Elena Luxrose’s story-Zombies of Mariesville

*This story is under my folder titled “Zombies of Mariesville”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]”. Enjoy!*

There once was a woman named Elena Williams who loved dancing. She loved to sweep her feet up into a rhythm that only her soul would know, to throw away all of life’s worries in a symphony of sways.

Her mother and father had sent her to dance school at the age of five and ever since then, she had been dancing to her heart’s content. Not only was dance school the place of her passion, it was also where she met Terrance Luxrose, a fellow dancer and dreamer, at the age of sixteen. With him, she felt like her soul was being carried away high off into dreamy landscapes of infinite possibilities, like the whole world was in hazy, fuzzy, sweet pastel colors. It was her first experience at love and she had never, ever wanted to let it go.

That was why Elena and Terrance married each other when they grew up, why Elena took Terrance’s last name, and why they had a daughter together.

A daughter who was born with bright pink hair. It was a gene from Terrance’s parents, who both had colorful hair. It was a sign that she was a witch and with it, powers both beautiful and ugly would come of it. Everyone who had lived in the town of Mariesville knew that, for Terrance’s parents had flowers that would never die, not even in the cold seasons, they could disappear into thin air at any second if they wanted to, and if Terrance ever got hurt at dance class, his wounds would instantly heal the next day.

Terrance himself was not a witch, for he had brown hair, and his parents never did anything to hurt anybody, but still, people feared what would happen if they did, Elena being one of them.

She wanted to love her daughter, Ava, with all of her heart in the world, but with the prospect of her being a witch, there was always the chance that Ava could use her powers for evil and twist and turn the world into madness.

Elena could fear as strongly as she could love, possibly even more so than she could love.

……………………………………………………………………………………

Years had gone by since Ava was born. Ava had become fourteen years old and loved to dance just like her parents, but under no circumstances would Elena let Ava go to the dance school that she started, called “Elena’s School for Dancers and Dreamers”, for she would not put the lives of her students in danger of a witch. Terrance argued that Ava deserved to go to the school like the others, that her powers did not define her, and that she was a gentle, sweet soul.

All of which irritated Elena, because she was still a witch and if she got upset, then they’d all be doomed. Of course he would defend Ava, he had the bias of his parents being witches and did not understand the horrors that came with being witches. Besides, she and Terrance would always give Ava music boxes, porcelain dolls, dresses, flowers, and bows as gifts. That was enough to distract her and keep her out of the dance school.

It was one such day that Elena had finished teaching a class that she was thinking of how her daughter and husband would bother her daily, their voices a fuzzy haze of pestering her to “let Ava dance, she wouldn’t do anything bad, you’re being ridiculous”, the thoughts screaming throughout Elena’s mind, that she saw…

A shadow on the wall. Just a shadow, no human standing in front of it. Elena stood still, her heart racing with terror as she watched the shadow spill out of the wall and form into a pale woman with long, choppy black hair and a flowing black dress, her black eyes and sharp, white-toothed grin glinting with hints of many secrets buried within, secrets no human could dare hope to untangle, the tips of her black claws pointed like shards of glass ready to tear through soft, frail flesh.

“You’re…you’re not a human. You’re a demon. But how? Why-why-“

“Calm down, Elena. I know that you’re scared of the supernatural, but I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to help.” The demon woman said, putting a claw up as though she wanted to stop Elena’s mind from going off into overdrive.

But still…what would a demon want with her?

“Really? How do you know my name? Have you been watching me? For how long?” Elena asked, curious to know what the answers would be, but also, not particularly desiring to know them.

The woman laughed a little, putting a clunky claw up to her mouth daintily before saying:

“I know your name because I’ve been watching you! But I’ve only been watching you because I sensed your misery and I, Helena Blackrose, wish to fix it! How so? Well, I have seen that your daughter is a witch. You’re scared that she may harm you and others. A reasonable fear, as we supernatural creatures are unpredictable. But your husband doesn’t want to listen to you. That must get tiresome, for the one person you truly love to not believe you. Don’t you want to teach them both a lesson?”

