Author's Note: This fanfic is based on the story of Cinderella, with a few changes, of course. This will be a multi-chapter fanfic, so you'll have to wait for the rest as it's still being written. Constructive criticism would be appreciated. Thanks for reading! Please don't forget to review.

Love and well wishes to all,

Zosia Rose

I was running. Fast. I had to get out of the house. I had to get away. My lungs burned with the effort of pulling in more oxygen. Smoke poured into my eyes, my throat, my nose, making me cough violently. Somewhere in the back of my mind I dimly remembered a field trip to the fire department, a demonstration. Smoke rises, leaving a pocket of semi-clean air behind. I was supposed to get closer to the floor. I got down on my hands and knees and scrambled over to the door. My fingertips brushed the shining metal of the doorknob only to be snatched away again as they were scorched by the seemingly innocuous object. It was not possible to escape that way. I scanned my room for other possible exits, pulling the front of my shirt over my nose and mouth as a sort of shield against the smoke. My eyes locked onto the only other available way out. The window. It felt like an eternity before I was finally beside it. The heat had increased. I felt like I was being baked alive. I could tell that the inferno was getting closer. I was desperate. I thrust the window open with all of my adrenaline fueled strength, I barely noticed when one of the panes broke and showered me in glass shards. Taking a fraction of a moment to look down, I gulped in as much of the fresh air as possible. There was two stories of pitch black nothingness between me and the ground, between me and safety. I jumped.

My eyes flew open before I reached the ground. Safe. I was safe. I tried to force my erratic breathing back to normal. It was just a nightmare. It was over. That fact did little to stem the steady flow of tears that cascaded down my face. They were gone. Mom and Dad were dead. They died in the fire. My heart ached with grief. The same grief that had plagued me since I landed on the front yard and watched helplessly as my entire world went up in smoke. I shook myself both mentally and physically. I couldn't dwell on the past, I'd already tried that. It didn't work. The past stayed in the past, no matter how pleasant or bleak. Sitting up, I gazed out the window at the rising sun. It didn't seem right that something so exquisite could come at a time that was so desolate and gloomy. The golden sunlight fell on the bed next to mine, illuminating the pale face of my adopted sister and best friend, Nadia. After the fire, Nadia's dad took me in. David became like a second father, being the only one who could lift me out of my self-dug pit of grief. Over the course of a few years he gradually helped me go back to the boy I was before. I never forgot my Mom and Dad but I slowly learned how to live without them.

Nadia's mother, Beatrix, had died before I came to live with them and although their grief was still there it had dulled somewhat with time. Nadia was a cheerful, well-rounded girl. It didn't seem as if she wanted for anything. David obviously thought differently when he decided that she needed a new mother. Despite our initial misgivings, Nadia and I decided that if it would make David happy, we were all for it. We helped him set up accounts on every online dating site we could think of, picked outfits for speed dating, and coached him on what to say on the first date. Every time he met a new woman, he wasn't satisfied. He wanted only the best for Nadia and me. After he had been searching for several months, he met Kallista. He was infatuated immediately with her dazzling beauty and sparkling wit. Once they had gone on the appropriate number of dates he brought her home for us to meet her.

David was a nervous wreck that evening, fretting over dinner, his appearance, the house, and just about everything else he could think of. In an effort to alleviate his nervousness, Nadia and I had cleaned the house from top to bottom and had our best clothes on. Nadia wore a loose fitting dress the same cinereal color as her eyes and at her behest I wore a button-down shirt of the same shade. By the time that Kallista arrived, all three of us were lined up by the front door. We greeted her with smiles and ushered her inside. Our eyes grew wide when two girls about mine and Nadia's age followed. They were both dressed in matching gold sequined dresses and heels. Carbon copies of their mother, they smirked at us. Kallista laughed at our shocked faces and introduced us to her daughters, Lilith and Mariel.

Kallista and the girls moved into our house the day after the wedding. It took three moving vans to carry all of their stuff across town. The unpacking took forever to finish. I had to move my things into Nadia's room, as there were only three bedrooms in the house. My bedroom was given to my new step-sisters. David had promised that this sleeping arrangement would only last for a couple days while him and Kallista went house-hunting. It was two weeks later and the new house was still not found.

The grandfather clock striking the hour jolted me out of my bittersweet rememberings. It was six o'clock, long before anyone else was awake. The house was quiet, a rare occurrence now that six people lived there. If I got up now, I could finish my project without the constant distractions provided by my step-family. Tiptoeing across the room, I groped around my desk for my sketchbook. Not finding it, I quietly switched on the light, glancing back toward Nadia at the clicking sound it made. I looked under stacks of books, shoved aside my container of colored pencils, combed through my bookbag. It wasn't there. Where had I used it last? Groaning softly, I remembered. The living room. I had left it on the coffee table. I had to go get it before Lilith or Mariel saw it. They had been demanding to see it for days. I had no doubt that they would look through it at once if given the chance. I had to get it back.

The door gave a slight creak as I opened it, causing me to pause in the doorway in case someone heard. When no other noises could be heard, I creeped down the stairs and down the hallway, only to pause again when I saw light from the living room slanting across the floorboards. I peeked around the open door to find out who was in there. If it was Kallista or one of the girls I decided that I would abandon my sketchbook and hope with all my heart that they didn't see it. My fears weren't fulfilled, however, as the person in the room was only David. He smiled when he saw me and asked, "Why are you up so early?"

"I had one of my nightmares and couldn't go back to sleep," I picked up my newly found sketchbook and sat next to him.

He frowned, "You still have those?"

"I never stopped having them," I flipped to a blank page, contemplating what to draw.

"You want to talk about it?"

I decided to draw the view out the window, "Not really."

It was silent for a few moments, then I spoke again, "Why are you up so early?"

"I had trouble sleeping too," he sighed, then changed the subject, "Sorry about not being around much lately."

Every opportunity Nadia or I had to spend more than a few seconds with him seemed to be commandeered by Kallista or Lilith or Mariel.

"It's all right," I shrugged.

"No, it's not," he sighed again but let the issue drop, "What're you drawing?"

I turned the sketchbook towards him. By that time, I had completed the outline of one of the neighbor's houses and was starting on the next. Silence fell again, not entirely uncomfortable. I finished the drawing just as the clock struck eight. Surprised, I tucked my pencil in my pocket and held my sketchbook in the crook of my arm. I guess I was pretty engrossed in my drawing. I mean, you kind of have to be to not notice two hours go by. David stood and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. The others would be up soon.