The 'Sin' of Cinderella

The 'Sin' of Cinderella:  I

"You will take care of her, won't you?" My father asked my stepmother, growing weak as each moment passed.  "She has no others in her life…it's up to you to give her the life that I never could."
My stepmother, Esmeralda smiled but it was not kind.  She brushed her fingertips over her husband's hair, pushing the dark brown hair from his eyes.  "Of course, my love.  We can't expect her to feel comfortable among her own kind."
He coughed.  "That's not it, Esme," he said in a weak voice, his entire body resting across the large expansion of her lap and burgundy dress.  "You are her mother now.  This is her family and I hope that you and the girls will make her feel at home."  His eyes tore away from Esmeralda and met mine.  Reaching forward, I let my tiny hand slip into his.  "You must not go back to the Trow's part of town unless you are going there to work at the shop.  Stay here with Esme and her girls.  They will take care of you, Ella."
"But father," I whispered, not daring to crawl into my stepmother's lap as she frowned from her great height.  Even sitting on the bed, her face hovered high above my father and I as I embraced him.  Esmeralda would have never wanted me in her lap, despite how much she loved my father, we were both still Trows and there was nothing good about that.  In the eyes of humans Trows were nothing more than disgusting Trolls who "were not strong enough to grow into the size of humans."  My stepmother would have never said such a thing when my father was around but I heard her telling her daughter's this on a regular basis.

***

"Be patient," she would hiss to her eldest daughter Anya.  "Despite being a Trow, he is rich.  The property he owns in that filthy part of the town is worth hundred a month in rent."
"He's filthy," Anastasia would mutter.  "I don't understand how you could marry a Trow."
"He is in his dying days," Esmeralda would say with pride.  "Simply be patient and you will see the rewards of our hard life."
Anastasia would roll her eyes, nudging her younger sister Dreysilda in the hip as she went past.  "You hear that?" She would say.  "Mother is going to make sure that we're rich."
"What about Cinderella?" She would ask in a small voice.
"We will need a maid in our new home," Anastasia would chuckle, heading to her room.

***

"Ella," my father said giving my hand a squeeze.  "Ella, are you going to be okay without me?"
"She will be fine," Esmeralda said from above us.  "I will make sure that your daughter is well taken care of.  We've already bought a new home."
He narrowed his eyes but let the comment pass.
"So the child has her own room, it will be more accommodating for a Trow," she said with an icy smile.  "I mean someone of her stature."
"I suppose that will have to do," my father said.  "Ella, I also want you to take care of the shop.  That is the most valuable plot in the Trow Territory and you will have to run my shop.  Will do you that for me?"
I nodded but wondered if that was even going to be the case.  My stepmother hated visiting the Trow territory.  It was never comfortable for humans to visit such a strange land where the inhabitants stood a mere foot tall.  They would have to watch their step and watch their words because in the eyes of Trows, humans were massive and terrifying beings.
I shook my head of the thoughts and tried to focus on my father.
"I'll miss you so much," I said in a soft voice.  "What am I going to do?"
"Esme will take care of you," he whispered.  "Drey also loves you."
"Drey…" I whispered, trailing off.  It was true that Esmeralda's youngest daughter did not hate me as much as Esmeralda and Anastasia did but that didn't mean that she would stand up for me.  I shuddered, thinking of what was going to happen to me.  "Daddy, please don't leave me," I said, finally no longer able to take it and crawled into Esmeralda's lap so I could be closer to him.  I felt the gigantic woman tense up but she did not have the courage to shove me away with my father watching, even as he lay dying.  "P-please don't leave me," I whispered, burying my face into his neck.  "I'm so scared."
"There's nothing to be scared of," Esmeralda explained, gently touching my back.  I felt her thick fingernails graze my spine and I did not enjoy the sensation.  I looked up at her with frightened eyes.  "It's like I said, you will be well taken care of."
I cried harder as my father coughed a few more times.  "I'm afraid I do not have much more strength in me," he muttered, pushing me away slightly.  "I want to look at my favorite women one last time," he said with a soft smile.  "You will take care of her?" He asked his wife again.  "I've left you everything I have, Esme.  I'm putting my trust in you."
"Of course my dear," she said.  "Now shhh…" she went on, using her hand to push me away as my father's eyes closed for the last time.  "There we go," she whispered, shutting his eyelids.  "You have had a good run for a Trow," she continued.  When my father didn't respond she smiled before turning to me with a frown.  "Now please remove yourself from my clothes," she sneered.  "It's bad enough to have one Trow sitting upon me like a damn table, but two?"  
I flinched as she raised her free hand and shoved me none too gracefully to the bed.  "What are you going to do with my father?" I asked as the comforter shifted, meaning that my stepmother was standing up.  She kept my father cupped under her breast between the nook of her arm.
"Your father is going to have a proper burial with his own kind," she explained, crossing the floor.  "Some of the Trows are going to pick him up.  Now you…you need to gather your things.  We move tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" I repeated, wincing again as Esmeralda swung herself around to glare at me.  There was not a trace of tears in her eyes as she looked.  
"Do your Trow ears not work correctly, Cin?" She asked, making the "C" sound like an "S" for effect.  "I said that we leave tomorrow.  I have a wonderful place set up for you."
"W-what…what is that, stepmother?"
She smiled.  "I think under the stairs will be a perfect place for you," she said before spinning back around with my father in her arms.  "Don't mess about," she said before she was gone.  "And get off my bed."
I froze, the tears beginning to come as I slid down the comforter, nearly collapsing to the floor.  My father was gone.  I had nowhere else to go and my father wanted me to stay with Esmeralda and run the shop?  "Oh dad," I muttered as I started to sob, hearing the heavy footsteps of my stepmother move around the house.  To think that she was holding his body… "Daddy," I whispered, curling up into a ball and letting the tears fall against my pale cheeks.  "What happens to me now?"

