Queen Cinderella passed through the halls, her footing getting quicker and quicker by the minute, as she came down the hall you could hear the heels clicking and clacking on the stone floor. The walls of the castle were a polished silver stone with giant windows dressed in royal blue curtains tied back. The hallways were longer and darker than usual from the thunderstorm rolling in. Occasionally light hit the room from thrashing lightning the gruesome storm was bringing. Queen Cinderella made a sharp left at the end of the hallway and stopped at a small door. This door was the only door in the castle made from pure oak, above the door painted on the wall flew two birds carrying a dress.

Beyond that door was a staircase that had not been walked up since the night she moved into the castle, the night her Fairy Godmother told Cinderella they wouldn’t be seeing each other again... Tears streamed down Queen Cinderella’s face as she twisted the knob of the door. It was cold to the touch, and her shaking fingers made it even harder than usual to move the weighted down door. Queen Cinderella took her first step up the creaky old stairs. One by one she dragged her feet up the stairs, till a faint blue glowing light gleamed from the top of the staircase. As Cinderella walked up towards the stairs she could see the blue light beam through the door, lighting up the whole staircase like the grand finale of a firework show.

When Cinderella reached the top of the stairs before she opened the door she took a deep breath hoping for the best, the door flung itself open.

“I heard the bell go off in the Kingdom, what has happened?”

It was her Fairy Godmother, looking well and still the same sweet old grandmother type she had always been. Two birds sat on her shoulders, the same birds that had been with Fairy Godmother that first night her fairytale began. Now it seemed to be crumbling under her feet and dripping like melting ice cubes out of her hands. Queen Cinderella scooted past Fairy Godmother, as she closed the door.


“She’s gone, they took her.” Cinderella said, her eyes were blood-shot and her face was red and blotchy from crying.

“Who?” asked Fairy Godmother as she crossed over to Cinderella while laying a hand on her shoulder.

“Meredith, she’s been kidnapped. I don’t know who or why but she’s been taken. Oh, what are they going to do with her?” Cinderella said while sobbing into her handkerchief, she looked up at Fairy Godmother for condolence.

“Meredith is a teenage girl, she probably just ran off for a walk or to into the Village. Did you two get into a fight?” Fairy Godmother asked, she was just as scared as Cinderella was on the outside as she was on the inside.

“No, there was a note left on the door of the castle. They said if we wanted to see her again we would have to give up everything to gain everything. What is that suppose to mean? I just want Meredith back?” Cinderella said. Her words bunched up together in a mess of hysterical crying. She was bent over, knees to her chest with her arms around herself. She was rocking back and forth and shaking terribly, gasping for breath every so often to keep herself alive.

“Where is Charming? Does he know?” Fairy Godmother asked.

“He’ll be back later today, he went to a nearby Kingdom to work out some trading deals. I sent a messenger to tell him what’s happened, he left an hour ago. And it’s a day trip. I don’t know what to do without him.”

“We’ll here’s what we can do… we can sit around and wait like a bunch of typical women or we can go and get back the future Queen of this Kingdom.” said Fairy Godmother.


Queen Cinderella began to sob even more than before, her hands were cupped around her face and she was bent over sitting on the cold hard floor.

“There is no use crying over what we can fix Cinderella, we have time and magic on our side.” Fairy Godmother said with a smile before she flicked her wand and the room began to spin in whirls of greens and blues.

???????

“I demand that you take me back this instant! I don’t know who you think you are going around snatching up Princesses like you’re doing. It’s very rude.”

Meredith said as an overly buff man was carrying her over 7 ft tall, half giant she imagined. His arms were as big as tree trunks and his voiced boomed through the WANTED forests louder than the thunder coming from behind them. She was flung over his back like a sack of potatoes. The only light she saw was coming from the flashlight the man was carrying.

She looked around and saw nothing but pitch-black dark. She could make out a few large objects standing tall, swaying in the wind, trees she imagined. She must be in the middle of the WANTED forests, just a few miles from the castle. Where all the wanted and unwanted fairytale characters hid from the rest of the fairytale world, with deeds they’d done wrong, ugly morphed faces, thieves, witches, goblins, wolves, and nonetheless evil stepmothers. They had all built homes out in the WANTED forests when no one would care for them, they were spat at, and though some deserved it, it happened to all of them, even if they had a wonderful personality but a much less face. Meredith heard a screeching innocent scream; people were kidnapped, murdered, and eaten by the witches everyday.

“I was having a very nice time sitting in the fairy gardens till you came and snatched me up! I don’t enjoy being carried over your back, and might I add sir that you need a bath. A long one with soap and rosemary leaves.” Meredith went on and on till the man stopped and set her down.

“ I need the money, okay? It wasn’t my choice to kidnap you. I’m being paid for this, you would make my life much easier if you just shut your mouth!” The giant said.
“How about I pay you and you take me home.” Meredith said as she tried to untie her hands from the ropes.

“ Sounds like a fair trade, but Stepmother would be on my trail for the rest of my life. I don’t feel like picking up my family and leaving again.” The giant said.

“What do you mean Stepmother? My grandmother Stepmother? I’ve heard stories of her that Mother has told me. She didn’t seem like a nice person, neither do my aunts. What do they want with me?” Meredith asked.

