And She Danced

You've heard the story of the cursed shoes right? Where a girl receives a special pair of shoes that posses the wearers feet and forces them to dance forever? Of course it's just a fairy tale. There's no way there could actually be a pair of haunted ballet shoes out there right? I once believed that too.

I had a friend named Jenavieve, and she was a amazing ballet dancer. She even looked like a dancer, long black hair, bright blue eyes, and long, thin legs. She was a really nice girl too, never could say no. I was always the one to stick up for her.

Anyway, she had a really big recital the next day, and she was a HUGE procrastinator. Of course she waited until the very last minute to get an outfit. So me being an amazing friend, took her to go shopping. She said she'd reward me with a movie of my choice.

Well, we were walking and Jenny spotted what she deemed "the perfect pair of shoes", but I wasn't so sure. Don't get me wrong, the shoes were beautiful. The shoes themselves were red with sparkles and the straps you tie them up with were red silk. The shoes were fine, it was the place they were being sold at that I didn't like. The shop looked like one of those places you'd get a really convincing seance at (you know, those weird meetings where people try to talk to ghosts?). The walls where purple with weird black markings, and the floor was a dark orange color. There were all sorts of books and nick-knacks, and gadgets, and such. The window display had different pieces of freaky looking jewelry. The shoes were sitting next to a ring that supposedly turned your thumb green or something.

Jenny was getting kind of freaked out by the store so we picked up the shoes and hurried over to the front desk. It took awhile for somebody to actually appear behind the counter, but the lady looked intimidating enough for me not to complain. She had long, tangled, bleach blonde hair and a sharp, pointed face. Her gown was a royal purple robe, that contrasted greatly with the bright green lace across her eyes. She grinned wickedly when she..... saw.... us.

"Why hello there dearies! What is it you would like from my fine little shop?" her sharp teeth gleamed in the low light.

"We would like to purchase these shoes." I said, as Jenny was obviously too scared to speak.

She cackled, a horrible, witch sounding laugh, "That would be $25 sweetie."

"Twenty five dollars for a pair of stinking shoes!? That's an out-" Jenny grabs my arm and gives me look I've never seen before, "Fine, here."

I hand her the money, grab the shoes and head out of that store as fast as I entered it. And you'd best believe Jenny was right at my heels. We window shopped some more and finally found a dress to match the shoes. The dress was made of soft red fabric and had a red belt made of silk. We then started to Jenny's house for the movie. Now, Jenny isn't one for scary movies, but I am. I had chosen the movie Dance for us to watch. It was a horror flick loosely based on the cursed shoes fairy tale. The cursed shoes from the movie looked exactly like the shoes we picked out, "Dyed red from the blood of the wearers," the poster had said, so I figured it would give her a nice spook before the show.

It seemed, however, that my plan worked a little too well. Turns out, the movie spooked Jenny so much that she wouldn't try on the shoes or dress. Eventually I got fed up with the games and left, which in hind sight wasn't a very good idea. I figured she'd be find now that she was extra careful because the movie.

A few hours passed, I did what I normal did on the weekends (read, write, read some more, write some more). I kept getting this weird feeling though, like something bad was going to happen, and that I shouldn't have left Jenny alone. I just pushed it down, thinking everything was fine and the movie was just getting to me.

Then, at about 9:15 pm, I received a text from Jenny. It was short, simple, and very confusing. It read:

'''Help. Studio Tape.'''

Studio tape? Was she talking about the security tapes to the dance studio? What did she want to show me there? She was at her house right? A million questions ran around in my mind, but I trusted Jenny, so I hacked my way into the tapes.

First few hours were not that interesting, three year olds learning to dance, some kid got pantsed, and the janitor put on an amazing show after hours. But at 7:13 a figure walked out from the inky black. They placed down a burning candle and I recognized it as Jenny in the outfit we bought.

I started looking around and noticed, just out of the reach of the flame's light, a silhouette stood watching her. It bent down to the radio beside it and pressed play. A child's tune started playing, I recognized the tune but couldn't tell which song it was.

Kookaburra sits in the old plum tree...

Jenny started to dance, which I thought was strange, considering this wasn't the kind of music she usually danced too. The dark figure soon started to softly laugh, a familiar, high-pitched laugh. It struck a deep sense of fear into me, what was it going to do to Jenny?

Merry merry king of the bush is he...

The music started to speed up, and so did Jenny. Dancing faster and faster by the minute, I could see the sweat glistening in the flame light. The laughing soon grew louder, and it sent shivers down my spine as I racked my brain as to where I had heard it before.

Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra....

Jenny started to dance at inhuman speeds. I could tell it was hurting her because of how much she was shaking. The laughter and song where starting to give me a headache, both where loud and neither could overpower the other.

Gay your life must be!

Suddenly, the figure raised their hand, and Jenny and the music stopped. Slowly, they started to clench their hand into a fist, and Jenny's body began to convulse and writhe. Then abruptly, they brought their hand down and Jenny fell apart and fell to the ground.

I held my breath, no, this cant be! Her arms were disconnected at the wrists, shoulders, and elbows, and her legs at the pelvis, knee, and ankle. Her head rolled from her body, and the skin over her right eye and forehead slid onto the floor.

The figure walked out into the light, and looked straight into the camera. I realized in horror that this was the lady that sold us the shoes. The only thing that was different about her was the bright green lace was gone, revealing two glowing purple eyes.

She grinned wickedly and held up Jenny's pink phone. I quickly closed the laptop and got out my phone to call the police. I jumped into my car and drove to the studio. I explained what had happened and what I had seen, I also showed them the text.

Two hours and a lot of crying later I was back in my house and on my laptop. It's 12:30 and I'm writing down the events of yesterday as my last record.

I can see the glowing purple eyes outside my window.