Cinderella left the sisters huddled together in the cold, too weak to follow her, and went inside to clean up. First she straightened the house as she would have any other day. She lit the fires and swept the floor. Then she rearranged the rooms removing the frivolous trinkets that belonged to the false owners who had previously resided in each room. When she was finally done she had three sacks of useless trash ready to be disposed of. She dragged them out to bury them alongside the corpses that once valued them.
When she returned Drisella was cold and blue. She would never again breathe a hateful word to anyone. Cinderella tugged her ankles and heaved her across to the pit. She exerted more energy trying to move the plump little piggy.
Anastasia was cold but still alive, barely. She was still covering her eye socket. The bleeding had slowed, and she seemed to be delirious.
"Okay. I'll be your friend and we can be sisters. I love you, Cinderella."
Cinderella froze at her words. "You mean it?"
"Yes, of course I do." She spoke slowly and was deliberate with each of her words. "We're practically twins. And now with mother gone you'll be allowed to be a lady like me. We'll be best friends!" She put her blood-stained hand out.
Cinderella drew close to her and knelt beside her taking her hand. Anastasia gripped her hand as tight as she could and with her other hand she thrust the same knife that had killed her mother into Cinderella's chest. Cinderella fell backward.
The two girls laid on the cold ground with cold hearts. One dying from being poisoned, the other not dying. Cinderella looked down at the pairing knife protruding from the fleshy joint of her left shoulder and pulled it out.
"You wicked liar!" She cried and Shoved it into Anastasia's other eye.
Anastasia didn't cry. She didn't move. She was completely still. And at last, her games were over.
Cinderella stood up and realized that her tormentors were gone forever. That her home was now hers and no one else's.
She finished her work, filling the pit with every unwanted thing that had ever been brought into her home. Before she covered it with dirt she removed the dirty smock she was wearing. The cold air bit at her bare skin, but she didn't mind it. She was free, and nothing else mattered.
Sore, exhausted, and freezing she made her way back to her home. Just as she reached the door she heard a vehicle coming down the driveway. She watched for a moment to see who it could possibly be before realizing she was completely naked except for her boots. She rushed through the door and spied through the window. The car had stopped next door at the Taylors house.
She bathed and dressed quickly. She took a brief moment to look in the mirror and was proud of what she saw.
She didn't wear a dirty smock or a fancy evening gown. For the first time since she was 5 years old she wore everyday clothes. Clothes like those she dressed the mistresses in nearly everyday of her life.
There was a loud knock on the door. She opened it with wet hair dripping onto her fresh blouse.
"Good afternoon miss, we are here to speak with every lady who lives in this house." A kind man in a black suit announced.
"This is my house. There is no one else living here."
He nodded once and produced the glass slipper from his pocket. "It has been requested that every young lady try on the impeccable shoe."
She gasped at the sight of it.
"If I may?" He knelt and lifted her freshly washed foot without waiting for her to answer. A strike of shame shot through her. She had been vigilant in hiding her feet from everyone since the day she cut off her toe.
The man was not disgusted, however, but after slipping it on to her foot he turned to the car and beckoned the others to join him. Mr. Cadmotter got out and opened the door for Emmerett McCune. Both Gentlemen joined the first on the porch.
"Cinny, it is you!" He fell on her, embracing her tightly, nearly crying.
She felt two things. First, pain. Her wounded shoulder throbbed at the pressure. And second, fear. She was scared that she would have to marry him. An idea fizzled into her mind. She's had to work hard her whole life. He is very rich. If she married him she wouldn't have to labor ever again.
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