The clockwork ballerina stood nervously on the stage. The girl within it knew how important is was to have a good performance today. She was being watched.

Her puppeteer snapped their fingers.

*snap snap snap snap*

With each snap, the gears inside her doll body click click click clicked into action. She turned, jerky but graceful. She was determined to do this well.

*snap snap snap snap*

Her initial nerves began to fade. As she swept her arms downwards, each fitful movement added to her body’s practiced pose.

*snap snap snap*

She arced upwards, letting the motion carry her up up up on her toes. She could feel the audience’s eyes on her, impressed by her grace.

*snap snap snap SPROING*

Something was wrong. In the middle of a position, the ballerina’s head suddenly fell to her shoulder as she felt a loud CRACK inside. She frantically tried to move it back upwards over the next several snaps but she no longer had control there. A spring must have broken.

*snap snap snap*

She was determined to continue her dance, marred as it now was. She began to click into the next position, trying to ignore the whispers starting to rise from the audience.

*SPROING snap snap snap*

The ballerina felt her graceful arm suddenly FALL to her side as something else inside her broke. She felt her face turn red as the audience whispers grew louder. It must be obvious by now that she was defective.

She kept dancing.

She didn’t know what else she could do.

*SPROING snap snap snap SPROING snap snap*

More things began to break inside her as she pushed onwards. Her back was now bent at a strange angle while her mouth had popped wide open. All of her elegance was gone. The shocked whispers on the audience were turning into titters of laughter as she twirled monstrously.

The ballerina could feel a tear run down her face as she prepared the final position to end this nightmarish dance.

*click click*

She balanced on her toes...

*SPROING*

and when her leg gave way, she came crashing down.

She couldn’t move anymore.

The audience reacted to her destruction with jeers and laughs. The puppeteer quickly came and threw a large sheet over her unmoving form still slumped on the floor. From under the sheet, she heard them begin their speech, apologizing to the audience for her defectiveness.

She lay there, a broken toy waiting to be fixed.