Blood on the Dance Floor

Spotlight. On stage with that one beam of light hitting her blank face. Then, suddenly, her face fills with emotion as Mozart floods the auditorium with sound. Her body, elegant, and her movements, so precise. The stage was where she belonged, her home if you will. Ballet was her passion, the reason she took each breath of air. She couldn’t imagine life without it and as she performed, she felt the passion grow deeper. Funny how the things one so loves the most ends up hurting their souls and crushing their spirits. Oh how our passions burn and blind us from reality.

That day was tragic. Lisa looked so graceful there, up in front of the crowd. She fed off the audience’s applause as she leaped and spun in the air. So light on her feet and such beauty she held. Ballet gave her a thrill, an adrenaline rush that made her do things she never believed she could and because of that, the misfortunate event took place. Lisa was always nervous about her pique turn sequence. Even in rehearsal she asked to scratch it until the performance. So as she set up for it with her toe pointed, she felt unsure. Her instructor always taught her never to perform an act that she couldn’t picture the end result of, but that never stopped her before. So she continued. The sequence consisted of three assisted pique turns and five non-assisted. She only made it to the fifth turn.

She heard a snap followed by the wretched sound of bone scraping. Breaking away from the turn sequence and catching herself by leaping into Pointe. She continued her dance. Her face, unshaken by the pain. Her movements, still vivid and precise, as if nothing occurred. Lisa finished her master piece and held the final pose with a smile protruding from her beautiful face. As the spot light dimmed, Lisa collapsed. Grabbing the audience’s attention as she did so. Gasps filled the room as her instructor rushed on stage. He roared for someone to call an ambulance as he held Lisa’s ankle in his lap. Curtain was called so the audience couldn’t see, although some already saw. Lisa’s mother arrived and when she saw her young daughter’s ankle, she screamed. There, on the blood soaked floor of the stage, Lisa remained calm. Not a tear fell as she looked at the bone protruding from her skin. At the gaping hole that flowed warm blood.

Doctors were in awe that she continued to dance. Lisa shattered her ankle completely. The first snap was that of her tibia. As she continued dancing, it pushed out, breaking skin and tearing ligaments. Yet she never cried. Only when the doctors broke the horrible news that she may never dance again did Lisa break composure. Ballet was her life, her only love in the world. Now that is gone. Laid up for three months at home, that was enough to drive her insane. Everywhere she looked, dance filled her mind. Posters of Prima Ballerinas were surrounding her on her bedroom walls. The ballet bar in the corner, the trophies she won from competitions, everything her life made up, even her twin sister Jenna.

Jenna too was into ballet. She, however, didn’t live solely to perform. Being teenagers, Jenna found other interests than Lisa. One of those happened to be boys. Jenna always seemed to attract them, even when she wasn’t trying. Jealousy between the twins arose quite often and now with Lisa’s condition, anger joined in. Watching her sister dance filled Lisa with hatred. It wasn’t fair that with one injury she couldn’t perform ever again. Hearing of her sister winning competition after competition, fumed the fire even more. And to add to the anger and frustration, her ankle wasn’t healing. Doctors said it may be years before she could even walk again.

After two years of being wheelchair bound, Leah was finally able to walk. Jenna was ever so kind enough to help her sister with everything. She never thought of it as a bother, she just wanted her sister to build up her strength again. Hoping that one day they could dance side by side as they did long before. But Lisa saw her kind acts as a way of mocking her. She viewed it as “Look I can walk and do more than you ever could without assistance”. Entering their freshman year of college, the two sisters shared a dorm together. Jenna was so exhilarated, as any normal sister would be. Lisa however was not. Jealousy continued as Jenna met new boys and kept her ballet going by dancing around the dorm. Little did she know that Lisa was about to snap.

One night when all was quiet, Lisa attempted to dance. But the effort it took to go up on Pointe was such a struggle, she fell. Tears filled her eyes and then, sadness turned to rage and she snapped. Limping towards the small kitchen area in their dorm, Lisa searched for a cutting knife. Upon finding one she moved towards her sister’s bed, where Jenna slept sweetly. She wanted her sister to suffer just as she was so she began slicing Jenna’s ankle. The first slice awoke her sleeping sister as she screamed a wretched scream that could have woken the whole campus. Lisa pounced on her sister, holding the knife up in the air, waiting for the moment for her sister to quit moving so she could plunge it down. But Jenna punched her sister’s face and Lisa plummeted onto the floor. Jenna quickly ran out of their dorm, screaming down the halls.

