She walked through the door of our shop. At first I thought she was one of the boring ordinary customers, doing boring ordinary things, in a boring ordinary way. When I looked closer she looked like a queen, a rich queen, a rich dark queen.

The dark queen had a thick black dress that when to her feet, it had lace and fancy stitching all over it. She was also wearing a black hat with dark crystals, roses and feathers in it. She had black hair like crows feathers, eyes like bottomless pits and skin pale as milk. 

She walked toward the counter and said something to Daddy.

Daddy is a nice man. He always wears a smile, well almost always. He had eyes like the sea and hair like the red soil of central Australia.

When Daddy saw the dark queen his smile disappeared. He went into the store room and bought out a parcel and gave it to her.

The dark queen turned to walk out of the store. She saw me hiding behind the china cups and plates watching her. I quickly got up and ran. I ran out of the store and into my house next door.

My sister was there playing with her china dolls.

My sister (Annie) is one year older than me. She keeps her sand coloured hair in a high bun. Her eyes and skin are also the colour of sand. I think she should be called Sandy but it wasn’t my choice. Annie is extremely boring and ordinary. She doesn’t like sneaking up, spying or following people. She just sits at home and acts ‘lady like’.

“Is something wrong, Grace?” Annie asked me.

“I just saw a queen!” I yelled.

“There are no queens in Australia, Grace,” Annie said annoyed.

I stormed off to my room. Annie doesn’t understand I thought, she never understands. Besides she wasn’t even there, I saw a queen at least I think she is a queen.

I opened the door to my room and I crashed down on my bed. If there are no queens in Australia, I thought then why was she here? Where does she come from? Is she a queen? So many questions.

I rolled over and looked at the ceiling of my room. The ceiling was creamy white, it was smooth apart from a little dent, the one that I made two weeks ago with Annie’s china doll.

I decided to find out more about the dark queen, like in one of the stories Daddy reads me. I’ll spy on her and maybe my story of finding out a queen will go in the news paper.

I got up from my bed and looked out of my window. The dark queen was walking away from our shop with her mysterious parcel.

I ran out of my room down the stairs past Annie and out of the door.

The dark queen kept walking, I hid behind the beautiful cherry blossom tree that Mummy bought from a far away country when she was alive.

The dark queen walked on the road and she was narrowly missed by a farmer’s horse and cart. That didn’t even slow her, she kept her brisk pace. She walked past the big gum tree in the middle of the town, past the restaurant, past the bank, past the doctors and the bakery, then finally she when into the hotel.

I couldn’t follow her into the pub/hotel, it’s only for grown-ups. I run across town to the hotel. There was a man at the front of the hotel his job is to keep kids out. He eyed me suspiciously but I had a plan.

I went up to him and said in a cute voice “Mr my family is staying here.”

“Go in then,” he growled.

He pushed open the door and I walked in. It smelt like drunken people in there. I could hear people talking, while they were gambling with cards. I could see the dark queen walking up the stairs to the rooms.

I followed her up the stairs crawling like a cat. The dark queen reached the top of the stairs. She walked down the hall and opened one of the many doors with a key.

I crawled down the hall like my cat stalking her pray. It was hard to do in an ankle length dress. The hall was badly lit because most of the gas lanterns had gone off. I reached the door and pushed it open slowly and silently.

I couldn’t see the dark queen but she had put the parcel on the bed. I could hear someone moving in the next room. The dark queen would be back any second, so I crawled under the bed to hide. I could hear the dark queen’s footsteps thump, thump, thump.

Suddenly, she walked into the room. She walked up to the bed. I could see the beautiful ribbon on the bottom of her dress. I thought she saw me but she walked away.

A ripple when threw her body like a wave and she collapsed.

She got up on all fours when another ripple went through her body sending her to the ground. She turned her head and looked at me. I let out a high pitched scream. She crawled towards me. Another ripple went through her. When she got up she beared her teeth at me her teeth were like cat’s only bigger. Her eyes looked like a night animals’. She rippled again. This time when she got up she was covered in black fur and she had whiskers on her cheeks. She crawled towards me and her beautiful black dress ripped revealing a fury black leg. She fell onto the floor shaking and her body rippling. I couldn’t look so I shut my eyes as tight as they would go.

I heard the sound of ripping fabric and I opened my eyes.

The dark queen’s dress had ripped off. It wasn’t the dark queen, well she wasn’t human any more.

Standing in the dark queen’s place was a giant black Tasmanian devil!

I screamed so loud that the dark queen/Tasmanian devil winced. I ran as fast as I could down the hallway and down the stairs. Out of the hotel and across town. I ran into our shop and into Daddy’s leg. “Wow what is it, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he laughed.

“The dark queen turned into a Tasmanian devil!” I yelled very quickly.

Daddy laughed “I think you’ve got a case of wild imagination.”