“Oh, Lucifer, what shall I do with my daughters? I spent the last of our money on those spoiled girls, buying them the most beautiful wedding dresses, and this is how they treat me? What shall I do?”
The cat blinked and meowed in reply, and Lady Tremaine cocked her head as if she could understand him.
“What’s that, Lucifer? Put the little beasts in the cellar again? I think that might just do it! That will teach them to obey their mother.”
“Mother, no! Please! We won’t go in the basement again! We won’t!” Drizella was crying, her hands shaking with fear. “It’s cold and dark down there. I won’t do it!”
“You will do as I say, Drizella!” said Lady Tremaine. “You know the punishment for defending Cinderella.” She grabbed Drizella by the hair, dragging her to the cellar stairs. “You dare defy me? After all I’ve done for you? You’re as bad as Cinderella!” She pushed her daughter to the ground and held her there, taking a pair of large scissors out of her pocket. “All you two ever do is talk of Cinderella! Cinderella this and Cinderella that! It wasn’t her fault, it was her father’s! Oh, Mama, we feel bad for how we treated her! Well, I’m sick to death of it! I won’t hear it anymore!”
Anastasia stood frozen as her mother held down her sister. She wanted to pull her off Drizella, but she was paralyzed with fear as her mother screamed into her sister’s face.
“You’re useless, the both of you! You have never been able to do anything right! You can’t even wear the dresses I bought you! Oh, Mama, we look horrible. Can’t we please take off these dirty dresses? If you think you look horrible now, just you wait until I am finished with you!”
To Anastasia’s horror, Lady Tremaine started hacking away at Drizella’s ringlets.
“Traitor!” she screeched, over and over. “You don’t think I know your dirty little secrets, the ones you whisper in the dark of night? Do you think I’m a fool? How else would Cinderella have known we were planning to leave if you hadn’t told her? You all betrayed me!” she bellowed as she hacked off more of her daughter’s hair.
“Mother, no!” said Anastasia as she tried to pull her mother off her sister, but Lady Tremaine swung back at her, slicing her arm with the scissors. Anastasia screamed, recoiling in fear and horror as she watched Drizella struggling to free herself.
“That is enough!” said the Fairy Godmother, closing the book. “I can’t read anymore. Nanny, you’re right. We have to get those girls out of that house.”
The other fairies agreed.
“Yes! Please, go at once. The Good Fairies and I will watch over the Fairylands while you’re gone!” said the Blue Fairy.
“Yes, Fairy Godmother, go!” chimed in Merryweather. “Before that horrendous woman kills them. She’s gone mad. I had no idea things were so bad for them.”
“Those poor girls!” screeched Flora.
“Oh, I feel just terrible for them. Maybe we should all go,” added Fauna.
“Thank you, my good fairies, but I think Nanny and I should handle this on our own. That is, if she will agree to go with me,” the Fairy Godmother said, looking at her sister.
“Yes, of course I will help you, my sister,” Nanny agreed. “I feel we both owe it to Anastasia and Drizella for not protecting them when we should have.”
“I agree, but I refuse to help their mother. She’s a beastly, horrible woman,” said the Fairy Godmother.
“I agree,” said Nanny. “But you know as well as I do it’s our fault she’s turned out this way. I should have gone against the council and helped her back then, before everything fell apart.”
To her surprise, her sister agreed. “You know, I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I think the Odd Sisters were actually trying to help Lady Tremaine,” said the Fairy Godmother.
“Yes, I do believe you’re right. It’s a shame they always seem to find a way to make it go all wrong,” said Nanny.
After sending Cinderella a note to reassure her they would help her stepsisters, the Fairy Godmother and Nanny took to the sky and flew right over Cinderella’s old home. The château was covered in vines and crumbling from neglect and decay. As they landed in the yard, the Fairy Godmother’s heart felt sick. She had done this. It was her own fairy magic that had trapped those girls in this house with their terrible mother, squandering their youth. Now that she had read what Lady Tremaine was capable of doing to her own daughters, she didn’t regret what she had done to the woman. But Anastasia and Drizella deserved better. And she was about to make amends. She just hoped it wasn’t too late.
