I'm Not a Horror

I do not own Cinderella or anything of that sort. This story is based off a photo I found online and decided I wanted to try something dark for once. It's short, sweet, and to my point.

Cinderella

After my father passed away, I was left alone with my step-mother and 2 step-sisters. At first, it seemed fine. My step-mother gave me chores, which was new, but I did not mind. But then she fired all the staff and gave me the work of what was once ten people's duty. The work was hard to keep up for a young child, but my step-mother did not care. She said I should be able to do what I was given, and if not, she would punish me. I didn't understand what she meant until later.

The first time she punished me was when I was maybe ten. I didn't scrub the floors right, so she took off my arm with an axe from our barn and sewn on a burlap arm full of straw. I wasn't sure how I was still alive or how the arm still worked like a real arm, but it did. The next time was for running late on delivering the meals, so she switched out my leg.

One by one, she took parts away from me. When she got to my head, she started with taking my ears. Then my mouth and placed a hole with loosely tied string, next my eyes for blue buttons and twisted string for lashes, and last my ears for nothing. My hair became messy and rough yellow yarn. The only real thing remaining of me became my mind and heart. Otherwise I became burlap, string, yarn, and straw. Somehow, I aged and worked regularly, minus the times when pieces of my body would fall apart.

I grew up as a scarecrow with my only friends being the mice. In my free time, I would sew them little shirts and hats, sometimes shoes, to make them seem more human. I never was able to leave the house unless to do chores. Life was lonely and sad. I felt trapped within the burlap skin I now owned.

During one of my days cleaning, a servant from the castle delivered an invitation to the prince's ball. He was looking for a bride it seemed. My step-mother began working on dresses for my sisters. I asked to go, hopeful. But she turned to me and said "you have too much work to do here my dear" with an evil smirk on her wrinkled face.

I ran from our home, my prison, to an old fountain at the entrance of the forest. Mold accumulated inside where water used to flow and the stone was chipped and broken everywhere. I cried on the cold stone, feeling as broken and drained as the fountain.

Without my notice, blue sparkles flew around me like fire-flies. A glow entered my vision, making me look up to the blue orb now in front of me. Gradually, a small figure appeared in the middle. Furthermore, a small woman in all blue stepped from the light. She was reached only to my hip, and I'm only five feet tall. "Young Cinderella," she spoke in a high pitched tone, "I am here to grant your wish."

I looked to her and wondered what she meant. She sighed, seeing my confusion. "Cinderella, I am your fairy godmother, here to help you to the ball." "You are?" I asked, my voice sounding scratchy. She smiled, sweet and innocent. When was the last time I saw a real smile like hers? "With a flick of my wand and twist of my wrist, I will make you presentable for the ball my dear."

As she said, she flicked the wand with a twist of her wrist and the blue sparkles swarm to surround me. I was blinded for a moment from the light, before my vision became clear again. When I was able to see again, I looked down. Blue puffs of fabric beautifully flowed around me. I kicked out one foot and saw flesh, real flesh on my legs and glass slippers on my feet. I held my arms out as saw matching blue gloves, but I could feel the smoothness and warmth of the flesh underneath as well. I reached to my face and felt a nose (something I lost years ago), lips, and real eyes. On top of my head was real hair. Everything about me was real and human again. And for the first time in years, I felt a tear fall down my cheek.

"I must warn you Cinderella, there is down side to this magic. It can only last till midnight! Unless you receive a kiss from the prince before the hands strike twelve, you will return to your original self. I am sorry, but it is all I can do." I became scared and sad, thinking that this wonder could end. But I had hours, and I was determined to keep my human form. But…it would take at least an hour to reach the castle from here…

Another flurry of blue sparkles invaded the air, into the pumpkin place and where some of the mice seemed to have been hiding. In another flash of light, horses and a carriage materialized. "This should help. But remember, everything returns back to normal at midnight! Now have fun my dear, sweet Cinderella and get that prince." My fairy godmother smiled before vanishing before my eyes.

After that, it became a rush. The horses galloped so fast in the night that we made it to the castle in record time. I entered the elaborate walkway and was guided by servants to the main ball room. Hundreds of people seemed to invade the area, but I had my eyes set to the man in the front of the room. And his eyes seemed to be on me. A blur went by in my head as he came to me and we danced. He held me tightly in his arms and told me how he knew I was the one meant for him. It was wonderful.

Until the clock began chiming.

My eyes got huge as I looked to the large clock tower, not far from where I stood. Two minutes to twelve. I looked to the prince, who had begun walking through the crowd to announce he found his princess. There was no way I could reach him in time. I was about to return to my old burlap self. I reached to my hair and realized that it was already becoming yarn again. My eyes got wide…and I panicked.

I ran through the crowd, still hearing the chimes of the clock tower. Maybe if I could reach him in time. But the women in the crowd began to crowd around the throne area, where the king and prince both stood. I looked out to the clock tower again-only a minute life. There was no way he could love me as a scarecrow. No one could love someone that ugly.

Dashing now, I rushed to the only exit I knew. I could hear my heart beat and the sound of glass on marble. And under that noise, something that sounded like it was breaking. At first, I thought it was my heart. Until I tripped.

I looked behind me, where my feet and legs were, to find one broken glass slipper and one covered in tiny cracks. And under that glass was burlap feet with no toes. In a rush, I got up and began running to my carriage. I looked back to see parts of my string from my seam being pulled apart from the glass. But I didn't care as I jumped into the carriage.

The horses ran, but not very far. We made it to the entrance of the woods on the outskirts of town when the carriage became a pumpkin and the horses to mice in a puff of blue smoke. And I felt as I became something inhuman again. As I fell inside the pumpkin, I felt the other slipper break on impact. Pieces of glass embedded into me, piercing into me. It hurt greatly, for every time I began to move the glass would pull on my threads. But the pumpkin now seemed huge and I was trapped inside the pumpkin with glass.

I began falling apart. My legs fell, my arms, everything. Until nothing but what once made me filled the pumpkin, now rotting outside the town. That was the last any heard of Cinderella.