I leaned to plant a kiss on the sleeping beauty’s cheek-

‘‘Ahem.’’

The being shook its head and walked out from the shadows. This being looked just like sleeping beauty.

‘‘Whoa!’’

She told me that her sister had fallen sick. The only way she thought to save her was to place her under a spell.

This was not something I’d want as a solution. The awake sister squinted her eyes and blew something toward my face. I coughed and tumbled to the floor.

She had no skin, or any flesh. Her body was only made of bones.

#IntotheCastle.

The little mermaid collects bits and pieces from the land she loves.

One day, a storm rolls by, a ship falls apart. With it, down comes a man with two legs and ten little toes.

He is the loveliest thing she has ever seen. There is only one thing left to do.

He struggles as he drowns, and she brings him under.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,” the knight cried. “Let down your hair!”

“Anything for you, handsome,” Rapunzel replied. She set to unbraiding her very, very, long hair. After two hours, she announced: “Done!”

The knight waited. When no golden locks descended, he added, “can you toss your hair down here?”

“Oh! Silly me. I’ll do that right away.” Down came the hair. The knight dutifully grabbed hold and ascended. Rapunzel screeched as the sudden weight yanked her out the window. The knight landed on his butt as Rapunzel crashed next to him. She did not survive the fall.

“Oh dear,” the knight said.

My Fairy Godmothers faulty magic left me stranded on the side of the road, pushing my pumpkin carriage, before I could make it to the ball.

“Move already,” I pushed the heels of my glass slippers into the mud. “Useless shoes.” Angrily I kicked the shoes off, flinging them down the road. They knocked into a donkey to my surprise and a farmer jumped down from its back.

“In need of help?” The young farmer picked up the shoes and handed them back to me. When our eyes met, I knew this had been Godmothers plan all along.

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe.

She spotted a hole in the sole of her shoe.

She cried out her window, "I need some new sole!"

Soon Bo Diddley showed up and started to sing

the sweetest soul music he could ever conceive.

Sadly, she was not pleased that it did not fill her needs.

Bo Diddley got discouraged, stopped, and left early,

saying I've got to get a better gig than to sing to a sole.

http://shortstorypodcast.com

I met my fairy godmother once upon a time. She asked me, "My child, I can grant but one wish. What is it you want more than anything in this world?"

I answered without hesitation, "I want to see my mother again." My fairy godmother flicked her wand my dead mother appeared in front of me. I wanted to cry with joy, until I took a closer look.

My mother was hideous with dripping dead flesh and white rolling eyes. I screamed as my mother grabbed me with her cold clammy hands and grinned before opening her mouth to feed.

“Mommy tell me the bedtime story about you and daddy...please” the little girl rubs her worn eyes.

“Once upon a time.....”

“....And they lived happily ever after.”

The little girl is fast asleep.

The door inches open, “How many times have you told her that story?”

Her robe sweeps the floor he carries her to their bedroom. “Can you recite that one part for me?” Her eyes disappear into her head leaving the white showing. He lets out a giggle nibbling her side.

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” They both share a laugh.

"The knight said I was ugly. So I set him on fire!" He huffed.

"Just what a theif deserves." His companion shuffled his wings. Jewels fell from the top of his sholders. Coins clattered behind them. The dragons twisted and peered into darkness. A human with a feathered helmet and an armfull of gold froze.

"Human!"

"Theif!"

"I'm not a human-theif." He said. "Can't you see? I'm a bird!"

One dragon shrugged. "He has feathers."

The man nodded and his feathers bobbed. "The type of bird that cleans. This crown is rusty."

The dragons bobbed their heads. "All right then."

People are so gullible. They readily believe the lies I tell them. They think I am an innocent, kind-hearted orphan girl stuck living with an abusive stepmother.

“Poor Sydney. She has already suffered so much, losing both her parents so young.”

“I’ve always said he remarried too quickly. He barely knew the woman.”

“I hear her children are just as cruel.”

But I am not the sweet, kind girl they think I am, as my late mother accidently discovered. That is why she had to die.

The marine biologists of Scotland

spend each and every day

tagging seals, cleaning the sea

and keeping poachers at bay.

But they’re really helping selkie folk.

To them, tags are wedding rings

and sealskins moved to labs

are proposals for marrying.

But unlike the days of Celts,

when these bare women find the men

they turn away and run

instead of taking them to their dens.

But with more strange ladies appearing

these exasperated scientists gave in

letting the lasses follow them around

as they study those odd sealskins.