“I don’t know anything other than to get you and bring you to them and that is what I will do.” the giant said as he picked up Princess Meredith and started off again through the dark forest.

“Well, if you are kidnapping me I think you should at least tell me what your name is.” Meredith said as she crossed her arms as she hung off his shoulder.

“Names aren’t important in this situation.” the giant said, but Meredith could tell he was hiding something.

“I can’t keep calling you Giant. Here, I will start my name is Meredith Grace Charming, but most people call me Mer. There, not that hard, your turn.” Meredith said, she had always been a good talker.

“Charles, my name is Charles. Happy? I don’t like it much, no one is afraid of Charles the half giant.” He said as he started to slump over and turn his face away from shame.

“I think Charles is a very scary name, it’s not typical which is what makes it scary. Scar the Giant, too original. Doesn’t scare many people.” Mer said.

“You really think so?” Charles the Giant said.

“I know so.” Mer said with a fake smile.

Meredith honestly wasn’t a big fan of the giant, but she pretended to be, anything to get him on her side, to let her go. She wondered what Stepmother and her aunts planned to do with her once they got her.

“What did Stepmother and my aunts say they were going to do with me?” Mer asked Charles again.

“They want the Kingdom, they’ve wanted Charming and the Kingdom. But when it was Cinderella that he chose, it didn’t settle well with them. They are going to kill you unless you hand over the thrown.” Charles said.

“I can feel the family love already.” Meredith said as Charles dropped her to the ground with an uncomfortable thud. In the dead of night emerged three women from behind the thick forest; they didn’t seem pleasant looking, it was worse when they took down their hoods. As Queen Cinderella has always told Meredith “vain can turn anyone into an ugly person, inside and out”. This was quite true looking into the wrinkly, worn, mole covered face of Stepmother. Her fingers were long and bony with her veins bulging out. Her hair was black as night to match the clouds that hovered above the trees above them. Her aunts, Cinderella’s stepsister, time had not been kind to them either. Cinderella has always talked how their faces were beautiful but they were heartless and stone cold.

“Meredith, so nice for you to join us.” Stepmother said.


“I’m sure, lets see you want the thrown right? So, you had a big scary giant come kidnap me and bring me into a forest? It took over 18 years to think of that plan? Mother always said you three weren’t the brightest crayons in the box.” Meredith said, she still had fear building up insider her, but showing it would only make the struggle easier.

“Lies, I bet your mother has told you nothing but lies. I bet she never told you how kind I was to take her in after her poor father had died. For her to stay with us, she had to do some simple chores now and then, nothing but fairness.” Stepmother said.

“That’s not how I remember it.” Said a voice coming back from behind the left side of the trees.

“Cinderella?” Stepmother said, she then carried on after she swallowed hard.
“Where are you, Cinderella? I demand you show yourself!”

“You would think after all these years you would learn to respect others and be grateful for what you already have.” Said another voice, this one was not recognized by Meredith.

Two women emerged from behind the trees. One was wearing a royal blue cloak. Another, short, grandmotherly looking with a long stick in her hand that began to gleam with light blues and greens. A spark had started to burn on the end of it that grew as the two women walked toward her. The taller woman walked toward Meredith and untied her hands from the rope wrapped around them. Her wrists screamed for blood flow as soon as the knots were untied.

“I think being nice the first time is always a great choice, but when revenge seeps into your mind it fills your every thought. And after 18 years you three finally decided to try and get revenge on Cinderella and the kingdom for kicking you out. I would have thought you would have learned your lesson the first time not to mess with magic or love.” Fairy Godmother said and with the flick of her wand, the four thieves were gone.

“Where’d they go?” Mer asked.

“The dungeon, where I should have sent them in the first place.” Fairy Godmother said.

“Meredith, this is someone I have wanted to meet for a long time. This is my Fairy Godmother.” Queen Cinderella started, “She’s the one who got me the pumpkin carriage, the coach, the horse, the gown, and made the entire night I met your father possible. She is the one who taught me the lesson that is painted on the walls of your room.”

“No need to make me blush, we’d better get back to the castle before Charming comes. He’ll be worried and most of all I am freezing. Even the trees are shivering with the cold wind and the next storm rolling in. Come now.” Fairy Godmother said as she flicked her wand and the three ended up in the tower of the palace.

“Meredith, run up to your room and clean up before your father comes. He will be glad to see you alive and well.” Queen Cinderella said as Meredith rushed out the door and down the stairs.
“Well I must be off. It was lovely seeing you again.” Fairy Godmother said. Queen Cinderella mouthed the words
“Thank you”, In the midst of her grateful and calmed tears.

Cinderella shut the door behind her and went down the stairs to catch up with Meredith who was already washed up. Queen Cinderella sat down on her daughter’s bed and closed her eyes, happy to have her daughter home again. She took a deep breath and opened up her eyes to have them facing the front wall, written ever so elegantly on the wall was the most important thing Fairy Godmother taught Cinderella. Out of all of the things Fairy Godmother had told her this was the one thing that she kept for years. Cinderella again closed her eyes and listened to the voice of Fairy Godmother say,

“You are only truly beautiful, if your heart is truly beautiful.”