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I wake with a horrific headache. The curtains are drawn, and no light save a candle lights the room. The shadows are deep, and the flame flickers wildly.

"Where am I?" I groan as I sit up. I am still in my ballgown. What had happened? I could remember the ball and the prince. The last thing I could recall was my mother's statue and a noise. I realize one of my slippers is missing as I can feel the stone floor on my toes.

"I'll stay until midnight," a shrill voice I know all too well mocks me.

"What do you want with me?" my voice shakes with fear.

"I thought you would have learned from my beatings, Cindy," my step-mother snarls. "No one wants a half-breed. Let alone one conceived out of wedlock."

"He loves me!" I shout back as I turn around trying to find her. She seems to be everywhere and yet nowhere.

"True. He does seem infatuated with you. Though it's more likely that you inherited your wicked mother's gift for turning men's heads. You siren!"

She kicks me in the stomach. I feel all the air in my lungs rush out. I am left huddled in pain, gasping for breath.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance." She is behind me now. I realize that I could not pinpoint her before because she had been circling me. Like a lioness. Like a demon, taunting me, waiting for the right moment to kill me. "You just won't give up. You can't seem to get a clue. No one wants you. The prince is only playing with you."

I choke back a sob. "Leave me alone," I weep.

"You're just a fling. As soon as he discovers what you are, he'll abandon you. You worthless wretch," she sneers. "When he leaves you, Gregory will be all mine."

"What do you want with me?" I scream in frustration. "You've taken everything I have! What more do you want? What are you?"

Lightning fast, my step-mother grabs my chin and jerks it up. "Your mother stole everything from me. Did you think I would allow it to go unpunished?"

I stare at her, eyes wide. "What are you talking about?"

"Your father chose her over me, his intended!" she screeched, flinging me aside. "I waited for years, keeping all I knew to myself. I waited, waited for the perfect moment."

"For what?" I whisper.

"Revenge, you whore," she replies in a scornful tone. "Even you aren't that stupid. I knew everything about their little sordid romance in that stupid little meadow. I knew about you even as they exchanged their vows."

I am trapped in a room with a madwoman. I am afraid for my life.

"Then my chance came. When your mother died, I killed my husband. Then I married your father. Stupid man. Always whispering her name in his sleep. Then I killed him too. I finally could do whatever I wanted. I ruined his name. I broke his precious daughter. I destroyed everything that he had gained in the world."

"You're mad," I retort. "This will gain you nothing."

"True. I am. But they say madmen make the best murderers. Impossible to fathom they are."

I hear the bells toll the hour, cutting her off in their deafening peals. I realize where I am then. I am in the chapel's bell tower.

"Sweet dreams, servant girl. I have two daughters who simply must meet a certain heartbroken prince and comfort him."

She cackles and slams the thick door shut. I hobble to it quickly, but the click of the lock mocks me. I slam my fists against the door.

"You can't do this to me!" I shout as I pound on the door. "You can't..."

I slump to the floor and begin to sob. I have no hope of escape. The prince can look for me, but how will he find a nameless servant?