Victoria sighed as she overheard the petty conversations on who had the fanciest new trinket or invention, when none of that even mattered. It was trivial in comparison to losing a loved one. These same people had been at Alex’s funeral. Expressing their words of ‘comfort’ such as ‘it’s such a great loss’ and ‘he was a good man’. But none of them really knew him, not like she did. She wandered off, in her own little world, 

As she stared at the painting of her father, mother and herself at the age of twelve just after her accident, to commemorate her life just in case it happened again. She felt a shoulder collide with hers. She almost jumped out of her skin, she should have paid more attention.

“Oh! It’s entirely my fault.” She spun around as he apologised to her. “I should have looked where I was going…” She admitted to her fault modestly. As he said what a lovely party it was, she merely winced at his comment. Sure it was, she was just sick of the fallacy that came with them. She was about to dismiss his next words automatically out of habit when he mentioned how brave he thought she was to attend this party in light of her father’s death. This was the first genuine comment she’d heard for months. Someone who actually understood the grief process. And someone bold enough to say such a thing, which he quickly rectified with another apology and told her to forget what he just said.

“No don’t go, it’s quite alright”. She placed her hand on his lower arm to stop him from moving away from her. “That’s the first time anyone’s actually said what they think rather than what they think I want to hear. It’s…refreshing. To say the least.” She half chuckled in relief. She then offered out her hand. “Victoria Crest. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of making your acquaintance before. Did you know my father?” She assumed he must know of him at least. She gave him a genuine smile as her violet blue eyes sparkled behind the golden mask. Eyes of curiosity, eyes that hid a smart woman beneath the beauty. Intelligent women were underappreciated in this day and age, and a rarity to find due to being told they had no place to speak among the men. Victoria was quite well red for her age, had private tutelage and fencing lessons with her father. Lately she had been raiding his study that held all the secrets to hunting vampires.