Glass Slippers [1st Draft]

20. Secrets Unraveled

Chapter Twenty:

Secrets Unraveled

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The carriage rocked back and forth as it was pulled over the uneven dirt roads back to Clara's home. Inside the carriage, Clara found herself being thrown from side to side as they rounded each corner, and she couldn't help growing steadily more and more queasy with each turn.

Was it the turns? Was it the nerves induced by her worries about what would happen when the clock stopped striking twelve? The fact that the man she had grown to almost love didn't love her back? Or was it the fact that the same man was also the crown prince of her country? As the carriage wildly swerved around another corner, she realized that it was definitely a combination of all four.

Suddenly, the carriage gave a lurch as the clock striked its last chime, and Clara gasped in horror as she found herself flying through the air. She could've sworn that she watched her life flash before her eyes until she landed heavily in a nearby bush, the sound of branches snapping reaching her ears.

She laid there for a few moments, trying to calm her racing heart, not caring that more than few of the branches of the shrub were pushing into her sharply. Groaning, Clara sat up, placing the heel of her hand to her head and using the other to take a stray branch from her hair. As soon as the twig was free from her hair, Clara struggled to her feet, looking around her for any signs of her carriage and the coachmen.

An orange mess in the middle of the road caught her eye and upon closer inspection, she realized it was a smashed pumpkin. A smashed pumpkin that was currently being played in by four mice and two grasshoppers. Clara furrowed her brow but snapped her head up to attention when the sound of galloping hooves reached her ears.

Hurrying to stand behind one of the roadside bushes, Clara watched as the mice and grasshoppers followed her and then hid around her when a carriage flew past them. Clara leaned a little farther out of the bush and almost fell over when she realized precisely whose carriage it was. It was her stepfamily's!

If they got to the house before her and she wasn't there, she didn't even want to think about the consequences. Lifting the skirts of her dress, which was back to its ragged pre-transformation state, she dashed down the road until she reached a path. She knew the path would lead to her home, but she could only hope she got there before her stepfamily.

She was about to run down the path when she saw a glistening object out of the corner of her eye. There in the trampled grass at the beginning of the path was her glass slipper. She scooped it up, frowning, before proceeding to sprint down the path towards her house, keeping the slipper close to her chest as she ran.

As she ran for the second time that night, Clara couldn't help but wonder how her dress and carriage and footmen had disappeared and transformed back to their original state, but the glass slippers had not. Why was it that her shoes were the only objects that did not disappear? Were they not magic as well? Had the slipper in Frederick's possession disappeared as well?

The only light guiding her as she rushed home was the light from the moon that could barely be seen through the branches of the trees and shrubs. Clara could hear the nighttime noises of the animals within the forest, the hooting of owls and the howling of wolves doing nothing for her anxiety. Her legs were burning with exertion and her heart was beating out a steady pace when finally the lights of her home could be seen through the trees.

She dashed the final distance to her house, her arms pumping at her sides. Her bare feet stumbled over sticks and rocks until finally, she reached the door to the kitchen. Clara didn't bother knocking, instead just going in, catching her siblings off guard.