The world is beautiful behind my camera.
And that's because I have complete control from the lighting, focus, coloring, placement, and in some cases, even the people in front of my lens. No monsters, princes, giants, or anything from a fairytale. It's the real world.
Or at least the Human one.
Well, in the world of fashion photography, there are princesses.
The model sat still in a tub with her hair over her right shoulder as her legs hung off the lip of the tub and her dark, vampire red lips parting as if waiting for a kiss. A warm orange light resembling the morning sun came from a large tungsten light hidden behind an open window. High end luxury clothes scattered across the faux hard wood floor. And in the model's hand, she held a small pink perfume bottle.
I could see the billboard now. The model's face plastered in a magazine, asking the reading, What are you waiting for? Luxury perfume by Gucci.
The real world fluttered behind me with Jorge screaming at the lighting people, lighting people carrying heavy equipment and screaming at the production assistants. Agents glaring over at their models as they talk on their cell phones while discussing numbers too and demands for other clients. It's all a juggling act here.
"Anything wrong Ms. Lee?" The model asked me.
Leaning forward with my camera, I focused on her face.
"Look at me as if you were trying to seduce me." The model raised an eyebrow at me. The model's eyes looked down my face, neck, and down my right arm for a moment. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop the scary smirk that came across my face when I wanted to slap a bitch.
"Look, sweet heart-"
"Rose, my name is Rose."
Breathe. I deserved that.
"Pretend you're looking at a girlfriend." The model kept frowning. "Your friends with benefits. Your high school prom date! I don't know, give me something to work with. I can only photoshop so much."
Rose scowled and I snapped a photo.
"I said girlfriend, not your ex."
"You're no ex I've ever had," she said with a sneer.
I rolled my eyes. "I haven't heard that one before. Now work with me or we both get bitched at by our bosses."
Rose relaxed and started looking at the camera with a look that conveyed want and need somewhat convincingly. Her eyes half-lidded. Her mouth opened and her head tilted back. This felt like a parody of ecstasy to me, but what did I know? Leaning back from the camera to get a different angle, I decided this isn't how someone looks at a lover, but this face is what the ad agency wants. This is what people want.
Would that face really work on someone though? I tried swapping out genders in my head. I picture Lowell without his shirt on, whispering how he wanted me. My face burned at the daydream.
"Alright, let's get some photos by the window." I suggested as Rose got up from the tub and stepped down. I went to follow her with my camera when a loud squeak, a yelp, a giggle, and a thud! happened behind me.
I spun around on my heels to find another model sprawled out on the ground, having tripped on some heavy duty cables. Assistants and a manager ran over to her and helped her back up while she clutched at her nose. Blood leaked in-between her fingers.
"Serves her right."
I looked over to see Rose smirking.
"What?" Rose asked me. "She was throwing up in the bathroom. If she's sick," Rose made sure to put sick in quotation marks in the air, "then she shouldn't be here." The right side of my mouth twitched. "Do you really have time for fainting models?"
"I don't have time for ones that don't work with me." I folded my arms over my chest. "Can you find that blue silk kimono? The one Jorge wanted you to wear? The color will look good on you."
"Whatever." Rose said, rolling her eyes and walking away. So dramatic. It should be noted that most of the time, models were nice and sweet. Or at least pretended to be. At least they hide their distaste for my scars.
I sighed and rubbed my temples. A small headache grew little by little at the back of my head. A small chuckle reached my ears. Ah hell. I looked under the tub and with my right, scarred eye, I saw a green, little, naked man. His translucent wings fluttered for a second when he saw me and his double-jointed fingers curled into tiny fists.
The hair on my arm stood up.
"Out," I said.
"What a wee child you are," the pixie said, grinning. What a cheesy accent, I would've laughed if not for the glass black eyes. By the voice, it sounded like a male, but with faeries you can never know.
"Where are you from? Seelie? Unseelie?" I waited a moment before asking, "Nightmare Court?"
"That's awfully specific, me lady."
"Leave," I said. "Now." The faerie jumped at the sudden appearance of an iron pocket knife I always carried. I gave him my maniac grin. The scars pulled at the right side of my face, tightening the skin to a point where I felt the skin my break, but it made me look scary..
"No need to get violent!" He stood on his feet now, jabbing one of his long fingers at me.