***
Black.
White.
Scrub.  Scrub.  Scrub.
Black.
"Ella?" A soft voice came from above me.  I looked over my head to see my younger stepsister standing there looking sheepish.  "Ella, how are you?"
I frowned, and continued scrubbing the kitchen floor.  I already hated that stupid black and white checker pattern on the floor, how my entire body could bit into a square as I scrubbed.  I didn't dare say that to Drey, though.  As much I wanted to love and trust her, I knew that she would never have the strength to stand up for me.  "I'm doing okay," I said, continuing to clean.  
She took a sip of her tea.  "Is that the last chore of the day?"
"I'm afraid not.  I still have to go to the village and pick up some things."
"I see," she said.  "Maybe mom will let me go with you?"
"I doubt it."
"It's not fair that she makes you go to the village.  You don't want to get stepped on, do you?"
"I don't have a choice, what she says goes.  It's what my dad wanted."
"Your father didn't want you be a slave," she whispered, falling to one knee as I continued to lather, rinse and repeat the floors.  Her dress let out of a puff of air in my face as she crouched down and I shivered, letting the warm water from the bucket and sponge warm my hands.  "Ella, do you want me to talk to mom?"
"N-no," I said.  "That never works."  The last time Drey had tried to talk to my stepmother I was locked under the stairs for three days and nights without food.  Not to mention that Drey was beaten herself.
"I'll still go with you to the village," she said.  "She's let me go before.  It helps get things done faster.  I don't know how you do it."
"Someone is usually kind enough to deliver the items."
"But that-" Drey was cut off by a shadow falling over the two of us.  As we both looked up I was scared to see that Anastasia was standing over us with her own cup of tea.  
"Why are you talking to Cin?" She asked, frowning at the two of us.  "Mother said that she's supposed to be focusing on her chores."
"She's still working," Drey said, trying her best to defend me.  She knew that I would never speak to Anya.  She was as cruel as her mother, if not more so.
"Did you practice the piano?" Anya asked her sister.  "Mother wanted you to practice.  The ball is only in a few weeks and we've yet to be invited.  Perhaps if you would practice-"
"Me practicing the piano has nothing to do with whether the prince will invite us to the ball," Drey said, standing back up to face her sister.  Despite being the younger of the two, Drey was tall and lanky and Anya was short and round.  But they were both human so they towered at least a good five feet above me as I crouched there at their feet, continuing to scrub.
"He is eligible to be married," Anya explained.  "We need to be on our game.  We have the money and now we have a chance to become royalty.  Don't you want that?"
"I…I d-do," Drey said, lowering her voice.  "The prince is so amazing."
"He is.  However, he won't think either of us are amazing if we are not doing what mother told us.  And what she did not tell us was to spend time talking to the Trow."
"Don't you think it's unfair?" Drey asked.  "Why should she scrub the floors while we prepare for the ball?"
"Don't ask silly questions," Anya hissed.  "Go now and start to practice and I won't tell mother that you were in here.  I heard what you wanted to do.  If you want to have any chance of going to the village with her, than I suggest you practice."
I felt Drey's eyes fall on me.  She wanted to come, but she didn't want to leave me alone with her sister.  "Fine then," she whispered.  "Please don't tell mom," she said, stepping over me and into the next room.  I heard her starting to play.
"Why must you get my sister into trouble?" Anya asked once the sounds of Beethoven's 5th began to ring around the kitchen.  
I continued to scrub.
"Answer me Trow!" Anya hissed, not bothering to lower herself.  "My mother has given you more than a Trow like you deserves and yet you are always trying to trick my sister.  You Trow's are rotten and nasty things."  She started to shift, her heavy heels moving around me as she walked.  She trod a few threatening small circles around me, and I held my breath.  
