Vira & the Darkness

      One night, she was particularly distraught because another—and less beautiful—Acara was adopted. Not Brigit. Brigit resigned herself to her room and sat on her bed of leaves and sticks and held her face with her paws and sobbed. She then felt a presence, a strange presence within the walls.

      Here, with a magic that only happens in the deepest corners of Neopia, was where she met the Shadow Usul.

      Quickly, Brigit turned her head once she caught the inky presence of the elusive creature. Her bones were stone, heavy and cold, and she tried to approach but was terrified. She had heard rumors about the Shadow Usul—a master thief, a sorceress, a ghost, a monster—but Brigit swallowed her fear as those yellow-glow eyes started shocked her toes and up her spine, and the Shadow Usul gracefully glided to her.

      The Shadow Usul was impressed with Brigit. She was scared, the Usul could tell, but there was bravery in Brigit, and she liked that. She liked that from even this close, she could see the trembling and yet Brigit wouldn't scream. What was most interesting was that Brigit had a heightened sense of curiosity. Brigit must have been lonely.

      "My name is Brigit," the Acara said, wiping the last tears from her eyes.

      "My name is," and the Shadow Usul laughed and continued, "I have many. Call me what you like. I like you."

      "Elvira," Brigit whispered softly, and the Usul cocked her head to the side and smiled. Brigit didn't even know the Shadow Usul could smile. "I've heard so many things about you. So many legends. I've read them, too, in the Neopian Times. Are you as mean as everyone says you are?"

      "Lights out, lights out, lights OUT!" Dr. Death hollered out and as Brigit turned around, Elvira was gone! How unfortunate, she thought, that she would only get one chance to speak with the Shadow Usul. How much more unfortunate, she thought, that she would lose the only friend she'd ever have a chance at getting.

      That morning, Brigit awoke and kept asking herself if that was all a dream. After all, the Shadow Usul seemed kind of nice. It must have been a dream, but that didn't stop Brigit from drawing her all afternoon. She neglected all her chores, and Dr. Death strolled in with a wild grimace on his face.

      "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

      "I'm sorry, Dr. Death," Brigit said, "but do you know anything about the Shadow Usul?"

      "Of course I do," Dr. Death scoffed. "It is a myth. It isn't real. Now clean up this mess."

      Brigit, in her all childish naivety, plopped onto the floor and cried. How dare he make a mockery of her new friend! Of course Elvira is real! Of course! Of course! Of course!

      Once Brigit cleaned everything up, she went back to her room with yet another teary eye only to be surprised with Elvira standing there. She welcomed the Acara in as she shut the door behind them. She whispered that she had a plan for escape.

      "Escape?!" Brigit whispered hoarsely, as if her mouth were The Lost Desert. Escape—what a prospect! "From here?"

      "Yes, from here." The Shadow Usul grinned a dark, dark grin, and a giant map appeared on the floor.

      "What is that?" Brigit asked. "And why is it there?"

      "Listen, dear Brigit. I've seen many Neopets come and go to and from this pound. You are the bravest of all of them. I see your heart and your mind and I think you will go far if you leave."

      Brigit was speechless.

      "Brigit, this is a map of the Neopian Pound. It will show you the right areas to go into and which doors to evade and go through."

      "B-b-but where will I go, Elvira? How will I not get caught?"

      "You won't get caught, I promise. You'll be happy. You'll go the wild, Brigit, where your heart of gold will carry on. I brought you some supplies." The Shadow Usul pulled out a trunk. MEDICINE! and Brigit tried to wrap her arms around the Shadow Usul, but the Usul couldn't be touched.

      "I'm sorry, but Dr. Death has never found my cure! Thank you so much!"

      "Of course," and the wicked grin came back, and this time, Brigit shuddered, but continued searching through the trunk to find so many wonderful things! Food, books, toys, and a mirror.

      Brigit got so excited, she almost dropped it. She admired her beautiful face and smiled at the Shadow Usul with a brilliant smile.

      "Thank you so much. How will I ever repay you?"

      "Just meet me outside," she said.

      During the escape, Brigit was terrified. Her heart was stretching and racing and beating and breaking inside her as she scrambled through the vent and oh no! she dropped the map through the cracks, and it slid down to the floor. Dr. Death was approaching.

      "What is this?!" he said, reaching up in his big white lab coat to try and pull down the tiles. The Acara shimmied with absolute urgency through the vent in a panicked rush, dragging the remainders of what was in the trunk with her as well as she could.

      "I hear you, whoever you are! Brigit, is that you?"

      And little did she realize, but the Shadow Usul was close behind her, forming a torrent of wind below them. It knocked Dr. Death down on the floor beneath her but still hurrying, hurrying, she squirmed through the vent and squeezed out into the outside world.

      What is this place? It looks... terrifying.

      Brigit crawled out on dizzy legs and looked around. A carnival! A creepy one, but still, she had never seen one anywhere outside of books. The pictures all around her were astounding: Monsters and ghosts and how terrifying! She ran and she kept running, what was she to do? The trunk collapsed and all she held onto was her mirror with that right paw.

      "It's okay. It's okay." And swiftly, the Shadow Usul appeared before her desperate sprints, and Brigit fell to her knees in front of her.

      "I'm scared, Elvira!" and the Shadow Usul became tangible for a moment and wrapped her arms around the trembling little Acara.

      "Let's take you to the fields, and let's get you settled. Very pretty daisies grow over the hills," she replied with that same wicked grin, and that was the last day anyone heard of Brigit the Blue Acara—except for the Shadow Usul, who had exchanged a mirror for a pet and the pet lost her name somewhere in those daisy fields.

      You see, the mirror, my friends, was haunted, and why the Shadow Usul did this to poor Brigit, no one knows. She's elusive and mysterious, and you'd be wise to look the other way.

The End