Once Upon a Time…

According to the calendar, today is Tell a Fairy Tale Day.

Most of the sites about it encourage parents and teachers to read their old favorites aloud in order to delight small children.

Oh, they’ll be delighted all right.

Because before those tales got Disney-fied, they were… well…

Let’s just say that Stephen King had nothing on them.

So, before you go back to those lovely originals, here are few endings you might want to know –

Cinderella’s stepsisters get their eyes pecked out by pigeons.

Grandma and Red Riding Hood get gobbled up and digested by the wolf. Sorry, kiddos, the woodsman is a no-show, so there’s no one to hack them out whole and breathing.

Same goes for Goldilocks. She’s actually ripped to shreds and eaten by the bears for trespassing.

Oh, and happily ever after? Um… no. In the original version, the Little Mermaid flings herself to an oceanic death after the prince dumps her.

Well… sleep tight tonight, boys and girls.

Sweet dreams!

PROMPT: Write a tale of your own today – grim, fractured, or sanitized. Oh and by the way, the calendar also indicates that it is National Pistachio Day. So move over Princess and the Pea – I’m thinking it’s time for something a little bit nuttier.