Antoinette Lightwood, District One [new: Rosetta]

She was certainly far from what you might consider a “traditional beauty,” but after one glance at Antoinette Lightwood, anyone would be hard-pressed to turn away. Her face was not so much beautiful as it was expressive; keeping up with the hints-of-a-smile and sharp, quick glances that played across her face proved nearly impossible to the average passer-by. Without notice, any absent-minded youth could fall victim to the magnetizing movements of her delicately curved lips. Silent words danced across Antoinette’s soft, full lips with the lightness of a butterfly kiss, leaving her suitors mesmerized with every subtle movement. Her high cheekbones and arched brows gave her a face a slight, slender appearance, off-set by her wildly expressive eyes, the same deep brown of her siblings.

She was anything but average.

Many people would describe Antoinette the same way that they would describe a lovely porcelain doll, with pale, flawless skin and a soft blush about her cheeks. Admittedly, the blush she wore was in no way natural; she wore a light coat of makeup over her entire face at all times. Antoinette was a master of the powder brush, and daily transformed her already-stunning face into a work of art that caught the light perfectly at every angle.

“Since everyone’s going to judge the book by its cover, after all, I may as well draw in some potential readers.”

Gently twisting spirals of hair fell around Antoinette’s shoulders, the color of sunlight reflected from a sandy beach. Other girls were envious of her well-kept tresses; no matter what product they tried, they could never seem to match the soft shine captured so well in the young Lightwood’s locks. Her perfect hair framed her perfect face in the perfect fashion. The process of working her hair to this kind of lustre took Antoinette nearly an hour in the morning, but with results like these, how could she complain?

After drawing their eyes from her stunning visage (which provided a challenge in itself), the young men would pull their eyes down the lines of her body, a small one at that. Standing at barely above five feet tall, Antoinette had a petite, almost waifish figure, with designer apparel hugging what little curves she had. Her figure was anything but voluptuous, resulting in a body generally flat all around. Coupled with her diminutive height, she thought that her body left something to be desired (probably Riley’s fault, she thought, as he must have absorbed most of her nutrition while they were still in the womb together). Her thin, spindly fingers ended in long nails painted with the precision of a watchmaker, never showing a crack in their polish.

All in all, Antoinette Lucille Lightwood was exactly what every girl wished they could be, a flawless work of art- a masterpiece, she hoped, which would reflect well upon the artist herself.

Unfortunately, the book itself does not always match the cover. From a personality standpoint, anyone who knew Antoinette Lightwood could not say that she was just as beautiful on the inside as she was on the surface. She thought of herself as a bit of a queen, living up to the historical name she was given at birth. She was incredibly haughty. Impatient. Prideful in every way. She actually found the stupidity of others to be quite amusing. And most of all, as one could expect from someone who put as much work into her appearance as Antoinette, she was vain in the highest degree.

Yet, after one could make their way past these flaws, they would find a young girl who simply lacked guidance and a father’s love. Many of her striking personality flaws, in fact, were simply masks she wore to hide her own insecurities. Because of constant neglect after her father’s death, Antoinette lacked the father figure she so needed in those formative years of her life. Thankfully, she was naturally pretty and always praised for her beauty as a young girl, which led her to focus more and more on her appearance as she grew older. Her makeup and designer clothes only served to draw people to her, to make people want her somehow. More than anything, she was afraid- afraid of neglect and of being alone. All she truly needed was someone to love her for who she was, not for who she made herself to be.

Unfortunately, she herself did not understand this simple, essential truth.

Sitting across from her brother Riley at the dinner table, she could not help but begrudge him. He was simply too perfect. He didn’t have to try to earn anyone’s favor, because everyone loved him. He was far too kind for his own good, and even though others exploited his kindness constantly, he never raised his guard. If she hadn’t known him her whole life, Antoinette might have thought his kindness was an act- he showed a kind of sweet personality that she had never seen in anyone else.

Riley possessed everything that Antoinette wished she had, and hated him for it.

Perhaps it was the fact that he led the family, and she didn’t want to be bossed around- but she knew as well as everyone else that the family could not survive without his guidance. She envied him ferociously, and though she wished deeply that she could be like him, she replaced this jealousy with disgust. At one point, she had even attempted teaching herself how to play guitar, though this proved to be too much of a challenge for her. Riley had been more than willing to give her lessons, yet she refused every offer without consideration. Eventually, she resigned herself to failure. Instead of giving up completely, however, she took up the bass instead, which proved to be an easier variant of the guitar itself. She had not completely failed, but her attempts to be like Riley had still turned out miserably. Her guitar sat in the closet for years, collecting dust.

She covered it with an old blanket. The last thing she needed was a reminder.

