the deadly juggling kid- a vampire across the hall story.
by Leann Richards
copyright 2015 Leann Richards
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For Ami
The sun set in a blaze of crimson splashes and yellow streaks. The day had been hot, too hot to move, but the soft evening breezes had woken the trees which whispered softly in the night air.
It was a Wednesday. That meant juggling night in Newtown. The zombies were restless but the jugglers were determined and stubborn. There had been no shoe incidents for months and everything was back to normal, or as normal as it could be in Newtown.
Ima sat on the steps outside Saint Stephen's hall, watching the white roses blooming calmly underneath the crescent moon.
Life had changed for her in the last few months. She now had a mum and dad and that was cool, but an unfortunate side effect of finding her parents was the discovery of a younger, and very annoying sister.
Ima sighed and slumped her shoulders which cast grey shadows in the light that spilled through the doorway and onto the gravestones of the nearby cemetery.
Behind her she could hear her father speaking to Aaron, the chief juggler of Newtown. Snatches of their conversation floated into the air, surrounding her like mosquitoes buzzing around her head.
'passing...two count....three count...cross patterns...'
She sighed again.
To her left she could see her friend Daisi, leaning on the railing staring up at the sky deep in thought. For a brief moment, Ima was tempted to walk over and talk to her. But then she remembered that Daisi was in love, and was totally boring now. She kept walking around with a silly smile on her face and sighing a lot.
Ima sighed. Love, ewwww, what a horrible thing. She shuddered as she remembered the icky talk they gave at school last month, and then there was partner dancing. She'd like to tell Daisi about that, but she knew that Daisi just wasn't listening to anything these days.
And that was the problem. Nobody was listening. Here she was on a Wednesday night at juggling, and there were no kids. There were never any kids ,it was boring, nobody to play with, nobody to talk to and nobody to have fun with. Adults were boring, life was boring and it was all just......
'boring'
The voice emerged from the darkness as if reading her mind. Ima looked out, but could see nothing until a slice of shining moon was revealed by a passing cloud. And there, in front of her, stood a girl around her own age. She had black hair, much like Ima's own, and was wearing an old fashioned pink dress with puffy sleeves and wide red sash. The girl smiled,
'What's your name?'
Ima jumped up startled, 'Ima, what's yours?'
The girl giggled, her ringletted hair jiggled, and there was a slight tinkling sound as her head moved.
'Guess.;
Ima laughed, ' you look like an.....mmmm...Alice... is it Alice?'
The girl giggled again, the light from the hall surrounded her like a halo, and a misty haze surounded her feet.
'Alice?....what a good guess...you're right. It's Alice.'
'Really? No way!'
'Yes Way.' Said Alice.
C'mon, let's go inside and have some fun.'
Ima jumped to her feet and the two girls skipped through the door towards the light.
Inside, the jugglers were frantically juggling to create a barrier that would preserve Newtown from the threatening hordes of zombies who lived in St Stephen's Cemetery. The best juggler in Australia was there that night, trying to master the 1080, a triple turn with balls in the air. He wasn't being very successful and his curses could be heard echoing through the hall.
The great juggling mathematician was also there, twirling some clubs and muttering about quartic surfaces. And there were ladies as well. Facing the wall and juggling four balls was the warm heated and magical Miranda, whose smile could melt the heart of even the most hardened zombie.
Ima knew and loved these people, they were generous, funny and kind, but they were adults and had a tendency to dismiss or ignore her, and that was frustrating.
Ima and Alice ran into the hall and stopped.
Ima picked up a juggling ball and turned to Alice,
'Look at this'
She threw the ball into the air and pirouetted in a circle, neatly catching the ball when it fell.
Ima held the ball out to Alice, 'go on you try, it's fun.'
Alice shook her head, ' I know something more fun.'
'What?'
'Watch.'
