All The Beauty You Cannot See

Hello, everyone! Please note - this is a repost of an old preview in order to move it over to my new website. It originally debuted March 2025. The intro is the old intro.

This is the first full short story that I’m sharing as an exclusive to Patreon, Ko-Fi, and Substack subscribers. As you all know, times are volatile, which means that your support means that much more for creators like me, especially those of us in the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. As a thank you, I’m trying to add more exclusive content for members to peruse. The first 1,000 words are free to read, but the whole story is only available to paid subscribers on Patreon, Ko-Fi, Substack, and my website.

On my blog, I typically share some short stories (under 1,000 words) for free. All The Beauty You Cannot See is about 20 pages, or just about 6,300 words. That means, it will stay behind a paywall. But, as a reward, I want to show you all what I’ve been working on!

All The Beauty You Cannot See is a Sapphic story that was written for an anthology submission. It wound up getting rejected. After it got rejected, I wrote Abyss and Ebony into Aloe during the second re-write. We realized we needed more characters to fill some of the empty spaces. So, these two will be appearing in The Night Garden, starting in book two.

If you decide to subscribe to read the whole story, thank you for being a patron! You allow me to work on projects like these. Before we launch into the tale, there are some content warnings to be aware of — slight internalized homophobia and violence. With that out of the way, I hope that you enjoy!

Abyss was stunning.

Her pin-straight ash-blonde hair glittered in the gentle moonlight pouring in through the thick-paned, warped windows; refracted hints of blue, purple, and white scattering waywardly into the darkness of the surrounding room. Long, pointed ears peeked out of the thin curtain of her hair, fanning out on either side of her head. Her pale skin seemed to glow in the pool of moonlight around her, stark and gray against the blackness of her long-sleeved, Victorian dress. Her dainty, tapered hands were clasped in front of her waist, a stillness about her that made her seem like a porcelain doll. Her eyes, silver and expressive, stared morosely out of the warped panes and to the street below, capturing the light and glowing with a subtle preternatural fire. They were nearly white, and burned with an intensity that seemed to hold Ebony’s attention in a vice grip.

All of this was in Ebony Bone’s mind as she stood, starstruck; watching her lover from across the room, her damp black hair dripping. The strands were beginning to curl and leaving wet spots on her lilac nightgown where it rested. A single lock of white bounced in front of her left eye, falling into her face as she stared at Abyss in awe. My moonbeam. If the vampire had noticed her staring, she didn’t react. Ebony thanked her lucky stars for that.

Abyss hated attention; she was the type to fade fully into the shadows and avoid the eyes of others, terrified that her ‘monstrous’ countenance would scare anyone away. Ebony couldn’t fathom how anyone could see Abyss as monstrous at all. It was rare that the vampire allowed her to see her in the light. In an effort to avoid hurt, Abyss often hurt herself by keeping others at arms’ length and preferring to be alone. But Ebony had seen this beautiful, solitary creature, and forced her way into her heart. It hadn’t been easy.

Abyss was a Nosferatu; a woman of extreme pride and vanity in her life, ashamed by the way her face had been disfigured by the vampire’s kiss. Ebony tried, more than anything, to remind Abyss that she was her whole heart. It didn’t seem possible that Abyss held an air of fragility and vulnerability about her; all of the breakable qualities of porcelain, housed in a body that could twist steel and crush stone with barely any effort. Seeing her like this, trapped in all of her colorless beauty within the bright aura of the moon, was a gift.

Movement felt wrong in the stillness of the night. Ebony broke it as if breaking a trance and slowly walked to the window. She smiled softly, a blush ruddying her cheeks as she moved her hands to Abyss’ waist, pulling her close. It was a bold move for her to make; she was a shy woman, no matter her partner, and Abyss’ cold beauty was intimidating at the best of times. “Hey,” she said, the confidence in her tone not matching the butterflies in her stomach.

Abyss gave a small gasp, those bright eyes shifting to stare into Ebony’s. It was almost as if Ebony had pulled her from a deep train of thought. Fearlessly, she held the gaze, drinking in Abyss’ sharp features; the way the moon highlighted the ridge in her nose, and the way her fangs poked over her soft, supple bottom lip. Abyss’ eyebrows twisted in discomfort, and she went to turn away, stopping only as Ebony raised an arm and placed her hand on her cheek. If she wanted to, Abyss could easily break the hold without a second thought, but she held Ebony’s gaze, moving to wrap her arms around Ebony’s neck. It surprised her, and she smiled shyly up at her, eying her through her bangs as Abyss replied with a little chuckle. “Hey.”

That voice was smooth, deep, and dulcet; cascading water over river stones that always seemed to send shivers of delight down Ebony’s back. Abyss was taller than Ebony; skinny and lithe, a generous 5’10” to her own 5’5”. Where Abyss was the epitome of grace, Ebony was all clumsiness and curves, often with bruises and cuts littering her deep olive skin from falls and mishaps. Abyss’ eyes softened as she stared at Ebony, tipping her forehead to lean towards the shorter woman. She brought her right hand up, brushing the lock of white out of Ebony’s hazel eyes. For all of the frigid coolness of Abyss’ beauty, her eyes held nothing but warmth. Ebony could drink in that affection forever and never want or hunger again. Blinking, she slid her gaze towards the window, ignoring the way her heart sped into a chaotic hummingbird beat. “What were you looking at?”

Abyss’ body seemed to relax as Ebony’s eyes slid away, a detail that made Ebony’s chest ache. The street was empty, save for a single car slowly making its way through the fog. A solitary streetlight lit the descending mist, and it left an ethereal quality to the night that felt as if it were painted for a storybook rather than actually beneath her. “Just drinking in the beauty of the night,” Abyss murmured. Her gentle touch skimmed from Ebony’s hair, down her cheek, and then away as she once again rested her arm on her shoulder. “Did you enjoy your shower?”

As she spoke, Ebony felt her long, tapered fingers brush her neck, and she shivered slightly at the coolness of her skin. “Yes,” she replied, watching as someone slipped out of one of the doors across the street, bundled up and bracing against the cold autumn night. “But I have to say, I prefer being in your arms.”

Ebony didn’t need to be looking at Abyss to know that flustered her. The silence between them said enough. It stretched long enough that Ebony thought the vampire would let the conversation drop, and nearly tipped her gaze back to the vampire when her soft voice broke the silence.

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