I closed my eyes.
I couldn't stand the sound of those heavy heels clacking around me. Anya had already 'accidentally' come dangerously close to stepping on my fingers but nothing so serious yet.  But the sound was enough to make my heart stop.
"P-please leave me to clean," I finally dared to speak when I could take no more of the walking in circles.  "I have to get this done before she comes home."
"Don't let me stop you," Anya said.    I heard the teacup shift in the saucer and I braced myself for what was next.  
The tea splashed on the floor next to me, creating a dirty puddle on my clean floor.
"Whoops," Anya said with a light giggle.  "Clumsy me, you might want to clean that up."
I slid over on my knees and started to scrub, not saying a word.  I was used to Anya making things difficult for me by now.  However what I was not prepared for was the tea landing on my back next.  I let out a scream of surprise and jumped to my feet as the tea seeped through my thin blouse.
"Geez I'm so clumsy today!" Anya said, smiling down at me as she dumped the rest of the cup on me and on the floor.  "Sorry Cin, looks like you have quite a bit to take care of."
I looked up at her in shock.  Anya had never spilled tea on me before but I suppose that there was a first time for everything.  With a frown I realized that no matter where I would move the dirty tea water would ruin the floor.  I would need to change clothes in order to make sure that I could get the floor cleaned in time to go to the village.  Anya did not say another word as she left the kitchen, but hummed along with Drey's piano playing.
I rubbed my nose, refusing to cry and stood up and left the kitchen to change my clothes.  
My room wasn't much but it was the only home I had.  My stepmother was not kidding when she said that my new room would be under the stairs.  With a slight hiccup I changed out of my damp attire and slid on a simple brown shift and tied a clean white apron around the waist.  Fixing my ice blond hair into a tight bun I tied a light blue bandana around my head.  It wasn't much but it was dry.
A heavy knock came to the door right as I was about to leave.
"Cin??" My stepmother's heavy voice came from the other side.  "Cin why are you in your room?  There are chores to be done and the kitchen floor is filthy!"
I slowly opened the door but my stepmother did not back away.  Her towering form loomed over me as she crossed her arms.  "I'm sorry, stepmother," I muttered, lowering my head.  
"I cannot leave you alone for five minutes before you decide to disobey me!" She hissed, lifting up her foot and giving me a nudge.  I crashed backwards into my room but did not lose my footing.
"I'm sorry stepmother," I muttered.  "I will finish the floor immediately."
"See that you do," she said, letting me slink past.  "I need you to go to the village and get the food for the cooks," she continued.  "Drey will accompany you."
"She will?"
She waved her hand dismissively.  "Drey has told me that you have plans of running away, I want to make sure that you do not get your wish."
"I wouldn't-"
"Clean.  The.  Kitchen.  All you Trows do is lie!" She hissed.  "Why would Drey tell me such a thing if it was not true?"
I looked past my stepmother to see that Drey was looking at me from the next room.  Her eyes widened and her eyebrows lifted.  She must have said this to her mother so Drey would have to accompany me.
The girl was smart.  At least now I would have some company in the village.
"It's true, stepmother," I muttered.  "I'm sorry for thinking that."
She snorted.  "You should be sorry you filthy Trow," she said.  "Now clean up that kitchen and then get ready.  I want both of you in that village within the next two hours."
"Yes, stepmother," I said, quickly making my way back into the kitchen.
I scrubbed a bit harder and with a bit more urgency.  Drey was coming with me to the village.  For a few hours I would be out of the house.
It was hard not to be excited about something so menial.