One.

Step Brother was a son to a rich and happy family.But the infinity happiness was ripped out from them when his father dies,leaving him and his younger twins alone with their mother that soon got married with a widowed man that had a beautiful daughter,Cinderella.

 

He pitied her and adored her at the same time.He would help her do the errands and do what 'a man needs to do' to ease his Cinder's burden.He would gaze at her  tired but yet beautiful face sleeping in his arms with a pair of soft,loving hazel-nut colored eyes.Yes,he fell for this young well-mannered lady when they met for the first time.Her bright eyes,her tiny nose,her kissable lips...he loved everything about her.Her outer and inner beauty was included in the package,too.

 

His mother would shout shamelessly square at her face,wanting her pride and heart to be embarassed and hurted.Commanding every single thing to be done properly without doing it herself.Mostly the jobs was hard as going to hell like carrying two pails full of water every six hour for her bath within a block away from the well,cleaning the bathroom using a single toothbrush every weekends and chopping the fire woods for the fireplace so she could get a warm beauty sleep.A selfish bitch,he could say.

 

His sister would make Cinderella felt like she was in a hellhole.She would make Cinderella comb her hair,do herundries,clean her dishes and even spat on the poor girl when she was displeased at her.Another doppelganger of the mother.Two bitches.It hurts as hell.

 

That what he speculated and judged if he was in his Cinder's shoes.He would felt tortured in his own home,living with two bitches and a boy that..shamelessly liked her despite they're now step-siblings.

 

He tried to stop to love her but failed,numerous number of failures.And he still loved her.

 

Until they were in their mid-twenties.

 

And he's confessing to her when they would celebrate her birthday.

 

But the news shattered him to pieces and made him worried as hell and turned his handsome,young face to a helpless,white as sheet  pale face.

 

His Queen,Cinderella was admitted to the hospital and currently at the terminal level of brain cancer,the fourth level and would be operated when the twelve o'clock strikes.Just like tale of the real Cinderella.The spell would end.Will his love ends just like that without she knew about his pure feelings for her? No way.He will still be with her when the Death come for her.He would caressed her cheeks without embarassement even after she will be carried to her grave during her funeral.

 

He just loved her.

 

He hailed a taxi and got in,told the driver where his destination and hoping she would be safe.He tried to call her couple of times but her phone never could be reached.He groaned in frustration as his fingers ran through his blonde hair while his fingers dialed for her number for the umphteenth time again.And the asnwer would be the same,'Hi! Sorry,Cinderella's a bit busy.Please call back another time.Thanks for calling.'

 

He almost shattered his Iphone to pieces.No answers,no messages.The Prince who told him,actually.Yeah,the Prince that caught Cinder's heart and steal her away from him.Their distance grew longer and longer as they aged,becoming more matured in the uninviteable things like...Love.

 

He took a glance at his watch.

 

1130.

 

"Please be safe..please."

 

The driver took a glance on the young mas besides him,he asked silently,"What made you so worried,young man?"

 

He tried to stay silent but the old man spoke to him as if he was his son.Ah,he missed his biogical father so dearly,"My girl was admitted to the hospital after she fainted during her worktime and she was diagnosed to be at the fourth level of brain cancer."

 

The old man chuckled as he tip his glasses back to the arch of his nose which made the younger felt perplexed with his actions,"If you two are so fall in love..you'll have her even after she's dead.She'll be in your heart and stay there forever,son."

 

Half of his self felt the waves of relief crashed on him and he felt a bit enlightened but the other part,he felt more worried as ever.What if his Cinder didn't love him like he do? What if Cinder only loves the Prince,not her step-brother? Ah,he will be commiting incest even if she accepted him.And would be a disgrace to their family.He couldn't help it.He already falled for her for ten years already.How could he retreat from the battleground without any victory in his arms?

 

1145.

 

"Hurry.Go to her side and comforts her." The taxi stopped right infront of the main entrance of the white hospital.He entered the lobby with a heavy feet as he was intoxicated by the fresh smell of antiseptic.

