Dancing On Your Grave - Chapter 1

Virginia Rapp walked toward the spiraling gate of the graveyard. She looked up at the wall, which she could just see over. Crypts, mausoleum, gravestones…it was all the same. Virginia’s jet black hair flew around her face as she stood standing at the gate. She closed her eyes. She could feel the leaves brushing against her boots. Her eyes opened to reveal the wood-brown color they possessed. She stepped toward the gate. She put both of her ever so pale arms on the gate and pushed. The gates opened. 
Virginia felt the spirits of the deceased incase her in their energy. They swirled and danced around her and she walked in. She loved that feeling. She could feel the hope of revolutionary soldiers lost to the war. She could feel the heat of the mother lost to yellow fever. She could feel the fear of the little girl taken by hypothermia in the river. She let them encase her and dance around her.
She looked up at the grey, clouded sky. She saw three crows fly above her. The wind sang as it swirled the tree branches. The smell of dirt and bodies of the taken occupied her nose. She heard nothing. Only the screams of the tortured, the helpless, and the unloved. The afternoon sky was just a void over Virginia’s head, making her contained. 
Virginia stepped onto the nearest crypt. The wind stopped. The leaves lay still. Virginia raised her arm, and did a pirouette on the crypt, she leaped down, and danced all around the graveyard. The spirits moved her body, helping her dance even when her eyes were not visible. Virginia trusted the energy around her. She let them guide her.
Virginia raised her arm and let the spirits help it go high in the sky the sky. She swung her whole body to the right, and jumped into the air. She let her other leg be pulled out and her arm raised. She did a spin, then launched herself on top of a pile of dirt in front of a gravestone. She frolicked around until she felt the spirits start to deteriorate, one by one. She let them stop her, and she opened her eyes to find herself in front of a grave. 
It was an interesting grave, it was curved at the stop with swirls and cuts along its sides. Virginia felt a strange sensation of being lost, and she knew that this spirit was unlike the others. Virginia didn’t know if she wanted to know who’s grave it was, for she knew that the spirits are sometimes very unappreciative if you call them by the wrong name or title. All of a sudden, she heard singing. It was a distant, beautiful voice. Virginia decided it was the spirits manipulating the wind. 
The voice trailed off. Virginia stayed right where she was, her feet at the base of the grave. She decided to read it. 

“Ella Black,
‘May the Addams dance on my grave, 
And only then I will rise’”

Virginia felt nothing, only hopelessness. She did not want to speak to this spirit, for she sensed too much pain in Ella’s soul that she would not be able to reconcile with her. She listened as the trees started to dance. Their leaves seemed to get brighter. She smelled the asphodels that lined the walls of the graves. She saw the petals fall to the ground, some being picked off, either by the wind of the spirits. 
Virginia walked to the gate. As she was just about to close the gate, she gelt a chill. She turned to see a girl in front of the grave. The girl had butterscotch hair, and eyes the matched the clouds. Her skin was a beige color, but it seemed that the life had gone out of her. She was wearing a black skirt with an embroidered shirt, but she had such a sad expression that you could tell that she was not alive. Her grave went paler to a whitish grey color, not the usual dark, worn grey. You could see the trees and the wall behind her, for she was not a solid specimen. 
The girl reached out, and Virginia stepped forward..then paused. The girl put down her hand, looked at the ground, and vanished. Virginia ran out without even closing the gate. Virginia all of a sudden felt scared. She had always felt comfort in the graveyard, surrounded by her family. But there was something there that she was not meant to discover yet. Virginia could tell. She ran past the river where many have drowned, she ran past the fields where many have been trampled, she ran down the dirt road past the forest where many have hid, she finally saw her house. The sight gave her comfort. 
The house of the Rapps was one out of Halloween myth. Planks broken, windows broken, the front porch practically non-exsistant. The house was a hazard, but that’s how they like it. 
Virginia leaped up onto the few spots on the porch that wouldn’t cripple under her weight. She opened the door, the creak alerted her mother, Desdemona, wherever she was in the fairly large house. She looked at her Shotel on the dusty, dirty coffee table in the living room. She had an idea placed in her head the last time she went to the graveyard that they did not appreciate it when she brought weapons. 
Virginia heard the pounding of her mothers shoes coming down through the house. 
“Virginia. Why, you’re back. How is the family graveyard today?” her mother said. Desdemona was not a sweet mother, but had a certain bitterness in her voice. Desdemona was not exactly a bad person, but she was not normal. She would play piano, and then pull out the keys. She would cook what Virginia caught, then she would go and look at ancient torture devices. 
The entire family was completely imprisoned in the darkness of their lives. Virginia’s father was usually in the basement, or in the living room reading the newspaper. The Rapps didn’t have a TV. That was something that Desdemona wanted Virginia, Lillith, and Cassius to experience, for Desdemona thought that there would be many older programs of darkness and torture that the three children could watch. 
Virginia was the oldest of her siblings. Being the first born in the family, Virginia inherited her mothers ability to sense energy and spirits on the other side. More like took. Once Virginia was four years old, her mother started to lose her sense of connection, and Virginia saw more and more people around her. Transparent, people. People other people couldn’t see.
