"Bad prince."

Ella adjusts her stance and smacks Adam across the ass. He gasps for breath, holding onto the pole in the ground, biting his lower lip, trying not to show how much he is enjoying it.

"Naughty prince."

She smacks him again.

"Naughty, bad, prince-boy. Poor little prince... You didn't do what the princess told you to do."

He shudders. "I'll... I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry..." he muttered, tears leaching past his eyes.

"Naughty prince."

She walks in front of him, and presses her breasts into his face; he gasps at the feeling of flesh, but she smirks at him and pulls away before he can kiss her. That was what he always seemed to want - a kiss to her skin, to her lips, to every part of her.

"Little prince, you didn't learn your lesson. Naughty prince."

She circles him, pondering what to do next.

She remembers her other guests, though, and walks over to the other poles in the ground; her sisters wear handcuffed to one pole, their naked bodies pressed against each other, rolls of flesh and fat creating a grotesque statue of suffering and humiliation.

Ella just smiles when they plead for mercy.

Adele's tongue is gone; Minerva's lips have been sewn shut.

Ella just smiles.

============================================================================ ==

To think, this whole thing had begun just because the naughty prince had decided that she wasn't good enough.

She had slaved for so many years, hoping to one day rise above slavery, to dominate, and become part of the culture. She had watched for years as her step-mother and step-sisters welcomed random men into their beds; her sister Minerva welcomed both women and men - mornings became nightmares for Ella, when she saw glistening bodies lying tangled in sheets of lace and satin, awaiting pleasure and pain.

Then, she heard of the prince, Adam. The man wanted a woman who could rule at his side, or so his family claimed; Ella heard that what Adam really wanted was a woman who could rule * him *.

A woman who could rule his head.

A woman who could rule his heart.

A woman whose grace on the dance floor was unequaled.

A woman whose desires in the bedroom could rival even the prince's most depraved wants.

Ella had decided at that moment, that she would do whatever it took to rule the prince, and her abhorred family.

============================================================================ ==

It came to the night of the Great Ball.

Ella watched her sisters; saw Adele in her belly-baring harem girl's outfit, looking like Scheherazade, and her 1001 Arabian nights; her hair designed into ringlets and blonder than any harem girl's would ever be.

Minerva, her great girth contained in a bitterly ugly purple dress that only emphasized her own unattractiveness.

Ella's stepmother, Lady Webb, wore a gossamer white silk dress. She looked like a cocoon... The worm without a hope of becoming a butterfly - icy, proud, and painfully beautiful.

Ella felt her body turning against her, a pang of longing as she looked at her beautiful stepmother and her disgusting stepsisters.

Was there no justice for her? Was there no hope for those like her?

She watched them leave, then retreated to the garden, plotting.

She knew that the stories all told of fairies granting wishes, fairies who granted every desire, every hope, every yearning of pathetic humanity. Ella prayed and prayed, but after several hours, nothing came of it.

Annoyed, she retreated to the house, and up to her room in the attic of the house. She opened a trunk and pulled out an outfit, and a dress that matched her stepmother's. In fact, it was her true mother's wedding dress.

She dressed and walked to the great palace.

If she had to fight to be welcomed and accepted, then so be it.

It was as she approached the gates that a soft voice echoed in her mind -

** Granting wishes for the pretty one. For the pretty one. For the pretty one. **

Ella smiled. "Wishes?" she whispered.

** Wishes, Wishes. Wishes. **

She smiled. "I want one thing."

** Say the word. Say the word. Say the word. **

"Revenge."

The voice intensifies.

** Say the name. Say the name. Say the name. **

"Names..." Ella said, and her smile grows wider, her red lips folding into a sneer.

============================================================================ ==

Her sisters are quiet, now, and her stepmother has made no sound at all.

She smiles at Adam and teases him, rubbing her body against him, touching him, making him moan with ecstasy, even as he screams with pain every time she strikes him. She smiles.

"Naughty prince."

He gasps apologies - for what, he knows not - but he gasps them like a beached fish. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He cries, and screams, and cries and screams...

"Tsk. Tsk."

She strikes him across the face.

"Naughty prince."

============================================================================ ==

She appeared at the ball, dressed all in white - a gossamer silk gown, just as her stepmother wears.

She smiles to herself.

Her sisters will be the first to pay - the first.

She finds Minerva first, beckons, and the fat cow lumbers towards her, into an isolated room of the palace. Ella smiles; this room is familiar to her - it is here because she heard the voice tell her what to look for. A room with poles, she sees cuffs, sees all the implements she needs. She gently pushes Minerva to the bed, where her sister awaits pleasure.

Instead, Ella smiles as she strips her sister, handcuffs her to a pole, and slowly, carefully, and delicately sews her lips shut...

============================================================================ ==

Adele is moaning, blood frothing from between her lips.

Lady Webb says nothing; she remains motionless where Ella stabbed her. The old woman lies dead; she no longer controls the story.

Ella smiles at her sisters, sees that Minerva has fallen unconscious. She kicks her. "Wake up, sister dearest. I'm no where near finished with you two..."

She hears Adam moan and fight his restraints.

She walks towards him, her heels clicking with hostility. She strikes him.

"Naughty prince," she emphasizes, wagging a finger in his face. "Struggle and I'll cut you, you naughty prince."

He whimpers, and Ella merely strokes a hand across his face before a knife appears in her hand.

"Naughty, naughty prince..."

============================================================================ ==

Adele is even easier to fine - entrenched with a handsome guard in a tryst of epic proportions.

Ella strikes the guard and drags her sister to the secluded room.

Adele's tongue hits the floor before she even knows what is happening. Ella smiles, kisses her sister gently, and then strips her, handcuffing her next to Minerva. She leaves them, and goes to enjoy the ball.

She sees the prince, and makes her way towards him.

He smiles at her, a wide, lovely smile, and takes her hands. They dance, enjoying every minute, and he is looking at her, admiring her, loving her...

And he tells her how wonderful she is, how beautiful, and how amazingly she dances. She is wonderful, and he desires her.

She feels elated...

And then he dances with another woman.

And another.

And another.

And another.

More and more women, and she hears him whispering the words to each one.

Scorn me, my prince? I don't think so...

============================================================================ ==

She takes Adam from the floor, leading him to the room, with a promise of love.

And she ties him to a pole, smiling to him as she does, and she strips her gossamer gown from her body.

Her black corset and long skirt were carefully chosen. Her raven hair is held high and clear above her head.

And she strikes him for the first time.

"Naughty prince," she scolds.

He cries out.

She hits him again.

"Naughty, naughty bad prince-boy."

And her stepmother appears in the doorway - horror and love in her eyes. "My daughter, my Ella... such cruelty. Where did you learn this?"

And Ella steps forward and stabs her wicked stepmother with a knife. "I learned it all from you, oh, Lady Webb," and the old woman falls to the ground, dead.

The sisters cry.

The prince whines and whimpers.

Ella smiles.

She has until midnight.

============================================================================ ==

She hears the first notes of the clock strike midnight, and leaves the room, dressed in her white gown. A guard escorts her to Lady Webb's carriage.

She doesn't care who finds their bodies, or what she did.

She is free.

Ella has had her pleasure, her naughty prince learned his lesson, and her sisters and stepmother will trouble her no more.

What a naughty prince.

Naughty, naughty prince-boy.

You made the princess angry.

Why did you do that, you naughty, naughty, bad, prince-boy...?