Bella was an ordinary girl with a job, an apartment and an ordinary car. There was absolutely nothing unordinary about Bella and her simple life, but all that was about to change.
It was a warm spring morning and Bella was off to her job. Being a waitress at the Grand Café was an entertaining job. Nice pay, great bosses, and here and there a couple of fun folks. But today was going to be different. A man walked in, he was tall, unusually skinny, and wore highly tailored clothing. She walked up to where he took a seat to take his order.
“Hello sir, and welcome to the Grand Café. May I take your order?”
He looked at her, just looked, and for that moment everything was absolutely still.
He replied dryly, “No actually. I was just hoping to make a deal with you my dear Bella.”
“Uh, how do you know my name?”
He chuckled, “Not only does it state it on your name tag,” she looked down, “but I’ve been watching you lately and quite frankly, you’re just the girl this deal needs.”
“Sorry, I think you’re mistaking me for someone else.”
She turned around and started to walk away, but the man suddenly grabbed her hand and everything went black.

She woke up feeling just fine, but something was unusual. She was on a bed on what seemed to be very fine quality satin. And on her shrill little body was a dress, a dress as crimson as the first drops of blood. Her hair was in a stunning pile, and in it was a tiara. It’s diamonds shining ever so brightly in the dim sunlight from the windows across the room. She appeared to be in head to toe with things that were clearly strange to her.
She rose from the bed and walked to the grand door in the massive bedroom. As she opened it, she was greeted by a servant. She looked past him and gazed, she was in a castle and a magnificent one at that.
“Good evening Madam. You are looking rather marvelous, if you follow me this way, there is someone who is waiting for you.
“Madam?” she thought.
They walked down a hallway to what seemed a mile long. Chandeliers, grand works of art, and the long runner to top it off made the situation stranger to Bella.
They came up to a great door, ten times that the one in the bedroom. Darrel, who had told her his name on the long walk, opened the doors for her and she stepped into what seemed to be the grand dinner hall. A table almost as long as the hall she had walked to get here was the center piece. At the end of the massive table sat the man she had encountered earlier. She was seated across from him and she could barely make out his face.
She said slowly, “Where am I? And what was that ‘deal’ you were talking about?”
“The deal was this, for you to come live in my palace and be my queen.”
“And how is this any good to me?”
“You get to live a grand life!” he said a little too loudly.
“I can’t just leave everything I have!”
“Yes you can. I’ve arranged everything. As of the moment that you stepped into my land, no one remembers you & everything you ever had & loved is ‘POOF’ gone. It would be no good to go back love.” He chuckled loudly.
“And you think I believe you? Quite a joke you have going on. It’s not going to work; I demand you take me back now!”
The man was furious. He yelled, “You are making a mistake! Here I give you everything, and you want to go back to nothing? Have you gone completely insane? I’ll send you back but no one will remember you and all memory of you will be gone.” He sighed, “Now I’m giving you one more chance dear, you can stay or you can…”
“I said now you fool!”
With a snap of his fingers, the man made the room spin uncontrollably round and round. Bella’s screams were drowned by the wind, and all she could do was close her eyes and wait for it to hopefully all go away like some bad dream.
She opened her eyes and she was back in the café. But something was different, her appearance... she wasn’t in her job’s uniform. Instead she had on what seemed to be worn out rags.
Everyone seemed to walk into her and by her without an “Excuse me,” or “Pardon.” She ran out of the café confused, and didn’t stop until she reached her apartment’s doorstep. She opened the door but everything was different. There was nothing in the room. Just the walls, doors, and floors.
She fell to the ground and sobbed and wondered, “Why me?”