Cinderello

Once upon a time...

This is a typical fairytale. A prince, a soon to be princess and magic.
But is it?
There is a "Once upon a time..." but is there a "...and they lived happily ever after." ?

Once upon a time
"Cinderella!" The cold sharp voice of her stepmother cut through the house like a winter wind up into the makeshift bedroom of the girl whose name had been called.
She shot up straight from the uncomfortable self made-mattress out of hay and no longer usable cloths. Her hair was still flat and smooth as always even after 4 hours of sleep and her clothes were the same as the ones from the day before. She stumbled to her feet, the upcoming dust causing her to cough, and rushed out of the small room in the attic without noticing how beautifully the dust twirled in the sunlight that shone through the only window in there.
On her way down the stairs she grabbed the dirty laundry her stepsisters left behind and opened a few curtains and windows.
"What can I do, Gloria?" Her bell clear voice hovered through the front hall. She hated the sound of her voice. It was too high, too clear, too feminine. But her stepsisters envied her for it. In fact, they envied her for everything she hated about herself.
Cinderella threw the clothes into the laundry case and walked into the kitchen where her stepmother, Gloria, and the steptwins, Tina and Gina, waited for their breakfast.
While Gloria gave her instructions for the day she prepared porridge in silence and made a mental To-Do-List. Scrubbing the bath floor, help the girls dress up for the Sunday market, carry the baskets for their shopping, then look for the post. Everything for after lunch was always discussed at lunch.
She finished the breakfast and went to clean the bathroom floor without having any of it herself. The tiles weren't that dirty but she scrubbed every inch of them tediously until the girls called for her. Basically all she did was handing the two witches everything they wanted to try on. Dresses over dresses over dresses. Tina turned around and around to show off how beautiful she found herself and Gina asked Cinderella how she looked just to throw the ones away that Cinderella found not as ugly as all the others.
Dresses were just plain dumb pieces of clothes. One move and your legs, your complete lower half was exposed. The upper half was so tight that you could hardly breathe but your breasts were squeezed out as to present them on a silver plate.
When they finally decided on their outfits Cinderella hurried to change, too, so she could go outside honourable. As honourable as it goes when the best you got is a maid's skirt and a maid's blouse. Cinderella was simply nothing more than that in this mansion, a maid.
"Cinderella!" The name was at least heard 20 times a day and she hated nothing more than the sound of it. Light. Swift. Feminine.
Rushing downstairs she grabbed two woven baskets and gladly hid her hair under a bonnet.
While the three ladies sat in the carriage Cinderella joined the carriage man on the front who steered his two horses in the right direction. Cinderella loved sitting in the front because she could always see the castle and the city walls break through the trees of the forest surrounding them.
The sun was shining on a clear blue sky today so the windows of the royal castle's towers glistened like gold. The windows had, in fact, a small sheet of amber in them in order to make the light coming in seem golden. This was also convenient to not let the candles and the oil lamps burn and pester the air. Hardly anyone knew why the King's castle had the best air in the whole of the kingdom but Cinderella did.
Her best friend, Mauritio, worked in the royal stalls and he already told her a lot about the life inside the castle. Despite all the scandalous stories and the secrets she heard she would love to move to the castle. She surely would be treated better than at home.
She had often dreamed about cutting her hair off and stealing her father's clothes to run away but the colour of her hair would give her away immediately. It was a light blonde, almost white, with a tint of pastell blue. She had been accused to being a witch at times however because of her calm behaviour and the obvious dominance of her stepmother over her the accusations had been dropped.
The church bell chimed ten times in her full, glorious sound that can even be heard back in the mansion.
The carriage approached the city gate and they were waved them through. The guards knew Cinderella since she was little. She always rode through the gate when her father took her along and back then everyone knew her father. He had been the business man of the town but the market spread and so did his work place.
The guards treated her like a little princess, especially since she had been left behind under the watch of her stepmother.
"Morning, Miss! How are you today?" One of them called up to her.
She gave him a weak smile which seemed shy however she just knew that her full spread smile would enchant many boys and men and she didn't want that.
She wanted someone to love her as a boy, and not just anyone, no.
There was one handsome, kind man who lived in the castle. And through Maurito she knew that he was, in fact, gay.
The only problem was that she, as a female maiden, would never have a chance to conquer the heart of the prince himself.