Short Stories of the Weird, Wicked and Warped

Twisted Fairytales

Every fairy tale has the hero saving the girl, the girl finding out she is a princess or true love wins in the end. I'm here to tell you my story and none of that happens in real life. Hold on to your hats this is going to be a bumpy ride....HAHAHAHA. Sorry can't help myself.

My story starts as they all do, a long, long, long time ago a female baby was born to a royal family....LOL. Wrong. Nope. I was born to family that was middle class as both parents worked for the lord of the village. He was not a tyrant but he also wasn't very giving to his citizens. Everyone made a decent wage, enough to provide for their family but not enough to get ahead. For if he found out that a family had extra money after the bills were paid, he would take it in the form of a tax.

No family could have a child without him giving permission or knowing about it, it was so he could raise taxes on the parents. My parents however thought that the rules did not apply to them and therefore had me without permission. For five years, I wasn't allowed outside, couldn't talk to anyone and spent most of those five years locked in a little soundproof  space under the floors boards in the back bedroom.

That all came to an end when my brother and sister were born. Twins. Yay. As soon as they were born, they were turned in by the midwife. My parents forgot to lock me up when my mom went into labor and she saw me as I was peaking out of the bedroom. All five of us were taken to the lord's manor and put in the dungeons. My mom and us were in one with my father in a different one.

He was taken first upstairs to be tried for his crime and then punished. I never saw him again or the rest of my family. I was taken next with my mother damning me as I was dragged upstairs. The room was the most beautiful that I had ever seen before. Which wasn't saying much since I had never been out of my house before this day.

"Girl, can you speak?"

"Um yes, but you look mean and I do not want to talk to you." Audible gasps were heard throughout the room. It was then that I knew I wasn't alone in the room with the mean man. There were a lot of beautiful people in the room, most were just staring at me with surprised looks and some were staring at me in a way that made me scared of them.

"My dirty little urchin, you do not know the true meaning of mean, but you will soon. Let everyone know that if you break the law, even your children will suffer for it. From this day forward, you will labor in the laundry until you turn sixteen. You will then be sent to the yard where everyday you will be whipped one lick for every year you were hidden from me for the rest of your life or you are pardoned." With that said he slams a piece of wood onto the armrest of his chair.

I am quickly dragged away to another set of stairs leading down. I can smell the water in the air as we get closer to the laundry room. My mother made me do laundry at home so I was familiar with it but I wasn't prepared for the large mounds of laundry all over the room. Several women and young girls stop what they are doing to stare at us as I am dragged into the room. 

One of the guards grab a piece of metal with a long handle on it from the fireplace and stick it to the back of my hand. The pain was so bad that I passed out only to come to by someone slapping my face hard. I open my eyes to see an older fat woman standing over me with her hand raised to strike me again. Screaming from the pain on my face and hand, I try to crawl away from her.

She yanks me back to the rotten blanket on the floor. "Criminal, you are to stay here until after dinner where you will start the night shift of laundering the linens from all of the meals today. Over there is the pot with your food and that is the only food that you are allowed to eat. I don't know why you are down here and I really don't care. But, understand this I expect hard work from you just as everybody else down here. Soak your hand in that white cream over there on the table, it will ease the pain and prevent you from scaring."