Star Ocean Fairytale Series:

Fairytale 1, Cinderella

By

Javarhino

"ALBEL!!!!!" A voice shouted.

Albel flinched and tightened his grip on the tray in his hands. He hated the person who owned the voice. He hated the person on the other side of the house, calling for their drink. A small box with skull and crossbones caught his eye. Rat poison. It'd be suitable for someone like Vox.

"ALBEL!!!!!" Two other voices chimed in.

He hated those voices as well. Stupid stepsisters. Stupid stepfather. He hated them all. That box was looking really good to put in the drinks. Albel shook his head and picked up the tray.

"Just stand for a little longer. That's what father would have wanted," he told himself.

Albel pushed the thought of his biological father away. He refused to feel anything for his death and damnit, Albel DID NOT cry.

Albel pushed the door to Vox's room open with his overly girly hips and saw Vox lying in bed. Albel's stepsisters were in the other room. Vox sighed as Albel came up and set the tray on the nightstand next to him.

"What took you so long, boy?" He asked.

"The water wouldn't boil fast enough," Albel answered coldly.

Vox's eyes narrowed. He grabbed Albel's chin and forced the boy to look him in the face. Albel flinched as he tightened his grip.

"Late one more time and I swear, Albel, you will get the beating of your life," Vox said, spitting out Albel's name like it was diseased.

He let Albel go and took his tea off the tray. Albel said nothing and left the room, walking to his stepsisters' room now. As soon as he opened the door he saw his twin stepsisters, Sophia and Ameena. They glared at him as he walked in. But when Sophia saw the newly forming bruise where Vox had grabbed him so roughly, she smiled wickedly and whispered to her sister. Ameena smiled as well. Albel completely ignored them and set the tray down giving each sister their tea.

"Hey, Albel," Sophia said.

Albel sighed.

"What is it?" He asked.

"This tea tastes burnt," Sophia replied.

Albel turned to her. He knew it wasn't burnt. He had a cup before he came up.

"Is that so?" He asked.

"Mine too!" Ameena chirped in.

Albel looked to her, but only for a second before looking back at Sophia.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked.

Sophia laughed.

"Of course go make some more, but, I want you to taste first, so you know how burnt it is," she said.

Albel sighed and reached for Sophia's cup. At that moment Sophia smashed her cup right into Albel's left eye. He didn't scream. He never screamed when they did things like this. But, this was the first time they hurt something that could cause a disability. Blazing hot tea seeped into his bleeding eye. He didn't even realize that he had fallen to the ground and stayed there.

"Get up you miserable fool," Ameena said.

Albel waited a few seconds before his stood and grabbed the tray, trying not to drop the side that had his blood covered hand. He left without saying a word. Once in the kitchen he put on some more water and sat down in a small chair in the corner of the room. Only then did he let himself cry. He didn't sob of course, no matter how much he wanted to. Just small sniffles every now and again and of course the shaking shoulders.

He remembered the time before he came to be in this position.

Ten Years Ago…

A fourteen year old Albel stood silently as his father recited his marriage vows with the new love of his life. Disturbingly with another man. Albel swore that would never happen to him when he got older. His father kissed his new partner in marriage and the crowd cheered. Albel didn't. They all headed to the reception. Once there his father announced that he had changed his will to leave everything to his partner.

Everyone at that moment turned their eyes onto Albel. Everyone knew that Glou Nox loved his son more than life itself and had left everything to him. Albel didn't say anything at all. He just sat where they put him. It seemed that Glou had a new love. A love Albel would hate forever. A man named Vox.

The day before Albel's birthday, Glou Nox died. A mysterious death, the coroner said. Everything was given to Vox like the will said. Albel was forced to live with Vox and his two daughters.

Life took a turn for the worse after that. When relatives stopped coming to tell Vox how sorry they were, Vox, Sophia, and Ameena changed heart fairly quickly. Vox took Glou's room while Ameena and Sophia took Albel's, leaving him a small section of the dank basement.

Albel soon turned into a slave when the other ones quit. Rules for him were set. He was never allowed to leave the house without one of his stepsisters or stepfather accompanying him. When outside he never talked or made eye contact with anyone. When at home he didn't talk back and did everything that needed to be done around the house. At night, he would make diner and go to his room for the night, never coming up until dawn to make breakfast.

For ten years it was like this. Albel was going to turn twenty-five soon. He knew it was too late to be saved. He would spend the rest of his life in this miserable Hell.

Albel looked around, keeping his left eye closed. He stood from his chair and walked over to the kitchen counter, seeing the long kitchen knife he used so many times to make the horrible people…no monsters their breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Albel picked it up and looked into his reflection in its blade. Blood ran down the left side of his face and was beginning to drip down his neck onto his shirt. Tears were running down the other side. He couldn't stand to look any longer and brought the knife to his neck. His hands trembled slightly as the blade pierced the skin causing a small trickle of blood to run down his neck.

"I'm sorry father," Albel whispered.

