Forgotten Fairytales

Once upon a time, there lived a little girl named India Lewis.

She had memorized every fairytale in all the childrens books, and stored them up in her mind to tell her grandmother. India's favorite was 'Cinderella'

A story about a young girl who fell in love with a kind handsome prince, who swept Cinderella off her feet, and then they rode away together into the sunset.

That's what she wanted. To meet a charming young man, and for them to fall in love and head towards the sunset in a happy ever after.

But as young India got older, so did her grandmother, who was getting frailer every day. One night, on India's ninth birthday, her grandmother told her the story of Romeo and Juliet.

India had been swept away by the beauty of their love for each other, and also felt saddened about the way it had ended. She thought all faiytales had happy endings.

Then on India's tenth birthday, she told her the tale of Ambrose and the Pauper. A story about a beautiful young girl, that fell in in love with a poor man. In the end, the pauper was sentenced to death by Ambrose's father. Later on however, the beautiful girl drowned herself.

And then on India's next four birthdays, she told four more stories, each one more unhappy than the other.

The last story she told, was about Clara and the Prince that never came, a girl who waited and waited for her prince to save her from the terrible beast, but he never turned up. India was fifteen when her grandmother passed away, the same night she told the story.

Poor, poor India was left alone, with the stories of those girls swimming about her head, causing nightmares.

But eventually, she moved on, and so did the stories. And slowly, they faded away, leaving out dear India with only memories of what had once existed.

Happily Ever After...

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"Oh, come on, Indi, you can't seriously want THAT as a birthday present."

India glanced up at her friend, and nodded eagerly. "Pleaseeee, Jennifer?"

Jennifer Jones stared dissaprovingly down at her friend, before flicking her ponytail over her shoulder and sighing, "Fine," she said, scowling, "But only because it's your sixteenth."

India clapped her hands and grinned, turning back to the pen and picking up the adorable ball of fur, "Hiya, sweetie." she cooed.

The chocolate brown puppy glanced up at her with it's baby blue eyes and woffed happily. Cuddling the puppy to her chest, she skipped over to Jennifer grinning like an idiot, in time to see the brunette pass some money to the kind lady behind the counter.

Glancing up, Jennifer crinkled her nose in disgust, "It is rather smelly."

India frowned and shuffled away, "Ignore her Winnie, she's just mean."

Jennifer snorted and giggled, "Winnie?" she asked. India nodded and walked out of the pet shop and onto the busy side walk, a less than enthusiastic Jennifer following.

As they started walking, Jennifer picked up her phone and started messing around, causing India to roll her eyes "Jen, put your phone away, there'll be an accident."

Jennifer nodded, "OK."

India looked away for one second, and when she turned her attention back to Jen, she saw her friend had wandered into the road. "Jennifer!" she screamed. Jen glanced up, shocked.

Then there was a screech, a scream and a deadly silence.

And that, dear reader, is where India's story begins.