SWEETEST DOWNFALL ! 

( ━ HALLOWEEN SPECIAL )

❝THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS HAVE VIOLENT ENDS.❞

✶

LITTLE INTRO.

all she wanted, was to be fixed ━ to be seen by her ignorant parents, but even if she did everything perfectly, it was never enough.

( THERE IS A MONSTER LURKING IN THE MIRROR ! )

all he wanted, was to be free ━ to destroy the prison he set himself into, to live again, feel again.

( THERE ARE VOICES IN THE HALLS ! )

but, as their paths crossed, all of that changed.

now, she no longer wants to be fixed & he finds himself trapped in lies all again.

 ( THERE IS A SHADOW BEHIND THE STAGE ! )

✶

 THE WALLS HAVE EARS.

THE DOORS HAVE EYES.

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❝HELL IS EMPTY AND ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE.❞

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THE STREETS WERE DARK, THE SKY A DREAMY SHADE OF MIDNIGHT BLUE.

ancient street lamps illuminated the way, the small lights flickered in the darkness of the night. opulent mansions lined the boulevards of winter's hollow, a noble suburb in the city of london, and a bunch of teenagers ran through the crowded alleys, in their hands little bags of candy they had just won.

aurora rolled her eyes as she pushed past a group of girls, gossiping and chattering excitedly in front of her. whilst she passed them, her feet got tripped into a puddle of water, dirt and mud soaking and staining her dark jeans in the process.

a curse escaped auroras lips.

stupid rain and stupid amalia for making her run around town, to pick up the stupid bag with the stupid dress her older sister forgot in the academy this afternoon, which she oh so desperately needed for her balett show tomorrow night. bet, mom and dad are head over heels for her performance ━ as always.

a few guys snickered and whispered something to each other while passing her by.

aurora sighed, truly done with the immature games the other kids played on this dreadful halloween evening and determined to get the damn task her parents assigned her with, over. 

✶

ten minutes later, aurora stood in front of the impressive theatre. it was just as intimidating as the first time she saw it ━ as she had accompanied amalia on her very first day.

dark and mysterious, the building towered into the night sky, looking more like a cathedral or an old church than a school for privileged girls. with numerous windows made of fine crystal glass, an elegant carved pair of doors and many artistically placed towers, the academy of art was by far the most imposing concstruction in winter's hollow.

it's a privilege to study here, she heard the voice of her mother echoing inside her head. just the best students can ever hope to receive an invitation to enter the theatre as one of their trainees.

aurora almost snorted.

as if. the only thing the school council wanted to see, was money. simple as that. not grades. if it were for grades, aurora would have had much better chances than amalia. it was aurora, who worked four years in a row to be on top of her class, aurora, who studied so hard, she almost forgot to eat anything at all ━ it was aurora, who graduated as one of the best students in school, aurora, who helped amalia with her homework and exams. and nevertheless, amalia got to study at the ballet academy ━ while aurora was sent off to work as a waitress in some shady restaurant as a part time job. her parents didn't even think to offer her a decent education - while they showered her older sister in money and fulfilled her every wishes.

some tears started to well up in her eyes.

angrily, she wiped them away, leaving red marks on the porcelain skin. 

at least, i've got jake. as she thought of him, a soft smile crossed her lips. jake, whom she met on the restaurant she worked at ━ who offered her a shoulder to cry on whenever her family humiliated her for whatever reason or no reason at all. jake, whom she had to meet in twenty minutes exact, for their long planned cinema date.

a set of loud voices disturbed her thoughts and aurora whirled around.

faint laughter was heard through the poorly lit streets.

her eyes narrowed as she saw five guys, carelessly dressed in what seemed to be old overalls, stained with dirt ━ the same teenagers who whispered something to each other as she passed them by, just a few minutes ago.

somehow, they seemed to stalk her.

or was it just a coincidence?

why would she be of interest for anyone?

had amalia sent them? to make sure aurora was doing as she ordered her to?

when the boys realized that she caught them, they cursed and tried to hide behind the fence of the academy. bottles clinked and aurora scoffed. obviously, they were pretty drunk ━ so no one was following her around. 

aurora rolled her eyes again, her hands holding the key card to enter the intimidating building through the dangerous looking doors. as the portal swang open, she stepped inside.

a second later, the doors closed behind her, leaving her all alone in the darkness.

sighing, she searched for her phone, using the brightness from the screen to enlighten the way. 

