Maddison Beevors, Year 8

Happily ever after, and that’s how it should be.

Maddison Beevors

2095 words

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Maddison Beevors, Year 8

Rapunzel waited patiently at the top of her tower with her long golden hair spilling down the sides. The current Prince was attempting to climb the tower but seemed to be having a bit of trouble. Rapunzel rolled her eyes; didn’t Princes know that it is impossible to climb a smooth rock tower with your bare hands? She called down to the dim-witted Prince; “The hair! Use the hair!” The Prince looked up at her, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted back; “Um…can I not? I don’t really like heights; can you just come down yourself?”

Rapunzel stared down at the Prince in absolute shock. Her story never went like this, what was going on? The Prince was unconcerned by her obvious anger and turned on his heel and walked off into the woods. Rapunzel heard him mumbling something about liking his Playstation games better than girls.

She paced around the room thinking of a way to free herself from the accursed tower, but was stopped in her tracks by a monstrous dragon smiling at her through the window. Rapunzel started to back away, but the dragon reached in and gripped her tightly in his claws. She struggled: squirming around, kicking, biting, punching- doing anything to stop the dragon, but he just laughed a throaty, roaring laugh. Rapunzel was very confused; her story never had a dragon in it, especially not a dragon that was about to eat her. Rapunzel screamed as she was lowered towards the cavernous black hole of the dragon’s mouth… ***

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Detective Maria Winter walked briskly down the white hall of the Department of Fairytales, holding a manila folder full of papers. Her heels echoed in the empty corridor. She came to a door marked ‘Inquirer’s Office’, and pushed open the door, startling the Inquirer, a stately man by the name of Roland Highwater, who was glancing at various folders spread over his desk. Maria threw her manila folder to the desk with a loud slapping sound. “We have a problem, Mr. Highwater,” she said. The Inquirer took the folder and shuffled through the sheets, his eyes widening in shock with each page he looked at. “Rapunzel…dragon? Snow White…aliens? Wolf…punches Little Red Riding Hood?” Mr. Highwater dropped the folder. “What is going on?” he asked Maria worriedly. “I don’t know,” Maria admitted. “I’d like to investigate the actual stories, maybe question the characters, and maybe check the original fairytale books…” Roland Highwater nodded. “Do whatever you need to do. I hate the fact that someone or something is ruining our fairytales. What if people mistake us for a stupid, modern trashy book? We need to stick to tradition! Unhappy endings are just not fairy tale!” Maria thanked him, and walked out of the office, eager to start her investigation. ***

Cinderella waited in her small, stuffy room. The fairy godmother was due to arrive any second…poof! A blue cloud of glittery smoke appeared in front of her. It

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slowly faded away to reveal a plump old woman with silvery wings. She did not look very happy. “Oh, who are you?” Cinderella exclaimed, just as she was supposed to. The fairy godmother looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, sweetie, I am a giant banana!” she said sarcastically. Cinderella shook her head; what was going on? The fairy godmother was supposed to be nice and turn her ragged clothes into a grand ball gown. “Wondering why you don’t have a fancy dress yet?” said the fairy godmother nastily. Cinderella opened her mouth to give her a snappy comeback, but the fairy godmother went on. “You don’t always get what you want, you selfish little girl! You don’t deserve a party or a magical pumpkin coach; you deserve to be an ugly old hag!” The fairy godmother cackled evilly and waved her wand, hitting Cinderella with a beam of light, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Cinderella stood in the middle of the room feeling very irritated having gotten nothing. She stomped her feet and yelled out, but nothing would bring the fairy godmother back. She looked in the cracked mirror above her tiny bed and gasped. Her face was a mess of acne and scars, and was so wrinkled that she looked like a crumpled piece of paper. ***

Maria stood in front of the room of characters, who were looking very disgruntled, as they had been disrupted during their lunch break.

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“Okay, so thankyou to everyone for coming,” Maria started, trying to break the awkward silence. “I need to interview everyone, as we have had a serious breach of the Fairytale Laws.” The crowd of characters looked bored and Maria became exasperated. “Just get in some sort of line,” she snapped. “You there, you first.” Maria pointed at a large wolf, and walked briskly into the interview room.

Maria sat down on the hard plastic chair opposite the wolf who leaned back lazily in a similar chair. Maria pulled some papers out of her briefcase, and started to question him. “Name?” “I don’t have one, but people call me The Wolf, or The Big Bad Wolf.” “Age?” “I don’t really know- seven, six?” “What story do you belong to?” “Little Red Riding Hood” “Why did you punch Little Red Riding Hood?” “I don’t know what came over me! I’m usually so restrained; sticking to my lines, only growling occasionally. I would never attack a little girl! There was just this sudden urge, like someone forced me to…” “Have you ever been to the safe room containing the Original Copies of all Fairytales?”

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“No, no! And remember it was my story that was altered. Why would I destroy my own world?” The Wolf said firmly. Maria dismissed him; unsure whether the wolf was a credible witness, he did after all enjoying eating old ladies. Maria sighed. She had the feeling this was going to be a long day.