“I feel terrible, too,” said Nanny, reading her sister’s mind. “I should have protected them. I should have been their fairy godmother. And I should have helped their mother before it was too late.”
The Fairy Godmother put her arm around her sister. “You couldn’t, dear. You were fairy-bound by another mission, and let’s not forget you lost your memory. I should have told you what became of the Tremaines when you returned to the Fairylands. If this is anyone’s fault, it’s mine. But we’re making it up to them now. And because of you, from now on the fairies will extend their reach beyond would-be princesses, just as you have always wished. This story has finally shown me that you have been right all along,” she said, giving her sister a kiss on the cheek.
“Oh, sister, do you mean it?” asked Nanny.
The Fairy Godmother laughed. “Do I have a choice? You’re ruling the Fairylands now.”
“Well, no, I suppose you don’t have a choice, but I’m so happy I will have you at my side,” Nanny said.
“Okay, enough of this talk, we have a job to do,” said the Fairy Godmother, taking her wand from her sleeve. She was wearing her billowing blue hooded robe, the one she had worn when she helped Cinderella all those years ago. It was fitting, really. She had come full circle. “And our work is cut out for us, look at the state of this place!” she said, gesturing to indicate the château.
“Oh, we have repaired worse, my sister. We rebuilt the Fairylands and Morningstar Kingdom after they were destroyed by Maleficent. I think we can handle this,” Nanny said, taking her sister by the hand as they walked up to the front door.
They could see Anastasia and Drizella peeking at them through the basement windows. They looked ghastly. It was no wonder people of the village thought they were ghosts. And everywhere they looked there were black-and-white cats and kittens of various sizes roaming around, meowing grumpily at the fairies.
“Shall we knock or just go right in?” Nanny asked.
“I say we knock, no sense in being rude,” said the Fairy Godmother.
But before they could do so, the door opened violently to reveal Lady Tremaine’s wrathful face.
“I have already told you I am not interested in your witchery! Stay away from my house!” screamed Lady Tremaine.
The Fairy Godmother was shocked. “Well, that’s a first, being mistaken for a witch.” The Fairy Godmother ruffled her wings. “We are not witches, lady, but fairies of the highest order! Now let us in or we will be forced to use our magic.”
But Lady Tremaine kept railing on them. “I don’t care if you’re witches, fairies, or Hades himself, I will not allow you in my house! I remember you from the ball. And do you think I don’t remember you, too, Nanny? How dare you come here with your witch sister after all these years, after denying my pleas for help. How dare you let my daughters and me rot away in this squalor! Why are you here? To finally take my brooch? Well, you can’t have it! It’s mine, and I won’t part with it! My husband gave it to me. The only person who has ever truly loved me. And I won’t give it up. I won’t.”
“We are so sorry for how this turned out, Lady Tremaine, truly, and we want to make amends. May we come in? We would like to help you and your daughters. We understand they are down in the cellar. Won’t you please let us bring them out into the light and give them a better life?” Nanny searched the angry woman’s face for something of the woman she once knew. But all she saw was anger, heartb
reak, and betrayal. A cold heart.
She was beyond helping, beyond saving.
“So, you have been using your magic to spy on me? Using your vile witchery! Do you think I’m an addled old fool? I will never let you have my daughters! Everything I’ve ever done, I’ve done for them! Everything! What do you plan to do, let them go? And what will become of me?” she asked, advancing on the fairies wielding a long pair of bloodstained scissors, slicing at the air and screaming.
“That is enough out of you!” said the Fairy Godmother, blasting Lady Tremaine with her magic wand.
Lady Tremaine vanished into thin air.
“What happened to her? What did you do with her?” asked Nanny, looking around for Lady Tremaine.
