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If you're eyes tire after reading such long blocks of text, I divided this chapter into 2 halves for your convenience.

Quick Jump:
First half
Second half

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Chapter 1

The few days dragged very painstakingly slow, yet so much had had happened. The crashing of the plane, the texts messaging, the utter disbelief, the grievances and of course, the shattered hearts of the four family members.

No one could believe what they saw. The covert, mixed emotions all make so much sense now. It was actually all tied together. “Dad…dead…” murmured Kinderella. Mdm. Sweet immediately broke down and fell into despair. How could he, her husband, abandoned them and have left them vulnerable to the harsh reality?

“This can’t be true; it can’t be him!” She felt so foolish to tell her son so confidently that his Dad will survive. He never did.

The twins Dean and Aesop bowed their heads down. Their father had just walked out of their lives, just like that. The word “Goodbye!” echoed in their heads. Great! It’s just great that was his last words, and he actually kept to his word.

A still turmoil hovered about the ‘former’ White family. None of them could take in the fact that Mr. White is now long gone. He had died for his country. It is just unfair. Why couldn’t he have died normally, peacefully with a smile on his face? Why must his end be so aggravated? And why must he die now and leave a very beautiful wife and three kids?

All these questions swam around the young teenager’s head. Kinderella thought life was seriously unfair, but he did not know how even unfair it would treat him later.

The memorial took place three days after Mr. White’s death in a funeral home a few kilometres away from their home. Mdm. Sweet decided to hold the memorial privately, inviting only a few of her husband’s close friends and family members. Kinderella could only remember very vaguely about the incident, as he spent most of the time weeping and mourning for his dad.

A couple of months have passed. Kinderella and his step-brothers managed to cope with their father’s death, but Mdm. White could not seem to get over with it. In fact, the few days after his death, she went into a severe state of depression. Kinderella pitied his step-mother and brought her for counselling by the local counselling therapist, hoping that she will be back to normal. Things did not turn out too well as Mdm. Sweet was not too fond of sharing her deepest emotions with a total stranger. She thought it was a waste of time and money to vent out her frustrations and worries at a random person who only nods, write reports and then send her home for a day. So she stopped seeing him.

Mdm. Sweet’s state of mind was getting worse day by day. Kinderella sympathised her and decided to let her rest up and recover by doing most of the household chores for her. He washed and dried the laundry, cooked meals for his family (despite him being a really bad chef), swept the floor and cleaned the house. His step-brothers even offered their helping hand to him initially but decided to leave him alone to do the whim-whams. At first, Kinderella did not mind them not helping at all as he was sure they were tired and that they were just taking their break.

That was not precisely the case. Dean and Aesop decided to let their step-brother do all the housework since he kept on insisting that he can do everything himself and that they do not have to work so much. Seeing as their step-brother is such goodie two shoes, they decided to leave him alone.

Seeing how hard her step-son was working, she tried to take advantage of it and asked him to perform more chores for her as she was ‘too sick at the moment’ to do so. Kinderella, being the nice person he is, obliged to her every little command.

“Kinderella, do you mind folding the clothes for me?”

“Darling, can you please fetch me a glass of water?”

And pretty soon, these petite requests turn into more demanding orders. Even her step-sons followed their mother’s footsteps, trying poor Kinderella’s patience to cater for their every need. The word please gradually was omitted from their commands, and their tone of pleading turn into loud aristocratic naggings.

“I want you to prepare dinner for tonight Kinderella, and make sure the seasonings are right this time!”

“Kinderella! Ah-chooo! Give me the box of tissues over there as I’m having the flu. Clean the house more thoroughly, I want this place of ours totally spotless and dustless.”

Mdm. White deliberately trailed her finger along the dusty window panes and nearly poked Kinderella’s eye by placing her dusty grey finger near it. “How many times must I tell you to clean the window panes? Dust shouldn’t harbour in it. I forgot how many times I have sneezed every time I walk near the window!”

Mdm. White feigned a sneeze, which does not sound like a sneeze at all to Kinderella’s ear. It is very easy to distinguish one that is faked and one that is for real. Kinderella merely gave a nod and mumbled his apology under one breath, and proceeded quickly to dust the window panes until they were spic and span. After receiving a nod of approval from his step-mother, he quickly walked out of her room. He assumed that she must have woken up at the wrong side of her bed, so he decided to forget the matter and focused on doing his assignments since he was done with his daily chores.

