Anastasia and Drizzella giggled with a giddy outlook. The ball was only a day away, and so happened to be their step-sister's birthday.

"I do believe she doesn't know we realize it's tomorrow," Anastasia said to her sister, as they marched haughtily up to the mansion, arms laden with fine jewelry and lace.

"She loves suspecting people of things." Drizzella grinned and held up a bottle of red liquid. "You think she'll like this?"

Anastasia cackled at the thought. "Oh, she'll think it's absolutely dreadful!" They giggled and marched through the large double oaken doors of the mansion. Down a long corridor and to Cinderella's room they walked, stopping at her door. "I do believe she's talking to somebody in there! Maybe it's a boy" She whispered rambunctiously, giggling madly.

"Mirror, Mirror
On the wall
Who's the fairest
Of them all?"

The mirror didn't answer. It never answered. The Queen was still positive it spoke to her mother. She remembered that night so clearly from her childhood. The night was heavy with fog, and it felt like the palace was floating in a cloud, far above the earth. The Queen was only a tiny Princess then, four years old. She'd had a vivid nightmare and wanted to cuddle in bed with her mother and father. Her father, the King, was not in their chambers. Only her mother, the Queen was there.

The Princess paused in the doorway. Her mother was standing in front of the only mirror in the room. It was such a strange and eerie silence, her mother so very still. It seemed an eternity before anyone took a breath.

Once upon a time there was a young girl called little Red Riding-Hood. She was so named because she always wore a long red cloak with a lovely big hood.

Little Red Riding-Hood was a wonderful and obedient child, with a great love for her family, so when one day her mother asked that she take a cake and pot of butter to her sick grandmother little Red Riding-Hood agreed without question.

She popped on her cloak and pulled up the hood, tucking her long brown hair out of the way before she picked up the basket that contained the cake and butter. Just before she left the house, little Red Riding-Hood gave her mother a kiss and a wave goodbye, and set off on the long road to grandmother's cottage.