Page 34 of The Agreement

Karine, out of bed now and positioned in front of Masha who was slowly helping her out of her clothes and into the lace dress, mumbled back a non-reply under her breath. She hoped the woman was too distracted to sense how her cheeks blushed in response to the compliment even if she wanted to also act like it didn’t exist in the first place.

She never knew how to react to something like that.

Compliments ...

Attention.

Affection?

“And this will make you look even more beautiful,” Masha continued. “The color compliments your skin and hair—and those eyes.”

Karine blinked up, meeting the gaze of her caretaker through the sweeping veil of her inky lashes. “What about my eyes?”

“The prettiest blue.”

“The sky is pretty. So is the ocean.”

And both were blue.

Karine didn’t think she was anymore spectacular or amazing than those things—and certainly not her eyes. Hell, those were the things that the people around her often found the hardest to meet. Staring at her meant seeing her.

Actually fucking seeing her.

No one liked to do that.

She just wasn’t sure why.

Masha nodded once, saying only, “And they don’t compare—nothing compares. Remember it, yes?”

She zipped the dress up neatly and smoothed down the front, running her palms gently over the fabric until she was satisfied with the way it sat on Karine’s body. Next, she picked up the tube of stick foundation and a concealer that worked magic on the ever-present dark circles under Karine’s eyes.

Behind Masha stood a tall mirror—the one Karine was avoiding looking into. She never really understood the unsettling feeling that came to cloak her in anxiety when faced with her reflection, but she knew she couldn’t look at it for long. It was only a reminder of how she didn’t recognize the person who stared back at her.

Masha’s hands flitted over her face tenderly while she stood there for her, unmoving. Despite her care with the makeup brushes blending color and life into Karine’s cheeks, she was hurrying. It was apparent that Masha had received her orders, and was trying to get her ready to go as quickly as possible.

Karine wouldn’t make her job harder.

“There, all done, and now we'll put some color to your pretty lips,” Masha muttered.

This time when the older lady moved, Karine couldn’t look away fast enough. Her eyes fell on the reflection staring back. She held her face as still as possible while the pale coral lipstick was being applied to the small bow-shaped mouth that matched the rest of a face full of equally delicate features.

The dark circles she had inevitably woken up with were gone now—hidden away under the magic touch of Masha’s concealer. Her face looked bright and fresh in the mirror, alive again. But Karine knew as well as Masha—it was all a facade.

A mask.

The emptiness she felt inside was clearly reflected in her eyes. Those same ones that Masha called incomparable to the sky and ocean—they were empty.

Big, and blue ...

And empty.

Masha had moved on to her hair now, brushing it gently and over and over again till her limp dark tresses radiated with a bit of natural shine. She pinned it back out of Karine’s face neatly, and then, hooked a finger under Karine’s chin. Turning her head slowly, side to side to admire her work, she said with another smile, “Beautiful, yes? You look beautiful, child.”

Then it was time to go.

She was accustomed to this by now—coming and going when and how she was told. For as far back as she could remember, Karine was transported from one location to the next, herded along like cattle without an explanation. The reason, she was told, being that her place wasn’t to know things, but to do them.

Things she was told, of course.