Lillith was second oldest. She was a few years younger than Virginia. She also inherited her mother black hair and pale skin, but she did not have the abilities that Virginia had. Instead, strangely enough, Lillith got grey eyes and a startlingly pretty face, though Lillith was always saying that she wanted a Shotel like Virginia had. Lillith had always understood Virginia as best she could when she was going on and on about the spirits in the graveyard, but it was comforting to Lillith to know the darkness that the spirits brought to the family. 
Cassius was the youngest of the three. He was a year younger than Lillith, and the wittiest. He got his father dark brown hair, and his mother’s practically black eyes. He had taken a liking to climbing the trees near the graveyard, although Virginia was sensitive about anyone coming into the family burial grounds. 
“There’s a spirit that has just been awakened. I don’t speak her name,” Virginia replied. She grabbed her Shotel. “Where’s Lillith?” 
“Looking for the plants to put in dinner tonight, but she said she might go near the river for some Cattail or Milkweed,” Desdemona replied. Virginia spun her Shotel in her hand, and walked out the back door. 
Virginia had been in the graveyard for so long that she hadn’t noticed how terrible a day it was. The sky was grey, and the world seemed to be perfectly dark. Perfect for the Rapp family. The family seemed to be in a more foul mood than they usually were when the sun was out. Virginia walked toward the river behind their house, and as she did, she looked at the leaves on the ground. They almost completely covered the ground. The leaves were red with black streaks in the middle. That image was pleasing to Virginia. She eventually made it to the edge of the river. The stones were dark, and you couldn’t see the bottom of the shallow creek because it was covered in dark silt. The edge of the river was rocky and wet, making it hazardous. She smelled the milkweed. It smelled picked. She heard the shuffling of leaves and grass. She got out her Shotel, even though she knew it was Lillith. Through the trees, Lillith came out, and noticed that it was Virginia. 
“What do you want?” Lillith snapped at Virginia. “I’m trying to pick something truly awful for dinner either tonight or tomorrow night.”
“I just wanted to help you with that,” Virginia replied. “We can either be put in the dungeon for poisoning our parents, or we can get grounded by poisoning Cassius. Which do you want?”
Lillith thought about that. The “dungeon” was actually a playroom, for a normal family. It was a punishment for the Rapps to go in there. Being grounded was a reward. You stay in the house all day and get to play around the torture devices. Desdemona was always making sure that you were only getting half-harmed, not fully killed. As much as the Rapps loved death, they loved torture more. 
“What do you have in mind?” Lillith asked Virginia. 
“Horse nettle,” Virginia started. “Sneak it into Cassius’s berries tonight. Just put it in the bottom of the blueberries.”
Lillith smiled her devilish smile, and ran off to go find them. Virginia decided to start hacking the trees while practicing with her Shotel. Lillith eventually came back, holding Horse Nettle. Lillith and Virginia walked back to the house and put the Horse Nettle under the blueberries. They all of a sudden heard the pounding of footsteps on the stairs. They quickly started to move toward the backyard, but Janus, their father, noticed them. 
“Girls!” Janus yelled in a playful voice. “Were you helping your mother make dinner?” 
Lillith started the grab and twist her black dress. Virginia slightly nudged her. 
“Yes, father, we just brought in the blueberries,” Virginia replied. 
“Hmm…” Janus started to stroke his chin. “Only blueberries? I’m disappointed in you girls. I thought you would at least bring Poison Ivy…”
Smiles spread across the girls’ faces. That was their idea of teasing. Their family didn’t actually eat poisons, but they loved to try to poison each other. It was amusing to them. And honestly, that’s what human nature is. The Rapps are actually just more extreme versions of the demons inside of ourselves, the demons who just want to poison our siblings and hack trees with swords and who want to go outside and dance on graves on rainy days. 
Just then Desdemona walked in from the kitchen. “Oh, girls, you’re back, just in time. You can put those on the table.” Desdemona exclaimed. Desdemona was happy to see her daughters, but at the same time, she wished they would scream and curse at her. That was the most pleasant thing Desdemona would hear in a long time. 
“Yes, mother,” Lillith replied. 
“They got blueberries, and poison,” Janus told her, his arm around her. 
“Oh, that’s wonderful. I’m short on some of the poisons found in the field, I need to see if they’ll make the rabbits go crazy. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to watch, girls?” Desdemona asked.
The girls felt the sinister smiles grow on their faces. The whole family enjoyed torture more than anything. Except Virginia, she loved the feeling of death around her. Just then, Cassius walked in.
“Cassius, have you gotten those flowers I asked?” Desdemona asked him.
“Yes, mother. I found some really miserable ones at the end of the field,” Cassius replied. He held out the stems of some roses, the leave plucked off so only thorns remained. 
“Oh, they’re perfect. Janus, can you put these in water?” Desdemona requested. “I’m going to go finish the frog. Dinner is in ten minutes.” Desdemona walked off.
Virginia walked past Lillith and Cassius to go to the living room. She looked at the cracks in the walls, the exposed wood, the peeling wallpaper…this was home for her. The room had no windows. Virginia looked up at the ceiling. There was water dripping down, a big wet spot right above her. She wondered if it was like this in the Addams mansion. She had been told by her mother that she would go there one day. 