Ima watched as Alice crept up behind the best juggler in Australia, suddenly she stopped, and reaching up, pursed her lips and started to blow upwards towards the balls that the juggler had thrown in the air. They halted, changed direction, and then, abruptly, thumped down upon the poor unfortunate man's head...plop, plop, plop, plop plop..
He frantically tried to dodge them, but to no avail, and he fell to the ground moaning and cursing about untamed juggling balls.
Alice ran away laughing, a silvery tinkling sound amongst the curses. Ima couldn't help it, she started laughing too and soon the two girls were laying on the floor, laughing so hard their sides were aching.
'That was hilarious.' Ima gasped.
'I know' answered Alice. 'Your turn..'
'My turn?' Ima turned towards her new friend curiously.
'I double dare you to trip up somebody with their juggling clubs..'
'But...won't that hurt them?'
'Nah.' sneered Alice.' are you chicken?'
'Nope.' Ima stood up determinedly, and looked around for somebody to trip up.
She noticed that the tall mathematician was staring vacantly in the direction of her father and Aaron who were bent over intently discussing something.
His clubs were on the floor on his left side.
Ima slowly walked in the mathematician's direction, and then casually, slowly, and without anybody noticing, nudged them behind him. Then she crept away and called his name.
The mathematician turned, then tripped on his juggling clubs, falling flat onto his face with a satisfying thump.
Ima turned to see Alice rolling on the floor clutching her stomach in glee and ran towards her panting.
'Did you see that?'
Suddenly, the mathematician sat up and Ima could see splashes of bright red on his face, his glasses had broken and cut him, his nose was bloody and mangled.
Alice started laughing harder. 'The blood, the blood, how delicious, that's fantastic..' she gasped.
Ima looked at her in disbelief. 'that's not funny. He's hurt'
Alice looked at her incredulously, ' Ahhh C'mon, it's just an accident, he'll be alright.'
Ima's dad and Aaron ran towards the stricken juggler and helped him to his feet, Miranda shouted
'I'll get some towels.' and the mathematician, dazed, stuttered, 'it's OK, I'm OK just an accident.
Ima couldn't take her eyes from the scene, she was hypnotised by the redness of the blood bursting from the wound. Alice followed her gaze with interest, and Ima looked into her blue eyes for the first time and noticed that they seemed limitless, empty, and shining with a glint of menace.
'Who are you?' She whispered
Alice smiled and showed a
hint of white sharp teeth, 'I'm Alice'.
'What are you?' Ima corrected.
Alice smiled wider, ' I'm just a girl, like you.'
Ima breathed deeply, she shrugged. Alice was strange, true, but she probably was just a girl. Anyway, she tried to hold back a smile, it was kind of fun to see the adults running around the place all worried, and after all, the mathematician wasn't really hurt too badly. Even as she thought it, she could see him smiling underneath the bloody towel that was being pressed to his face.
'OK.' She turned to Alice, 'let's do something else.'
Alice looked at her closely, 'OK. Let's explore. What's in there?' She pointed to a door underneath the stage that stood at the back of the hall.
Ima shrugged, 'I'm not sure. We're not allowed in there, Aaron won't let us.'
'Aaron won't let us' .Alice mimicked her words in a sing song voice .'Aaron's busy, let's look.'
They tiptoed towards the stage and dashed quickly down the steps that led to the door and opened it. Ima peeked over Alice's shoulder and was amazed at what confronted her.
It was dark, but as her eyes grew used to it, she could see boxes which seemed to sparkle. Edging closer she looked in one and saw that it was filled with tinsel, the one next to it had sparkling stars, and the one next to that, glitter. Ima was thrilled, she plunged her hands into the box of tinsel and threw it in the air. It fell to the floor like softly tumbling snow , glistening in the light which shone through a small slit window.
Alice looked on smiling, as Ima twisted herself in the glittery folds and covered her face and hands in glitter. Alice laughed, as Ima twirled and skipped and indulged in touching, smelling, playing and watching the specks of light flashing before her eyes. Soon Ima had forgotten all about injured jugglers and was immersed in joy.
