Off Limits
It was sleek, dark, and utterly unforgiving.
I moved to the vanity. My makeup wouldn't be "pretty." It would be a warning. I spent another three hours on my face, using a palette of deep, bruised violets, charcoal, and metallic gold. I sculpted my cheekbones with a razor-thin precision, creating hollows that looked structural, permanent. I drew my eyeliner in a sharp, extended wing that felt like a blade, turning my emerald eyes into piercing, predatory slits. I finished with a dark, plum-toned lip that looked like it had been stained by something far more permanent than lipstick.
I looked in the mirror. I didn't see the girl who had been stalked in the elevator. I didn't see the girl who ha