Cinderella's Dead

Two

Gasping, Cindy felt the air rushing into her perched lungs inflating them again and filling them with life. Her eyelids popped open and she froze momentarily, confusion taking over her oxygen deprived brain.

The modern decorum of her bedroom stretched before Cindy’s eyes. Her vision was blurry at best, and the liquid she felt wetting her face was confirmed to be tears once her trembling fingers traced them from her eyes down to her quivering chin.

Cindy’s silk camisole was soaked in cold sweat, but she was grateful it wasn’t soaked with seawater. This certainly didn't look like neither heaven nor hell, but Cindy was still apprehensive. A shudder goes right through her as the young woman remembers the vivid dream she had.

A dream, it had to have been a dream. A nightmare.

The room itself was illuminated by the soft glow of the morning light that was flooding in through the open curtains. Alright, it may look a little like a slice of heaven, since that was what she had requested from the interior designer.

Cindy took the shortest shower of her life in an attempt to wash away the nightmare that was still vividly haunting her. Though the logical side of her brain knew something was amiss, she refused to acknowledge it. She convinced herself that she got too tipsy last night after drinking all that champagne, and she was already tired after the wedding reception anyway. That would be a lot for anyone to handle. But a glance at her slender hand that showed no extravagant engagement ring and no trace of the gold and diamond encrusted eternity band that Andrew slipped on her finger as they said their I do’s, caused all blood to drain from her face. Shaking her head in a poor attempt to dismiss the red flags, Cindy admitted to herself that the absence of her rings is indeed strange, yet she was determined not to question why she woke up in her bedroom back in Orlando rather than on the one on the yacht that she must have gone to sleep in. Or in the mansion on the island. Fine, there are a lot of red flags, she thought to herself, afraid that if she admits it, things will become real.

There were suddenly too many things that didn’t add up, and all of them forced Cindy to check what day it was. Her hands were shaking like she was afraid to discover the truth. It was an odd thing, it was utterly ridiculous to think that her dream had been real, that her husband, her sweet, reliable and totally safe Andrew, pushed her to her death. It had to be.

Though Cindy knew. She knew deep down that what happened was no nightmare, no figment of her imagination, but rather the reality, this is why she took so long in getting the confirmation. Or it was actually her future, as she stared at the screen of her phone which clearly displayed the date and time. Yup, things can get worse, she was right.

“No, it can’t be!” Cindy murmured in complete shock, staring at the device that dared to disagree with her. She turned the thing on and off and then even searched on the internet to prove the details could be wrong. And there it was, in black and white and various bold coloured lettering for the headlines in the gossip column. There’s no denying it, Cindy woke up the day Andrew will propose. Tomorrow will be a huge party announcing their engagement to the world, to the complete satisfaction of her family and his, if she remembers correctly. And she does, because she already went through this. Cindy and Andrew are the perfect pair, the perfect match, they look both good on paper and in the photos that regularly get snapped of them.

Sure, Cindy had to be careful of the shoes she wears since her soon to be fiance doesn’t like it when she makes him look short, but that was always a small compromise that Cindy was much too happy to make. Who cares if she wears kitten heels when she would rather have her feet clad in at least four inch stilettos?

A frown crosses Cindy’s face when she remembers how, at the beginning of their relationship, she tried to surprise Andrew by wearing her favourite stilettos in bed, and nothing else. Surely he wouldn’t care that with the added height Cindy will match his. They were in the privacy of his bedroom with no one else there to witness.

Oh, how she was wrong. It's almost funny if it weren't so sad. Instead of having hot s*x with her, Andrew threw a fit about how inconsiderate his girlfriend had been.

Cindy scoffed at the memory and at what Andrew eventually did to her. Or will do, considering she is somehow back in time and has the chance to try and change her fate.

If she ever expected anyone to make an attempt on her life, that would have been Kristoff, her arch nemesis, but never her beloved Andrew. Oh, but that weasel with a height complex played her. Andrew suddenly became so unappealing in her mind that she started wondering why on Earth did she ever agree to go out with him? But the answer was right there and she knew it. She hated herself for it, but she finally allowed herself to admit it.

She agreed to go out with Andrew after a meeting that went to shits.

As the CEO of her father’s company, Cindy had struggled to get everyone to take her seriously. Most of the people she dealt with in business were men. And men like the ones she worked with did not think a woman had any place in that world. Not an attractive, single woman, at least. But a woman with a husband, now that would have been a different story. Add to the mix that the potential husband is the son of a very wealthy attorney, and suddenly everyone else is more open to discussing business. That is, if the man behind the woman is present too.

Andrew had been part of that particular meeting, and he made that exact point, when they were talking in private, as he insisted on taking Cindy out for lunch. He was there with a client of his, a client which Cindy was trying to convince to give the contract for building his company's new headquarters to her company. She needed a big contract like that, one that she got without her father’s help or influence, otherwise she would prove useless as the new CEO.

Another reason, and possibly the biggest one, as to why that particular meeting went to shits was that the client was dead set on building in a certain area of Orlando. An area which offered prime potential since there was nothing that needed to be demolished or relocated. It was perfect and that’s why there were two other building companies much too happy to work with that.

Except for Cindy. The only thing Cindy wouldn’t do as the new CEO of her family’s company is build on land owned by the Bensons. She didn’t have anything against the sweet, old couple, but she did have an ongoing war with their adoptive son, the one that was in charge of their family’s business. And no matter how much she wanted that contract, she just wouldn’t compromise on that particular aspect. Or how Cindy saw it, she wouldn’t sell her soul to the devil. She was more willing to get a building permit and erect the structure on the Moon. Cindy was convinced that would give her less headache than dealing with Kristoff would.

And when she saw the devil’s eyes blazing as she was chatting to Andrew, Cindy knew that the only thing that would make her day brighter would be to go to lunch with the charming lawyer. The more Kristoff showed his displeasure towards Andrew, the more she started to like the lawyer.

In retrospect, Cindy decided to blame Kristoff for her death. If not for him, she wouldn’t have accepted Andrew’s invitation to lunch, and the two wouldn’t have started dating when Cindy saw how perfect they appear to be together. Then she wouldn’t have been killed either, and she knows firsthand how much that sucked, therefore she decided she would try to avoid it at all costs.

Looking at herself in the mirror in a poor attempt to motivate herself, Cindy decided that she has to put on her big girl pants and face the man that she knows hasn't been honest.

Yes, she will start by making sure there will be no proposal today, before setting the stage for a break-up.

Cindy had an idea as to what Andrew might stand to gain if she's out of the picture, but it only applies if they get married, thefore, her logic told Cindy that if she wants to avoid her death, she has to make sure she doesn't get married. Not to Andrew, anyway. She still held onto hope that maybe some day she would have her fairytale. Except that fairytales aren't real and Cinderella's dead now. All that's left in her place is a bad, vindictive b***h.

Cindy's lips curl into a deadly smile as the rush of adrenaline curses through her veins. The prospect of not only surviving, but actually getting retribution for what Andrew is planning on doing to her, made Cindy feel more alive than ever. And unsurprisingly, she likes this feeling better than its opposite.