 

He hurried to the one of the nurses and asked for her ward's room and that spent just five minutes.Ah,will it be too late?

 

1150.

 

He pushed the button and the door of the elevator rolled open,inviting him into the crowded space.Tsk,the elevator are already full! His eyes caught ten emegency exit before he climbed up the stairs to his Cinder's ward location.

 

1153.

 

The number on the signboard showed he's now on the fifth floor.At last,his Cinderella would be glad to see him.He plasted a confident smile as he walked down the hallways.The room in the end on his left would be hers.And she would be there.He's not too late.

 

Once his lean and tall figure arrived infront of the white door,he found himself knocking on the door several times before he reluctantly open it for himself.He aren't ready to see her,he thought when his fingers trembled.But he hid it by crossing his afms infront of his chest,forming a really cool posture.

 

But.

 

Where is she?

 

Where is his Cinder?

 

The room  showed that it was once occupied so he was sure himself that he wasn't at the wrong room.There was some water bottles on the table,a bit warm cup of coffee and a sweater on the chair.But no sign of Cinder.

 

His heart was pounding hard when he saw the Prince appeared behind the bathroom's door.He asked him the question he was most eager to ask, "Where is she?"

 

The prince face's fell.He'd a pair of quite swollen eyes and a sorrow poker face.

 

"Where is she?" He demanded the answer.No,he doesn't have the time to play with the Prince.His Cinders would be waiting for him at this moment,right now.She needed him.He needed her.They needed each other.

 

The Prince shook his head and muttered those words that he'll never forgot,the words before he fell on his knee,crying like a patient who are mentally ill in the asylum.Those words that drove him to the truth.

 

'Better hurted bu the truth than comforted by the lies,brother.' once what his Cinder said to him when he was depressed after he couldn't get flying colors for his exams.He was so frustrated but his Cinder comforted him.

 

And now he need to comfort her back by giving back her favor.

 

"She's gone,brother.Cinderella's gone."

 

Those sentence crashed him down like a fierce waves.It shattered his heart.It pained and wounded his heart.He was heartbroken and couldn't mend it back.His Cinders was...

 

...gone.

 

Tears flowed down his cheeks,he was crying for the first time in his life after he injured his ankle nine years ago.

 

He's too late.

 

0001.

 

Dammit.

 

His Cinders gone without she knew the truth.

 

The truth,the fact that he loved her dearly.

 

And,he forgot to mention that the Prince was his illegitimate brother,eh?

 

They always competed for some silly things in the school and the rivalry between those two siblings always ended either one lose or one win or both winning.They fought but the Step Brother would be unwillingly tolerating to his brother.He even once gave his Cinder to the Prince instead of having Cinder alone.He wasn't selfish.But now things change...

 

Now,there's no win-win nor lose-win situation.It's lose-lose,brother.

 

The Prince shoveled a piece of paper,no a letter to his lap.His hands slowly opened the letter,shock,hatred,love,anger and amusement was mixed and jammed in his head and heart.He couldn't think clearly once he read those words.Those delicate and neat hand-writings,those last sentences from his Cinder.

 

 

My Prince Charming is actually you,my step brother.I realized that both of you liked and loved me,But I decided to choose him not you.I'm sorry.Fate and Death was eager to see me suffer.He's just helping me,brother.I told him not to let you to see my horrible condition.I'll be embarassed.Thank you for appearing in my life,brother.  Love,Cinder.

 

 

At last,the Step Brother carresed her white soft cheeks before planting a soft kiss for the last time at his Cinderella.She'll be his forever Cinderella and forever in his heart.The body was carried away and will be buried.

 

Farewell,My Cinderella.You'll be forever in my heart.

 

 

 

Cinderella,when 12 'o clock strikes,

The spells will end,

Stop dancing with your Step Brother and leave everything else,

For once,I hope you'll stay in the Infinity of  Happiness.