Cinder X Bella ~ Thirty-One!

That night, Bella was pacing in the cellar, her fingers tracing along the intricate straw weavings hung on the stone wall as she tried to formulate the last portions of her plans. “The most direct route out of here and to get under the hedges, would be to dig south, along the wall of the house and under the front lawn. I'd prefer to go under and across the road, but I'll take what I can get.”

Kneeling down, Bella gently lifted the edge of the dense straw mat that served to keep her floor covered, revealing the cold dirt she had despised when she was first banished to the subterranean living space. Now, all she could feel was gratefulness and gratitude: escape would’ve been all but impossible from any other room of the house. “This can work. Alright, my friends, here's the plan…”

As she whispered, the cellar filled with the scurrying of tiny feet and squeaking of mice herding the other, less well-trained animals closer. Soon, she was surrounded by dozens of tiny staring eyes and whiskers twitching with anticipation, even as her own adrenaline began to spike.

“We're going to dig a tunnel right through here, under the cellar and out past the estate. This is… if this doesn't work, or if we're caught, I don't know what the punishment will be. That means, above all else, we need to be careful and stay hidden.”

Quickly, as quietly as possible, she began laying out her plan for each of the different types of animal. “Bert, you're going to be in charge of sounding the alarm. That means a mouse in every possible location, passing information on the whereabouts of my stepfamily at all times. If they step outside for any reason, all work on the tunnel has to stop immediately. Matringa has some connection to plants, but she's never clued me in on what exactly she can do. That means we have to assume she can get information from them. That means no exposed roots; we need to dig deep.”

Bert squeaked in approval, looking over at Mert the Third in slight confusion. Bella shook her head, turning to the mouse in question. “You have a special task, Mert. You and your most highly trained group are going to be making sure the cats stay busy. You're going to need to find sharp things, like nails, and start injuring those foul creatures when they reach into your mouse holes. Above all else, your group will be tasked with keeping those things as far away from the servant quarters as possible. Lure all six of them to the attic as often as possible; get them used to staying far away, so they can't hear what we’re doing down here.”

*Squeak.* Mert agreed to the deadly task with a firm nod of his tiny head. He raised a paw, and a dozen mice shuffled toward him, pulling out needles and other small implements they had already been carrying around.

Bella swallowed hard, knowing some of them would likely be taken by the creatures Matringa had brought into the house. “I can't imagine being as brave as you. Thank you.” 

Mert paused for a moment to make sure there were no other orders, then he led his group away. Bella watched them go, then turned back to hand out additional tasks. “Suzy, you're going to be in charge of the digging team. I don't want you in there digging, but I need you to keep everyone on task, make sure they keep the tunnel stable, and make it large enough for me to get through. I really, really don't want to go inside, only for it to become my grave.”

“Moles, chipmunks, you are my main digging group, but bring in any creature willing to help and listen. I'll come into the tunnel when possible and sing to any creature outside your range. Hopefully, the farther we go, the faster the work will become.”

With the sentries in place, Bella carefully rearranged the straw to give the creatures access to the tunnel. “Suzy, I can't risk having a person-sized hole here. Until the day we're going to use it, the first foot or so of the tunnel needs to be only large enough to let your team in and out. The day we use it, we’ll quickly dig out the rest of it, but if it gets discovered, I can hopefully play it off as something I didn't notice before. Keep it small.”

“Squeak!* Suzy promised as the mole came over and started tossing dirt into the air.

“I don't know if this is going to work, but we have two months until we find out.” Ever so quietly, she sang a soft rhyme, putting all of her intent and visualization of the needed tunnel into the words: “Dig, my friends, dig deep and far. Keep it hidden, or I’ll bear the scar.”

Bella stepped away, knowing there was nothing else she could do at the moment. She went to bed, but even as she started to doze, she could hear the burrowing team tirelessly working, their small paws and claws churning through the earth with remarkable speed. As Bella drifted away, she heard Suzy intermittently directing her crew with soft, chirping squeaks. 

When she awoke, Bella checked on the progress her creatures had made overnight and set up additional precautions. She carefully smoothed the straw matting, put together a small team of mice to clear away the collected dirt, and even had a few sections of the flooring torn out to be replaced because it had gotten noticeably filthy. 

“Suzy, I'm going to add this to your duties as well,” Bella informed the sleepy mouse. “You don't have to do it yourself, but make sure some of your people are sweeping out anything that can give this away. Keep it clean; make sure it matches the rest of the room. There can't be anything, not a single thing, to grab Matringa’s attention.”

As she prepared for the day and stepped out of the cellar, Bella’s heart was lighter than it had been in a long time. “Escape route in progress, plan in motion. I just need to continue my charade of obedience and never give a hint to my stepmother or stepsisters of my true intentions. All I need now is enough evidence to expose Matringa and get the kingdom to stop her. But, failing that, the night of the ball… I'll vanish forever.” 

