Cold Hearted (Villains 8)

She turned her attention back down to the latest Lucifer. “Oh, my handsome man, my only love, my only companion. What will we do with these ungrateful girls? Endlessly complaining about the beautiful dresses I bought them when I still had hope they would marry and get us out of this prison. And they defend that horrible Cinderella at every opportunity!” said Lady Tremaine, still looking at her cat.

“But, Mama, if we were to appeal to Cinderella and tell her how sorry we are for everything we did, maybe she would forgive us and offer her help,” said Anastasia.

“Yes, Mama, I know she would forgive us. She didn’t mean to betray you, I know she didn’t. She was just a child, she didn’t know what she was doing,” added Drizella.

Lady Tremaine’s head snapped in her daughters’ direction. “How dare you defend Cinderella to me! After everything she did! She is the reason we are trapped here. I won’t hear her name again. I won’t!” she said, returning her attention to Lucifer.

“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.