Portsmouth Point is the official blog of PGS's magazine of ideas and culture. The article we are highlighting this week is by Charlotte H in Year 6 who is the first Junior School pupil to publish on the blog. Her short story below is inspired by the myth of The Merry Maidens and Medusa.
Ten Little Maidens
by Charlotte H, Year 6
“Help me!” cried Ellie as her ‘friends’ turned into stones. She tried to run away from the scene, but her legs gave up on her and stone embodied her. Under each large stone was a stained silver plaque with untidied and dry blood stains. Each had quotes or a few words engraved in beautiful calligraphy. I’d like to tell you that is just how the story goes but I am sure you’d like to hear the cause, so … here we go.
Chapter 1
“Deca Dancers, you are on in three minutes.” the megaphone called. The Deca Dancers referred to: Lily, Iris, Amelia, Grace, Ellie, Clara, Bea, Flossy and the twins; Alice and Iris. There were ten members, hence it was called ‘Deca’, a word here which means ten of something. “OMG, let’s go girls! We totes got this!” Flossy said whilst singing. The girls chanted the trending and viral songs as they touched up their make-up. Clara changed into her dainty shoes while Grace and Lily sprayed perfume everywhere which scattered across the room.
“Should I curl my hair?” Alice asked.
“You have like sixty seconds. No.” Flossy replied sternly while tightening the straps of Amelia’s leotard.
“Let’s go!” Iris yelled as she opened the door. They scurried down the hallway and stalled behind a curtain.
Chapter 2
“Now presenting…The Deca Dancers!” The glamorous girls cautiously stepped out and waved like pageant queens. They danced so perfectly, you’d think they were dancing as if their lives depended on it. The Deca’s made impossible shapes that only pretzels should be made in. Body glitter shining in the bright stage lights and slicked back hair. It went smoother than a rounded gemstone. They danced until everything ached. Just as they finished in a compelling pose, the ceiling light fell, causing the most enormous fire. Not only did it cause a fire, but it hit Bea, crushing her.
Blood. Ambulances. Police. Fire Trucks. Slamming doors. Hospital bed. Bea. Let’s take a look at Bea’s perspective.
Chapter 3 - Bea’s version:
My life flashed before my eyes. Well, my eyes weren’t really working; my vision had gone blurry. Blood flowed out of my mouth like a baby vampire drooling and all of a sudden, I felt really tired. I remember the sound of the sirens blaring, flashing lights and being stripped of my dreams and… The smell of the ambulance was vile and unwelcoming. I attempted to look down at my bleeding injured legs to find one short. The opening was oozing with blood and other bodily fluids I didn’t even know I had. I slowly drifted back into that dark place I had fought so hard to get out of.
I had a splitting headache, and all my senses turned on. I saw panicked doctors standing over me. I heard pained crying from my parents and friends. I could smell my dried blood and my friends and my parents and the panicked doctor’s perfume. I felt blood drip across my face and the doctor, touching my face as if it were a phone. I could taste the bitterness in my mouth; it could have been medicine or the freezing temperature but deep down I knew it was from the deep cut in my jaw.
The hospital was like a living hell. The world felt distant as if I were an astronaut; blasted off into an infinite world with infinite possibilities. Though I had no space suit … I had legs. Two.
As I recovered, everyone forgot me. My friends stopped visiting and my parents scarcely remembered my face. Nurses became my best friends. They had no cure for my limited beauty or missing leg. I’d regularly think about the halcyon days when I danced gorgeously. I have clear and evocative memories of it. I’d give anything to be a dancer again. Graceful and slick moves were my specialty as I was lissom. I must lay down for a bit…
Chapter 4 - Medusa/Bea’s version
I’ve had the strangest dreams – a lady believed she was more beautiful than everyone. A goddess made her a gorgon for saying that she was more beautiful. My vision is blurry, but I believe it was Athena and Medusa! I heard an argument. I felt sorry for Medusa, her beauty traded for snakes and tusks like a mammoth. She is calling for me. Her sisters, Stheno and Euryale were immortal while Medusa was a mere mortal. Medusa’s spirit lives on though. She freezes people, still. It feels as if we are in the same situation, stripped from resplendence and forced to live in a hated form. I must obey. I need to save my heart from the fate of Medusa.
