Hi there, my name is Quisha Tony. People call me Qui, but it doesn’t really matter to me. My life is so boring, I was hating life for a while, but ever since I heard a workmate of mine talking about some horror movie, I decided to try watching it, although at first I highly doubt that it wouldn’t be interesting at all.

Although it completely changed the first few minutes. I was literally screaming and squeezing my pillow tightly when I felt like a jumpscare was coming, or when a jumpscare happened.

Ever since then, I got invested in horror things and I started watching more horror movies and such. Although not too much since I don’t have a lot of money to just spend on a horror movie, I still need the money for a living.

It was really interesting, watching the horror movie that day. I didn’t regret it at all, it was so thrilling and exciting, maybe because I’ve never been scared or even jumpy of anything in my life ever since my parents died.

My parents died by suicide, my father was an alcoholic and one day he realized all his wrong doings and decided to die by overdosing, I was 8 at the moment. I was sad, but I thought I had to stay strong for my mother, since she must be the one who had been putting up with so much stress and frustration.

For a week, I took care of mom, I let her rest and I never asked her to do house chores. I was the one who did the house chores all week. I called the school and told them that I won’t be going to school for a few weeks due to my father’s death and of course, they couldn’t disagree.

In that one week, all my mother did was sleep and cry. She also ate and took a bath, but it was never by her own will. I was the one who fed her and washed her body.

After 5 days, she tried offering her help to do the chores and work, but I didn’t allow her. I couldn’t possibly find a job and work, but it was fine since we had enough savings for at least 3 weeks.

After a week of doing all that, I caught a cold and wasn’t able to do anything. My mother had started getting better the day before, so she was able to do the house chores and take care of me.

Soon, it was all getting better and I came back to school. Sometimes I’d cry alone over my father’s death and sometimes my mother would do the same, but I was always near her presence whenever she did so, therefore I could let her know that she’s not alone.

Although it’s clearly a different case for me. I never got bullied at school or anything, but I’ve never had friends. It was like I was invisible, they just couldn’t notice me. I don’t think I’ve ever made eye contact with anyone at school either.

Mother was able to start working and provide us food with the money she got. Although one day, she was walking across the street, she.. was hit by a car. I was 15 at that time.

She passed away and it was just like that. I’ve had my scary and terrifying moments, like getting stalked, but it ended up with me beating the crap out of that guy.

I didn’t kill him, of course. I just bit him when he walked faster towards me and finally touched me. It wasn’t in an inappropriate way of touching, but him stalking me was already inappropriate.

I bit his arm and knocked him out. Then I gave him to the police. There was also a time where I almost got kidnapped, but before I was able to breathe in the scent from the napkin he was suffocating me with, I managed to kick the guy’s shin and ran away.

I wasn’t scared, but it surely made me shocked and maybe sort of pissed. Anyways, it was just like that basically. Ever since my mom died, I was taken care of by my grandma, but she died when I was at legal age, 19 years old.

So I was able to rent an apartment with the money that I earned by working at a coffee shop. I didn’t bother going to college since I can’t afford it. Everything was just as normal and boring as it is, until I heard some workers at the coffee shop talking about this horror movie called ‘The Dancing Lady’.

They acknowledge me, sometimes, but they sometimes ignore me, I always knew whenever they were purposely ignoring me. It piqued my interest when they said the word, “horror movie” so I went closer to them.

“What are you guys talking about?” I asked. They seemed shocked since I never really asked for anything that wasn’t work related, but proceeded to answer.

“Oh, um we were talking about this horror movie called ‘The Dancing Lady’ I watched it and it was really scary, it gives me shivers thinking about it and what was even more interesting is that her name was so similar to yours, Qui”. One of them, known as Jayline, answered my question.

I grew more interested and slightly confused, so I took a deep breath and asked,“What’s her name?” I revealed a slightly confused and curious expression. She seemed to express a scared expression and whispered,“Quwisa”.

Then she shouted something about the movie being super scary but I could care less as I was in my own mind. I grew more interested and my heart beat faster, out of nervousness and excitement.

Her name was really similar to mine and I thought that I definitely have to watch this movie, someday. There goes this day, the day I’m going to watch that movie, ‘The Dancing Lady’. 

Yesterday, I got fired due to spilling coffee on an important customer. I was frustrated. He was the one who groped my *** and made me stumble which made the hot coffee pour down to his thighs and it was seriously my fault, just wow.

