Red Velvet- Chapter I- Exposition

         -Welcome, dear ladies and gentlemen to the finest, the most talented and, - honestly speaking now- the most expensive Circus from Paris!!
         1837, Paris, France…
         …- And now, for you, our own star, the most beautiful woman in Paris: Velvet!!!
         It’s a dark night of February. In the silent dark that surrounds Paris, there’s one red light shinning with a magical power. It’s the place where only fancy people from the highest society afford to go. The Circus. Hm…, they find it delighting. The crowd is clapping and smiling. The one that entered the ring is a woman Paris has been talking about for a while now. Velvet. A dancer. Perhaps that’s why this night the places are all taken. Wives may fear to let they’re husbands alone.
         The song begins and the darkness of this lonely city falls apart for a second. She rises, dancing like she never did before. There’s something in the air and…” Bravooo!!!!” , shouts a man from the public. “Wonderful!!!” Yes, it was wonderful but she only smiles and gestures a “Thank you”. The people are amazed again. There are some looks in the public that may tent to kill her, but they never reach her eyes. Her beautiful eyes…
         She leaves “the stage” hearing cheers around her: “Bravo,… you are my lucky star,… everyone loved it,… you are amazing…”
         -Where is she, huh, where is Juliette??
         -I’m here- says a charming voice. She sees herself in the mirror- what is left from the child you found so many years ago on the doorsteps of your house??-(she asks).-Nothing!!-(answers herself). Her reflection shows a young 25 years face, with green, big eyes and that brown hair falling over her shoulder. A beauty, that’s what this mirror shows me. A beauty; but not a woman!!!
         -Julie, you are as much a woman as any of that pump, ugly women outside!!
         -Don’t call me Julie! I’m not your little girl anymore, as a matter of fact, I never was!!!!!!
         -Perhaps it doesn’t show a woman indeed!!- says the girl standing behind Fred. But his look makes her watch embarrassed to the shining, red floor. He never wanted to admit it, but it was true: Juliette was no longer a child. And she stopped so long ago loving him. Perhaps, she never did!! She just lived dancing. She was a beautiful ghost walking through the Circus and spicing up the nights. The nights of a place she finds so sad. A city that she hates from the deepest corner of her heart. But is there something or somebody she doesn’t?? She even hates herself, she hates Fred, Marcus and everybody that surrounds her. She’s crying promising to herself that one day her life will change. She will gain everything she has wasted in this fancy Circus. Everything!!!!!!!!!........
         
         Mouchon Rue, North Paris…
         While some were enjoying the show and others were cursing it, in the other side of the city, in front of a mansion, a group of high society madams and gentlemen were staring at the only lighted window from the second floor.  Suddenly, the door opened and a woman with a candle in her hand looked sadly at them and closed her eyes letting a tear escape. –She’s gone!!!, said a voice behind her. The voice belonged to a man, not older than 28.
         In the lighted room was laying on the bed the body of a beautiful woman, though pale. The woman was Mrs. Angeline Birshop. Her beautiful blonde hair was hanging on the side of the bed. For a while she was the most admired lady in the French society: always ready to do everything for a friend, beautiful, generous and happily married with the only son of one of the richest families in France. But now her soul was no longer awake and her beauty shadowed by the cold breath of death.
         -She died so young… she was not older than 23…..,voices whispered in the crowd. -24, said the man,- she was only 24, and turned around, closing the door behind him.
         Now, two years ago, in the same mansion, the same group of people was gathered to celebrate the birth of the only heir of the enormous fortune the Birshops and the Voillon owned together. In a corner, behind the arched and the starved people, who weren’t at starved as they seemed to be, but in the high society it’s always good to “impress” by showing “good manners” that in true you don’t posses, was sleeping innocent a small child called Brian. The proud of both wealthy families: a newborn boy. The happiness didn’t last much because only two weeks after his birth, God decided he was needed somewhere else. The once happy parents, had to face their worst nightmare. Even though it happened the worst thing that could posibly happen to a parent, John Birshop resigned and moved on. But, the family he had chosen was perhaps not written in to many chapters of his destiny; so now, after two years, his wife passed away leaving him with nothing but valium, leaving him even without hope.