Cindrl

Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lived a kindly gentleman who had a fine home, a lovely wife and a charming young boy named Charles. The gentleman and his wife loved their son very much and gave him every luxury and comfort imaginable. Although Charles loved both his parents, the young boy was much closer to his father. Charles was his spitting image, with the same head full of golden blonde hair, the same warm smile, and the same twinkling blue eyes. The father was caring and devoted towards his only son and would spoil him from time to time. Together, they would embark on grand adventures, riding horses across lush meadows, playing games that filled the air with joyous laughter, and reading enchanting fairy tales that transported them to magical realms. Unfortunately, before Charles had arrived at manhood, his father fell sick and when he felt that his end was drawing near, he called his son to his bedside and thus addressed to him,

"My boy, always remain good, and bear everything that occurs to you with patience; then whatever troubles you may suffer during your life, happiness will be your lot in the end." With this he closed his eyes and died.

Charles was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of a kind and loving father, best friend, and hero. The mother was also stricken with heartache and feared for her future. As her son grew older, she thought that he needed a man's guidance so, the mother quickly found herself another husband. She sought for a proper gentleman, one of wealth and nobility not only for her son like she led herself to believe, but to get rid of her sorrow.

The mother had met a man of good family who, like her, had lost a spouse and had two sons from his former marriage. The two boys where the same age as Charles, thus the mother thought this was a perfect match and in a short amount of time, both families where to be united.

Unfortunately for Charles, his stepfather Mr. Grimoire, proved to be starkly dissimilar from his beloved biological father. He did not enjoy reading fantasy novels because he thought they were nonsense. He kept himself shut in his office, working tirelessly and barely spending time with his family. He was also strict with his sons and often yelled at them. His sons, Éliott and Elias, where not exactly benevolent themselves, for they were both haughty and bad tempered like their father. Despite his strictness and temper, the stepfather was amicable towards his soon to be wife and stepson, he seemed to enjoy their company.

As soon as the ceremonies of the wedding were over, life seemed different. Charles noticed that his mother was busy doing household chores and he rarely saw her, some nights she was not at the dinner table. She wore torn dresses covered in dirt and cinders. Gone where all of her luxurious gowns and the jewels. A few times Mr. Grimoire would yell at Charles for the smallest of inconvenience. One such incident happened when Charles' shirt was dirty after playing outside. Mr. Grimoire, who did not take kindly to this, forced the poor boy to give up his bedchamber and move to the cold and broken-down attic instead.

"A dirty boy deserves a dirty room," he told his stepson.

Charles' mother tried her best to shield her son from Mr. Grimoire so that he would never face the full rath of his stepfather like she had. Until her untimely death that is. Not long after, Charles saw Mr. Grimoire's true colours. He was cold, cruel, and could not endure the good qualities of his stepson because they made his own children appear more obnoxious than they already were. He was grimly determined to forward the interests of his own two awkward sons; thus, he gave Charles the most degrading occupations. The young boy had to do hard work from early morning until late evening. He'd wash the dishes, make the fires, cook, clean, and sweep all the rooms. Soon, like his mother, Charles was stripped away of all his elegant clothes and received torn and dirty old suits instead. Besides this, the stepbrothers did everything imaginable to hurt him as well. One morning, the stepfather and stepbrothers were eating breakfast and when Charles arrived the brothers complained.