Then the light came on.
'Ima!' It was Aaron, 'What are you doing here? You're not allowed to be here. Come out.'
Ima glanced at Alice, who had hidden behind the door and put her finger to her lips. Ima glanced at Aaron, and with a sigh, said
'I'm sorry Aaron, I was just playing.'
'Look you're just not allowed in here Ima. OK?' he replied and ushered her out of the room. Alice followed them.
Aaron left them, alone, in the middle of the hall. Ima turned towards Alice to ask a question and was shocked to see her eyes narrowed and her full pink lips frowning ferociously.
Alice hissed, ' I don't like him.'
'Really? He's Ok, he's a friend of my dad and my dad is cool'
Alice snarled, ' I don't like him.'
Ima tried to change the topic of conversation. 'Let's do something else, that was fun.'
Alice looked at her with a smile.
'OK, let's. I have an idea, it's my turn anyway.'
'OK' Ima was relieved to see that Alice seemed happy again.
'What are you going to do?'
'Watch'
Ima watched as Alice approached Aaron and her dad. They were passing juggling clubs to each other in a smooth pattern and chatting at the same time. The clubs whirled and whizzed past their heads in perfect circular arcs. Their silver handles flashed like miniature suns under the artificial light and the men's arms moved in perfect rhythm.
As Alice neared them, she looked over her shoulder at Ima and smiled, a smile that showed her tiny pointed teeth. She approached them from behind, stealthily and silently. Then suddenly she whistled, a loud piercing whistle that echoed through the hall loudly.
The juggling pattern completely broke down. One club flew to the ceiling, where it lodged, handle down, another hit Ima's dad on the forehead, knocking him flat to his back and another, Ima watched, as it slowly twirled, flew in the air in an arc and as Aaron turned his head, lodged directly, into his eye. And then, in an act of horrible , terrible, evil, Alice held up a hand, and seemed to pluck out the club, which fell from his eye. There was a revolting squishy sound and a shadow, a round shadow fell directly from his head.
Ima screamed.
She ran towards Alice screaming, 'No, No, No, stop it stop it . I hate you, I hate you. Go away. I don't want to play with you anymore.'
Alice looked at her with a puzzled expression, all Ima could see was Aaron, slowly falling to the ground and a shape, round and small falling beside him, her eyes filled with tears, as she ran towards Alice.
'I hate you, I hate you, I'm not doing what you say anymore.' And then, Ima slipped on a juggling club and she fell to her back, the lights above shimmered in her eyes and everything faded to black.
She was sitting on the steps of St Stephens hall, the breeze was whispering in the trees, and the white roses bloomed softly next to her, their thorns perilously close to her hand. Ima leapt to her feet and ran in the door, 'Aaron, Aaron' , she yelled.
and then she saw them, Aaron and her dad, their heads bent over a table, writing something and murmuring about 'passing, patterns, two counts, three counts.'
Aaron turned towards her,
'What is it Ima?'
His face was unmarked, he was perfect. She threw herself into his arms.
'Nothing Aaron, Nothing.'
The chief juggler of Newtown, awkwardly disengaged himself from Ima's arms.
'ummm, Ok.'
Ima looked around the hall and couldn't see Alice anywhere.
The mathematician was juggling and his nose looked fine. The best juggler in Australia was juggling and dropping balls and swearing, but they weren't hitting him on the head. Everything was as it should be, and yet, there was something.
One of the lights was flickering, and there was a cool breeze coming in from the back door, and Ima thought she heard a giggle, and a little silvery bell. She shook her head, she must have fallen asleep outside and dreamed it all.
Then she saw a shadow, a vague patch of darkness, and a shiver went down her spine as she saw a flash of scarlet. She squinted her eyes, but was relieved when she realised it was only Daisi.
Her friend smiled at her.
'Hi Ima, where's that girl that I saw you with earlier? She seemed nice.'
The End.
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