The demon Elizabeth emerged from the darkened room and announced, "Holly does not appear to be home, Master."
"Surely there are others that we can induct into our army," I suggested.
"But I had hoped that Holly would be the first," she said. Then she tilted her head, sniffing the air a bit. Excitedly, she explained, "I can smell her, Master." She pointed a talon. "She can be found in that direction, and along the way, we have the opportunity for mischief among those who are not worthy to join us." She jumped the one story down to the ground, alighting gracefully in a flower bed; half of the chrysanthemums immediately turned brown and drooped to the ground. She ran off, and I followed above her.
I could see her head turning back and forth as she ran down the street. Finally, she spotted what I assumed she was looking for -- a light on in a window in one of the homes. It was along the side, on the first floor; she easily leaped up to the small windowsill.
I hovered next to her, and she said, "If we stop producing pheromones, we are as good as invisible." With that, she suddenly disappeared, although I realized I could still see her form as ripples in the air. I tried it myself, and it worked -- I could no longer see my own body. I was extremely impressed that she had figured out this ability. Elizabeth opened the window and jumped into the lighted room. I now sat on the windowsill looking in.
A thirtysomething woman in a flannel nightgown and robe stood at a bathroom sink, washing her face. She rinsed the cleanser off by splashing water onto her face, then grabbed a nearby towel and patted dry. As she hung the towel back up, she looked at her freshly-scrubbed visage in the mirror.
She was taken aback by the fact that it looked like makeup was fading into existence on her face. Her lips were turning pink, her cheeks were turning red, her eyelids were turning a little blue.
She quickly reached for the cleanser bottle, squirted some in one hand, worked up a lather, and anxiously rubbed and massaged her face with her fingers. Eventually satisfied, she splashed water onto herself again and patted with the towel.
She first looked down at the towel, but seeing no colors on it, looked back at herself in the mirror and was horrified. The makeup had gotten much more obvious; her eyes were almost unrecognizable, surrounded by thick black eyeliner, bright blue and purple eye shadow, and longer, thicker eyelashes. She grabbed a Kleenex and started rubbing furiously, to no effect -- she didn't even succeed at removing the intense shine from her glossy bright pink lips.
As she put the wad of Kleenex down on the bathroom counter, her eyes widened as much as they could to see that her closely-cut fingernails were growing longer and turning the same pink color as her lips. They stopped once they had gotten about an inch long, appearing as if they had been professionally manicured.
She reached over and opened the top drawer next to the sink, looked in, and pulled out a piece of paper, a quizzical expression on her face. The paper -- an old-looking piece of parchment with bright red Old English-style lettering -- read "No Longer Necessary."
She put the paper down and looked into the drawer. I had to crane my neck to see that the drawer held cosmetic products, and they were disappearing one by one, about one every half second. She picked up a lipstick, which went "poof" almost immediately. As the items continued to disappear, she felt around and pulled out a pair of fingernail clippers. She quickly set to work, making several quick cuts to the nail on the index finger of her left hand -- which, just as quickly, grew back to its new length. The drawer depleted, the clippers disappeared out of her hand.
The woman could only stare at herself in the mirror.
Elizabeth returned to being visible as she jumped from the window onto the ground. I did the same, commanding my body to start producing pheromones again. Elizabeth broke out in a grin, her fangs showing. "Do you approve, Master?" she asked.
"Of course," I answered.
"Besides, who knows? Being permanently made up as a slutty bimbo could be the start of an exciting new life for her." Elizabeth tilted her head and sniffed the air again. "We're still on track to find Holly."