✶

an eerie silence surrounded her, as she walked through the corridors, always turning to the right side, to reach the center of the ballet wing ━ the dance hall.

the closer she got, the darker the corridors became ━ everything suddenly was more dreary, more sinister, from the pitch black marble floor to the gloomy portraits that greeted her as she made her way through the abandoned building.

and then, she was there. 

doors made of crystal glass, crested with black diamonds extended in front of aurora's eyes, and the moonlight casted it's enchanting and somewhat cold light on the mirrors that adorned the walls.

as aurora made a few steps into the hall, she thought she heard someone whispering ━ a faint voice lurking her into the impressive room. 

oh, don't flatter yourself ━ as if someone would want you to be in here for long. the only reason you are here, is because your sister's way to dumb - or, more likely, way to lazy - to collect her stupid stuff herself. just focus on the task - and then get the hell out of here.

the task.

finding her sister's ballet bag.

that's more easily said than done, aurora realized, because the dance hall was huge. 

glass painted the walls, the dark parquet was glistening in the soft light coming from auroras phone and the pale glowing of the moonlight, falling through the church like windows.

there were shelves filled with gym bags and some set of pink bottles ━ perfume or shampoo maybe ━ and another regal, piled with ballet shoes in different colours and various sizes.

a pair of chandeliers were attached above her head, their tear shaped jewels reflecting and gleaming in the countless mirrors.

and there, in a dark corner, between a pile of ballet shoes ... was her sister's unicorn bag, all pretty, pink, and sparkly.

thank god, aurora thought, hurrying to grab the damn thing and about to turn around and leave the theatre, as her eyes caught a dark patch, staining one of the evenly shaped mirrors. 

( THERE IS SOMEONE WATCHING YOU ! ) 

but as she took a closer look, the patch was gone ━ and she was greeted with the unscathed surface of clear crystal glass.

strange, she commented absently to herself, before her feet made their way to the hall's doors ━ which must have closed while she was searching for her sister's belongings.

her hands reached for the knob, twisting it around.

nothing happened.

oh, no, aurora thought, her face turning into a shade of anger and frustration. don't tell me that's some sick joke or something. i'm way too done to deal with this shit right now.

she fiddled with the door knob again.

still nothing.

oh fuck it, she cursed, angrily banging her fists against the whole construction.

move, dammit! 

the doors didn't moved an inch.

aurora took a step back, bitterly glancing at her phone screen, that was telling her that she now had only ten minutes left to turn up at the cinema.

great. just great.

after a moment's reflection, she opened her messenger's app, searching until jake's name popped up and typing a quick excuse that she would show up a few minutes later and that he shouldn't wait for her and start watching the movie they picked out two weeks ago.

just as she was about to press send, her phone screen went black.

aurora's eyes widened.

no. no, that wasn't happening right now. not today, and not to her. it couldn't be. she refused to believe that her life had turned to shit again.

but her phone screen stayed black.

okay, aurora thought, okay. just ... don't freak out. try to think logically. there has to be an explanation. it's not like your phone magically decided to play dead or something.

yeah, she commented sarcastically. because it's a damn phone. it can't think at all, you genius.

that's not helpful, she scolded herself.

think, aurora, think. what is happening here? or, to be more exact, what's wrong at all?

well, everything, she dryly answered, before she pulled herself together and started to list the things that seemed to be the most suspicious.

she was trapped into the school ━ or, to be more precise, the academy of art. her phone screen was pitch black, the device apparently not functioning anymore, even if she charged it correctly just half an hour ago. that stupid door wasn't making a move, it was halloween, five guys seemed to stalk her, and her sister was home, making her dumb friends pumpkin spiced coffee with cinnamon brownies, while she was trapped into the theatre, with stained jeans and no date in sight.

yep, everything was just great.

her body resigned, clearly done with all the stress and exhaustion, her small figure coming to a halt at one of the large mirrors, as she collapsed onto the floor, knees pressed flat against her chest, and sobs starting to make a way up her throat.

i just want a bit of luck for once, she pettily thought. just once.

maybe it was the boys fault. the drunk boys ━ maybe they thought it was a brilliant idea to get her locked up?

well, it's not funny anymore!

minutes passed. then she heard something ━ something other than her poorly muffled sobs and mumbled words of self pity.

( SOMETHING DANGEROUS ! )

a crack. a voice. a whisper.

she paused, her sobs stopping abruptly, not making any move, not daring to even move an inch, while trying to fight the fear that was rising inside of her heart.

just a cruel halloween joke. just a cruel halloween joke. just a cruel halloween joke ━

another whisper.

( A SHAPE INSIDE THE MIRROR ! )

then ━ the whispering turned into words, painful screams that echoed from the walls.

( VOICES IN THE HALLS ! )

the glass of the mirrors began to break apart.
a crack started to form on the crystal surface, silently, secretly. 

auroras head shot up. her heart was hammering inside her chest, her hands reaching to cover her ears, shielding her hearing from the gruesome sounds. suddenly, the screams died down and aurora looked up, tears streaming down her cheeks, her blond hair messy and her makeup smudged. 

small cracks adorned the mirrors, the sounds of breaking crystal and the girl's panting breath the only things that could be heard anymore.

then ━ something rustled.

aurora looked down, seeing that there was something, right next to her feet ━ a small piece of paper, elegant letters hastily scribbled down on an innocent looking sheet, not much bigger than a postcard. 

