look me in the eyes; a Lady Dimitrescu & Daughters short-fic
Summary: Alcina Dimitrescu’s eyes have always been perceived as cold and terrifying. What happens when her bug-spawn daughters look at them for the first time?
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Before the Cadou experiment, Alcina Dimitrescu had beautiful yet terrifying eyes. Just like a gorgon’s, in fact. One glare could petrify the bravest —or most insolent, to her there was no difference between the two— of men right on the spot. They’re cold as ice, some whispered, just like her heart.
But then pale blue turned into vibrant gold. The petrifying effect of her glare grew tenfold. Only a bunch of reckless fools, bounty-hunters, and businessmen with an overly inflated ego, dared to look her in the eye… They all cowered in fear before her, though, rivulets of sweat running down their terrified faces.
Mother Miranda and her fellow Lords didn’t crumble in fear, though… But then again, the self-proclaimed matriarch never really looked at her, but past her, and her siblings were much too damaged to feel fear again.
Her maidens, especially the younger ones, refused to meet her eye. Alcina could smell their terror from a mile away. And though the older ones had grown immune to her glare, her existence felt…
Lonely.
Alcina was surrounded by cowering women, damaged children playing lords, and the cause of it all… a woman who couldn’t care less about them.
One evening, when the loneliness was at its peak and threatening to devour her whole, she found Mother Miranda in one of her bedrooms. Three young-looking women laid beside her, blissfully unaware of the Cadou twitching and forcing its way inside their temples.
“They’re useless to me,” Mother Miranda had said, eyes cold and unforgiving. “Their potential is favorable, yet their mental illnesses are nothing but an impediment to our cause. I don’t have the time to play psychologist with them. I trust you’ll keep them under observation until the treatment is over. They’re yours now.”
Alcina knew an order when she heard one. Being on the receiving end, however, certainly wasn’t her cup of tea.
When did I become a slave to that woman’s whims?
Finally, after six days of tending to the bodies —if one could call the writhing, human-shaped swarms of flies that— with endless care and… some minuscule amount of frustration that had definitely not almost driven her up the castle’s walls… the women resurfaced from the insects and awoke one by one.
First the blonde, a nervous little thing that examined her surroundings warily.
Then the brunette, who had growled and hissed at the light seeping through the curtains.
And the redhead, at last, a happy squeal dancing off her upturned lips upon seeing the other two girls.
Were they friends in their prior life? Alcina thought, enthralled. Or perhaps sisters? Would this make me their mother?
That word alone made her feel all tingly.
When the girls looked at her, curiosity and innocence sparkling bright within those doe eyes of theirs, Alcina felt it. A mother-daughter bond that couldn’t be severed by any means possible. Her heart soared at the thought, at the sensation.
“Pretty…” the youngest one murmured, her voice a quiet rasp, as she looked pointedly at Alcina’s famously frightening eyes. The other two nodded their agreement, their lips curving into wide smiles.
Her heart soared again.
As she decided their names, Alcina noticed something special about them.
Her daughters seemed to have special eyes too.
The blonde one, Bela, was missing one. Somehow, the girl didn’t seem to care. Almost as if she was used to… to its absence. The other was a vibrant golden that nearly took Alcina’s breath away… It was just like hers.
The brunette one, Cassandra, had a lazy eye. Her right eyelid dangled slightly, even when her eyes widened as far as they could. Just like her sister, her irises were that rich and vibrant golden hue that resembled Alcina’s own.
The redhead one, Daniela, had… What was the term again? Heterochromia? Yes, that sounded right. One eye was a lighter shade of amber, still lively enough to warm up her whole face, while the other one was a darker tonality.
Alcina smiled lovingly at her daughters.
Her precious, unique daughters with their heartwarming smiles, their excited “Mother, Mother!”s, and their beautiful eyes.