“CINDERELLA!!! How long could it possibly take to make lunch?”
A small, dusty girl quickly scurried into the room balancing three plates on her skinny arms.
The girl hastily apologized, “I’m sorry, Stepmother. It won’t happen again.”
“It better not! After all the trouble I go through to let you live in my house! You’re barely worth the trouble, you useless rat!” yelled Cinderella’s wicked old stepmother. “Now go tend to the garden. And don’t even think about getting any dinner tonight!”
Cinderella hurried out the door as the Twins snickered.
“Don’t track mud around the house, you filthy rat!” Madeline giggled.
“Yeah!” Cassandra laughed.
Cinderella hurried out of the room. On the way to the back door, she stopped to glance at a mirror. From the mirror stared a small girl with dirty auburn hair and a dirt streaked face. Her dress was filthy and tattered from years of wear. The only remarkable thing about her were her startling blue eyes. Cinderella quickly looked away in disgust and stormed out into the garden.
“‘Don’t track mud, you filthy rat!’” Cinderella mocked. “What a joke! Those idiotic wenches are the rats!”
Cinderella knelt down and started plucking weeds. She worked tirelessly knowing that her stepmother would frequently be watching. After a little while Cinderella heard footsteps behind her. She looked up to see a young herald delivering a message.
“Excuse me? Can you please make sure this invitation gets to Ms. Fancher and her daughters?” The man asked. “I knocked on the front door but no one answered.”
Cinderella smirked. ‘Of course no one answered. They’re too lazy to do anything themselves,’ she thought. “Of course. I’ll make sure they get it,” she said.
Just as she was reaching up to take the letter, Cinderella’s stepmother burst open the back door.
“I’ll take that,” Cinderella’s stepmother proclaimed. She snatched the envelope and quickly ripped it open and read its contents. “The prince is hosting a ball to look for a bride again!? Our answer is yes! My daughters and I will definitely be there!”
“Glad to hear it,” the herald bowed. “The prince looks forward to seeing you.”
“A ball. A ball!” Cinderella’s stepmother exclaimed once the herald left. She ran into the house. “Girls! Get dressed! We’re going to a ball!”
Her stepmother stopped in the doorway and turned back to Cinderella before going inside. “And don’t think for a moment that you’re coming. If something like you were to show up with us, they’ll surely kick us out! You are to stay right here and finish your chores. We’ll be out late tonight so I want this house to be spotless by the time we get back.” She then turned back around and stalked back into the house.
“‘If something like you were to show up they’ll surely kick us out!’” Cinderella mimicked her stepmother’s nasally voice. She rolled her eyes. “They’re so stupid. As if the prince would actually even consider making one of those trolls his wife.”
Cinderella stood up and plucked a bright, red apple from a tree and took a big bite. She let the juice drip down her chin as she walked out of the garden and into the woods.
“Just they wait. Someday, they’ll all pay. One day I’l make them sorry they ever even met me.”
“Well why not today?”
Startled, Cinderella dropped her apple and spun around to come face to face with a gnarly old woman.
“W-who are you?” Cinderella stuttered.
“A friend,” the woman winked.
Cinderella surveyed the lady. She was dressed all in black and had gray hair with specks of white. Her nails were long and sharp and she was hunched over. To Cinderella, the woman looked like an evil witch.
“A friend...?” Cinderella squinted.
“Yes and I can help you with your little...problem,” The woman smiled.
“Really? But why would you help me get revenge?”
“Because,” the woman grinned, “I like the look in your eyes.”
Cinderella stared, “That sounds...wonderful. But what do you get out of it? I doubt that you’re helping simply out of the goodness in your heart. And if you are, why would someone that nice help someone so...wicked?”
“Why that’s simply because I’m bored and this looks interesting. When you’re an ancient witch like me, there really isn’t much to do.”
Cinderella hesitated, “Alright then. How?”
The old woman pulled a skinny wooden wand from her robe. “I can transform you into a beautiful princess so that you can go to the ball and capture the prince’s heart. Once you two are wed, you will live a life of comfort and never have to follow someone else’s orders ever again.”
Cinderella was surprised. She looked at the woman in disbelief. Then her mouth slowly grew into a wide grin and her eyes obtained a wicked glint. “Perfect.”

Cinderella’s stepmother and her two daughters pranced into the ballroom in their best looking gowns.
“Now remember, girls,” Cinderella’s stepmother said,”make sure the prince notices you. He has to choose one of you to marry! Or else, I can’t get rich! You know how picky the prince is. He cancelled hi last five engagements and hosts these balled every other month. Now go and greet the royal prince!”
Madeline and Cassandra scurried off to find the prince. They followed him everywhere and never left his side while they vied for his attention. Just then, a late party guest arrived. The prince looked up and saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was petite but held herself in a way that made her look as though she towered above even the tallest man. Her silky, auburn hair shone in the light and her bright, blue eyes were striking against her pale skin. The girl wore a sparkling, dark blue gown that flowed behind her as though she was a goddess from above. The prince instantly fell in love. He pushed the other two girls aside and confidently strode towards the girl.
The prince knelt and kissed the girl’s hand, “Good evening, m’lady and welcome to my ball. May you honor me with a dance?”
Cinderella looked up and saw the startled expressions on her stepsisters’ faces and smiled, “Of course, my prince. I would be a fool to refuse.”
And so, Cinderella and the prince danced all night while the prince marveled the enchanting girl’s beauty and Cinderella enjoyed watching her stepmother and stepsisters’ shocked expressions.
“M’lady, you have stolen my heart,” the prince announced. “Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
The crowd gasped in surprise and it took everything Cinderella had not to burst out laughing in delight when she saw her stepmother faint.
“I would be absolutely thrilled to marry you! I am so honored that a royal monarch as yourself would take such a fancy to a lowly peasant girl such as myself,” Cinderella curtsied.
“Then come, my darling princess. Let us go up onto my private balcony. You must be famished,” the prince led his bride-to-be up the stairs and onto the empty balcony.
Cinderella looked around, confused,”I though you were hungry, your highness.”
“Why I am, my dear. Quite starving, in fact.”
“So then why is there not even a morsel of food here?”
“Oh, you’ll soon see,” the prince whispered. Just then the clock struck twelve and the prince began to change. He grew and morphed. His clothes ripped apart as he hunched over and uttered a gut wrenching cry. Suddenly giant legs sprouted from his sides as long, deadly fangs sprang out of his mouth. In less than a minute, the once glamorous prince had become a giant gruesome spider.
Cinderella’s eyes widened and she tried to scream, but it was too late. The spider prince already had her in his grasp and she was devoured in seconds. The spider licked his lips and wiped his fangs with one of his long, hairy legs.
“Thanks for the delicious meal, Mother,” the prince said. “This one was especially yummy.”
A shadow moved in the corner of the balcony. “Of course my dear. Only the best for my son,” the witch cackled.