"Then leave," I said in a low hiss and watched as he puffed away in a cloud of smoke.
Freakin' faeries.
_____
"Hey Sarah, are you going to the bar tonight?"
"Of course!"
It sounded like the models just got out of the dressing room.
The tapping of high heels echoed in the large studio as I put my stuff in my camera bag. The headache from earlier grew into a full blown migraine that made my brain pulsate whenever I turned my head.
The camera lens always came off first and then the sensor cap went on immediately. Searching through the bag, I counted all of the lenses to make sure I had everything. Everything needed to be perfect because I had that lingerie fashion show tomorrow and I didn't want anything to be screwed with.
"How did the photo shoot go with Scarface?"
They really thought this was an appropriate time to have this conversation?
Couldn't they have come up with a better nickname? Ignore it, I tell myself. The camera body went into the bag.
"I mean... not bad. The magazine seems to like her. You saw her stuff last month, didn't you?" It didn't sound like Rose.
"Yeah, but doesn't mean she's not scary. I mean, have you seen those scars? She looks like something out of a horror movie."
The right side of my face twitches.
I zipped everything into place before throwing the bag over my shoulder.
"Her stuff is good though. She worked with the Seattle rag."
They pay me crap.
"And Jorge really likes her. He talks about her all the time."
He's not bitching about me? That's a first.
"She was also there for the fairytale shoot for Vogue."
"She was just an assistant."
I made sure Jorge didn't use a goddamn werewolf suit in that shoot. Really, that was god's work there.
"She's such a weirdo though. Remember how she threw salt over her shoulder or the time she screamed that everyone needed to get out of the water like the shark from Jaws in there?"
"I mean...."
I patted my back pocket to find my cigarettes. Nicotine, nicotine, nicotine... My brain pulsated as I walked around the corner to actually see the two models. I didn't recognize them. They're eighteen. They don't know better. I put a cigarette in my mouth as I pick up my tripod. The moment I'm out of here I'm going to-
"How does someone like that get a job in this industry?"
Oh screw this.
"Because I'm good at what I do." I said as the two models jumped and looked at me. They both leaned back as I took the cigarette out of my mouth. "Want me to prove it to you? If I use a soft box on you," I pointed to the model on the right, "your lips get all big and puff if it's too bright. And it reveals all those tiny wrinkles you've been trying to hide with botox." I pointed to the model on the left. "I have to use a tungsten light on you a lot because of the fact you look like a damn ghost if I use a florescent light. Both of you look great in shadows and do well in the fairytale themes shoots we've been doing. That's you're both so tall and thin that you two can look beautiful, but also horrifying."
I put the cigarette back in my mouth, smiled, and walked passed them. I wondered how long it would be until Jorge called me.
The elevator took me to the main floor where I exited the glass building. Shit, rain. I knew I should've brought my umbrella. I stopped and lit up the cigarette when I saw my reflection in the glass building.
In the rain, I probably do look like a monster. A half melted one.
I'm standing at five foot with my shoulders hunched a bit. My shoulder length blonde hair is a mess with cowlicks and strands of hair falling out of the bun I made. With my hair pulled back, my scars were exposed. One large jagged scar started from the top of my head on the right side of my face, going over my eye and blinding it. Because of the scar, my right eye had a weird blue murkiness that always unsettled people. The scar continued over my mouth, messing up with the muscles so the right side of my mouth scowled when my mouth relaxed. The scar broke down into multiple lines of ripped healed flesh at my neck and down the rest of my body.
Shaking my head, I looked away and pressed my back to the building as I finished off the cigarette. I need wine, chocolate, and video games. I waited for the rain to lighten up a bit. The rain evacuated the streets except for cars. Even faeries weren't out except for a small frog dressed in a suit, holding a large leaf above him as he walked down the street, singing about tad pools.
"Fly, fly come into my mouth. I hope you came from a rotting corpse," he sang as his webbed feet made a slapping noise against the concrete. He stopped when he saw me and looked up. "You should be careful."
I tried pressing my mouth into a thin line, but my jaw ached.
"How come?"
"Red Caps are running tonight. They're hungry." The frog eyed me up and down. "Look to be about the right size for dinner."
"Does that make you dessert?" I asked before blowing a puff of toxic cigarette smoke at him. He jumped at the smell and ran down the street with his webbed feet making slapping noises.
