"You haven't swept the floor properly, I can still see a stain there! Can't you do anything right?!" The lady snarled, aiming a kick at the girl who was kneeling at her feet, scrubbing the floor like a servant, which is what the poor girl was called and treated like. However, she was more than a common maid. She was the daughter of the late Lord Tremaine, Cinderella, and the stepdaughter of Lady Tremaine, the woman who was screaming at her. After his death, Lord Tremaine's beloved daughter became a servant to her stepmother and two stepsisters, both of whom were currently calling her from the first floor of their mansion. After her stepmother finished scolding her, Cinderella rushed upstairs to explain why she hadn't handed them their dresses separately and had instead placed them side by side, freshly ironed.
A few minutes later, the young woman walked out of the room, a fresh red mark on her cheek and a handful of hair missing. The rest of her day passed in a similar fashion, until she finally collapsed on her bed of cinders in the basement, her fair skin covered in scars and bruises, her tears stinging the open cuts on her face. If only her father could see her now, stripped of her life of luxury and forced to be a slave. She knew better than to fight her mother and sisters. This was her life now. She knew there was no escape, but she hoped. She hoped that someone would save her from her step family, give her the happy life she deserved...
A few days later, invitations to the royal ball flew around the kingdom. Everyone was excited, even young Cinderella. While most of the ladies wanted to be noticed by the Prince, all she wanted was to just be able to go there and dance. Just for one evening, she wanted to be the daughter of Lord Tremaine. But she was sure her stepmother wouldn't let her go, so she was pleasantly surprised when Lady Tremaine agreed, on the condition that all her chores must be done with perfection.
Cinderella worked hard throughout the day, and despite her step-family's attempts to make her chores difficult and hurt her so she wouldn't want to go, by the end of the day even her stepmother couldn't deny that the housework was done well and was forced to keep her word. However, as Cinderella joined her family on the threshold, her sisters's eyes glittered with hate, and one of them grabbed at the necklace Cinderella was wearing, claiming it to be hers. Like wolves on an injured lamb, the stepsisters ponced, tearing at Cinderella's dress, until she stood in rags, covered in fresh scratch marks covering her fair skin. So while her step-family were stepping out of their coach at the palace, the young maiden was running deeper into the woods, further away from her family, her home, everything. Only when she was out of breath did the girl stop, and fall to her knees, sobs racking her frail body.
"Why do you weep, child?" said a gentle feminine voice from the shadows.
"Who's there?" Cinderella asked, startled, and peered into the shadows, trying to identify the speaker.
"I am one who comes to those who need my magic. I have helped many fair maidens such as yourself." came the reply
"Are...are you like a fairy godmother then?" The girl asked
"Yes child. Your tears have summoned me here, and I will do all I can to help you."
Cinderella wiped away her tears. "Why can't you come out so I can see you then?"
"I will come out only if you accept my help. Otherwise I am forbidden to show my face." The voice said sadly. "Tell me child, what is it that troubles you so?"
Cinderella hesitated, but a small part of her decided to trust her fairy godmother, so she told her everything that had happened.
"So you want to go to the Ball..." The fairy sighed. "I can do that, but there is a price to my magic."
"Price? What price?" The girl asked suspiciously
Her godmother gave a small laugh. "Oh, nothing for you be concerned about my dear. You won't have to do a thing."
Cinderella relaxed." Alright then. Please help me."
"Certainly."
With a swish of a wand, miracles unfolded before the amazed girl's eyes. A pumpkin grew into a magnificent coach, mice into horses, a rat into the coachman, and two lizards into footmen. Lastly, Cinderella's grimy rags turned into the most stunning dress, one fit for a princess. Thanking her fairy godmother, the young woman sat in the coach and hurried to the Ball.
Or at least that's what she thought.
From the shadows, a man stepped out and silently walked towards the girl, who's eyes were glazed over and a smile on her face as she saw herself in a pumpkin coach, about to arrive at a ball where her prince was waiting.
"You arrive at the Ball, just in time for the first dance." The man said in the feminine voice of the fairy godmother.
"Will you dance with me?" The man said in his own low, raspy voice. The girl nodded, seeing not him but the Prince. So the Illusionist held her hand gently and lead her to a small clearing, where they danced.
They danced for hours, Cinderella pulled deeper into the trance, the image of her family staring at her with envy, the music and the beauty of the palace around her becoming more realistic, then fading into the back of her mind as she became aware of only one thing; her Prince holding her close as they glided over the dance floor, his face coming closer and closer to hers. Just as their lips were about to meet, the town clock struck midnight. The young girl blinked, and the illusion was broken. Gone was the palace, her dress and her Prince, and here she was in the forest, being held by a stranger, a common maid wearin-
Her breath caught in her throat.
Her rags lay at her feet.
Cinderella shrieked, struggling to get away from the stranger, but his gentle grip had turned to one of steel, and his eyes gazed cruelly into her own pleading ones.
"Your wish of going to the Ball was granted like I promised. And now, my dear" His lips grazed her ear, "You must pay the price."
The young maiden's cries for help rang through the woods, but no one heard her apart from the Illusionist as she screamed, begging for mercy, and when dawn came, she was left for dead, eaten by the wild animals of the woods before her body could be found. Alas, the young girl who was always fair and kind to others, who's beauty could be matched by none,did not get the happy life she deserved and longed for.
And she lived Happily Never After