This story was created for a contest hosted by The-Lunatic-Asylum: L'enfant Terrible: Fear of Dolls. I have been working on a longer piece heavily influenced by the history and world of ballet, and the contest theme inspired me to branch out with a story connected to the longer work. Interestingly, I was talking recently with someone about the ballet Coppelia, and this short story is a retelling, of sorts, of the ballet. It has been spliced with another ballet: Petrushka. Whereas Coppelia has a complicated history and takes inspiration from other sources of a darker tone, it is a lighthearted ballet. Petrushka, however, is an out and out tragedy. I have written my own macabre tragedy here, taking direct inspiration from, and retelling story elements of, both ballets. Certain details have been more heavily altered than others, but the inspiration is still there.
I hope that anyone reading this has enjoyed, or will enjoy, this tale. Writing it was a nice diversion. It also made me think, (as I have several times over the course of writing the longer work,) how messed up some ballet stories actually are once you put them into words. They're like those frogs whose venom goes into poison darts: beautiful to look at, but hiding some nasty surprises underneath.
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