For the first time in forever, I feel serendipitous that Medusa reached out. If I can’t be beautiful, neither can my scumbag, dumbass friends who BETRAYED me. If I help Medusa turn them into stone, then maybe she can make me a gorgon too and nobody would dare call me ugly. We need to reunite…
Chapter 5
The day Bea got released from hospital may be considered an amazing, memorable day but trust me; it was not.
With a rushed feeling in her pulse, the once beautiful dancer started her hunt. Bea stalked her previous friends online. Lily wasn’t 12 anymore, she was now 14. They’d all grown up. Flossy was almost an adult. Would they all still dance?
It didn’t matter to be honest. They WILL dance. They will dance, even if they have a fractured limb. They will dance, even if it puts the in a coma. They will dance, even if they die. THEY. WILL. DANCE. If Bea had to suffer because of dance, so could they.
“Miss Medusa, come to me as I seek your help in a vengeance plan.” Bea chanted mythical words, desperately. Nothing. “Medusa, you need me my love.” She dropped to her knees and all colour faded from her face. Not an art teacher nor a doctor can explain this.
Chapter 6
I’m sorry, I spilled coffee on my book. Where is it? These are known as lies and it would be a lie to tell you Bea’s chanting didn’t successfully contact Medusa.
“Hello, you.” A gorgon appeared from the floor. Suddenly, Bea started to become encased in stone. “No. Stop.” Medusa hissed at the snakes impersonating her hair. “Stupid snakes…” she muttered. Bea started flying, her pupils departing from er eyes as if they were on holiday. “Phew! That’s quite enough of that.” cried Medusa as she snapped her fingers.
Abruptly, Bea fell down, “OW!” Medusa smiled cruelly at her and hurried her into a dark, abandoned music studio.
I’d love to say they broke into song about women’s rights and equality, but that isn’t the case. They concocted a Machiavellian plan in the cruellest, most gruesome and intentional way, to murder each of her ‘friends’. “But you won’t kill me?” Bea asked nervously.
Medusa thought for a while. “Wait, what’s in it for me?” she bit her nails.
“Perseus killed you,” Bea said carefully, “with his …” Bea scrolled through her almost dead phone.
“Bright shield.” Medusa added, unsatisfied. “Oh, my Athena. I want to strangle the little venomous scum who think they are so powerful. Just because your Daddy is Zeus, doesn’t make you beautiful!” Both of them laughed.
“Want to hear a story about Athena?” Medusa blushed.
Bea yawned, “Okay, but tomorrow is the big murderous day so we must sleep after words.”
“See, Athena should NOT be allowed such po….” Medusa fell asleep. Her shadowy ghost faded away. Bea didn’t notice as she fell asleep too.
Allow me to share the humiliating story of Athena’s birth: She was born like no other God or Goddess. Supposedly she sprang out of Zeus, her father’s head. Athena was fully grown in shining gold armour with bruises from past victories. Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife Metis. I hate to say it as it sounds too stupid. There is more to it. Athena isn’t meant to be alive. A prophecy told Zeus that his daughter would be more powerful than him. Sick with power, he swallowed Metis, Goddess of Wisdom and Athena’s mother. A headache then struck him caused by Athena growing in his head. So, Hephaestus split Zeus’s head open only to find his fully grown daughter. Therefore, making her a mistake.
Chapter 7
The big day. Justice would be served to all of them. They just needed to meet up. The plan was simple – fake an amazing event that they will ALL want to go to. In an instant, snakes rose forth from the floor. Bea crawled backwards in fear.
“I apologise for my early departure last night.” Medusa’s voice arose. Bea sighed in relief that it was only her. “What trap shall we lure them in to?”
Bea scratched her arm, unsure if she should reply to her question. “Look, this is all happening a bit too soon, maybe we shouldn’t.” Bea said hesitantly.
Medusa raised an eyebrow and swallowed her rage. “No, we can’t wait. You never told me what I’d get out of this, with the shield.” Medusa spoke fast, clearly trying to hold back from strangling Bea.
