A Blossom In The Winter- Chapter 10; Cinderella

servant123: Longer chapters... I'll work on it. Regular speedy updates will probably last until school starts next wednesday... but they are pretty nice aren't they? God bless you :)

Pokemonchen: Yeah, N enjoys the fairytale theme... at least that's what I'm going with.

Werewolfchick1299: You'll have to wait and see about Nicole. I hope you do write your fairytale fanfic! Tell me when you start and ill read it ok? Advice: always reread before you post and try to find synonyms for words you feel your using too often and try to keep your character consistent. Im sure your story will be great :D

SittingByTheSeaside: Welcome to the story! I'm glad you found it too. Cliffhangers; can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. ;)

Likemutemath: I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I'm sure Damian doesn't mind sharing his name with you and your story. The Fray is great! I understand the "love" we share- haha. Thank you for such nice words, you are too sweet. (Yay, we can be strange cyber loving friends!)

Thanks SittingByTheSeaside and GingerBrown for alerting/favoriting :)

Love you all- Read on!

Ash POV:
I opened my eyes gradually but shut them again immediately. The light burned and my head thumped rhythmically. I winced as I attempted to open my eyes again. I blinked to the pounding in my head, figuring I might as well make it useful, until my eyes could endure the light.

I searched for Damian and George (I could care less where Nicole was) and found them. Damian sat next to Nicole blinking wildly. Nicole was passed out in his lap which made me happy and angry. Delighted that she was still passed out, vexed that it was in Damian's lap.

Damian's eyes met mine, I turned away. Damian was not acting like himself and I had already tried to figure out what was happening. The only thing I knew was that Nicole was causing it, it was her fault. I had lost my best friend and I missed him. Before, whenever we visited each other I was always excited but this visit sucked. It was full of confusion, an annoying girl, and lots of near-death experiences.

I could remember the last time Damian and I had come face to face with danger, Argathus. I recalled how we had worked together to kill the evil sorcerer. We were a team and I missed that. It seemed I was working alone and Damian was trying to prevent me from winning. Damian and I always had each other's backs and now he was the one stabbing me or so it seemed. I missed my Damian and I missed us, being together.

I could sense someone walk over to me, I looked up. Damian stood beside me and then flopped down beside me. Damian still looked confused and upset but at least he was acknowledging my existence and not Nicole's. I glanced at Nicole who was still passed out on the ground and noticed that George was laying a few feet away from her. Both of them would probably be waking up soon.

"I'm sorry." I heard the whisper from beside me. My head whipped around and I stared at Damian. It was as if he read my mind earlier.

"W-What was that?" I spoke gently, trying not to scare Damian and his apology into hiding.
"I said I was sorry." He replied just as softly.

"Oh." I remained sitting on the hard stone ground. I hoped that George and Nicole wouldn't wake up too soon, I wanted to talk to Damian more. I needed to talk to him and I needed an explanation.

"I'm so confused. One second I love you and the next I hate your guts and want to attack you for no reason."
"What?" I stared open mouthed at him. He just stated so plainly that he loved me. He loved me? But he hated me too?
"Yeah. I'm not really sure what is goi-"

"Damian? Sweetie." Nicole's voice cut in and I almost knocked her back out. Damian stood up and left my side, hurrying over to hers instead. He seemed to have completely forgotten I still existed. Now I really wanted to knock Nicole out again.
"Where are we?" I heard George groan. This reminded me of the mirror and everything that had happened which Damian had distracted me from. I rose slowly and scoured our environment.

We were located in a small stone room with one window at the top of a wall, much to high and small to climb out of. The window's light fell precisely upon me which explained why it was so bright when I had woken up. The room was a small square with practically nothing in it. The one thing inside of the room was a giant glass sculpture of some sort.

"It seems we are in a stone room." I replied to George and shrugged at him. "Do you know what that is?" I questioned and pointed to the glass sculpture thing.

George pushed himself off the ground with a strange look on his face. He glided over to the object and stepped in to it. The glass flap on the side shut, trapping George inside.

"George!" I yelled, jumping up and racing over to the large glass thing. "Are you ok?" George stared back at me.

"Help me." He yelled back through the glass jail. I nodded at him. Sand began to pour down on George's head suddenly. He jumped sideways and glanced up, his eyes widened. "It's a hourglass!" He screamed frantically at me.
George was right, he was trapped inside of a huge hourglass. Words began to appear on the side of the hourglass.

He's only got a little while before he drowns in sand.

Might want to help him fast.

Nicole and Damian won't give you a hand.

Think about your past.

-N

I couldn't comprehend how someone could be this evil. I searched the room and found nothing in it.
"Crap." I spoke loudly. "Damian, George is trapped, you have to help me get him out." I begged frantically. Damian completely ignored me. 'Nicole and Damian won't give you a hand.' Double crap.

I thought of ways I could rescue George, when nothing came to mind I slammed against the glass with my whole body. Of course the glass didn't break into a million peices like I wanted, instead it made my shoulder hurt. I glanced down at the boots on my feet, those won't help. I glanced around again and saw Nicole's high heels. Those could help.

I sprinted toward the couple and snatched Nicoles shoe. "I need to borrow this." I explained. Nicole looked furious and stood up to chase after me, screaming at me to give it back. I spun around and sprinted to the hourglass.
"Ahh." The scream forced me to stop and face Nicole again. Except she wasn't chasing after me anymore and her feet weren't on the ground either. I followed her scream and looked upward. Nicole was dangling from a rope tied around her waist.

Damian called out to her. Nicole couldn't speak and seemed to just blink shocked. Damian appeared to be less and less worried for Nicole the longer she was away from him. Damian turned to me and saw George behind me, buried to his thighs in sand.

"What can we do?" Damian asked me. I flashed the high heel at him then continued to George. I heard Damian's footsteps behind me and knew he was following. Until the footsteps stopped and a yelp was heard. I glanced over my shoulder to see where he was and what had happened now.

Damian was chained to the wall by his hands and legs. He was just close enough to see his brother's frightened face but not nearly close enough to help him in any way.

'Nicole and Damian won't give you a hand.'

I bolted the last few steps to George and hit the glass with the shoe. "Tong." The glass reverberated but did not break open. I tried again but the heel broke off instead. A new message appeared on the glass where I'd been smacking the heel against it

Your time is almost up Cinderella.

Chime chime goes the clock.

"Argh!" I yelled in frustration and began to slam the shoe into the glass harder. When that still did nothing I began punching, kicking and slapping at the glass. I was getting frantic and had to ignore the sting the glass provided my hands with as I smacked the hourglass.

That won't work." I heard a cold, amused voice from behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know who the voice belonged too. It seemed N had finally decided to join the party.

YAY 10th chapter! Hope you guys liked it. This chapter was over 1,300 words! (Without the AN's) So I think I did pretty good.

Peace. Love. Pringles.

-Jenn