"So you think you know the story of Sleeping Beauty huh?" The ragged old lady asked her young grandchildren. "The one with the princess being cursed into a deep sleep and afterwards woken by a handsome prince, right?" She smirked, watching their faces. "Wrong.

The real story is completely different. I would know, I am after all, This 'Sleeping Beauty'."

The real story starts here. Me, lazily draped across the soft green grass, the long strands tickling my sides. I'm gazing across the deep blue sky watching fluffy clouds pass by. I live Merryweather, Fauna and Flora, the fairies who look after me. I've lived with them ever since i was born. My parents died in a carriage crash, which immediately makes me assume they were from higher class. But looking at the shack that I am forced to call home now, you wouldn't know it.

The fairies are back inside our broken cottage, cooking some ungodly object you could barely call food. I shudder at the mere thought of having to taste it later.

Maybe I could dodge such an experience if I went hunting with Rupert this afternoon. I'm sure he would jump at the chance to get out of his miserable town-house in the village not far from our cottage. Anything but taste the witches food. Yes witches. No fairies could cook that badly.

I leap off the small mound of grass I was lying on and slip quietly into the cottage, the floorboards creaking as I Tip-toe towards my room.

"Aurora?" Merryweather asks whipping her head around. I stop so suddenly I go hurtling towards the rotting wooden floor. "Goodness Aurora! Be careful!" She says rushing over to me, her long dress swishing behind her. She helps me up and I hurriedly brush the dust off my patched up dress. "What on earth were you doing sneaking around the cottage Aurora!" Merryweather demanded, her face morphing into a crooked frown.

"I didn't want to disturb you Aunt Merryweather" I lie, not wishing them to know i was going out hunting. The witches didn't approve of my hunting, they believe hunting is distracting from 'more important things'. More Important things? Like what? I've been forever stuck in this puny cottage, and there has never been hint of me getting out!

"You wouldn't have disturbed us dear" Merryweather says, her expression softening.

"Now you're making me feel bad Aunt Merryweather!" I say, truthfully this time. I swear she can read my mind or something. Fauna trots over to where we are standing, her blonde locks bouncing as she walks.

"What's going on over here ladies?" She asks in her thick scottish accent. I glance over her shoulder and see Flora peering at us from the puny kitchen.

"I was just going to my bedroom" I respond confidently, before fleeting the conversation. I make my way into my bedroom, and quietly shut the damaged door behind me. I sigh, and glance around my diminutive bedroom. Not that use it often. You see, I have trouble sleeping. Insomnia, if you will. Thankfully the witches have a friend who brews a potion that helps me sleep. His name is Bartholomy. I met him once, his skin looked yellow and pasty, his lips pursed together at all times. It made me wonder whether i should be taking health advice from such a sickly looking man. But, none the less, it works. I can sleep well these days, as long as i have a drop of that foul tasting liquid.

I drag my small feet across the fragmented floor across to my bed. My bed is perched right next a window, and i often spend time watching the birds and the sunset. Tonight the sunset was particularly spectacular. The red blood sun melted into the trees, who were waving their woody arms around in the wind. The birds chirped, a sweet trill escaping their miniscule beaks. I roll over, pushing my sunset blonde hair out of the way, so I'm facing my wonky bedside table. On it sits a melting candle, and my little glass bottle with the potion resting inside, waiting to be drunk. I outstretch my arm, reaching for the lonesome bottle.

Flora comes into the room abruptly, just as my fingers come in contact with the bottle.

"Aurora, what are you doing in your dreadful bedroom! It's your sixteenth birthday tommorow! You should be celebrating!" She chirped, marching towards me. I roll over in the opposite direction. Groaning. "Come on Aurora" She laughed, heaving me off the bed and out the hallway.

"Flora I really don't feel like doing anything, honest" I reply.

"Nonsense Aurora dear, you're turning 16!" Flora declares.

"But 16 is just a number I-" I was cut off by Merryweather and Fauna staring at me.

"Aurora, Come sit" Merryweather requests, her wrinkle free face looking solemn. I glance at Flora, who is glaring at Merryweather with a passion. Somehow i find myself sitting next to them on the ripped pink sofa.

"Aurora" Fauna starts. "Your parents... they"

"Your parents aren't dead Aurora" Merryweather finishes. They wait for my reaction. "Aurora did you hear what i said?" She asks when i say nothing.

A sharp pain arrives in my backside, and i hear a malicious laugh before I tumble towards the nail ridden floor. Klunk. I'm out like a light.

This is the first real sleep i have had since i was young. No magically induced sleep. It felt incredible. So incredible in fact that my baffled mind forgot my parents. It forgot the fairies. It forgot insomnia. All i could concentrate on was how the sleep felt like a warm blanket was being wrapped around me, constantly. It was marvelous, but slowly a warm throbbing made it's diabolical way into my head.

When I woke I expected to be to snug in my bed, or on the rugged pinky sofa. But to my astonishment I was in the back of a rather lavish carriage. My dreary eyes struggled to open properly and take in my surroundings. I felt my jaw drop at the lush lavender silk curtains which hung close to the richly upholstered walls and ceiling. Then my gaze fell on someone sitting stoutly in front of me. I hastily sat up, fixing my bird nest that I call hair. It was a Woman, presumably around the age of 30, wearing a black leather gown. Her eyes were as silver as a shiny new sword, and her lips were as red as blood. She smirked at my blatant staring.

I straightened my dirty dress, trying to look respectable in her regal presence.

And finally she spoke.

"Won't your father be pleased to see you princess?" She asked, an evil green dancing in her silver eyes. I pushed my back firmly against the carriage wall, taken aback.

"Answer me child! Don't be rude" She demanded. My attention is drawn to her left hand, holding something behind her leathered back. I furrow my eyebrows, before quickly looking back at her cold, eyes.

