ACT I

The princess ballerina...
Her porcelain skin and ethereal grace, frozen in time by skilled hands.
The delicate half-lidded blue eyes.
Her perfect point.

Her prince searches, high and low...
One day, he will find her.
Until then she stays dancing, moving slowly.
She is confident he will find her.

She spins, forever, to the sound of the twinkling music...

Perfectly...

The music stops.

Her flawless skin melts away.
Her sky blue eyes fade.
She stops spinning, and simply stands...
Eventually she chips away, piece by piece.
All that is left is a small ivory slipper.

Her prince fell for another...
He forgot her...
He was not coming for her.
No one was coming for her.

Plié. Demi plié. Soutenu en tournant. Arabesque...

No! I need to be lower! My foot needs to be higher!

I grab the elastic on my wrist and snap it as hard as I can. Then swiftly, I sraighten myself up and start from the beginning of the routine. Second position. Demi plié. Soutenu en tournant. Arabesque. Fifth position. Entrechat. Échappé.

"No!"

I snap the elastic again. It breaks and flies across the room and hits the mirrorred wall at the end. The red ring around my wrist is not punishment enough. I must be perfect...

Quickly I run to my bag and sift through it. I pop open a small bottle and pour out three pills. I swallow them.

Standing back up, I go over the intro song in my head. I will get to watch from the sidelines as she dances onstage with her toy. She will fool everyone. But not me... no, she has never fooled me. She is far from the girl the world sees, far from the perfection people think she is.

Her long brown hair and big innocent eyes hide the evil that I know lays inside her heart. They see her as kind, smart, talented, graceful... They see me as mean, snobby, discarded, awkward. All because I hide in her shadow. All because I am painfully shy.

But no more of the old me remains. She has crossed the line. I had always done ballet... recently she joined, and turned out better than me. I had always liked, and recently loved, Link. She swept him away and now keeps him under lock and key as her boytoy. Everything that was supposed to be mine, she took.

I look to my left at the mirrored wall. In the reflection I see a pale girl with big grey eyes, pin-straight blonde hair, a big nose, pointy shoulders, knobby knees... People tell me that I am beautiful. We are semi-identical, after all, but I know they all believe that she is the prettier twin. People tell me that I am not fat, that I am skinny. I don't believe that either.

Suddenly the girl in the mirror morphs into the one I hate most. She stands there, in her fancy crimson costume, grinning at me like there is nothing wrong with the world. Screeching, I punch her with all of the strength I can muster. The glass shatters and rains around me.

I start to panic when I see her ugly head on every single shard. I turn around, but she is on the mirror behind me. I am surrounded by her.

"What's wrong, dear sister? Aren't you happy?"

Her falsely sweet voice makes me sick.

"You are my understudy! You should be proud."

I don't want to be proud. I have failed! I was not perfect, I failed! But she wasn't perfect either! She deserves nothing!

"Dear sister, you are mistaken... I deserve the world on it's knees."

"STOP!" I scream at the top of my lungs, frantically scratching my ears. "STOP! SHUT UP!"

I don't want to hear her voice. I don't want to see her. I want her to go away! I want her to die! I want her to go away and die, to leave me in her wake, to finally let me be perfect and claim what was always mine!

The door to the studio opens and reveals Link's understudy. He furrows his brows when he notices the blood spattered on my milky white costume, as well as the shards on the floor.

"Did someone... break in or something?" He inquires, ruffling his red hair a little.

I shake my head no and slowly walk over to my bag. My hands are shaking. As I am putting my belongings back, I feel her eyes piercing me. Taunting me. In my head I hear her voice; she tells me I am fat. She tells me I am useless.

I leap in surprise when I feel a hand against my back. My partner studies me with his deep blue eyes. He narrows them at me.

"Are you high?" His question is nonchalant.

"I took three pills." My answer is murmured as I continue packing my things.

He nods as if it was perfectly normal. He understands that I need to take my medicine. He never asks why I take them.

"Are you leaving? I need to practice. It would be best if we could together."

I stop in the process of zipping my bag and just let it lay on the floor. I don't want to go home to her. Slowly I make my way to the center of the room and get in position for the first act while my partner starts the music.

The act starts out slowly, with a fragile girl waking in an abandoned hospital. She has no memories of her past, and she is trapped inside her own hallucinations. In the hospital also awakes a boy, who hears the girl screaming; he sets out to find her. He stops her from accidentally killing herself during one of her trances, but, still not having come out of it, she almost kills him.

I move as gracefully as I can, letting passion and emotion imbue my movements. With all of the strength I can muster I masterfully twirl and dance. My partner and I join; together we move as one... He dips me down low, and our eyes meet for a split-second.

I scream. Blood soaks his bright red hair and coats his pale skin, turning them a dark vermilion. His eyes reflect pain. His skin starts to peel off- it's disgusting, but I can't look away. His lips are cracked like old porcelain. He mouths something, then his whole body shatters completely. I scream again, hysterical sobs starting to inch their way in to my screeches.

"Sheik!" He shouts, holding my shoulders and scanning my face. I bring my hands up and cover my mouth. Roy looks perfectly fine. His hair and skin are not stained crimson. His cerulean eyes are still alive. I take a deep breath.

"I'm fine, Roy. Let's continue."

He stares at me for a second with a disappointed look on his face, then goes and rewinds the music a bit. We start practicing again.

A/N: Derp. I had this in my head for the longest time but didn't know how to put it down in writing. I feel kind of stupid for undertaking such a challenging piece (or at least challenging for me). I'm going to have some trouble mixing the horror/romance elements…

This story will be for PitFTW and Foxpilot's AU romance contest. Let me know what you think.

If you guys are confused about the French words in the beginning, they're ballet terms.

For those of you who read one of my other fics, Illuminated Faces, chapter 8 is postponed to next week because I have not had time to complete it.