Kinderella recalled the other time when his step-brothers started to mistreat him like he was their slave. He was about to prepare for dinner when Aesop asked him to assist him with his homework on Mathematics which was on algebraic methods – factorisation, expansion, grouping and the inspection method. His step-brother was practically making him do his homework for him. Most of the time he gave Kinderella quizzical looks when Kinderella explained the concepts of algebraic problem-solving to him. He pretended he was blur. As the clock ticked closer to dinner time, Kinderella had no choice but to directly give Aesop the solutions of the said problems so that he can quickly get back to the kitchen and rush his preparations for dinner. Needless to say, his step-mother was not very pleased with his cooking style that day. Just in case you were wondering why she was not doing the cooking, well, let’s just say she’s still ‘mentally unstable’.

And there was also the other time while Kinderella was cooking the food in the oven when a sudden heavy downpour developed. Kinderella ran out frantically to collect the clothing articles that were hung to be dried. As he was running out, he slipped and fell on the hard ground, bruising himself. Kinderella quickly got up as he lacked the time to nurse his wounds and bruises and dumped all the clothes into a basket. He carried them indoors. Needless to say, most of the clothes were damp and need to be rewashed. He cursed silently and headed back to the kitchen. He was taken aback when his really peeved step-mother gave him her signature stare while holding a plate of burnt salmons in her hand.

Mdm. White snorted, “You were expecting, maybe this?”

Kinderella breathed heavily in short spurts. Oh no, he overcooked their dinner!

“But Ma, I can explain!”

“Yea, yea, you went out to play in the rain again. How could you? You’re too old for these childish pastimes!” Her voice was rising as she spoke.

“But…but…the clothes, they…”

“But, but, but! That’s all you can say, Kinderella, that’s all you can say!”

Kinderella clenched his fists. He could not take it anymore. Every time he messed up unintentionally, he was blamed. Even for the slightest mistakes, he was blamed for it. The twins did it, and all fingers pointed at him! Kinderella had had enough. Time for Plan B.

“Look, Ma! I had to get out of the rain and bring the clothes indoors. I was rushing as I didn’t want the salmon to be over-roasted, and I accidentally slipped and fell. I’m sorry if I wet the house in the process, I didn’t have time to dry myself!”

“I’m sorry if I have ruined your dinner. BUT PLEASE? CAN’T YOU RECONSIDER IT?” Kinderella immediately covered his gaping mouth shut with his hands. He cannot believe he actually yelled at his own step-mother. Now he’s going to get it.

Steam was coming out of Mdm. Sweet’s ears. “How dare you, you disrespectful bastard! Shouting at your own mother like that!” She accidentally let go of her hands and dropped the rather overcooked dish of salmon onto the floor, and the china plate shattered into pieces. Pieces of salmon and food scattered over the kitchen floor. She crept close to Kinderella and lifted her right hand. With it, she pulled and twisted his ear very painfully.

“OUUUUUCCCCCHHHHHHH! Please stop, Ma! It’s really painful! I’m soo…r..ry…”

Dean and Aesop quickly rushed down from upstairs to see what the commotion was about. They gave a huge sigh of relief when they saw Kinderella being given a harsh physical by their mother.

“Oh man! Can you look at that sissy screeching with such a high pitch. Why, he can even qualify to be a soprano opera singer!” exclaimed Aesop.

Dean punched his brother playfully. “Man, that’s priceless!”

They both burst into laughter and gave each other a high five.

“How dare you make fun of your own brother like that! I’m just teaching him a lesson he won’t forget! I’ll deal with you naughty brats later,” hissed Mdm. Sweet when she saw her own children, of her own flesh and blood, laughing at their own scumbag. Satisfied of giving Kinderella the experience of excruciating pain, she let go. Kinderella rubbed his ear feverishly with his hand while gasping in pain.

She gave Kinderella a smug, satisfied look. Kinderella frowned at her, but Mdm. Sweet ignored it. “Clean up the mess on the floor this instant. I shall give you another chance to redo the dinner. Now, scurry and clean!”

Tears streaked down Kinderella’s face as he tried to recall since when has his step-mother was so cruel to him. Wasn’t she always a caring and loving mother who treats him like her fragile child? What was going on? Afraid of receiving another scolding and possibly a harsh beating from his ‘dictator’, he swept up the mess Mdm. Sweet made.

He crouched down and investigated the mess. Carefully, he grabbed a plastic bag and carefully picked up the pieces of china and disposed of them. A sharp pain suddenly shot up from his rear through his spine and he cried in horror. He turned back, half expected to see the devil cooking up another ‘capital punishment’ for him, and was surprised to see Dean smiling at him sinisterly.