MAKE A WISH.

✶

MAKE A WISH?

as if a wish would grant me happiness.
as if a wish would get me out of here.

because that would be like magic. and magic doesn't exist ... right? 

then, why didn't the doors open? why were they locked?
why were there cracks inside the mirror ━ why the broken glass, the dangerous whispers, the sweet words, the lies, the shrieking sounds, the horrible screams ━

it's just a dream, aurora said to herself, almost believing it. just a dream. so making a wish can't be bad at all, right? this isn't happening for real, it's just ... just in my imagination. okay? okay.

make a wish, she thought to herself.

( I WANT TO WAKE UP ! )

so ... what should i wish for?

i can wish for the doors to open.
i can wish for waking up in my bed, safe and warm and unharmed.

but if that's a dream, those wishes are stupid, meaningless almost, because she wouldn't be in real danger at all. so ... she should wish for something important. something meaningful. something she would really want.

i wish my life would change, aurora thought, silently amused by her stereotype choice of words.

boo, that's lame.

doesn't everyone wish for that?

( TRY AGAIN ! )

i wish ... i wish, i would be enough.
i wish, i would be enough for someone.
i wish, i would feel loved for once.

she held her breath, expecting ... well, she didn't know what she should expect.
just ... something. something, that would be happening ━

but nothing. the paper just got warm in her hands because of her tight grip on the thin sheet.

nothing.

see? it's stupid. no, it's more than stupid, it's stupider than stupid.

aurora laughed humorlessly, throwing the paper away, not caring for where it landed.

as she got up, aiming for the doors again, the cracking glass made her stop dead in her tracks. but it wasn't the alarming and somewhat delicate sound of the crystal that was breaking, that made her pause. it was the shadow looming inside, seeing her, watching her, haunting her.

( THERE IS A SHADOW BEHIND THE STAGE ! )

aurora wanted to scream, but couldn't find her voice anymore.

in the blink of an eye, the shadow was gone ━ vanished. 

she should have run away just then. she should have hammered against the doors, begging to get out of there, using all her strength to escape this dreadful nightmare.

but she didn't. no ━ as if she was in trance, she got closer to the mirror, her fingertips carefully grazing the broken glass.

another whisper, another set of sweet words, luring her in, intending to stop her from turning around and trying to leave, to never come back there again.

she couldn't make out what was said, not really ... but that didn't matter anymore. nothing seemed to matter anymore.

( TOO LATE NOW ! )

the whispers grew, echoing from the walls, consuming the whole theatre.

aurora took a step back, finally waking up from her trance, as another crack appeared on the glass.

( YOU CAN❜T WAKE UP, THIS IS NOT A DREAM ! )

the doors were to far away now.

aurora whirled around, intending to run ━ but before she could even move an inch, something, no, someone, made her pause ━ and then she was stumbling backwards, step by step, and fell right into the broken glass behind her.

immediately, her small body was absorbed by the mirror, her figure vanishing inside the glass, silently ━ and the voices laughed, wickedly, viciously, as if they were mocking her.

and then ... everything was back to normal.

there weren't any voices anymore ━ no screams and no whispers could be heard through the abandoned halls and dark corridors of the academy ━ anything was as quiet as on a graveyard.

the moonlight which fell through the windows gave the scene an unreal touch, making the hall look otherworldy and mysterious. the ghostly light was reflecting on the broken mirrors, the shards of glass ruining the unblemished parquet. where aurora disappeared ━ where her body was caught inside the mirror and the blackness that laid behind, if dead or alive ━ a flower bloomed, it's crystal petals, which were made of broken glass, shining in the faint glow of the moonlight.

AND SHE WAS NEVER SEEN AGAIN !

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happy halloween !

i don't even know what this is - the idea came to me pretty early this month, mainly because i wanted to write something spooky for halloween ━ and that's how it turned out.

i have to say, i'm quite satisfied with the result ━ of course you have those typical halloween clichés, but apart from that, i thought it could be an interesting idea. so, i hope you liked it!

also, this is my first english story ever ━ english isn't my first language, so i don't know if there's any mistakes.
i might plan to turn this into a whole book, but i'm not quite sure yet, because university is stressful as hell, and it's only the first semester, i cry. but i'm trying to think positive & start celebrating halloween with my family ━ we have raspberry cake, spooky music & lots of sweets!

so, i hope you enjoyed this little chapter & that you all have a wonderful evening!

happy halloween, lovelies!

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