I decided to relieve my stress I had gone through from working at that coffee shop by coming to the cinema and watching a horror movie. I had more than enough money for the things I need in a day plus watching a movie.

So, here I am right now, sitting on one of these red chairs, the popcorn box sitting in my lap. The movie started and I gave my full attention to it. After an hour, the movie ended. It was so terrifying and I loved it.

I could watch the second time and I wouldn’t feel bored. I would even still jump and yelp whenever the jumpscares came. It was very interesting and I bought the novel that came out before the movie.

The movie was about..

A lady, she was in her 30s and she was a ballerina for 15 years. She was absolutely beautiful, everyone loved her. Her fluent and tranquil movements, with her outstanding and elegant red tutu.

Her red tutu matched with her shiny and long black hair. She wore this outfit for her big, international performance. She was about to be known by the whole world for her incomparable beauty of dancing.

Just as she was putting her makeup in the mirror, that woman appeared. That lady widened her eyes in horror. She took a scissor nearby and stabbed the mirror. The staff were gone and it was her with her alone.

The woman in the mirror choked the lady to death. The lady was floating in the air as her neck was strangled. When the staff came back, all they saw was the pale, dead body of the lady.

I tried to check who the author was, but to my unfortune, they were unknown. I sighed as I checked the time. It was already 9 pm and I had dined earlier at the mall, so I changed my clothes and went to sleep.

I woke up in the morning and I was panting. My whole body was sweating, I had a nightmare about the movie ‘The Dancing Lady’. I shook it off as I was used to getting nightmares whenever I watched a horror movie and started doing my daily routine.

I  finished my routine and started walking. I passed by a few posters about hiring people and tried to contact some of them, but they all had hired someone. Just then, I saw a ballet competition in the corner of my eye.

I couldn’t help but walk closer towards it. Then I saw that it’s actually new and that I could join. I got excited, but then I frowned. Why did I get excited? I never cared about these things.

Just then, I saw the prize. It was 10 million dollars. I was shocked and all my thoughts about earlier disappeared. I smiled and cheered, I’m definitely gonna join this competition.

Without thinking, I called the number and registered as a contestant. After I hung up, I was hit by reality and my realization came through. I can’t even dance, how am I supposed to win this?!?!

Then I ran home as I started learning about ballet dancing. Thank God the audition was still in 4 weeks. So I still had time to practice and learn about ballet dancing.

While learning to dance, I felt sort of strange at times. Sometimes it sort of felt like someone was guiding me, or.. controlling me. I shook it off though, but that wasn’t it.

At times, I also felt like someone was touching me, for example when I was trying the split, which I was having troubles with, I felt someone touch my shin. Just then, I forced myself to do the split and I was able to do so.

But I had trouble standing up, just then, I felt someone touch my arms, as if lifting me up, out of reflex, my leg bent itself and I was able to stand up. Some other strange things happened too, but I shook it off thinking I watched too many horror movies.

I woke up in horror, I had a nightmare. My nightmare was about me, in the toilet, in front of the mirror, washing my hands. Just as I stared at my reflection with a blank expression, my reflection smiled while I was still having a blank expression.

I was surprised and my reflection smirked, just then, my reflection expressed an angry expression and choked me through the mirror, as I felt like I was about to die from running out of oxygen and how it feels like having my throat smashed, I woke up.

I was confused and horrified, this never happened to me. Despite the fact that I watch horror movies and it gives me nightmares when I go to bed, it’s never a nightmare that is actually related to ghosts or demons.

Usually it’d only be like I was stabbed by a man in black or something like that, it wasn’t that scary cause it didn’t feel that real and I was aware that I’m in the dreamland.

I shook my confusion off and started doing my everyday routine. I thought that it must’ve been because I was too tired yesterday, although it makes no absolute sense.

Afterwards, I checked my savings, seeing if I had enough savings for a living for more than a month, since I knew the dance competition wasn't gonna come that quickly and it’s not like I will just win out of luck, so I need to practice.

Just then, I realized I had more savings than I thought. I had enough savings for living for more than 3 months. I didn’t realize that I had been living that frugally. Welp, this is a great thing for me, so I should be grateful for it.

I open the refrigerator to see if there’s still any food left and much to my luck, there is an apple. I took the apple and sniffed it, it still smelled fresh. I bit it and it was my breakfast for the day.

