Tale As Old As Time ~A Late Night Walk And The Cinderella Situation~

The cover….

Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the beast

Riddhima was a small town girl. She was a smart, beautiful, aware, but innocent girl. She was very strong thought. She could take in all the pressure life threw on her. Her mother had died giving birth to her. Her father was greedy. She lived with her father, who treated her in a very inhuman way. She was what we all know as the ‘Beauty’.

Vansh was a heartless monster. He grew up in a house full of criminals and only law he understood was the criminal law. He didn’t care for anyone except himself. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t get. He was a megalomaniac. He loved his power. He loved being the one in control. He always got what he wanted. He was what we all know as the ‘Beast’.

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This is your typical heartless monster- innocent angel love story. It’s the tale we all heard. It’s the tale of Beauty and The Beast.

But now now readers, I won’t disappoint you! I have added quite some twists of my own!
Some things you need to know…
A. I tried to make the female lead strong
B. I am basically avoiding Stockholm Syndrome
C. The male lead is no broken angel. He is evil and will always will be. But every coin has two sides…
D. I am a young feminist in the making so kindly avoid hate if I wrote something that triggered you.
E. I will appreciate constructive criticism, not hate. I repeat, ‘constructive criticism’ NOT HATE
.
Love you all
Riya

Gentle breeze. Wild grass. Moist mud. Wet greens. A day after rain. The smell of monsoon in air. Bare feet. Calm mind.

She was on a walk, reading a book in the moonlight. Her pale yellow sundress waving with the breeze. Her bare feet touching the wet, green, wild grass. She didn’t know where she was going. Just walking where the ground leads her, on a random path, a path that led her to a beautiful mansion. She saw it once she reached there. She realized the grass was getting shorter and the air gave the aura of power rather than peace. She looked up and saw the magnificent palace. It looked as if it came out of some history book. It was intimating and alluring at the same time. And that is never a good combination.

So, she turned around and started walking, wondering how she never knew about such a beautiful place. She wished she lived in such a place but then reprimanded herself for wishing such things for two reasons. First, Hopes always disappoint and Second, she couldn’t be selfish, her father is not that rich, she shouldn’t wish for such things. She should be helping her father.

Little did she know, both her reasons were invalid. Her father was a selfish leech and always thought about earning more money. And about her hopes…. Well, her wish is going to be fulfilled but in a slightly different way.

She walked back home, if one could call a hellhole that. The moment she entered, her father started shouting at her.

“WHERE WERE YOU!?”

She mumbled, scared, “I- I was reading a book and lost track of time”

That enraged him so much, he threw the nearest vase on her which hit her legs.

She got shocked and angry “Stop! I understand that you expected me to do something but don’t throw things like a child, it could hurt someone!”

He walked up to her and slapped her. Her cheeks greeted hot tears like the sea embraces the river and she looked up at him.

He said, “You don’t get to tell me what to do! Do you understand?”

She nodded, but yelled again, “WORDS, Riddhima! Speak!”

“Ye-Yes, father”

“What did you say?”

“I mean, yes, sir!”

“Better! Now clean up these broken vase pieces and cook something for me, I am hungry”

“Yes, sir”

Her father leaves and she tries to walk but a shard had cut her leg. She pulls it out with much trouble and limps to the kitchen after gathering the broken pieces of the vase wondering when her broken life would mend.

She made her father’s favorite pasta for him and asked him to have it.

“What took you so long!?”

“Sorry, sir, the pasta took time to cook”

“I don’t want to eat pasta!!”

“But fath- Sir, Pasta is your favorite, right?”

“Not after you made it! Now just go eat the trash yourself!”

“Okay sir.”

So she ran out crying. Se ate some of it and packed the left over and went out meet her only friend, a cat she kept hidden from her father. She called him Alden. Alden means old, wise friend. Riddhima always visited Alden everyday. He’s her one true friend. He patiently listened to her while having his meal. He even comforted her by rubbing his soft fur with her skin when she cried. Riddhima kept Alden hidden from her father because she knew he wouldn’t let her keep him. He might throw him away or worse, kill him. She didn’t want that to happen so she had successfully hidden her true friend from her devil of a father for four years.

Riddhima gave Alden the pasta. He looks up with his blue eyes and sees her puffy eyes. He gives her a apologetic look and shifts a little making room for his friend. She sits down beside him and starts petting him.

“You know Alden, today I saw a beautiful mansion. I wonder if it’s abandoned. It looked so magnificent. It can’t be abandoned, though. The grass was fresh trimmed. I look at such places and wonder if I can ever free myself from father. I want to see places. I want to travel the world. But father won’t allow that. The last time I tried to get away from him, he almost killed me. What do you think should we do? Let’s take mother’s frame, steal some money from father and run away! What say?”

She looked and him and found him too engrossed in his food to listen to her. He acted all innocent but she knew him very well.

“Then we can buy some meat for you maybe…”

His ears twitched at the name of meat. Like any other cat, Alden loved meat. Riddhima always gave him her share of meat whenever they made some at home.

Alden looked up at her, his eyes hopeful. Riddhima sighs.

“Sorry, baby, I don’t have any now…”

He sulked and began eating pasta again. She pets him and says

“I’ll try to bring some for you tomorrow, okay?” He purred.

“Or maybe tomorrow, we’ll run away and then I can buy you as much meat as I want!”

The both sat there and Riddhima bid her friend good bye and good night and returned to her place in the house. The attic. She laughed to herself. Guess her father watched Cinderella and got some ideas. But she didn’t need a Prince Charming to save her. She was very much capable of doing that herself and she had it all planned. She goes to her desk and checks her email for updates, and sleeps.

She couldn’t afford to wake up late tomorrow, it was her first day at her job as the assistant of the CEO of Raisinghania Group of Industries. Her one and only chance at freeing herself. Her father only allowed her to do a job thinking it would bring more money in the house. God only knows what they saw in her, she was given the job solely on the basis of her CV. They didn’t even interview her. But she was happy that she got the job and didn’t want to question anything.

So with the thoughts of her new job/escape plan, Alden, the walk to the grandiose mansion, and her Cinderella situation, she escaped the harsh reality of this world and drifted to the land of happiness, peace and dreams.