Once Upon a Grimm

Chapter Eight: The Last Straw

"Things aren't always the fairy tale that you thought they were." - Amy Klobuchar 

  

Time seemed to move quickly in this new world. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours and so on and so on. It quickly became easy to forget the real reason why I was there in the first place.

Weeks had now gone by and with no news of Jasper, I had become so set in my new life that my mission slipped my mind.

Ella and I had become fast and inseparable friends, spending most if not all our time together. During the day I passed most of my time by helping her with her chores. I did the outside work while she worked inside the house. We had both agreed that if would be best for me to not come inside the mansion where her step family could potentially see me. If they knew I was there they might have thrown me out, and that was something neither one of us wanted. After working and finishing our chores, Ella would teach me to ride or we would go to the nearby river to swim off the stress of the hard work of the day. By night we would stay up late and talk, mostly about our families and the adventures we still wanted to have in our lives. Often, she would sneak me out books from her father's library to read so that I wouldn't get bored when she couldn't be there to keep me company.

Ella continued to surprise me. She was so... real, exactly like I expected and at the same time nothing like I expected. Of course, she was kind, loved animals and was a very hard worker. You know, she had all the typical "Cinderella" traits. She was so sarcastic, hilarious and a natural leader. She wasn't just this weak little girl who lost her parents and became stuck with some evil stepmother. She wasn't this person who just let herself be bullied or belittled. She was strong and had a great determination to see herself in a better place. Getting to know her in person just amped up my respect for her and her fairytale. It solidified to me that little me chose the right heroine to be my role model.

I had yet to meet her step-family. I was still hiding in her barn while sleeping on a pile of hay. To be honest, it was a meeting that I was both dreading and excited for. I mean, if Cinderella was so much more than her story than they had to be too, right? Ella, of course, had told me plenty about them. Her two step sisters, Katerina and Amelia, seemed to be the topic she most like to discuss. They were always doing something, pulling some kind of cruel prank on her that seemed to piss her off.

Amelia wasn't too bad compared to her sister, in fact I think she just went along with Ella's torment because she was afraid that she would be tortured too if she interfered. She added along to jokes but never started anything herself. Ella told me that Amelia was even known to help with the chores on occasion.

I felt almost bad for Amelia. An almost kind soul born into a corrupt and cruel family, always fearing abuse if she too didn't act in a selfish or bullying manner.

Katerina was the worst of the two girls. She almost seemed to enjoy Ella's torment and misery. From what I could tell it was her favorite pass time. Ella was always getting bruises and scrapes from Katerina tripping her and pushing her around.

One day, while I hid in the barn, I saw for myself how cruel Katerina could be. Ella was working hard outside, tending to the garden while picking fresh vegetables for her step families' dinner. I could hear her softly humming a soft lullaby from where I sat, the sweet melody had made me start to drift off into sleep. A sudden and loud screech immediately startled me out of my peace, however. When I looked through a crack in the wood, I saw a tall girl, about Ella and I's age running over to where Ella sat in the dirt. The girl had a beautiful blue sundress bundled in her hands as she stalked over to her stepsister.