“I’ll tell you later. Now we have to get those girls out of the cellar,” the Fairy Godmother said, using her wand to burst open the door.
“Girls! You can come out now, it’s safe,” said the Fairy Godmother. Then slowly and tentatively, two frail, dingy-looking young women came creeping out of the cellar. They looked like frightened wraiths. Their hair had been cut off in random hanks, and their faces were heavily swollen with long hours of crying.
“Are you here to help us?” said Anastasia as she came out, her sister, Drizella, hiding behind her. “Like you helped Cinderella?”
“Yes, dears, we’re here to help you. We’re just sorry it took us so long,” said the Fairy Godmother. She waved her wand, restoring each girl’s lovely ringlets.
“Can you ever forgive me?” the Fairy Godmother asked, taking both girls in her arms.
“Are you our fairy godmother?” asked Drizella.
“We wished for you to come every day,” Anastasia said.
“Yes, we both are,” said Nanny. “And we have a message for you from the queen.”
“Oh, Nanny, it’s you! You came back for us. We hoped you would. We missed you so much!” said Drizella, causing tears to prick Nanny’s eyes.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to find my way back to you, girls. I hope one day we can sit together and I will tell you the story, and I hope with all my heart you will forgive me,” she said, hugging them.
“Nanny, did you say the queen had a message for us? Queen Cinderella? She sent you here?” said Anastasia.
“Yes, my dear. She sent us here to help you,” said the Fairy Godmother.
“And she is holding a ball in your honor, to welcome you to court. She has invited every eligible gentleman to attend,” said Nanny.
But both girls started to cry.
“What’s the matter?” asked the Fairy Godmother. “Why are you crying?”
“Well, look at us! We can’t go to the palace looking like this. And who says we want to attend a ball, or even want to marry?” said Drizella.
“The choice is yours, of course,” Nanny said.
“Oh, but surely you’d like to see your sister,” Fairy Godmother cut in, “and then you can decide if you’d like to stay there with her, or come back to live here. It’s entirely up to you.”
“I think I would like to go back home to England after we tell Cinderella how sorry we are for everything that happened,” said Anastasia.
“I would, too. But how can we? And how can we possibly face Cinderella after what we did to her?” Drizella added through tears.
“Oh, my dear girl,” said the Fairy Godmother. “Cinderella said something to me many years ago, on her wedding day. She said she understood why you and your mother hated her. At the time I didn’t understand. But after reading your story, I think now I do.”
“Do you really think she will forgive us?” asked Anastasia.
“Oh, my darling girl, she already has,” said Nanny. “And I hope you will find it within your hearts to forgive her,” she added, taking both of the girls’ hands.
“Oh, Nanny!” said Anastasia. “We really have missed you.” She hugged the old woman again. “But we can’t go to the castle like this!”
“Well, dears, that’s what you have fairy godmothers for!” said the Fairy Godmother, winking at Nanny.
“Oh, I know you want to sing the bibbidi-bobbidi-boo song! Go on, then!” said Nanny.
The Fairy Godmother was happier than she had been in years. Singing her magical words and waving her wand, granting wishes, and setting things right, but this time it was with her sister, Nanny. She had dreamed one day they would do magic like this together, and finally her dream had come true. And before they both knew it, the entire house was made beautiful again, as it had been years before. Just like that.
“Now, girls, we completely understand if you don’t wish to live here, but you’re welcome to, of course. Cinderella says the house is yours. But just say the word and we will arrange another place for you to stay, or send you back to England. We will carry out your wishes,” said the Fairy Godmother, eyeing the royal carriage that had just arrived.
Anastasia and Drizella stood in amazement.
“Come along, girls, there is a carriage to take you to see your sister at the royal palace. She is waiting for you.” The Fairy Godmother ushered the girls toward the carriage.
“But…” said Drizella.
“But nothing. Cinderella is very excited to see you,” she said, pushing them to the carriage door.
“But, Fairy Godmother,” said Anastasia, “we’re not dressed properly.”
