Snk rp family Darkest Desire contest entry
     Unlike the rest of the special ops squad, Petra didnât mind cleaning duty. She didnât veiw it as a chore. It gave her an oppurtunity to be alone with her thoughts, something she typically would not be able to do under the scrutnizing gaze of Levi or the constant annoyance of Auroro. It was just nice to have some quiet time.
       Today Petra was assigned an easy task- to clean a small room in the northern tower of HQ. The room was roughly 20 paces by 30, and it was bare, save for a few random shelves with old books strewn haphazardly on them.
      âAllright dust!â Petra stood in the doorway, hands grasping a bucket of cleaning supplies. âPrepare to die!â A childish grin played across her face. And thus our hero set to work. Alas, due to her small size, our hero had difficulty reaching the shelves. Thus she did what any sensible (not) person would do. Balancing unsteadily on a rickety old stool, Petra set to work dusting the high places.       Â
All was going well, until the last shelf. The stool decided to rock back a little, causing Petra to loose her balance. In anattempt to prevent from crashing to the hard flagstone floor, she reached out and grasped the corner of the bookshelf. Big mistake. Old furniture isnât particually sturdy, and instead of re balancing herself, Petra pulled the shelf down with her.
        Books, limbs, and wood all landed with a painfully large thud on the floor, a cloud of dust settling over the freshly cleaned surfaces.
       âPoop.â Petra thought, pulling herself from the pile of debree. Eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and frustration, the girl tried to stand. Excrushiating pain shot through her right ankle as soon as any weight was put on it, making the brunette crash to the floor yet again.
"This stinks." Petra moaned. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â "Oh well, with a crash like that, someone was bound to have heard it." She painfully dragged her body toward the wall, numerous small brusies and scratches screaming painfully as she did so.
        Petra pulled her boot off the afflicted ankle. It was already starting to swell, making it exremely painful to get the boot off. Despite the pain, the ankle was thankfully just sprained. A broken ankle would have been much worse. The brunette leaned back against the wall, hoping someone would come soon.
     Minutes turned into an hour as the shadows in the room grew longer. Petra grew impaitent- how much longer was it going to take before someone noticed she was missing? It was getting boring just staring at the wall. Suddenly the girl noticed something by her foot. An old book was laying haphazardly in the floor. With much difficulty, Petra grabbed the book.
          Itâs cover was faded and dull, and itâs spine made an awufull crack when she picked it up, but reading was sure as heck better than just staring at the wall. Her slender fingers traced the worn gold leaf of the title. âCinderellaâ was printed on the front in shiny gold script. Petra recignized the story- her mother used to read it to her before she died. Underneath the title, a beautiful girl in a blue dress was smiling at a brown-haired man (Who Petra also found quite handsome.) They were holding hands, and looking at each other in a lovey-dovey way. Although she hated to admit it, Petra had used to dream of her life ending up like one of these fairytales. Meeting a handsome prince, falling in love, and living happily ever after in the most magical way. It was stupid she knew.Despite that fact, she couldnât help but envy the perfect people with perfect lives who existed in the book. As a member of the survey corps, an elite soilder, Petra shouldnât be thinking of those things. But yet her mind would wander to her childhood dream sometimes.
         She slipped the book open, itâs bindings making a crunchy noise in protest. The pages were yellowed and brittle, the book could have very well been from before the walls.
         âOnce opon a timeâ Petra read âThere lived a girl.â
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         âAnd they all lived happily ever after.â She finished. The girl found herself almost jealous of Cinderella, after reading the story yet again. The princessâs life was her own. She had two feet firmly planted on the ground, her life a promise of hapiness and prosperity. Petra, on the other hand didnât even own her own life. She was expected to sacrfice herself for the sake of others- sonething she had come to terms with long ago. She was walking on a thread over the valley of death most days. One wrong move and it would be over. The brunette sighed, her brown eyes staring longingly at the cover of the book.
            âIf onlyâŚâ Petra wanted, just for one moment, to own her tommorows. To be able to have a handsome prince come in and sweep her off her feet. It was insane to be jealous of a fictional cahrecter. The girl felt her eyes beginning to grow heavy.
         âAll that thinking was pretty tiring.â Petra giggled internally. âAh well. At least I can dream.â She drifted off to sleep with what she was sure was the most insane grin plastered on her face. Petra didnât care. Behind closed brown eyes and a rosy smile, a handsome prince was waiting. (Who may or may not look a tiny bit like Levi.)