Elena very much did want them both to “learn their lesson” and not pester her so much, she really did, but again...why would a demon want to help her at all?

“I have the perfect solution: Just kill two birds with one stone! Take this here knife and stab it into Terrance’s heart! But do not use this knife to stab Ava, use it to drain her magic instead! That will slowly and surely kill her.” Helena beamed, brandishing a sword-like knife from out of her dress skirts.

The knife glimmered and gleamed with a shine unlike any Elena had ever seen. She didn’t doubt Helena at all, but weren’t demons supposed to be evil? Weren’t they supposed to only want destruction?

“You’re supernatural, like Ava. Why would you want to help me kill her?”

Helena disappeared into a cloud of black smoke and then reappeared right next to her, holding the knife mere inches away from her face, its blade catching bits of the light from the twinkling chandeliers just above them.

“Because I believe in justice. Now, do you want the knife or not?”

It was hard to believe a demon could ever believe in justice, but an even harder thing to deal with would be if Ava kept living, if Terrance continued to make the wrong choice, if…

Her heart hurt with the idea of killing Terrance, but if their connection had died down because of Ava, then what was the point of going on and pretending?

Elena took the knife and thus, Helena disappeared right before her eyes.

……………………………………………………………………………………

Once Elena had gotten home, she headed straight to her and Terrance’s bedroom, intending to wait for him to come over so she could do her work, but when she got there, she saw him there already, sitting on their bed, looking through the photo album.

“You know, Elena…how you’re treating Ava is incredibly unfair. Let her dance just as you did when you were younger. You’re not afraid of my parents, are you?”

Elena’s hand that held the knife shook a little, but she tried to keep a firm grip on it. Whatever they once had, it was gone. Ava had come between them and it was up to her to end it. She had made it to the bed and was crawling on it, still holding the knife.

“You never know what could happen.” Elena said, hating the way her own voice wavered a little. She had to be strong. She had to be confident. The man on the bed was nothing but a hazy dream whose mind was clouded by witches. The best way that she save him was with the silver blade in her hand.

“Elena, are you alright? You sound-“

Elena pushed Terrance down and stabbed him swiftly, fluidly, as if her fingers were writing a new melody for the world to sing. She did with a ferocity she did not know was possible, breaking through his flesh so much so that it looked like the blooming red wound was eating him alive. She couldn’t stand his confusion, his tears, so she kept stabbing until he wasn’t breathing, until all the lovely light from his brown eyes had withered away into a dull stare.

“Don’t cry. He loved a monster. I helped you a little with the stabbing part, but you did most of it. What a splendid job you did!” Helena’s voice cried out joyfully.

Elena hadn’t even realized it until Helena pointed it out, but tears were blurring her eyes, and her chest heaved and caved in on itself as she stared at his beaten, bleeding body.

Right then and there, she was certain that if only it had just been the two of them, they could have had a life of wonder, together.

And how beautiful that life would have been.

……………………………………………………………………………………

Elena had since walked out of their bedroom, the blood on the knife having disappeared, courtesy of Helena. She said that it would come back again right after Elena killed Ava and that she would have to clean it up, but Elena didn’t mind that.

Her heart was filled with a new resolve to let Ava know the pain she felt with having a witch for a daughter, with having to kill Terrance, with all her joy replaced with a grim, unrelenting heaviness.

“Hello, Mom! I hope that you had fun at your dancing lessons! I’m sure that you do, for nothing else matters once you dance, you’re free to do as you please. You might have even performed at the theater in your dancing school. I think that you did and if so, then that’s wonderful! If not, then I still think that what you do is wonderful, because I want to do it and I’ve been wanting to dance for a long time! I know that I’m a witch, but you don’t need to be afraid! There’s nothing to be scared of. I’ve been dancing on my own and practicing with Dad and what would really make me happy is if you let me take dancing lessons at your school and maybe even dance at your theater! I could make new friends, too. Wouldn’t that be amazing? I think so!” Ava beamed.