Jenna’s cries for help caught the attention of many including her boyfriend Mark. Running towards him and into his arms, she was frantic. Mark’s roommates appeared from their room and tackled the crazed Lisa who was chasing Jenna, pinning her down so she couldn’t move. Students stayed locked behind their doors, not wanting to assist and possibly risk their lives. In the commotion, police were called and were there quickly to handcuff the demented twin. Mark, picking Jenna up, carried her to his truck and went to the hospital to get stitches for the open flesh wound her sister made. Jenna couldn’t understand why her sister, her beloved twin sister would cause her harm.

Lisa spent some time locked up in the juvenile correction facility to get treatment for her attempt at harming her sister. Some thought five months wasn’t long enough , but for Jenna that felt like forever. Though her sister tried to hurt her, Jenna still felt that they were close. She wasn’t allowed to visit Lisa and being alone for once in her life made her feel incomplete. Her sister was her other half, her best friend. However, Lisa didn’t agree. She thought Jenna was a constant reminder of what she wanted to be but couldn’t. Getting out early for good behavior, Lisa went to seek her vengeance.

Of course the college wouldn’t allow her back after the incident, why would they? But that didn’t stop Lisa from dancing. Her ankle was becoming stronger and she got accepted to the studio where her sister was performing. Jenna, not knowing her sister was released early, wasn’t aware that her sister was accepted. Lisa wanted to keep it that way. So for the time being, Lisa wasn’t Lisa any more. Lisa became Lori and under that alias, she changed her appearance too. The long brunette hair that the twins shared quickly became shorter and black as night. Lori’s eyes changed too with the colored contacts she possessed. All this as an attempt to fool everyone around her.

The new Lori made friends with Jenna. Jenna being so carefree couldn’t figure out the obvious. As auditions came for the performance of Swan Lake, determination was high. Lori had a plan… Allow Jenna to win the part of the swan and her to become the black swan so they could battle it out on stage. It seemed so perfect, so simple and easy. She may finally get her chance to show up her sister.

But it didn’t work out that way. Jenna did get the lead just as expected, but Lori did not. A girl named Aemilia was chosen to portray the black swan, but sadly Lori couldn’t allow for it. Aemilia would stay late, fixing problem areas in her work. One night she decided to stay longer than usual to work on her turns. Alone in the rehearsal room, Aemilia practiced. Then suddenly the lights went black. Being of Latin blood, the darkness didn’t scare her. She just grabbed her phone to light her way, got her things, and left out the back door leading into the alley way. Lori turned the corner, walking slowly so silently. Just waiting. Pulling a piece of fishing wire from her pocket, Lori snuck up behind her. Aemilia fought but Lori’s rage took over. Aemilia was dead within two minutes of the attack. Her Latin blood flowing on the back streets.

As search parties looked for Aemilia, the performance had to carry on. Lori was granted the spot of the black swan, just as she foresaw. Jenna would practice with Lori more than with the others. During a full rehearsal something caught Loris’ attention. As Jenna leaped and landed into a Pointe, she wobbled, whereas another girl named Grace would not. The instructor joked saying that maybe Grace should take her place since Jenna wobbles like a penguin. It was all fun-and-games, but Lori couldn’t risk her plan falling apart.

Grace wasn’t usually able to stay late at the studio since her fiancé only had one key to their apartment. But one night Grace decided to stay in her dressing room and prepare her makeup stand. She sat in her padded chair looking at herself in the mirror. Oh what beauty she held in her face. So simple and pretty. But soon that face would lose its life as someone crept in the door. Grace, humming a song by Tchaikovsky, didn’t hear it. She did however hear the sound of glass shattering, which made her jump onto her feet. Walking towards her little bathroom she saw nothing but the glass on the floor. Sighing Grace looked with her hazel eyes towards the door. In turning her head, the neck was open wide where a shard of glass penetrated her jugular, spewing blood everywhere. Lori had taken another ballerina’s life.

Performance day finally arrived. Each ballerina prepared themselves for the big show. Lori couldn’t wait for the final scene so she could take down her biggest rival. But first she would have to take the last step… Cutting Jenna’s arch in her pointe shoes. She knew that Jenna had to change them before the final act to match her costume. So Lori carved out a chunk of the wood with her pocket knife and laid them down where they belonged. In a hurry, all the girls grabbed for their shoes, and Lori, placing hers on, was certain this would go as planned.

As the final scene approached and Lori sashayed on stage, Jenna prepared herself for the battle. There they were, the two sisters, dancing side by side just as Jenna had hoped. But what happened next shocked all who witnessed. As Jenna leaped into her Pointe, Lori went into her pique turns and just as before, there was heard a snap. Lori plunged onto the stage face first. Tears streamed down her face in anger and blood soaked around her. Jenna saw the shoe, the piece cut from it. But what grabbed her attention more was the pocket knife lodged in Lori’s side. Lori’s final words were, “It was supposed to be you!” Long ago, Lisa’s instructor told her never to perform an act she couldn’t picture the end result of. If only she could have pictured her grabbing the wrong shoes.