The tea pot whistled loudly causing Albel to jump and move the blade from his neck. His mind cleared and he realized that he was just about to commit suicide. He spat disgustingly at the thought of him, Albel Nox, son of Glou Nox would ever consider it.

He set the knife aside and took the pot of water off the stove, remaking the tea. Before he grabbed the tray he quickly wiped the blood off of his skin and quickly covered his eye, holding it was string. He would fix it better later. Albel picked the tray up and went back to Ameena and Sophia's room, pushing it open with his still overly girly hips.

Ameena and Sophia weren't in the room. Albel sighed and put the tray on the table between his stepsister's beds. He poured the cups just as his sisters came in. But, something was wrong. There were more footsteps then there should have been. Albel turned just in time to have his face connect with a fist. Albel fell to the ground, his purple skirt coming off of one of his legs. He looked to see Sophia, Ameena, and some man with big muscles and a really big kantana at his side.

"This is him Adray. This is the man who raped your daughter," Sophia said, pointing directly at Albel.

The man, now identified as Adray, looked at Albel with the most hate he had ever seen. He knew that he couldn't do anything to protest because this man wouldn't believe him. He was already brainwashed. Adray walked over and kicked Albel's stomach roughly. Albel coughed and gasped for air. This man was strong. Albel saw Ameena and Sophia behind Adray sipping their tea, smiling.

The door opened just as Adray was reaching for his sword. Vox stood in the doorway. He seemed rather surprised to see Adray in the room. He walked up without so much as glancing at Albel. Albel slowly raised himself to his feet so he wouldn't hurt himself even more. Without saying a word or listening to what these people were saying, he left the room and headed straight for his chair in the kitchen.

*

Roger rushed around the palace as fast as he could.

"Ah! The Queen is going to kill me if I don't find the Prince soon!" He said, continuing to run at high speeds.

As he turned a sharp corner he ran right into a servant. They both flew back with a sharp cry of pain. Roger rubbed his head while the servant rubbed her shoulder. Roger looked up to see a young girl he never noticed before.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to run into you like that," he said.

"It's okay, really. I should have watched where I was going," the young girl said.

Roger now couldn't help starring at the girl. In his eyes, she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"I'm Peppita," the girl said, pulling Roger from his thoughts.

"I'm Roger," Roger answered.

Roger stood and held out his hand to help Peppita up. She gladly took it and hugged him.

"You're my new best friend, Roger!" She said.

Roger blushed deeply. Peppita kissed his forehead.

"I got to go, Roger. The Queen is going to hold another ball for the Prince. I need to help with the food. Bye!" She shouted, running down the hall, waving after him.

"Bye…," Roger nearly whispered.

Suddenly the Queen's angry fury rushed into his head like a ship going light speed. Roger raced like the bullet out of the barrel of a gun. If the Prince wasn't in the palace, there was only one other place he could be.

*

Cliff looked around the Elicoorian town with interest. This was a town he had yet to visit. It was called Airyglyph. It was this continents capital. The people here dressed somewhere near 16th century, Earth. Cliff was glad he always carried extra cloths with him to change into. He fit in under no time at all. Of course, his size gained a few looks but whatever. As far as they knew, he was Elicoorian.

Cliff visited a great deal of places in the city before deciding to stop at an Inn to maybe rest for the night. As he was heading over to the nearest Inn, something purple caught his attention, immediately. He looked over and saw a woman, or at least he thought it was a woman, standing with three other people. The woman kept her head down as the three people seemed to be discussing something.

Cliff couldn't believe his eyes. This woman was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Her hair was tied into rattails that went all the hay down to her thighs. A skirt hugged onto her hips in just the right place to show a curve on her stomach. A cut off top with no sleeves was fitting her upper body tightly. Cliff also took notice that her hair was double-toned. Black and blond.

Then, as 'she' turned, Cliff's entire idea of marrying this 'woman' was shattered. She wasn't a woman. It was a man. The most beautiful man that he had ever seen. Cliff couldn't help but stare at his face, most noticeably his eyes. They were red. The man turned his eyes to Cliff when he noticed someone was starring at him. Cliff was captured by this young man's gaze.

That was when Cliff saw that one of his eyes was covered with a ragged, dirty looking cloth, barely held by a string. Their gazes held eachother captured. One of the three people yelled at the man. His gaze broke from Cliff's and he began to walk away with the other people, looking over his shoulder until he was gone.

Cliff felt completely deprived once he could no longer see that man's gaze. He suddenly heard small feet running his way. He looked and saw that his mother's adviser was running towards him.

"Cliff! There you are!" He shouted.

"Hello, Roger. Can you give me a day? I just want to spend the night and get a name," Cliff said, still looking in the direction that man went.

Roger huffed.

"Cliff! We have a ball to prepare for! Let's go!" He shouted.

"Not another one!" Cliff exclaimed.

Cliff sighed and decided to go and have a talk with his mother about this. He left with Roger, going into an alleyway and being teleported into his parent's ship, the Diplo.

*