“Oh yes, the dress. I always forget,” said the Fairy Godmother with a laugh, remembering how she had almost forgotten Cinderella’s dress until the very last moment all those years ago. “Nanny, would you like to do the honors this time?” she asked.
“It would be my pleasure,” said Nanny, conjuring beautiful gowns for Anastasia and Drizella. The Fairy Godmother could tell her sister was enjoying fairy-craft—she was in her element really—and it made her smile to see her happy again after everything she had gone through with her other charges. The two fairies stood back, admiring their handiwork, and they thought Lady Tremaine was right: her daughters were beautiful. They looked so lovely in their gowns. Anastasia’s was a voluminous crimson dress with an elaborate golden brocade, and Drizella was wearing one in eggplant with silver embellishments. They were stunning.
“Now then, you two look perfect. Absolutely beautiful,” said the Fairy Godmother.
“Oh really, Fairy Godmother? Do we really?” asked Anastasia.
“Oh yes, my dears,” she said right before the girls enveloped her and Nanny in hugs and kisses.
“Thank you so much!” they said as one, stepping into the carriage.
“No, wait, we forgot one thing,” the Fairy Godmother said, shooting sparks at both of their feet. “We mustn’t forget the glass slippers!” she said. “Now you truly are perfect! Oh yes, and here is your royal invitation.” She handed it to Anastasia. “Be sure to show it to the guards when your carriage arrives to the castle. And please tell Cinderella how much I love her.”
“Aren’t you coming with us?” asked Drizella.
“Oh, no, dear, we plan to fill your closets with lovely clothes and figure out what to do with all these cats! There’s still work to be done here. Don’t worry, Cinderella will take good care of you. And if you ever need anything at all, please just make a wish upon a star, and I promise you this time we will appear,” said the Fairy Godmother.
Both Anastasia and Drizella kissed their fairy godmothers on their cheeks.
“Go on now, you don’t want to keep your sister waiting,” Nanny said with tears in her eyes. “And don’t worry, these enchantments won’t ever break. Your coach won’t turn into a pumpkin,” she said, laughing.
“But, Fairy Godmother, what happened to our mother? Will she be back?” asked Drizella from the carriage.
Fairy Godmother smiled at the girls. “Don’t you worry about her, girls. I promise you she will never hurt you again. Now off with you, to the palace! Nanny and I have important things to do!” she said as Anastasia and Drizella’s carriage drove away, Anastasia and Drizella waving and smiling at their fairy god
mothers.
“Goodbye, girls. Have a lovely time at the palace,” called the Fairy Godmother as she watched it ride away.
“I’m very proud of you, sister,” said Nanny, hugging the Fairy Godmother. “By the way, what did you do with Lady Tremaine?”
“I’ll show you,” the Fairy Godmother said with an impish smile on her face. “She is exactly where she belongs. I almost put her down in the basement,” she said, leading Nanny up to Cinderella’s old attic bedroom. “But I decided the attic would be better.”
Nanny couldn’t help but gasp. There in the middle of the room was Lady Tremaine, forever frozen in time, her hand at her brooch, and her cat, Lucifer, curled up at her feet.
“You’ve turned her into a statue?” said Nanny.
“Yes,” said the Fairy Godmother, chuckling as she noticed that some mice had made a nest in Lady Tremaine’s hair.
At last, Lady Tremaine was cold, solid, and unmovable, as she had always wished.
THE END
SERENA VALENTINO has been weaving tales that combine mythos and guile for the past decade. She has earned critical acclaim in both the comic and horror domains, where she is known for her unique style of storytelling, bringing her readers into exquisitely frightening worlds filled with terror, beauty, and extraordinary protagonists. The books in her best-selling Villains series are best enjoyed when read in the following order: Fairest of All, The Beast Within, Poor Unfortunate Soul, Mistress of All Evil, Mother Knows Best, The Odd Sisters, and Evil Thing.
Cold Hearted Page 15