Effie - OTA
Her memories were still sharp, britle pin pricks, but Effie was shoving them aside for the moment, intent on enjoying the night. What was coming would come, and she couldn't change it anymore than anyone else. So for tonight...she was simply a girl (abiet a dead one), out to have fun.
She had dressed carefully for the evening, taking into account where and who was hosting the gala, carefully planning her outfit for his tastes. Erik was one for pageantry and elegant gestures, and she would not disappoint. She had selected her dress to echo her time on his stage, a performance piece. While some would simply see it as another trampy, short and tight outfit Enigma would wear, she hoped Erik would see more in it. The tattered, torn dreams that for one moment they had shared, before her own damned pride had gotten between their friendship.
She had spent hours getting ready, carefully lightening her already too pale skin to a parchment white, her lips the only striking bit of colour...along with her hair, both returned fully to a firey red. She had added he correct shadows (well, darkened those that already resided on her face from caring for her father), being careful not to over-do it and cross into the cliche.
She pinned the last curl to her head, a waterfall of cascading curls below it, before sliding a flowered comb into the bunch to hold it in place, standing and fixing her stocking that had twisted. Grabbing her white-grey cloak, she wrapped the thick wool around her body, hurrying to get down to the taxi waiting for her. She would meet her father and Bruce there if they remembered, insead, eager to get on with the night.
As Effie's taxi pulled up to the Opera House, she stared at it with a mixture of longing and sadness. A part of her heart would always call this building home. She was born here...and had died here. And no matter what he thought, Erik did hold a piece of her heart. She paid the cab driver and stepped into the building, allowing one of the clerks to take her cloak, drifting off to follow the music, her eyes closed as she tried to let it sooth her, ignoring Erik's entrance.