Her day began normally, filling up her time with cooking breakfast and preparing the rest of the day's meals. If they wanted to have bread in the evening, it needed to be prepared early, so it had enough time to rise and be cooked by lunch or dinner. Peas needed to be sorted out of mixtures, vegetables had to be cleaned and laid out for easy access, and any meat needed to be carefully portioned. A roast was a twelve-hour process, including the slow cooking of it, and each part needed to be done in order, long in advance of actually sampling the dish.

After nearly two hours of work, Bella had finished her preparation for that day's meals, and the sun was just beginning to come over the horizon. Almost at the same moment she laid the cheesecloth over the dough to let it rise without getting any bugs or dust in it, she heard a bell ringing from the floor above. 

Following the sound, Bella walked up the stairs, hesitating at the base of the second staircase until Matringa stepped into view. “What are you waiting for? Did you not hear the bell? Get up here.”

“Signora, I was concerned, as…” Before she could explain how she wasn't allowed upstairs, Bella had to dodge to the side as the bell on a handle whipped through the air where her head had been a moment before.

“Who gave you permission to speak?” Matringa practically growled as Bella looked at her in shock. “No one else will ring these bells. When you hear one of them, you’re to come immediately. Now, in preparation for the upcoming nuptials of one of my daughters to the prince, there's going to be a few changes around here. First, they need to become reacquainted to being waited on. That means, every morning, you will be serving breakfast in bed to both of them, and I will take mine in the study.”

Bella took a breath, remembering only at the last second not to speak out. 

Matringa had paused almost hopefully, only to grunt and continue moments later, “Their hair needs to be done, their makeup applied properly. Then you'll help them get dressed and take dishes away while they prepare themselves for their lessons. In the evening, before you clean the mess left by dinner, I expect their hair to be brushed, linens turned down, and nightgowns laid out. You'll also remove their laundry and make sure it is folded and returned within three days.”

Almost sick with the sheer amount of extra work which had just been piled on her, Bella still only nodded and let out a deep internal sigh. She knew exactly what this was really about: Matringa wanted her too exhausted to be thinking about the upcoming ball and certainly too busy to try and make trouble.

Luckily, she’d gotten that all out of the way the night before. 

Matringa’s piercing stare bore into her for a moment longer, before the wicked stepmother finally turned away, her lips curled into a smug smile. She lifted the bell in her hand, placing it on a floating shelf, which must have been installed the night before. Its prominent position was certainly intended to draw the eye, a clear reminder to Bella what her new and very real station in this house was meant to be. “You are dismissed. Better get moving.”

Knowing exactly how much had been dropped on her shoulders, Bella turned and practically ran down the stairs, into the kitchen to try and get ahead of the intensified laundry list of chores. 

First, she needed to divide up the breakfast she had just prepared, setting each meal on a tray, then each tray on a larger carrying tray so she could manage all of them at once. Bella had been preparing breakfast long enough that she fully understood they needed to be meticulously arranged to meet her stepmother's exacting standards, or the plate would be thrown to the ground, and she’d be forced to start over. 

Each plate had an exact amount of fresh fruit, a small pastry, hot tea, a folded napkin, as well as a single sugar cube for each person. She added cutlery and hard boiled eggs, making sure to take off the shell just before hurrying up the stairs. Bella delivered the trays one by one, starting with Matringa in the study, who looked over her work and begrudgingly nodded, accepting her tray and waving the young woman off.

From there, Bella went to Malvagio’s room, waking up the eldest stepsister, who glanced at the spread and barely acknowledged Bella before attempting to go back to sleep. “I'll be back shortly to do your hair and help you get dressed.”

“What?” Malvagio looked up at her blearily. “Wait, you're not even supposed to be in here.”

“New rules, apparently. Get ready, because I'm going to be here until your hair is done, and you’re fully clothed. I'm sure you're exactly as excited about that as I am.” Bella stepped out of the room as her oldest stepsister groaned in annoyance, though by the sounds of cloth being thrown around, she had actually gotten out of bed.

Next was Cattiva, and Bella made sure to treat the situation as delicately as was required. First, she set the food down on a nightstand on the opposite side of the room, then walked over to the bed and tucked in the sheets her younger stepsister was sleeping under. Taking a deep breath, she got close to Cattiva and shouted, “Wake up!” 

