Tales From the Cave-Cindermeg

The Big News

It had been two days since the Ball had occurred.  M'gann was back into her usual routine of sweeping the floors, doing the laundry and making the meals. But she couldn't stop thinking about Conner and the magical night they had shared together. If only I had a hint to where he lives now., she constantly thought. Then I could blow this pop-stand and go look for him. It seemed that after their big letdown of a night, Cynthia and Edwina had gotten even whinier and more demanding than before. Regina, on the other hand, was barely seen around the house anymore.

Then, on the third morning after the ball, M'gann was in the kitchen, preparing the breakfast trays, when she heard her stepmother's voice calling for her. "Cindermeg?! Cindermeg!! Where are you, you dirty rat?!" She ran towards the stairs to answer her call. Regina stood on the stairs, dressed in her finest day gown of red velvet material. "Cindermeg! Where are my daughters?!"

M'gann shrugged her shoulders. "Still asleep, I guess. They're not exactly morning people." Regina huffed. "Well, don't just stand there! Bring up the breakfast trays! And step on it! There's not a moment to lose!" M'gann watched her dash up the steps towards the bedrooms, calling out for her daughters. "CYNTHIA!! EDWINA!!" Confused but curious, M'gann hurried with fixing her stepmother's breakfast tray and followed her path up the stairs.

She entered Edwina's bedroom, where Regina was tugging at said girl's arm, desperately trying to get her out of bed. "Wake up! Now! You have to get ready! He'll be here any minute!" "Who will be here?", M'gann asked. "Vandal Savage!", Regina cried, drawing the curtains open. "He's been hunting for the past two days!" "Hunting?" "For that girl!", she said, digging through Edwina's closet. "The one arrived at the ball late! They say he's madly in love with her!" M'gann furrowed her brow. "Vandal Savage is in love with her?" Regina groaned in annoyance. "No, you little fool! Vandal Savage isn't in love with her! Lex's son, Conner is!"

M'gann gasped. "Conner?" She lost her grip on the tray, and it crashed onto the hard wooden floor. Cynthia staggered into the room, still half asleep. "Didn't we tell you?", she said in between yawns. "When that mystery girl showed up at the ball, Conner was awestruck. He went right up to her and danced with nobody else the entire evening." Edwina sat up groggily. "That's why we had such a lousy time. After she came into the ballroom, Conner didn't give the rest of us a second glance. Then she just up and left without so much as a goodbye. You'd think after she ran out, Conner would try dancing with somebody else, right?"

"Wrong!", Cynthia snapped, her anger making her more awake. "She left one of her shoes on the steps of the mansion in her rush to leave. After she disappeared, Conner spent the rest of the evening just sitting around and staring at the stupid shoe." Edwina crossed her arms and pouted. "It was the worst night of our whole lives. We may as well have been invisible." Regina stood in between them. "Forget it! Just get up and get dressed!"

"What for?", Cynthia snapped, trudging over to sit next to her twin sister on her bed. "If he's in love with that little tramp, why should we even bother?" The twins lied down, only for their mother to grab them by their nightgowns and pull them back upright. "Listen to me! You girls still have a chance with him!" Edwina looked at her with wide eyes. "We do? Mother, what are you talking about?"

Regina sat down next to them. "Apparently, that girl is supposed to be a shapeshifter, so Conner has no idea what form she could be in. That shoe she left behind is his only clue. He and Vandal Savage are leading a search through the entire New York state. I read an interview that People Magazine had with Savage. He's confirmed that when and if they find a girl whose foot fits the slipper—Conner will ask her to marry him!"

The twins sat up straight as a pair of arrows. "MARRY HIM?!" They leapt off the bed and flew into a frenzy deciding what to wear and what to say. In their panic, they didn't notice M'gann standing by the doorway, still as a statue. She could hardly believe what her stepmother had just said. Conner wants to marry me? She didn't seem to notice her stepsisters piling their best clothes onto her arms, telling her to mend this or iron that. Suddenly, Edwina spoke up.

"Hold on—what's the matter with her?!" M'gann stared off into space with a dreamy expression on her face, sighing softly. Cynthia stomped over and snapped her fingers in front of her face. "Wake up, stupid! We gotta get dressed!" M'gann snapped out of her daydream and looked down at her clothes. "Dressed?" She looked up. "Oh, of course!" She dropped the clothes she was holding, letting them fall to the floor without seeming to notice or care as she left the room. "I have to get dressed! I can't let them see me like this when they arrive with the glass slipper." Regina's head shot up. "Wait a minute...", she said as she followed her out of the room. "How did you know the slipper was made of glass?"

But M'gann didn't seem to hear her. She was walking down the hall, swaying back and forth and singing under her breath. "Hmmm, hmmm, so this is love...so this is what makes life devine. I'm all aglow, hmmm, and now I know, the key to all heaven is mine." Regina's eyes narrowed into sinister little slits as she glared at her stepdaughter twirling up the stairs to the attic. She was so focused on M'gann, she didn't see the housemice cowering in the mousehole just inches away from her foot. They stopped cowering when they saw her pull a rusty old key from her pocket.
--------------------
M'gann finished washing her the dirt from her clothes and face and was now standing in front of the mirror, brushing the dirt and tangles out of her hair as she sang. "So this is the miracle, that I've been dreaming of. Hmmm, hmmm, so this is love..." She was snapped out of her thoughts and back to reality at the sound of tiny squeaks.  She looked down to see David, Peter and Olivia at her feet, squeaking and squealing in a panic, desperately trying to get her attention.  "What's wrong?"  She connected their thoughts, and the first thing she heard in her mind was, BEHIND YOU!

Their thoughts were so loud, M'gann reared back in pain, stumbling backwards as she turned back to the mirror.  When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw in the reflection was Regina turning a key in her bedroom door.  She gasped as she spun around.  "NO!"  Before she could react more, Regina grabbed the handle and slammed the door shut.

M'gann ran to the door and pulled the doorknob with all her strength, but it was too late.  The door was already locked from the outside.  "No, you can't do this!", she cried, desperately banging the door with her fist.  "Let me out!  Please let me out!  You can't keep me in here!"  Regina ignored her pleads, simply smiling as she slipped the key back in her pocket and walked down the stairs to wait for Conner and Vandal Savage.

M'gann fell to her knees, leaning on the door, and burst into tears.  "Oh, please..."  David, Peter and Olivia slid out through the crack under the door and scurried to the edge, watching Regina prance down the stairs smugly.  David squeaked to his friends.  The translation of his words from Mice to English was, We've gotta get out paws on that key!