The previously pretty girl who – wait, that doesn’t narrow it down. Allow me to re-start. Bea didn’t really think about her question and ignored it. She opened her laptop, and the sound of her mouse scrolling echoed throughout the room. She hummed along to the tune of ‘pretty little’. “Hah, I’ve got it. Fake a mall opening and meet them all there.” They smiled at each other and got to work.
Fake emails, fake posters, fake flyers – all of it. They would all fall into the trap. “Wait, you can’t be there, nobody would come!” Bea theorised.
“I’ll just watch you from here.” Medusa pointed to the roof of Bea’s apartment which was dark blue with yellow stars. Bea nodded happily and swung her ginger uneven hair behind her ears.
“Let’s do it.”
Chapter 8
Bea waited impatiently at the location on the poster and five cars pulled up not much later than each other. One car, white; one car, blue; one car, red; and two black cars. Ivy came out the first car. She had long, gorgeous blond hair with pink stripes. In the second car was Ellie. She had a short pink dress on and looked like a model. In the third, red, car was Iris. She had dyed purple hair and a kind smile. In the first black car was Amelia and Clara. They were roommates so it made sense they were together. Clara had deep, dark red lipstick and a statement black coat. Amelia had a face covered in piercings and a tiny crop top. In the final car was Lily. She was short and wearing designer clothes. Later, Flossy came. She looked like the typical spoiled teenager. Grace was last to arrive, with an insanely long black braid. She got out as soon as her mum stopped the car.
Let me tell you more about the location of this ‘mall’: It is indeed, not a mall at all. There were shaggy trees that looked as if they had survived a tornado. Mud had replaced where grass once thrived. The forest seemed tatty and scarcely worth visiting. But, if you take the risk and go further in, it is a mythical and enchanting place. A stage of elevated stones lay between trees, vines and prickly plants. This current scene is set in the mildly disappointing part of the forest though.
When Grace got out of the car, so did Ellie, so did Amelia, so did Clara and everyone else. Everyone but Bea and Alice.
“Oh my Medusa, is that you?” Amelia called to Grace. Everyone stood in the cold parking lot. They caught up and talked about the good old days. Each of the girls were ambivalent.
“Wait, where is the second Ivy?” joked Iris.
“She didn’t want to come. Some sketchy crap she called it.” Ivy replied.
“Where is the mall? I saw an email.” Ellie interrupted the silence. “I mean it was great to catch up with you all but…” she continued. A figurative finger crawled up her back. There is such a difference between figurative and literal. Figurative means that it is not actually happening it may as well be as it feels like it in the moment. Literal means it is actually happening or will happen. “Where is Bea?” Ellie gulped as if the pieces had clicked together.
“Who’s Bea?” Lily queried. “Oh, yes, the paralyzed girl!” she concluded.
“NOT paralyzed.” Bea said as she stepped out of the bush she had been hiding in. “I recovered.” They all crowded around Bea, apologizing and giving sympathy. “So, why are we here?” Clara asked as Flossy nodded along.
Chapter 9
“To dance.” Bea replied. The others stared at each other in confusion. Why did she want to dance after the accident? Surely such a fiasco would scare her away.
“Okay, be realistic, why would you want to dance on a freezing cold Sunday, in an abandoned forest?” Ellie asked, shivering in her little dress.
“For memories,” Bea smiled, “call Alice down, let’s get together again.”
Ivy called Alice, “Come on wonderland, it isn’t sketchy crap.”
They listened to Alice scream at her.
“Please… Bea is here.” Her voice broke.
“You remem… my… BumbleBea?” Alice tried not to cry. They had been best friends. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” Alice said sternly and hung up.
Bea felt a tiny tug on her sweater. “I’ll be back.” She called and ran behind a swarm of trees.
Medusa appeared. “GET THAT GIRL HERE SO WE CAN START!” she yelled.
“Alright, I’ll get the girls to practice.” And then Medusa vanished into the thick, cold air.
“And a one, two, three, four!” Bea called but her voice sounded staged. As if she’d been practicing. The Deca Dancers – an old name but a good one. They stepped left and right and clapped along with the beat of their shoes. They made circles and… Alice. Alice. Alice. Alice was there. She had pretty, blonde hair with a long fringe and a blue coat. Her little black platform heels strutted towards Bea. “Oh, my Medusa! I missed you so much!” she said, while warmly embracing Bea.
