02| Blood Red

                                    

                                          
The lipstick Luz had been putting on was a bright red. She made slow movements to clean up the gloss that had escaped the line of her lips. She straightened up from looking into the vanity mirror, letting out a deep breath as her eyes stayed glued to the red color. It had been a couple of days since she had started to have odd feelings towards the color. It popped up a lot in her dreams; it also seemed to pop up during the day, causing her to pause in her steps. 
She could remember the last time her senses had started to malfunction. It had been a year since she last had those kinds of feelings, a bit before she had met with the king and the prince. Her senses would be taken over by anything closely related to the images that would turn up in her head. They had vanished just after she had met the royals. Nothing out of the ordinary happened after. She still had her normal, outlandish dreams. But the odd visions had returned some time ago.
Luz didn't bother to tell her family about them. She had always had oddish dreams and her own gut feelings about people and places. It wasn't really something she worried about. At least not at that moment. 
She had finished up the last touches to her make-up, spraying on her perfume. She took a glance at herself in the mirror before walking out of her bedroom and towards the living room. 
Her father was sitting on the sofa, casually scrolling through his phone. Someone had walked up to the front door just then and knocked.
They opened it, walking through and stomping his feet on the welcome mat. 
"Are you all ready?" Luz's grandfather asked in Spanish, placing his hands on his hips. 
"Yes. Susanna is putting on her shoes." Juan Pablo told his father-in-law. 
The old man hummed, moving to open the door as Luz's grandmother came up to the door. Esmeralda made her way down the stairs followed by Susanna walking out while putting in some earrings. 
"Ya?" Susanna asked everyone. 
They all began to make their way out of the home, casually walking towards the car. 
"Did Ariel tell you where he and Melissa are going to be sitting?" Irene asked her granddaughter. 
"Si, he told us where to sit and everything." The woman nodded her head, making herself comfortable in the car. 
"He said the prince was going to be the guest speaker." Esmeralda told them. 
Luz blinked a couple of times as red covered her vision once more. She pulled at the corners of her eyes to avoid rubbing her mascara. 
"You okay?" Esmeralda asked her sister. 
"Yeah, just those random thoughts." Luz answered. 
The 17-year-old frowned her lips when she got an answer. Luz was 3 years older than her, but there was still a rather large gap between them. 
Esmeralda had always thought Luz lived in her head more often than not. She knew a lot more about certain things, but the girl assumed it was because Luz observed so much. She also knew that, compared to everyone in the family, Luz had the most sensitive clair-senses. 
"What did you see?" Esmeralda questioned. 
"The color red. It keeps popping up." Luz explained. Esmeralda only hummed, not knowing what else to tell her sister.
It had been about an hour drive to get to the stadium where Luz's brother would have his college graduation. It had started a good 10 minutes before the Molina family arrived. The parking lot was still crowded by those who were attending the graduation; both graduates and guests. The sun was shining brightly and made the day a bit hot and humid. The family all piled out of the car, walking towards the entrance of the stadium where the A/C awaited them.