"Welcome! Welcome to my world. My name is Cathedra. Leave my last name blank, if you will. In this book, I shall present you a question: What if the villains in our stories are not actually evil as they're shown to be, and the good people in fairy tales are not as good as they seem? You don't believe me? Well, let me show you the truth. Let me show you the lies in the fairy tales that you all have come to know and believe. Just open the first page, and I'll tell you the true story . . ."   By: Cathedra _____

"Once upon a time, there was a wealthy merchant who was not only blessed with riches and fortune but also with twelve children." Miss Yumi flipped to the beginning of the storybook showing six dashing men with muscly, chiseled features that reminded Cathedra of the ancient sculptures of Greek gods she often sees in books. Beside them were five beautiful ladies, clad in gorgeous dresses and excessive jewelry. In contrast to the five extravagant women in the picture, there was one beside them who was dressed in a plain and simple dressed, standing meekly beside her sisters. However, compared to the other five, with their flashy, attention-grabbing garments, sparkling jewelry, and make-up caked faces, the sixth girl was by far, in Cathedra's opinion, the most beautiful of them all. "But one day, their house broke into a fire. Everything they owned—their money, gold and silver, and everything inside the house—burned to ashes." The children gasped at the eerily re

"The guilt of not going back began eating away at Beauty's conscience. She used the mirror to see how the Beast was doing while she was away. " Miss Yumi said as she revealed the next page. The image from mirror took the entire class aback as much as it horrified Beauty. "Seeing the Beast half-dead beside the bed of roses, Beauty turned the ring over her hand three times without any hesitation. In an instant, she was teleported back to the castle and ran immediately to the Beast's side." Miss Yumi pretended to sob, acting out Beauty's lines from the storybook. "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault. Please don't die, I should have come back earlier. I should have said yes to you a long time ago, but I didn't because I was foolish. Please come back..." Miss Yumi's voice realistically broke that Cathedra was actually impressed with her acting. "Please don't leave me... I love you." The next page showed a close up shot of Beauty's tears falling over the Beast's body. "All

"What is that?" Diane repeated the question more forcefully this time since Cathedra just stared at her dumbfounded. "Uhh. . ." Cathedra averted her eyes and extracted herself from the close proximity she had with Diane. "It's my homework." "Hmm, I never heard of homework that asks us to make our own novels, though." Cathedra blushed. There was no going around this. Diane read what she wrote and she's just asking the question in hopes that Cathedra would respond honestly. Cathedra couldn't bear to look at her friend in the eye from guilt weighing in her chest. She fiddled with her fingers while staring at the ground, bottling up the tears that were threating to fall." I-I'm sorry, Diane. I-I lied. The truth is that it's a novel I was writing." Diane's face lit up when Cathedra finally decided to tell her the truth. She stared at Cathedra, urging Cathedra with her eyes to explain further. Doubts filled Cathedra's mind. After all

It's been a week since then. Only a week has passed, yet to Cathedra it was an eternal nightmare that replayed over and over. She could still see the scenes unfolding freshly in her mind, as if her life was a broken movie that was stuck at that moment, repeating that nightmare over and over. "Miss, for the hundredth time, what happened inside that abandoned building? Who locked you inside and murdered the two victims?" Every day, Cathedra would find herself inside a room that was bare and empty except for the lamp atop a single table situated in the middle of the room and two chairs where she and the kind police officer sat on at this moment. Day by day, he would question her politely but persistently about the crime that occured that day. Day by day, Cathedra would stare at him blankly, not uttering a single word. If her thoughts could speak, they would be screaming at the officer. How she was held by the two delinquents and forced to watch a