"I suppose so, Ma'am?" I reply, carefully choosing my words.

"My Name Is Maleficent" She stated, staring me down.

"Uh, my name is-"

"Aurora. I know." Maleficent added. "We will be at the castle any minute now"

"Castle?" I ask, confused.

"Yes, Castle" She replied, hastily.

I nod my head, still keeping one eye on her left hand.

When we arrived at the castle I was shocked to see the immenseness of it. It was humongous. I was too busy admiring the castle to hear a guard yell "Halt!"

He rushed to the carriage window, and his face turned white. Maleficent just laughed. It was then i was jolted out of my daydream when the guard screamed a silent scream. I swung my head around to see him gasping for air, turning blue, before dropping to the ground. I was too stunned to do, or say, anything. I was about to open my mouth when Maleficent placed her gloved hand over it. I looked at her in bewilderment, until I noticed the silver dagger dripped in blood, which she clenched tightly in her left hand. That was what she was hiding. She knew we would be stopped at the gates, and she was prepared. I heard a rough male voice yell "All Clear" and the carriage lurched forward once more. Maleficent hesitantly

removed her hand from my mouth. My first instinct was to scream, but on look at Maleficent's cold, dead eyes told me it was dreadful idea. I tried to relax in my seat as she yanked the red silk curtains across the carriage windows. Before long the constant bumps of the cobblestone roads dissolved, and turned into something more of an effortless glide. We must be inside the palace walls.

Then all at once the carriage came to a halt, and maleficent hauled me out of the lavish carriage, forcing me into a dark hallway.

"Where are we?" I ask, panicked. There was no reply, and as I turned to look at Maleficent I found that no one was behind me. The hallway chilled like winter does at night, and I found my legs moving themselves forward, as if i was in some kind of wicked trance. A soft melody echoed in my head, the beat becoming more prominent every step I take.

'I...Know...You...I danced with you...Once...Apon...A dream...' I tried to sway my head in attempt to rid the askew feeling that was overwhelming me.

'I...Know...You...The gleam in your eyes... is so familiar...' I was reaching the end of the hallway, but I hadn't the power to turn back.

'And i know... It's true...That visions are seldom all they seem...' The melody was getting louder and louder, so much so it was almost unbearable.

'La la... la la. La la la...la la la... Once upon... A... Dream' The hallway reached an inescapable end, but my fingers latched onto a brick in the decaying wall. My mind is fading in and out of awareness.The wall slides into the wall beside it, making a tick when it fell into place. Before I know it, all my thoughts, my values, my hopes, vanished, and my mind became purely focused on what lay before me.

A golden spinning wheel, standing there, beckoning to me. My feet felt heavy, and moved onwards lethargically. Step by step, I felt anxious as I awaited what I somehow knew was coming. My puzzled mind struggled to stay attentive, and my arm, which i had earlier drawn a heart on will Fauna's favourite ink pen, raised itself towards the needle. I closed my now misty eyes, and awaited the inevitable.

"She will prick her finger on the the spinning wheel, and fall into a sleep like death!" The words ring in my head. All of a sudden a man bursts through the towering mahogany walls, causing my eyes to flicker open. My delicate finger inches away from the inviting needle.

"Aurora!" He yells. "Stop! Please stop!" He sound on the verge of tears, but my gaze cannot break from the needle. He rushes over me, his footsteps a thousand elephants loud, but before he reaches me he is tossed backwards, groaning as he hits the wall. I see Maleficent in the corner of my eye, watching over me as I make my journey to death. Why Isn't she helping me? Is she scared she will be tossed a back like the other man? And then it hit me. It was Maleficent. She tossed the man back, she pushed me through the hallway, she took me. She, cursed me. And then my finger made contact with the razor-sharp needle, and blue blood came oozing out of my veins. Blue blood? Only royals have blue blood. Blood. A waterfall of blood. And then the image when black and i felt myself hurtling towards the hard, marble floor.

"Can anyone tell me what happens next?" The wrinkly old lady asked the children.

"I can!" A little girl with ash blonde hair and eyes the colour of the molten sun. "She sleeps for a hundred years, before a prince wakes her for true love's kiss" She answered, captivated by her own story.

"I'm afraid not" The old lady chuckled. The children looked at her in confusion. "You see" She continued "I never fell asleep"

When my eyelids parted revealing the world around me, I was not where I expected to be. I was not in the wretched cottage, Nor in the back of a lavish cottage, But on the same hard marble floor I fell to. It was then i realised why I woke. I cannot sleep! When have I ever slept?! I laugh in joy, but tiredness hit me. Groaning, I watch my glassy reflection move in the shiny marble, my sky blue eyes drooping. I got up from my place on the floor, and inspected my surroundings. The man was gone. Maleficent was gone. I was alone. A searing pain shot through my frail body. I glanced down at where the pain originated, horrified to see the marble floor through the gaping hole in my finger. I felt like vomiting. I felt like screaming in pure agony. I felt like dying, right there on the spot. But instead, I ran. I ran out of the ghastly room, out of the hideous hallway, out of the once breathtaking but now harrowing castle. And I ran for the hills.

"Days and Nights it took to reach where we sit right now" She explained to the children. "Days and days, and nights and nights. But young Aurora made it. She's here now isn't she?" The young children stared at her, entranced. One boy stood up, challenging the story.

"If you're really Aurora, prove it" He stated, skeptically.

And at that, the old lady took off her rabbit fur gloves, and raised her left index finger, only to reveal a gaping hole. The children all gasped in bewilderment, But Aurora just smiled, and slid her aging hands back into her gloves.

"Goodnight" She simply said, before standing and retreating to the bedroom in her enchanting cottage.

THE END