A Cinderella Parody

• Yilani Harrison, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2018

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago there lived a girl, her name was Raven due to her dark hair and bright golden eyes. Her parents died when she was young so she lived with her stepmother and step-siblings.
Raven was treated as a slave by her stepmother, ordered to cook, clean and feed the animals, or she’d get no food. She couldn’t run away, there was nowhere she could go.
After several months a large notice was pinned up everywhere around town, the king was hosting a party in hope to find his son a bride, everyone was invited. Raven dearly wanted to go, although being in a crowd so big she might have trouble controlling herself.
Some months before a lady dressed a fairy had visited Raven, her skin was pale and her eyes were a riveting dark red. And Raven had been changed, yet she was not fond of blood and survived on cooked meat instead. She had the classic pale skin of her kind and was supernaturally good-looking, though she was dirty and unkempt all the time due to the excessive cleaning she was required to do each day. No one dared to try and be with her due to her stepmother, it seemed too much like a death wish.
The night of the party crept up on Raven and suddenly, it arrived and her stepmother had dressed her daughters and son in dashing clothes then left for the castle.
Raven had devised a plan to get there, she would clean herself first before stealing her older step sister’s blood red dress that would only be a bit big for her. The in her normal clothes she use her supernatural speed to get to the castle and change into the dress, wearing bright red shoes her younger sister had left behind, they had roughly the same size feet.
The plan was executed perfectly, arriving moments before her stepmother, she'd have to keep her head out of sight from them for the duration of the party.
She entered and was soon in the arms of the prince and dancing, but the intoxicating scent of the people around her overwhelmed her and she left to relieve her hunger. The prince promised to wait for her return. However upon her return she spotted a man, she could tell was the same as her, with his pale skin. Too shy to speak with him she sort out the prince, only to find he was now dancing with another girl.
Her heart shattered, and she ran, one shoe soon became lost in the crowd as she ran. Ending up in the rose garden she sat alone for sometime before the man she’d seen spoke.
'you left your shoe behind,’ he placed it on the ground in front of her before hugging her and whispering sweet words of comfort in her ear.
Maybe they lived happily ever after, I wouldn’t know, no one ever saw or heard from them again.