Punzel: Behind the Tresses

How the Story, Story Goes

We all know the story of the maiden with beautiful golden hair that stretches almost as far and wide as the river Nile. She braves her demons, fights back at the evil stepmother and uses her hair as the ladder to her happily ever after.

But that's where the story ends, isn't it? She's tucked in the safety bubble of such endings where we aren't allowed to even imagine anything can go south afterwards.

Because God forbid we should imagine that Snow White got a divorce a month after, or Aurora died from childbirth a year from her wedding, it would ruin everything. Our world will be flung into chaos and the entire fabric of our existence will be torn to shreds.

But I wonder how the story goes in an alternate universe, clad in a reality cloak. Where there are no princesses and happy ever afters, no frogs to turn into princes and birds that stitch up dresses...