passing eyes over the fireplace once again, then to another bookcase. Now your eyes rest on that tunnel spewing fragile mist clouds. Something beckons you to it, to enter its abysmal darkness and to find what is hidden behind it. You blink as a figure now sits on the couch before you, you had been staring passed her at that tunnel. She smiles wickedly and you cannot find your voice. She has a porcelain face as white as powder and eyes as dark as night. She's small, delicate and child-like in all respects. Her dark purple lips highlight the vibrant blue streaks in her black eyes. Her hair is the most remarkable thing about her, bright red, cut evenly long with bangs that nearly cover her eyebrows. She smiles, shining her elongated canines and sharp incisors. A vampire?! "Don't act so shocked." Her voice is wise beyond the image of her years. "You may call me Mistress Ombre for that is what they all call me." She bows her head respectfully and her hair dances. With her eyes closed, you notice the deep purple eyeshadow and black eyeliner creating beautiful linear designs around her eyes. She smiles, that child-like innocence disappearing with such a sinister, toothy grin. She's looking up at you, head still bowed, smiling nefariously. "I take it Lady Reaper sent you?" She waits as you take a moment to think before nodding. "She did set me in charge of this place but we do not know for certain who will reside here with me." Mistress Ombre laces her fingers together and rests them on her knees as she sits back. You take a chance at glimpsing her outfit. She wears a black and white striped corset with fur lining and a long, black skirt shredded to the knees leaving long tendrils of material. You can just see her knee-high, leather boots before she clears her throat to direct your attention to her face. Her wild eyes take your breath away as you meet them. "I suppose I should tell you a bit about myself, then?" Mistress Ombre laughs under her breath. "Well, Lady Reaper found me staggering around in broad daylight. She brought me here when I lost consciousness. I had just been bitten or I would have been dead in the sunlight." She stops there with a mischievious glint in her eyes telling you she can say no more publically. You watch her stand and walk over, though she looks like she's floating, to the tunnel you were hypnotised by a moment ago. She signals you over and, without a thought, you do so. Unwittingly, you reach out into the darkness and your hand hits some strange solid gel; it ripples and feels viscous but you can't pass through it. Your eyes widen in panic as the substance begins to creep up your hand and you cannot pull it away. "Didn't your mother ever tell you yo keep your hands to yourself?" Mistress Ombre waves a hand gently over yours and the substance releases you. You rub your hand, cradling it protectively against your chest. "If you wish to see the home of my soon-to-be room mate." Mistress Ombre smiles deviously as she holds out her cupped hands. Floating amidst black light sparkles is a rose bud. It blooms beckoning you to touch it.  Shadow Realm Entrance Lady Reaper |
