Cinderella: A Continuation
by Jillian Gray

Cinderella's Prince Charming came to her door and placed the glass slipper on to her foot and she lived happily ever after right? Not in this case, Cinderella was in for the twist of a lifetime. She ended up marrying her worse nightmare, and as it turns out he was far from her Prince Charming. Just after they were married the Prince took over the Kingdom, becoming King. With his ascension to the throne, the power went to his head and he started to oppress Cinderella, much like her evil stepmother, and stepsisters. He didn't allow her to leave the castle, she wasn't allowed to make any decisions regarding family finances and running of the household and she was only allowed to talk to her servants. Other descendents of the throne were beginning to educate themselves, and Cinderella was interested in enlightening herself as well. However, the King would not have a woman attend school before most men were even allowed.

Cinderella wanted to be independent, she wanted to be able to leave and have her own friends but with the King's overpowering mannerisms it was very hard for her to do so. After many weeks of trying to accept his ways, she finally realized that she didn't have to take it. She started schooling behind his back and was slowly growing into a very intellectual young woman. Once she applied herself in learning she began to discover that everything the King did to her were signs of insecurities and jealousy. She started to investigate options to make her situation better, first she thought about just leaving but she knew that if she left he would use his power to find her. Next she contemplated offering him ways that they could work through their problems, but he didn't think there were any problems because he had what he wanted. Finally she looked into getting a divorce. This seemed to be the most logical way to get away from his oppressive behavior. The King on the other hand did not accept Cinderella's idea of divorce, so this forced Cinderella to try something else. She began to sneak out of the castle and meet with townspeople and tell them how she was treated and what she was trying to do to get away.

Soon after she began sneaking out of the castle she started to develop a strong following of supporters. Eventually, the small group grew into a mass and this mass took to overthrowing the authoritarian rule of the Kingdom. With many weeks of thoughtful planning the group sent out to oust the King in order to rescue Cinderella from her oppressive hell. With Cinderella behind the operation the plan was carried out and the King was ousted from his own Kingdom and Cinderella was given the job of Queen ruling this Kingdom. Quite unlike her husband, Cinderella used her power to establish a school for women and enlighten the men of the town about women's rights. Cinderella used her courage to show that women have the power to take bad situations into their own hands. She turned her relationship with the King from and oppressive, all powerful male regime into one where she was in control and in this way raised herself to power, empowering women to take risks and fight for their rights.