Born the last of the three Lightwood triplets (naturally, she thought, Riley forced his way out before she did), Antoinette could technically be considered the third oldest child in her family, after Riley and Avon, with whom she shared a space for nine months. The Lightwood family began as a young couple in their late teens, Casper Lightwood and Willow Riley. One thing led to another, and Willow later discovered she was pregnant. Teenage pregnancies were hardly considered to be an issue in that day and age, but their decision to keep the baby shocked many, including their own parents. Such a thing was nearly unheard of. They continued to shock the community when they declared their engagement to be married, demonstrating that their love was based not on physical attraction, but something much more. The wedding ceremony itself was hastily prepared, but beautiful in its simplicity. Later, the newly-married Lightwoods welcomed not one, but three new babies into the family.

After less than a year, the Lightwoods welcomed another child into the world in the form of Edana Lightwood, who due to a serious birth defect, lost her leg shortly after birth. However, there was no lack of love for the new baby, and they provided everything she needed to live the most normal life possible. One year later, another baby girl was born into the family- Keela Lightwood, a bright-eyed, freckled little angel.

To any normal family, the stress of feeding six young babies would provide an enormous amount of stress. Thankfully for the Lightwoods, this was not so. Casper’s job provided the financial security to provide the family with more than enough, and through careful investments, the family enjoyed a constant source of income that could provide for the family’s needs had he been unemployed. Antoinette adored her father, who treated her like a princess. To Casper, she was a princess, as were her sisters. She decided at a young age that she wanted to marry a man who was like her daddy.

After the triplets shared their sixth birthday, the next Lightwood came into the world, this time a boy named Aris. He seemed to be the answer to Riley’s young prayers for a little brother, because as it turns out, being the only boy in a sea of women is not always enjoyable for a six-year-old. Antoinette loved to dress Aris up in cute baby outfits and made him the new center of attention in whatever imaginary game they might play. Unfortunately, this new-found bliss was to be short lived, as news of an accident rocked the Lightwood family to its core.

Tracker jackers, as Antoinette learned shortly afterwards, were very dangerous insects, like bees, except their stings hurt very badly and could kill you. She had been stung by a bee once, and remembered the pain very vividly. Her six-year old brain attempted to fathom the idea of her father’s agony, as he had been stung many more times than she, but she could not imagine anything more painful than even one sting. However, at the age of six, there was no way she could understand the gravity of the situation. She barely had a chance to say goodbye before he was gone. Though she could not understand why, she knew that her daddy was never coming home.

For a while, Antoinette was inconsolable, as were her siblings (those old enough to understand) and her mother. Her mother was especially inconsolable, confining herself to her bed and scarcely even thinking to take care of her own children. In the bleakest time of the family’s short existence, Riley stepped up to take care of the family. Antoinette could not understand why he always insisted on changing diapers, since this was the nanny’s job- however, the nanny that had been hired to take care of the children did little more than put food on the table, as her primary focus lay in the pages of fashion magazines and gossip. Riley was insistent on taking care of the family. He kept saying something about being “the man of the house,” and that their father had given him a responsibility before he died. She did not want to take orders from her brother, who was the same age as she, but after a while, she gave in.

Just as things were beginning to return to some sense of normal, the family was thrown into chaos again by Willow’s remarriage to a man named Xavier. All of the children knew the man well. How could they not? He was their uncle.

Even at the age of eight, Antoinette knew that their marriage was sick and wrong. Looking back as a young adult, she wondered why the marriage had even occurred. Had her mother been so desperate for love that she settled for the first man that treated her well? Was she really that weak? The thought of it disgusted her. Once, she heard her mother claim that her children had needed a father figure, and that she trusted her brother-in-law with their well-being. However, Antoinette could see past this thinly fabricated lie. The marriage was all for her. It was never about the children.

And Antoinette hated her for it.

She used to begrudge Riley for refusing to take the part of the daddy when they played house. Suddenly, her eight-year-old eyes were opened to the fact that no man could ever fill the void left by her father, especially not a man like Xavier Lightwood.

It was obvious from the start that her new father only wanted Willow from the way he treated his new children. Somehow, Antoinette was spared the brunt of Xavier’s cruelty. She tried to block out the verbal abuse that Xavier spat towards the other children- calling Edana a useless cripple, for example- but could not rid herself of the effects it brought her. It was only after Riley stumbled into the living room one day, covered in deep purple bruises that she began to understand what was going on. Riley claimed to have fallen down the stairs. Antoinette wasn’t that stupid. She didn’t dare say anything, but somehow she knew that her uncle had been involved.