Elena had made it to the parlor room of the house, where she found Ava standing there, as though she were waiting for Elena. The knife was hidden in the pockets of Elena’s dress, so Ava did not see it. She only smiled at Elena as if she were only a child, someone to be loved and cherished.

How could Ava be so cruel?

“And you want to dance? Out there? For everyone to see you?” Elena asked, not attempting to hide the bile in her voice.

How dare Ava ask to dance, how dare she not care about the others, but then again, was Elena really surprised? Ava would always be a selfish, life-sucking witch.

“Yes, mother. I want to dance at your school. For everyone to see me. Isn’t that the point of your dance school? For students to be seen? I know that you haven’t been teaching me, but I’ve been learning with Dad, and I want to dance at the local theater. Won’t you let me go?” Ava asked.

Again, Ava was being as formal as she could be, even with the bit of annoyance in her voice. She was trying to trick Elena into letting her live and if Elena fell for it, then she would never be able to dance freely again, then Ava would go out into the real world, and she would make others suffer. Ava was a witch, so that was always possible, that could always happen when Elena least expected it and so, Elena had to do the right thing.

“I don’t intend for a witch to perform at my theater.” Elena seethed.

That, that got Ava to crack, for something flickered over her face and her expression contorted into something harsh and grim, something that Elena would only see in the old, grizzled hags that cursed the Princesses in her childhood fairytale books.

“It’s not my fault that I’m a witch! Some people are born witches, some aren’t. You always act like I’m to blame for being born! You never let me dance with the others! I never asked to be a witch!” Ava screeched, something like tears staining her brown eyes.

Golden light spilled from Ava’s fingertips, golden light that emanated scalding-hot heat that Elena could feel on the ground. Ava was trying to kill her, to tear her apart, but Elena would not let that happen.

She took out the knife and held it out, not quite sure what to expect, but amazed that it seemed to suck up the gold of Ava’s magic, just like Helena said it would.

The anxiety in Ava’s eyes was so satisfactory that for the first time in many years, Elena felt a real smile creep up on her face.

“This knife takes away your magic. You can’t kill me, Ava. Your father is gone, and now you’ll be gone. I’m finally going to get rid of the witch.”

Ava’s magic was something that Elena feared would rock the world, but with that knife, all would become right. The magic was heavy as it shook the ground, yet Elena held on to the knife, just as she kept dancing to whatever song would propel her, never stopping, never ceasing, never giving up.

Sure enough, Ava began to sway back and forth, the golden light from her fingers sputtered as weak sparks, then there were no sparks, then Ava’s body hit the polished floor as the deadweight it was.

All the horrors were all gone.

……………………………………………………………………………………

Elena was back in her and Terrance’s bedroom, cleaning off the blood on the knife. Helena had put it back on just like she said that she would. Elena had to clean it up and think about what she would do with dancing all alone her whole life.

It may have been lonely, but it was significantly better than having to live with people who drained her. Right? Right. Terrance drained her by making her feel as though how she treated Ava was wrong and Ava drained her from having the audacity to exist. That was why Elena listened to a demon. Because they made her. Because they drove her to it. If it wasn’t for them, she-

Elena screamed, dropping the knife. Claws were ripping up through her body, something from behind was attacking her. But what? What could it be? It wasn’t Helena, right? Helena helped her be free of them, she wouldn’t just turn around and hurt Elena. Helena was a demon, but she was different, because she only wanted to give Elena justice. But who else would have the claws, then? Who else would have the guts to break Elena as though she were nothing more than paper?

Her vision was all blurred, her head was all woozy, but as she fell to the ground, Elena caught a glimpse of…

Bright pink hair?! But how?! She was killed…Elena took her magic…took her essence…

And yet, like a cockroach, Ava was still standing.