“Hey, Wonderland! Missed ya.” Bea chuckled.
“Right, let’s get to work on this dance!” Alice said enthusiastically.
Chapter 10
“Left, right, clap, clap, spin, hand on head, human circle. Du da do da ha.” Bea narrated their choreography. It was debatably more tremendous than the one from ‘the incident’. They glided and collaborated and all those other things school tells you to be that no one ever listened to.
Laughter scattered through trees and the vibes were high. They shared secrets and make-up. A neat pile of their shoes was left on the floor. A combination of trainers, heels and boots. All were effortlessly stylish. Finally, they got the dance perfect. The Deca’s felt proud and tired. It was too late to quit now. Bea could feel Medusa raging, so this is where our scene happens. A misty, cold, cobblestone enchanted stage. It had little Christian crosses all over it, but they were too small to notice. Having said that, there were ten big crosses circling the centre and on enormous blue one in the middle.
Chapter 11
Power will always beat kindness. Forget what you were told because, if you are weak you will sink. Strength will always rise and crush your puny self. Power and strength will always win.
The girls stood on one cross each. Medusa had sworn that she would not kill Bea, no matter the outcome. They started twirling and dancing. They were ALWAYS on one cross, even if it wasn’t the one they started on.
The clouds seemed to spell out the word ‘Sunday’ but nobody noticed. Nobody, except Bea. Maybe it was part of Medusa’s plan. ‘Just go with it’ Bea said in her head. The sky grew grey, and it began to rain.
In a moment, the crosses joined together with the glowing, blue dotted lines. A strike of lightning hot the enormous blue cross. I don’t know why they didn’t run away, but they continued dancing. A blue circle appeared and from it rose a wig of snakes – Medusa, wearing a gorgeously fine blue dress.
“Hello my loves.” Medusa said poshly. Now, they all tried to run away. All except Bea. Medusa simply picked one of the snakes off her head as if they were a bobby pin. “STAY HERE OR I WILL FREEZE YOU!” she declared. Lily presumable began to cry but it was not noticeable in such bad weather. “Do you know how it feels to have beauty taken away from you? No. You probably never will, so the thought of something even better: Death”
Chapter 12
“You can experience life being taken away from you.” Rain rolled down Alice’s cheek, impersonating tears. “And, my dearest Bea, thank you for bringing all of these petit-brained morons to me. But you are of no use to me.” Medusa continued, “I thought it would be fun killing fifteen-year-olds, but you brought me something MUCH better – Perseus’s figurative bright shield. His rebirthed daughter, Alice. Ivy is adopted, obviously.” Medusa managed to say all this in one breath. Bea and Ivy were both horrified. Adopted? Discarded? LIES. You may recall 6 chapters ago I spilled coffee on my book – that was a lie.
“Right, who do we kill first?” Medusa cracked her knuckles, her snakes hungry in excitement. The snake-haired gorgon pointed to Bea. “You, deary, have been of great help. Therefore, you die first.” A snake slid off her green head and slithered over to Bea. It flopped her down, so they stared at each other. The snake’s eyes grew blue and suddenly Bea froze into stone whilst doing a ballet pose.
One by one, she did it to all the girls. Until it came down to Ellie and Alice. She stared at Alice for a while before saying, “Pose like Romeo.” She did so and then Medusa froze her. Ellie tried to run away but her friends made a wall of stone. They were stone, by posed as dancers.
“Help me!” cried Ellie but all her friends had now been turned into stone. She tried to run from the scene, but her legs gave up on her and stone embodied her. Medusa slowly flew back into the blue hole she came through.
Nobody ever knew about this except Medusa – and Perseus.
“YOU KILLED MY DAUGHTER!” Perseus screamed at Medusa. “LEAVE. Find Sisyphus in the Underworld and help him push the boulder – for eternity. NOW!” Perseus snapped his fingers, and Medusa began her journey up the hill with Sisyphus.
The forest was forgotten afterwards.
To think, that this could have all been prevented if they did their dance any day of the week except Sunday.
Under each dancer’s stone body was a stained silver plaque with untidied and dry blood stains. Each had a quote, or words engraved on them in calligraphy. But one stood out. Bea’s plaque made it seem as if she were alive; it read ‘Help me!’.