“Ahhh!” Cattiva let out a primal scream that started as shock but morphed into absolute fury over being woken up so roughly. She struggled back and forth, only to find that she wasn't quite tied to her bed, but it was a near thing. “I'm going to rip your hair out! No, I'm going to find a pair of scissors and cut it unevenly! I'll tell everyone you did it yourself, and they'll believe me because they already think you’re falling apart-”

“Yes, yes, you're very scary.” Bella patted the top of the comforter gently, treating her younger stepsister like a caged, soaked cat. “Your mother has ordered me to bring you breakfast in bed, do your hair, and help you get dressed and ready for lessons. Every. Single. Day.” 

“You’d better not be serious, you-”

Cattiva’s threat was ignored as Bella swept out of the room, only pausing for a moment at the door. “Don't worry, over the next few months, we'll get to know each other really well. You might want to be careful how you act in the morning, since, you know, now I’ve been ordered to be in your room. While you're asleep.” 

As her younger stepsister’s half-awake mind realized what was being said, she lapsed into silence.

The real work had only just begun. She brushed Malvagio’s hair until it shined like polished mahogany, styling it meticulously, thanks to her stepsister’s ridiculous demands, then tried to apply makeup on someone else for the very first time ever. It was a disaster, and she ended up needing to scrub Malvagio’s face and try again and again, until finally her hand was slapped away, and the older girl did it herself.

The situation repeated itself with Cattiva, until she was finally kicked out of the room with the breakfast dishes in hand. The younger girl shouted after Bella as she hurried to get the last tray from the study, “Can't you do anything right?” 

“Well. It certainly sounds like they are up and ready for lessons.” Matringa eyed her stepdaughter, who was already sweating profusely from the strain of doing tasks she’d no experience or affinity with. “Look at you. Ten hours of hard work in the kitchen, and you barely glimmer with humidity, but a fraction of that time spent acting like a girl your age, and it looks like you ran inside to escape a deluge. You'll just need to get plenty of practice, it seems.”

The rest of the day went fairly normally, though she was delayed from her normal routine by nearly two hours already. Adding on collecting the laundry from her stepsister's rooms, washing and wringing it out, only to hang it up in a spare room to dry cost her additional hours after dinner. 

Evening crept in then rushed past as she scrubbed the dishes, the pots and pans, and the counters before finally putting away the final dish and glancing out the window. Bella was dismayed to see the stars already bright in the night sky, but she had at least finished for the day. She trudged toward the door, her limbs heavy and her eyelids drooping.

“All done?” 

Matringa met her at the door, and Bella was too tired to react with anything more than a simple, “Yes, Signora.”

“Oh me, oh my. This is working out even better than I expected, Bella. What a fantastic day it's been.” Matringa followed her to the cellar while wearing a broad smirk—causing the young woman no end of anxiety—only to wait at the door as the young woman stumbled over to her bed and collapsed into it. “Sleep well. Tomorrow will come all too early.”

By the time her stepmother had climbed the stairs, closed the cellar door, and *clicked* the padlock into place… Bella was breathing softly and evenly, her eyes firmly closed for what remained of the night.

The next day dragged on, and the week was absolutely brutal. By the end of the second week, Bella was only able to stay on her feet through sheer force of will and a constant reminder to herself that the end was in sight. After the second week, she finally acclimated to the schedule somewhat and was able to regain some of her mental clarity.

After that point, she made sure to get up extra early, place her mouth next to the entrance of the tunnel the animals had been digging out, and sing to the voles, moles, and burrowers to join in and help. By the end of the first month, Bella was terrified that they wouldn't make it in time. According to Suzy’s charades, they’d only reached the edge of the manor itself and were only just beginning to expand past the foundation of the house. 

However, each morning and each night, she would place her face into the opening and sing into the tunnel, her words echoing from farther and farther away each day. From what she could glean from the mouse's frantic attempts to communicate back to her, additional animals often burrowed in and began to dig in shifts. 

Finally, with only a week to go before the ball, Bella found herself numb to the situation. As Suzy attempted to explain how far they had gotten over the last couple of days, Bella simply shook her head uncomprehendingly and allowed a tired smile to tug at the corners of her lips. 

“It doesn't matter, sweet mouse. This is a good plan. Even if the tunnel isn't done by the time the ball comes around, we’ll be able to escape. What's another few weeks, when I've had to function like this for years? At least she’ll probably relent when there's no obvious way for me to make trouble.”

“Squeak!* Suzy angrily stomped, pointing at the tunnel and nodding firmly. 

“I believe you, you'll get it done in time.” Bella used a single finger to pet the mouse's head. “But right now, I need to get back to it. I need a dress for the ball, and apparently one is arriving for me today.”

She set the elderly mouse down gently then stumbled toward the stairs up, her exhausted mind clouding her thoughts. “Gotta get a dress to wear to the ball, figure out a way not to fall, somehow I'll show them all.”

Singing her song gently as she climbed the stairs, Bella failed to notice how Suzy went still, staring after the human that had trained her since she was a kit.