After I finished, I played with my phone for a few hours, letting the food digest in my stomach before practicing to dance ballet. After a few hours, I decided to go out, maybe if I’m lucky enough I could find a ballet or dance studio where they have all those mirrors reflecting all your movements and everything that I can use with not too much payment.

I took a walk around, not really rushing as I’m enjoying the slightly shivering wind. I was searching on my phone for ballet or dance studios that are near my apartment. I found a few but I need to pay quite the amount of money to use it.

After 20 minutes of walking and for my last hope, I found it, the payment is actually really cheap, but I was wondering why there wasn’t anyone around that studio and when I walk in and said I wanted to use the studio, the person seems frightened as they took the money in a swift and ran out.

I decided not to think too much about it. It felt sort of thrilling because the place was like in those horror movies, dark, spiderwebs, a little dusty and just pitch silent, like a jumpscare is about to come, but I know what’s reality or not, so I wasn’t too immersed with this scary place either way.

I went up to the second floor and saw a door, it said ‘practice room’ I lightened up, thinking it must be the room and went inside. To my surprise, the room is very clean and the mirror walls were all glossy and shiny, which seems a little strange, but maybe it’s nothing to really worry about.

I started setting up the music, doing the exercises I remembered from Yesterday. I exercised and everything and started trying some moves I watched from youtube this morning. I soon got a hang of the tempo and everything and was dancing calmly while looking at my reflection in case something looks wrong somehow, I truly need this money.

Suddenly the music seemed to glitch and it suddenly switched to another music, but it seems the same. It’s just a little bit scarier somehow, although it still sounds like music you can use for ballet, so I just continued, following the new tempo, trying to get my body adjusted.

I’m still not perfect yet, I can’t do spins, I can’t throw my leg high or jump split, but I can spin and make some fluent and gentle movements still. So at least it was a progress, I concentrated on my reflection for a few minutes when the pitch went down slightly and made the music sound much scarier.

I brushed it off and continued watching my own reflection, but out of a sudden, the room seemed much darker and as I continued concentrating on my reflection, it smiled.. My reflection smiled and my eyes widened in shock. I'm not smiling, but my reflection suddenly smirked, “h-huh?-”.

Just as I backed away from my reflection, I felt a shadow overshadowing me and that was the last thing I saw before everything went black.

I woke up, still inside the studio. “Did I faint?..” I asked myself out loud. I tried to think about what made me black out, but I couldn’t remember a thing. I checked the time, it’s 7 pm. It’s been really long, so I decided to go home.

I went downstairs, it was much darker, it was actually really scary. I turned on the flashlights on my phone to see the path clearer. I went outside, there were flickering street lights, but I could still see the path clearly, despite the chill and shivers I got due to how silent the street was.

I walked at a slightly faster pace than usual since it was really scary, it isn’t as thrilling or exciting anymore. I was scared, I loved watching horror related things but I never wanted or even think of it happening to me even once, ever. As I walked, I felt like someone was following me.. I decided not to look back, but I tried side eyeing whoever that is, just to see if I could see their distance with me.

I was trying hard to try to see whoever is following me while side eyeing them, starting to slightly shift my head a bit cause I want to see, I want to know. Just then, I felt a presence in front of me..

I slowly turned my slightly shift head to look in front..

..

It was a woman.. but she was smiling at me ever so terrifyingly, her teeth were bloody and ugly, it was disgusting my stomach churned, her eyes were wide open, so widely opened but it was practically pitch black and blood so as black liquid started pouring out of her eyes and she laughed deafeningly.

So I ran, I ran and ran. Soon I got to the actual street around my neighborhood, there were some people walking around. I gasp for air. I felt like I was being choked, I was suffocating and I couldn't breathe. It was so terrifying I started hyperventilating. After a while, I calmed myself down, still very horrified of the earlier incident, I walked quickly back home.

The woman was especially terrifying. Her eyes were black, black colored tears flowing and she had lots of scars around her body, not to mention her explicitly pale body, almost the same color as white, but it’s still skin, so it’s quite different.

I went home, I ate some snacks I still have at my house. I tried to distract myself from earlier incident in which fortunately it worked, but it didn't last very long either. I decided not to take a shower, still scared about earlier events. I went to my bedroom, laid down and tucked myself under the blanket. I hugged my pillow as I try hard not to think about before but it clearly did not work and I eventually had to cry myself to sleep, so as I got exhausted of crying due to fear, I started drifting to unconsciousness.