Cinderella

Nightmares &Fairy Tales:Serena Valentino & FSC

NOT BY ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gwen asks Anabelle to tell her a story. Anabelle warns that her stories seldom have happy endings, however begins to tell one anyway.

The story is a variation of the tale of Cinderella. Cinderella is a good, quiet girl who is abused by her stepmother and stepsisters. When the prince makes plans to have every girl in the kingdom attend a ball so he may choose a wife, the stepmother quickly plots for her own daughters to be strong candidates for the marriage. She makes a pact with a demon asking for Cinderella to be made ugly and her own daughters beautiful. Cinderella meanwhile plans to attend the ball herself, fixing a dress to wear. The stepmother attempts to foil Cinderella's efforts by making messes for her to clean up (ensuring that Cinderella is too busy to get ready), however she manages to be ready in time anyway. At the ball, the stepmother is horrified to find that Cinderella has turned even more beautiful while the stepsisters have grown horns from their head and hooves on their feet. The prince falls in love with Cinderella, however she has no wish to marry him as she knows he is very cruel. She flees the palace leaving only one slipper behind. The prince, furious at being spurned, vows to use the slipper to find the maiden he proposed to. Back at home, the stepmother confronts the demon with her daughters. The demon explains that he kept his end of the bargain, as from his perspective the stepsisters were quite lovely. He then takes one of the stepsisters as payment for his services and threatens to take the other should the prince not marry her. Terrified of her last child being taken by the demon, the stepmother desperately cuts the last stepsisters toes off so that she can fit into the slipper. The plan does work and the slipper fits, however the prince orders the stepsister to be arrested and tortured for "leaving" him. The stepmother tries to tell the truth so that Cinderella will be arrested instead, but the prince merely orders the stepmother arrested as well for lying to him. Cinderella is left free at least and Anabelle concludes the story saying that she lived "happily ever after".