But Virginia also thought of the ghost in the graveyard. Her grave had been requesting a dance. She remembered the stories that Desdemona told her about how the family would dance on the crypts of the ancestors each year. Why couldn’t she go and dance with the Addams? Would her dancing on the crypts of the Addams somehow help her connect with the spirit of the Rapp graveyard?
Virginia stared at the wall, trying to think of an answer. Just out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a rat. It was brown and ragged. It seemed like it had come out of one of the holes in the wall behind the couch. Virginia got up, suddenly. She went down the hall. Her boots clacked on the wood floor as she walked up the stairs. Her black dress was tight around her knees. As she walked, Virginia’s hands hung at her side. The stairs creaked. A doorknob clicked. The wind whistled. A symphony created a dark tune to the beat of her footsteps in Virginia’s head. As she walked, Virginia smelt the When she got to the top of the stairs, Virginia felt a weird chill. She turned around to a window that nearly covered the back end of the hall. It was a a huge, broken window caked with dirt. Virginia looked through the window from the stairs at the end of the hall and saw a glow. She turned around thinking that it was just the refraction of the light. She hoped it wouldn’t, because that created sunlight streaming towards the hall. But it always rained where they lived, so they usually kept the ripped, musty curtains open. But then the light grew brighter. She walked towards the window curiously. Virginia looked out, where she could see the graveyard in the distance. The light was coming from the graveyard. The side of the graveyard faced the Rapp house, and so she could see practically the whole graveyard from the second floor of the old house. For a second, the light went away. Then the light shined again, near the back of the graveyard. It was a small, dim light, but it was definitely a light. The light dimmed more to reveal a girl. 
Abruptly, Virginia got a sense of pain in her head. It’s just a headache, she thought to herself. But the pain got worse. Then, she her vision got blurry. Then more blurry. Then colors started to blind what she could see a round herself. She tried to sit, but stumbled, and put her hand on her head. Virginia tried to compose herself, but ended up lying on the ground. It was blinding pain. She felt like she was falling. Virginia started to flail her arms, trying to grab on to something, anything. She felt something wet and sticky on her face. She tried grabbing on to something, still falling. She felt her hand come down rapidly on a piece of sharp glass. Her hand exploded in pain and Virginia clutched it to her dress. She curled up on the ground, hopeless. She couldn’t breath. My mother and father will see me dead, Virginia thought. But…it wasn’t Virginia thinking that. She knew she wouldn’t die. All of a sudden…the pain was gone.
Virginia opened her eyes to see herself lying on the ground she was fine. The window was only a few feet away. She quickly got up, and felt her face with the hand that wasn’t covered in blood. Nothing. Her dress now had a dark stain on the chest. Virginia looked out the window with a glare that anyone would die from. For the first time in her life, Virginia was scared.
“Virginia!” Her mother yelled from the kitchen.
She quickly went back down the hall and into her room and got a piece of old cloth from a drawer in her nightstand. She wrapped the cloth around her hand hastily. It already started to bleed through. The pain was intense as she wrapped her hand tightly. She unwrapped her hand and wiped it on her dress. She wrapped it again in a few layers of cloth, and then went downstairs. 
She sat at the table, across from Lillith and Cassius, who were already seated. She noticed Lillith staring at her hand. Virginia shot her a glare. Her mother put a plate frog legs down in front of Virginia. Virginia picked up her fork and started to eat. 
“We heard some banging upstairs,” Desdemona said. “Is that how you hurt your hand?” 
“Yes, mother,” Virginia replied. “I tripped and cut it on some glass,”
“Well, you’re not dead.” 
“Yes, mother.”
Lillith again looked at Virginia. Virginia glared at her. Lillith finally broke her gaze after a while.  
When dinner was finished, Virginia arose from the table and went straight to where her Shotel was in the living room. She picked it up and wiped it on her black sleeve. She brushed off the wood and leaves from practicing in the trees earlier that day. She went down the hall and the floor creaked as she stomped towards the doors. 
Virginia felt a hot ball of anger in her stomach. Her face began to get red which was embarrassing if any of her family saw her because she was so pale that she didn’t blush ever. She slammed the front door behind her. She marched towards the graveyard, shoulders up high. Her black hair stayed flat on her back and she walked with her chin up, eyes glaring at this energy ahead of her. The air around her seemed to lighten as she breathed heavier and heavier preparing herself for what was about to come.
When Virginia got to the graveyard, she didn’t even go through the gates. She went to the closest wall and climbed over it. She went closed her eyes. She felt the strangest thing. The spirits once willing were… hesitant. She turned them away. She knew one of them was responsible. She walked through and glared at the graves and felt the spirits leave a path for her. 

This took me some time to write. If you haven't guessed already, this is a fanfiction based off of the Addams Family Musical. If you haven't listen to the musical, I highly suggest it. I don't know if I will be continuing, but if I do, don't expect another update for at least a month. Exams are coming up and this alone took me about two months to write. Please answer the polls down below. Thank you so much for reading!