Sure enough the dolls had been moved around to depict a completely different scene Now one of the wicked stepsisters was marrying the prince and Cinderella was sitting in the corner crying Was this Holden’s gag Had he somehow snuck into her room and messed with her project Furious she thrust open her bedroom door and shoved the shoe box in his face What did you do to my diorama she demanded He didn’t hear her say it though because at exactly the same moment he said just as loudly What did you do to my tablet Then at the same time they said What did you say Look at my diorama It’s all messed up Maddie accused I didn’t touch it Holden insisted I was asleep until you made my tablet turn on What are you talking about Maddie asked I haven’t touched your tablet Wait a second Holden said taking a closer look at Maddie’s diorama I don’t believe it Maddie you have to see this See what Holden grabbed her by the arm Come on He pulled her down the hallway toward his room Holden if this is a trick I’m going to wake up my dad and you’ll be in so much trouble Look he told her pushing open the door to his room It was the usual disaster area it always was where every surface was covered with Oreo crumbs dirty socks and the cars section of the newspaper One thing stood out though in the midnight darkness On top of Holden’s desk his tablet computer was emitting a soft eerie glow You shouldn’t leave your screen on Maddie said It wastes battery power I can’t turn it off Holden said Go look at it Maddie kicked aside debris to clear a path to the desk then gazed down curiously at the illuminated screen On it was a beautifully ornate title page for an e-book In tall scripted letters was a name she knew quite well Cinderella it read
Maddie groaned I knew this was a trick Did you really have to wake me up in the middle of the night to start the Cinderella fight all over again I swear Holden said I woke up and saw this I didn’t do anything Now flip to the end With a sigh Maddie swiped her finger across the screen She saw beautiful drawings of Cinderella scrubbing her stepmother’s floor meeting with her fairy godmother and arriving at the ball in her pumpkin coach Then there was a picture that didn’t make sense Cinderella was walking home from the ball with no shoes on holding her swollen foot in pain It’s like I said Holden explained She had to walk home with no shoes on so look at her foot It’s all bruised But that’s not part of the story Maddie said She stared at the drawing confused There was no way Holden could have made this picture himself Any time he tried to draw a person it ended up looking like a lopsided cow This was a beautiful illustration of a scene that didn’t exist in any version of Cinderella Maddie had ever read If he didn’t draw it then how did it get in there The e-book only got stranger after that There was a picture of the prince trying the glass slipper on one of Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters then one of him kissing her The prince kissing a stepsister No way This is so weird Maddie said Just wait Holden said Check out the last page Maddie flipped to the end and saw a detailed sketch of the prince marrying the wicked stepsister while Cinderella sat alone in a corner crying No it can’t be Maddie said She held her diorama next to the tablet and looked back and forth between the two The similarities were astounding The dresses the characters wore the expressions on their faces the flowers in the bouquet The two scenes were virtually identical How did you do that she asked Holden I’m telling you I didn’t he said You know I can’t draw and I haven’t been in your room all night I think I think we broke Cinderella
What do you mean You can’t break a story Cinderella’s been around for hundreds of years You have another copy of it right Holden said Go get it Maddie rolled her eyes Fine But then I’m going back to bed Maddie walked back to her room to get her copy of Cinderella as Holden paced nervously It must’ve been those questions I asked he said to himself The stepsister had the same size foot as Cinderella so the shoe fit her and then she married the prince The prince didn’t realize his mistake because he couldn’t remember Cinderella’s face Of course Here it is Maddie said entering with a hardbound picture book of Cinderella It was old and tattered and well-loved as books should be This is the copy my dad has been reading to me since I was a little girl with a fairy godmother and a ball and a happily ever Maddie flipped to the last page of the book but as she saw the picture there she dropped the book in shock No It’s not possible How Holden picked the book up and looked at the last page Just like in the diorama and the e-book the illustration showed Cinderella’s stepsister marrying the prince Instead of Happily Ever After it said simply The End Maddie glared at her stepbrother I can’t believe you broke my favorite story What do we do Gimme the book Maddie said grabbing it from him I’m reading it from the beginning to see how much you messed it up Holden picked up his tablet and swiped through the pages I had no idea I had this power he said proudly I wonder what else I could break Maybe I could write some ninjas into The Secret Garden so it wouldn’t be so boring Maddie flipped back to the first page of Cinderella and began to read Once upon a time Before Maddie could continue she felt a weird tingling sensation What’s going
on she asked Holden began to feel it too A huge flash of light rose out of the tablet enveloping Maddie and Holden To Maddie’s amazement her body began to shrink and float across the room Slowly she could see herself getting sucked into the tablet Maddie Holden shouted He held out his hand to save her but it was no use He was getting pulled in too At the same moment the tablet and the book both fell to the floor The two stepsiblings sank together into the pages and the cover illustration on each copy changed Instead of Cinderella in a pumpkin coach it now showed Holden and Maddie gazing around a fairy tale world and looking incredibly confused It was the only trace of them left in the bedroom