For whatever reason, Antoinette’s life continued with a sense of normalcy as her siblings slowly began to deteriorate. One evening early in her teenage years, she stumbled upon the reason why. She heard a cry of pain from Riley’s room, and slowly began to crack open the door out of fear. Antoinette never forgot what she saw that day. Riley had collapsed to the ground in front of his bed, blood slowly trickling from his nose. Xavier stood above him, holding his hair tightly in one hand, his fist raised high in the other. For one brief moment, Riley’s eyes locked on hers, with an expression that simply read help me. Antoinette could only look back with tears forming in her eyes. As the fist came down once more, Antoinette slammed Riley’s bedroom door shut, hoping to block the vision of cruelty from her mind.

However, that quick, pleading look burned into her soul for years to come.

Antoinette fled to her room, pointlessly trying to hold back her tears. Suddenly, a sob turned to a choke when her doorknob slowly began to turn. She crawled back on the bed, terrified as Xavier’s eerily smiling face slid through the crack in her doorframe. He attempted to make his voice sound comforting as he spoke to her. He explained everything to her, why he would never think of hitting her, that Riley had done something awful earlier and needed disciplining. That her father’s death was no accident. Then, he told her that she reminded him of her mother.

And how could I ever lay a hand on a face as beautiful as yours?

She was stunned that her beauty was the only thing that had saved her from similar abuse. Bile began to rise in her throat as Xavier began to slide a hand across her developing young body, looking her over as if examining a piece of meat at the market. Maybe in a few years. And then, he was gone. Antoinette ran to her bathroom as she vomited through her tears.

Upon hearing of Xavier’s sudden death, Antoinette felt no sorrow. If anything, she was indignant. She knew without a doubt that Riley had planned the entire affair- Xavier’s death was identical to Casper’s. Tracker jackers, carefully gathered, then agaited by young hands, tore into Xavier with unmatched ferocity. If anything, she felt betrayed by her siblings, because they hadn’t considered even informing her of their plan. They must have hated her, she thought, because Xavier had spared her of physical abuse. However, they had no way of knowing that he was simply saving her for later.

The Lightwood siblings never spoke of Xavier’s death after that day. There was no need. Riley’s eyes told her everything.

Antoinette became more and more distanced from her siblings, begrudging Riley’s assumed leadership of the family more and more. When Chyba was born, the first and only Lightwood half-sibling, Antoinette looked at him without feeling.

She wasn’t happy. That baby had nothing to do with their family.

Without anyone to truly guide her, and her prime example of men coming from an abusive and perverted uncle-father, Antoinette’s male company never impressed her siblings, as the companions she kept could hardly be considered “the good kids.” However, Antoinette needed to feel as if she was wanted. These boys gave her that feeling, if only for a short time, until she was thrown out after giving them what they really wanted.
Love is only a word that boys use to get in your pants, she knew.

But, Antoinette’s longing for love in any form only grew stronger with each failed relationship. The company that she kept grew worse and worse, filling conversations with hateful gossip and hushed, excited conversations about their activities in bed. They were “the glamour crowd,” and Antoinette was happy to be one of them. At least she belonged somewhere.

Somehow or another, Antoinette was introduced to a pill which made her feel absolutely amazing. This, she knew, was the only way to fill the void. After a short cycle through various substances, she became addicted to a particular drug administered through a syringe in her arm. This was the best one of all. She called it “White Heaven” after the color of the drug itself, as well as for the feeling it brought her. Slowly, she began to deteriorate. Riley and her siblings could only watch anxiously as she fell into a state of collapse, her body withering away to nothing. They tried to help, Riley especially, but she would only stare blankly at them, not listening to a single word.

It was sheer luck that a kind-hearted soul, and not a Peacekeeper, found her collapsed in an alley after overdosing on her “White Heaven.” Antoinette woke up in a rehabilitation center, only a shell of her former self. When she left several weeks later, she found all of her siblings eagerly awaiting her arrival. Riley’s outstretched hands held a box of chocolates, as well as balloons identical to the ones she found mysteriously tied to her bed every week. She looked Riley in the eye, and could not bear to hold his gaze. His eyes were full of a love she did not deserve. She could barely stand him. He was the perfect standard that she could never live up to. She had abandoned him in his time of need. And worst of all, he was a martyr, willing to forgive all of her mistakes. His love for her was the most cutting injury of them all.

She wished with all her heart that he hated her back. Her guilt was overwhelming.

Over time, the Lightwood family returned to a sense of normality as Willow again remarried. Riley continued to lead the family as Antoinette returned to her cycle of male suitors. She never returned to her old group of “friends,” however, nor to the temptations that they pushed upon her. She remained distant. She could not bear to hurt anyone else the way she had before, hiding behind a front of arrogance to cover her fears.

Her newfound fear of needles was almost as great as her fear of ever hurting her family again.

And most of all, she missed her daddy.

Odair

Main: FCA698
Speech: CAFC98
Thought: F9FC98
Other: 98FCEC

Original character concept by Glitter.

FC is Keira Knightley.

Bio coding by South. Who is absolutely amazing in every way. :D