“Hey scumbag! What have you done to my clothes?”

“Yea,” echoed Aesop, and he stamped on Kinderella’s foot really hard, “What’s the big idea of ruining our clothes?”

Kinderella was exasperated. What are they talking about?

“This!” Aesop lifted up his favourite T-shirt which has shrunk, and placed it in front of his torso as a comparison. “You ruined my favourite T-shirt. And you must pay!”

“It’s not my fault that you put it in the wash,” answered Kinderella defiantly.

“Oh yea? And how do you explain this, huh? Huh? HUH?!” asked Dean angrily. There was a tear at the side of his shirt. “I didn’t do it.”

“Boys! Please don’t disturb Kinderella! Unless you want to have a very late dinner,” shouted Mdm. Sweet from upstairs.

“Look, sissy man! We shan’t say anymore! We shall just take your pocket money as compensation for the damage, and leave you for now.” Aesop gave a dramatic sinister laugh which Kinderella thought was pretty lame, and the twins walked away, leaving him all alone in the kitchen.

Kinderella sobbed silently. He wished his life didn’t turn out like this. He wiped his eyes and tried to compose himself. He finished up cleaning and quickly took some ingredients from the cupboard. And that was when he saw blood stains on his hand.

“No, it can’t be!” whispered Kinderella.

He quickly ran into the toilet and shut the door. He stared at his own reflection on the mirror. What stared back was a face streaked with lines of blood. He washed himself up. The china pieces must have scratched his face when his face fell flat on the floor when his step-brothers pushed him roughly. Now I wouldn’t need to worry about acnes, thought Kinderella sadly. He stared at himself again intently on the mirror nursing his scratches when he realised he had spent a considerable amount of time in the toilet. He rushed back to the kitchen and quickly served dinner. Thankfully, no one was there to torture him once more when he returned.


Kinderella wiped the sweat off his forehead when he thought back of the beginning of his abuses. He closed his eye shut tightly. My whole life has become a complete mess ever since Dad passed away. Why must this happen to me? When he came back to the present, he realised the fire in the fireplace cackled, and was still washing the room with a bright orange glow. Great, I haven’t finished my chores yet.

Kinderella got up slowly and held the feather-duster tightly in his hand, as if he did not want to let go of it. He strode towards the fireplace and lovingly grabbed the picture frame of him and his dad many years ago.

“Dad, I miss you, where are you? You promised to come home and always keep a lookout for me, but you never did. You broke your promise Dad, how could you? How could you?!” Kinderella breathed out the air he did not realised he was holding in his lungs.

“Dad, I have tried my very best to take care of Ma, Dean and Aesop while you were away. So much for the gratitude! They now treated me so cruel and harsh now that you had left Earth. Where have I gone wrong, Dad? Wish you were here to see how screwed up this family is,” voiced Kinderella dejectedly.

Kinderella stared at the photograph lovingly. He placed it in his arms and brought it to his hand, knowing that someday, things will turn out for the better. A rugged voice broke the silence in the room.

“Well, well, well! If it isn’t the big crybaby thinking of his Papi!” Dean walked towards him nonchalantly. Kinderella quickly put back the picture frame back in its place.

Dean grabbed his step-brother and shook him. “Hello, brother! Dad is long gone, you’re just wasting time looking and talking to something which didn’t exist! Man, and I thought you’re supposed to be more mature about it.” Kinderella looked at him silently.

Dean shuffled uncomfortably, “What’cha looking at? Get back to work or I will summon Ma!”

Kinderella fearfully resumed his chores of cleaning the library. Like a ghost, Dean left the room as quietly as he came in. Kinderella detested his step-brother for treating his Dad who was no longer here a thing! Had he forgotten his Dad, Kinderella wondered while he was dusting the bookshelves.

He reflected on himself. He doubted himself that his situation will improve anytime soon. Besides, happy endings only exist in movies and fairy tales. Unfortunately, reality is not anything like them. “Not even close!” said a frustrated Kinderella.

He slowed his dusting to a halt as he looked out of the window and caught a couple walking lovingly hand in hand in the moonlight. Deep inside, he envied the lives of the two people who are really lucky to have found each other, and he wished that he was in the place of the man instead. An escape from his horrid life he is going through. Love, he languished, where is it when you needed it the most?


(Catch Chapter 2 next Saturday! Comments and criticisms very much welcomed =). Thanks for reading!)