I sighed. Red Caps are not good. I need to get home before-
Star Wars theme started playing from my phone.
"Lowell?"
"Matty, come down and have a drink with us!"
Oh hell, he's drunk.
"You're drinking?"
"I aced my exam!"
I always forget that Lowell still went to school, studying medicine while I finished my degree two years ago.
"I'm tired. I was shooting for eight hours today." And dealing with drunk people is not what I would call a fun time.
"Babe, I'll get you pizza. I need to see you, babe!"
He's really drunk.
"Lowell..."
"Babe, babe, babe, I'll buy you a drink and we can crash at your place. Ooh, Veronica...!"
He's almost blackout drunk if he's talking to his ex.
"Where are you?"
"The bar outside your place!" Lowell yelled.
"Stay there." I hung up. If there's a god, give me the strength not to kill him.
It was going to be a long fifteen-minute walk. Taxis and other cars drove by, zooming and creating the smear of light that only rainy nights made as I pulled up the hood of my jacket up. People rushed passed me to escape the downpour. Why did he have to do this tonight? Lowell rarely got this drunk. Maybe the stress of medical school finally got to him.
My numb fingers scrap against a brick building, skin breaking on my knuckles when a woman pushed me into it.
"Bitch," I muttered at the red head.
A group of Red Caps ran passed me and down the sidewalk. The grey-skinned goblins ran down the street, chuckling as they revealed their ugly broken teeth. Their axes clanked against the ground. The rain turned blood red when running down their face.
"Crap!" I said. "Get back here, don't you dare!" Their long, grey stringy hair soaked with rain and drenched through their leather clothing. One of them turned their grey eyes to me and scowled as I heard a scream down an alleyway.
Hell.
The Red Caps stared at me for a moment as if deciding what to make of me. I gritted my teeth. Blood dripped down their foreheads. They were only half my size, but they were five of them and looked as if they were made of nothing, but muscle and hard bone. The axes didn't exactly play to my favor either.
"Can you see us, girl?" One of them asked.
"Course I can, now back off or I'll skin you alive with this." I waved the iron knife as one of the goblins ran over to me with his ax. I threw my tripod bag in front of me before pushing the goblin into the ground as the other two goblins growled and lifted their axes. I smashed one of their heads with the end of the tripod while the other goblin punched me hard in the left side of my face.
I fell on my back while they jumped on me as a ringing sound bounced around in my head and blood filled my mouth. I spat blood in one of the Red Cap's faces. He grinned at me as his jaws snapped, but I tossed him off of me and pressed the heavy tripod to his chest and used one hand to hold the iron knife above my head.
The goblins started screaming as the blood dissolved from the red cap. They're dying. They don't have time to fight. They need blood now. Why come out here in the rain? I got up and ignored the screaming of the goblins.
"Leave or I'll finish you," I warned as they ran away. "Go find your blood somewhere else!" I limped over to the redheaded woman who crouched on the ground behind a dumpster. My head felt to heavy for me and the migraine pressed into me so hard that I thought about just sitting next to her until the pain went away.
"What happened?" She whispered.
Can she see them? Or did instinct take over for her? She looked at me with watery eyes. Her red hair plastered to her skull as she shivered.
I grabbed her hand and helped her up as I said, "Nothing."
"Nothing? But those things-"
"Where do you live? I can walk you home," I offered.
She looked at me. Her eyes are a brilliant green. Beautiful. She could've been a model.
"No...No, I'm fine."She stood up, her knees wobbled. She nodded and smiled at me before turning her back to me.
"Hey, you-"
My phone went off again. Another text.
Shit! Lowell! I turned and ran.
________________________________________________________________________________
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
So hi. I guess I should explain a little. Some of you may come back to the story because you read the older version.
The story of Matty never really left. I just got caught up in life and I always wrote, but never really thought anyone would be interested in my writing. I decided to post the series and see what happens. At least the story is out of my head.
If you're reading this because you read the older version, hi! I haven't seen you in awhile. You're probably curious about all the old versions and all the changes. I grew up and change a lot as a person and so Matty did. And looking back on the older version there was a lot of questionable things in it. I decided to change it. Simple as that. Don't worry, I've written the whole series so I'll be posting every Sunday with a new chapter.