Chasing Cinderella (Book one of the Cinderella Series) (Completed)

Chapter 10 (Edited)

That night, I was tired. Delilah had me clean all the bathrooms, scrub the stalls and put new shavings in, vacuum all the floors, clean the sheets of every bed and cook a meal that could feed ten people. So, basically, she was punishing me from this morning.

I grumbled a little as I climbed into bed with Anne. Yes, I know it's weird and disgusting, but... Delilah had taken my room from me just the day after Dad had died. Now, I lived in the basement with a female who I wanted to be my mother. I mean, she cared about me more than my own and that's saying something.

Delilah usually made Anne and me fend for ourselves. She doesn't let us eat with the others, nor does she let us eat the food that we had prepared. However, I had learned long ago how to sneak food and that's what I usually do. Most of the times, I gave it to Anne since she was older than me. Me, I could live without eating for a few days.

I shook my head, breaking my thoughts and laid my head on my pillow. Sleep came easy for me, and I was glad for that, because I didn't want to think about what had happened. Sorrow and pain filled my system as I thought about what had happened this morning/ However, I knew that my father was right. There would be people who would miss me.

I can not give up hope that one day, there was a prince or someone that would take a broken girl in. They would give her the love that she needed and to care for her as if she was someone and not a nobody like she felt.

Ha! That only happens in fairy tales, where princes ride in and save the damsel in distress. It won't happen to me. I'm not a Princess and this ain't a fairy tale. This is real life, and no matter how hard I wanted to leave, I would be stuck in this cruel place.

***

Screaming woke me up, and I quickly jumped out of bed. I didn't care who it was, but I knew that no one else would care enough to check on the person. Hey, it might be Derek, and I don't want him to go through the pain of people not caring about him.

I ran through the servant's walkways and up to where I heard the screaming. I knew all the backways and knew which rooms were occupied and the ones that weren't.

Let me explain something first, our house is huge and old. It's been passed through the Contre family for generations and generations upon end. The house was maybe built in the early 1800s or something like that, where there had been slaves.

My family had slaves way back when, but after things had been going down and my many great grandfather had the place, he started paying the African Americans. He gave them a house and then taught the African Americans how to read and write. All he asked, was that they would stay on his land.

That all changed in maybe the early 1900s. We still had the land and such even through the Great Depression, but my great grandmother had let some of the African Americans move off the land.

However, one family stayed and thus we still had maybe two African Americans living on our land. They were siblings, and I adored them. The siblings were, Anne and Travon, and they acted as if they were family.

So, that is the life of Contre and Bello, the African American family that stayed, had lived together since... forever.

Anyways, back to the story.

"Crap," I said hearing that it was Anna who was crying. I hesitated outside her door, my whole body tensing. Stupid girl, I scold myself.

"NO! NO! PLEASE DON'T," she begged as she cried. "PLEASE GET AWAY FROM ME! I-I'M SORRY! I-I DIDN't MEAN TO!"

I groaned again and opened the door. It was like part of the wall and only a few people know of it. Even Delilah didn't know about the secret passageways behind the walls. I silently closed it and went to her. "Anna," I said, softly, shaking her shoulder. "Wake up, you are having a nightmare."

Anna jumped up and slapped me across the face, making me moan a little in pain. "What the hell, Eller?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes at me. "Why did you wake me up from my beauty sleep? I could call Korren in here to hit you around."

I narrowed my eyes a little but looked down. "Go ahead," I said, coldly. "I will not wake you again if you have a nightmare." My fingers twitched a little wanting to touch where she hit me. I knew that it was going to bruise. I started to turn around and walk out of the room, not going through the secret passage.

Anna turned on her lamp, and I had to blinked a little as light flooded into her room.  "Wait," she said softly.

I stopped and turned to look at her. "Yes?" I asked, my tone hard.

She sighed and looked down, her brown hair covering her face. "Do you think... do you think you can play me a song? I mean, you do it for Derek, when he has a bad dream."

I looked at her, my mouth open, surprised. She wanted me to play her a song. She, the one that made my life a living hell along with her sister, wanted me to play her a song. "Of course," I said, startling me and her.

Hey, she knew that I didn't like the way that she treated me. "Really?" she asked a small bit of hope in her voice.

"I get to choose the song." With that I shut the door and walked away.

Why I did that? I don't know. I guess it might be because that she was just following in her sister's footsteps. If she didn't, then I'm sure that she would be treated like me... and I didn't want that to happen.

***

I walked out of my room and walked into hers. I stayed silent and stuck close to the shadows, so that they wouldn't see me, even though I'm sure that they were still asleep. My whole body was tense even though I didn't know why. I mean, it was Anna who had called upon me.

I sighed and shook my head, before knocking on the door. "Anna?" I whispered silently. I heard some shuffling before the door was opened to show a girl around my age.

I took a small bit to notice her and feel slightly jealous. Her brown hair was wavy and curled at the ends. It fit her face perfectly, making it look softer. Her light gray eyes watched me as she moved out of the way.

"I thought that you might've forgotten..." she said softly.

I shrugged my shoulder. "I wouldn't," I replied as I sat down in the seat, by her bed.

Anna nodded her head silently as she laid back down in bed. She looked at me expectantly as I started to strum the guitar and set it up.

I sighed and took a deep breath. This was the first time I sung for my siblings other than Derek. He loved it when I sung, so I did it for him. And, to tell you the truth, I was nervous. I didn't know how she would react to my singing. However, that wasn't going to stop me.

I started to sing one of my favorite songs of all times, which was Fifteen by Taylor Swift. I did love all of Taylor Swift's country music, but this one was my favorite. Some of her songs had helped me through my past and with everything that had happened.

I sung this song because my father had loved this song. He had told me that I was going to have to take a deep breath with life. Every step of the way was going to be a new experience. It didn't matter what was going to happen. There was going to be something that will try to bring me down.

I strummed the last few cords, finishing the song and looked to see that Anna was fast asleep. A small smile played on my face, glad that she didn't see the tears in my eyes.

"Good night," I whispered to her as I stood. And with that, I left going back to the basement.