Happily Ever After
Once upon a time there were girls, and the woods did not love them.
By Jess Aayla Kaisk
Cinderella’s stepsister took a knife to her own heel. Sliced clean, blood pooling in the glass slipper like wine in a cup nobody blessed. It fits fine now, doesn’t it? Doves came later and took the sisters’ eyes for the wedding, plucking them out on the church steps while the bells were still ringing.
DISNEY WARNING: Content has been sanitized for optimal merchandising. No feet were harmed in the making of this fairy tale.
Snow White’s stepmother danced. Iron shoes, heated in the fire until they glowed, and they made her dance in them at the wedding until she dropped dead on the floor. Not a curse. A sentence.
DISNEY WARNING: Someday your prince will come. He will not bring hot iron shoes. He will bring bluebirds.