Maria interviewed each of the remaining characters one by one: Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell, the Beast and one of the Three Pigs. They all seemed innocent enough. Maria was annoyed. She needed to find the culprit, or the classic fairytales that everyone loved would be turned into a fractured mess. ***

The Frog Prince laid on his lily pad, waiting for the princess to call out in despair, asking him to fetch her golden ball. Waiting, waiting, waiting, splash…silence. The Frog Prince looked up in surprise. Did she drop the ball in the water? There was definitely a splash, but why didn’t she call out? The Frog Prince jumped off the wide green leaf, and swam to investigate. He was horrified to see that the Princess had dived into the cold water of the lake, and was swimming down deeper and deeper. He followed her, confused about what she was doing. The Frog Prince caught up to the Princess, and mouthed ‘What are you doing?’ The Princess pointed to the bottom of the lake at the golden ball glimmering in the scarce few rays of light that penetrated the dark water. The Frog frowned, and pointed to himself, miming ‘That is my job.’ The princess shrugged, and swam

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forward. The Frog Prince swam up to the surface feeling useless and extremely depressed. He was going to be green forever... green until he croaked. ***

Maria walked to the safe room that held the Original Copies of all known Fairytales. Investigation officers were surrounding the area snapping pictures and dusting the area for fingerprints. Maria stepped over the yellow tape, and flashed her identity card to open the safe. She scanned the area, looking for clues. A brightly coloured object in the corner of the room grabbed her attention. It was a blue texta. This could be the clue that she was looking for… Maria pulled out her phone and called the Inquirer. ***

The Three Bears opened the door of their small cottage, expecting to see a huge mess. Papa Bear went to sit down, expecting to feel as though someone had sat there before. But… nothing! The chair felt the same as it always did; firm and hard. Mama Bear called out from the kitchen. “Papa? Why is all the porridge still in the bowls? Wasn’t that girl supposed to eat it?” Papa frowned with bewilderment. What was happening? Baby Bear called from upstairs. “Papa? Why is my bed empty? Where is the blonde girl?” Papa got out of his chair. Something was not right; not right at all.

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“Mama!” He shouted. “Where is Goldilocks? She’s late!” “Uhh…Papa? Look out the window.” Mama called nervously. Papa pulled back the curtains, and gasped. He saw Goldilocks outside, giggling madly as she sprayed the Bears’ cottage with bright pink spray paint. She was spraying some very naughty words on the wall: “Porridge Sux” Baby Bear came running downstairs. “Look Mama! Look Papa…” Mama swiftly covered Baby’s eyes. Papa growled softly. The Department of Fairytales would hear about this! ***

Maria pushed open the door to the Inquirer’s Office. Roland acknowledged her with a brief nod, but kept flicking through the stack of papers in his hand. “Have you seen these reports?” He said, pushing them towards Maria. “Yes, I have, sir…” “Maria! This is getting out of hand! Either find the culprit soon, or I’ll have to call in the FIU.” Maria shook her head. The Fairytale Investigation Unit was the professionals; only used for the most serious cases of rogue narrators and blatant book destruction. They used dirty tactics, and were rumoured to destroy the reputations of even the purest princesses. She wanted to solve this case herself! “Anyway, finish the case soon, or you’re off the job!” Roland said firmly.

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Maria closed the door softly behind her; and rushed to drop the blue texta at the Fairy Lab, hoping for quick answers.

Maria tried to calm down the angry crowd of characters that had formed a mob outside her office, but was not succeeding. Her voice was drowned out by cries of “that stupid Prince didn’t rescue me!” and “that stupid Princess didn’t kiss me!” Maria shouted as loudly as she could; “STOP!” All the characters looked at her in surprise. “Thank you. Now can you all please calm down? We’ll sort this mess out soon, and your stories will return to normal and you will all have your happily ever afters.” The characters seemed appeased by her words, and the mob soon disbanded Maria sighed. Characters were so self-centred!

On her way back to the Fairy Lab Maria was distracted by the sound of soft giggles coming from the safe room. The lab results will have to wait, Maria thought, this needed to be investigated. Maria flashed her ID card to open the safe and looked inside. “Oh my goodness!” she gasped. Sitting next to the Original Copies of all Fairytales was a small boy. He was happily scribbling away with a texta over a copy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. “Ha-ha-ha! Snow White gets attacked by aliens! Ha-ha-ha!” the boy laughed.

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The boy then proceeded to take a large pair of silver scissors and was about to cut the pages of the book. Maria moved swiftly and grabbed the scissors from his small hands. “Who are you?” Maria asked. The boy looked very sulky. His lower lip jutted out in a pout, and he stared up at her. “What is your name?” she repeated. “Quincy,” he said grumpily. “Well, Quincy. What are you doing here?” Maria said. “I hate fairytales, and I wanted to change them so they were more exciting.” “I think you should come with me, Quincy. You’re in a bit of trouble,” Maria replied. Maria pulled the little boy to his feet and dragged him by the elbow to the Inquirer’s office. ***

One week later, Maria was happily supervising Quincy as he scrubbed the walls of the Three Bears Cottage. “Scrub harder!” she ordered. “I still see pink paint!” Quincy scowled menacingly. Maria was pleased that she’d found the culprit, and she loved the FIU’s punishment. Quincy had been ordered to fix the mess that he had caused; from rebuilding Rapunzel’s burnt tower to filling a lake with hundreds of golden balls

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for the Frog Prince to fetch. As for the original copy of all Fairytales, that was in the process of being reconstructed by the Fairy Lab team.

Maria was glad that everything had ended well, just as a perfect fairytale should. The bad guy was punished, and the good guys got their rewards. There were happily ever afters for all! And that is how all stories should be.

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