Not So Graceful

The woman stands near the doorway as a little 6-year-old blonde girl plays in the backyard.

Woman: "Grace! Grace, not for long!"

Woman goes inside the house, leaving the little girl to play in the yard alone.

The red-haired girl of about 14 in a black dress, who had been watching all along with a cold darkened look, approaches.

The red-haired girl: "Hello."

Grace: - (turns her head, surprised and curious) "Who are you?"

The red-haired girl: - (gives a gentle smile, kneeling down to Grace and putting a flower into her hair) "Such a little sweetie here. What are you doing?"

Grace: - "Playing."

The red-haired girl: - "Playing what?"

Grace: - (Giggles) "Making salad."

The red-haired girl: - (Smiles) "Salad, mm." (Picks some more flowers, carefully plucking them, leaving only the stems) "here is your spinach."

Grace: - (Claps, giggling) "yummy!"

The red-haired girl: - "Know what, little Gracie?"

Grace: - "My name?" (Looks interested about how the stranger girl could know her name)

The red-haired girl: - "Mm-hmm... you remember your big brother?"

Grace: - "Big brother..." (turns a little sad) "mom said big brother is in heaven..."

The red-haired girl: - "No, he's not!" (Smiles a little more coldly) "I know where your brother is."

Grace: - (Astonished and preoccupied, looks up at her) "Where?"

The red-haired girl: - "Missed him, mm?" (Holds out her hand) "come with me, I'll lead you to him. He's already waiting for you."

Grace: - (Takes her hand) "He's not in heaven?"

The red-haired girl: - (Leads her away) "no, did your mom forget, he just ran away with friends. Not long ago, he returned and expressed his wish to see his pretty little sister."

Grace: - "Where has Jeremy been, miss?"

The red-haired girl: - "Where he's been..." (her expression darkens, though she doesn't let anything show) "that place doesn't exist anymore. Now he's waiting for you in a house on the hill."

Grace: - "That house?" (Points to the lonely abandoned house they're moving toward it)

The red-haired girl: - "Yes." (Her tone is not so sweet anymore, yet still remains gentle)

Grace: - "That house 'gives bad a... aure.'" (Tries to copy what she heard all the neighbors say about the house)

The red-haired girl: - "Want a tale?" (Her expression grows pained and even more darkened, but the tone of voice is ever steely) "In that house, there lived a family. Among them was Sunshine. Many years ago, bad monsters were hurting Sunshine, and Sunshine lost much brightness, but still never lost shine and hope. He fought through the darkness to find happiness, making a magical factory, starting a family. Yet even with family and friends around, Sunshine always felt sad and alone. Because family wouldn't understand and friends were just traitors who wanted to take his last glimpses of light. Dark veil kept sealing up on Sunshine, past monsters' demon spawn started showing up in Sunshine's magical factory. And then, once, Sunshine met a Little Witch. He shared all his woes with her, and she told Sunshine to take the diamond sword and smite the demons, hurting the monsters as well. Sunshine listened and did as she'd said. Monsters were defeated, they searched for their kin, but they would never find them ever again. With time, Sunshine and Little Witch grew closer, they became everything to each other. But... demons who had to be gone, they weren't. They roamed in the dark, craving to hurt Sunshine, waiting for their time. And... once, Sunshine went into the dark alone, without Little Witch knowing, and demons surrounded Sunshine, hurting him badly and nearly causing all shine to fade. Sunshine started calling Little Witch for help. And Little Witch felt the calls, she ran to the abandoned shell that had been Sunshine's factory before, and found Sunshine there. She did all she could to keep Sunshine's light, but nothing was enough. Sunshine was taken to the hospital, and after he'd told the Witch what'd happened, she burned the factory to the ground to finally destroy the evil demons. Little Witch had an only mission, to save Sunshine and return to him the light he'd lost. And for that now, she needed the magical potion called Vitae."

Grace: - (Listens intently all the way as both girls enter the house, doesn't take her eyes off of the older girl, genuinely fascinated by the story) "What does Vitae do?"

The red-haired girl: - (Smiles again, leading the little girl to the hidden elevator, after which they go down) "It can do a lot. Knew every person has some stardust inside themselves? This stardust is invisible, that's why no one knows about it, but it's there, it is what keeps your shine. Leaving reality, you let the starlight out, and out of it comes the blue shining liquid. It glows through the darkness, heals, keeps you out of cold and gives happiness. Makes the time reverse, brings back the frozen life. This is what Vitae is."

Grace: - (As they come out of the elevator into some dark place with monitors and other equipment around, Grace turns to the older girl, still very curious and smiling) "And how will the Little Witch get it?"

The red-haired girl: - (Stands in silence for a moment, her smile gradually fading off her apathetic face as she grips the shiny knife behind her back) "See, little Gracie, one of the monsters had a daughter. One of the demons had a little sister. I guess she will give me Vitae now."

Grace's smile fades into a confused look as she senses something is wrong, but the blood splashes sooner than she would have time to react to the older girl swinging the knife at her. And the underground chamber grows quiet.