A Modern day fairy story.

In his room under the eaves of the old farmhouse, Jack sat listening to the drips as the rain trickled through the leaking thatch. The roof was overdue for repair. Everything in the old farmhouse was overdue for repair. He shrugged. The leaks wouldn't really matter so long as the damp didn't seep into the worn, archaic wiring. He shuddered at the memory of the time when the rats had gnawed through the cable in the barn. Then his computer had crashed without warning and he'd lost a set of unsaved spreadsheets that had taken him days to compile. With so little spare time after he had finished ... more

The view from Grace's flat window was nothing special; in fact it was downright depressing. All she could see were more of the same featureless high rise blocks of flats as she lived in herself, obscured by the rain running slowly down the glass. The grey heavy clouds and pouring rain only added to the grim and uninviting outlook but it was all she had. She was a prisoner in her own home, forgotten by the outside world, alone and lonely. Turning from the window she moved her wheelchair back into the deeper gloom of her world, those four rooms that made up her entire existence. Pushing her way ... more

Once upon a time, Rose rose early … habitually, every single weekday morning. Indeed it wasn't uncommon for her to be seen leaving the house before dawn ... particularly if Dawn had been out partying the night before, and had returned home the worse for drink. Rose struggled into her burgundy cagoule and fastened the toggles of the hood tightly under her chin. Not for nothing had she earned the knick-name 'Little Red Riding Hoodie'. The tiny emaciated care-worker carefully wheeled her bicycle along the icy garden path, before mounting it and peddling frantically uphill in the wrong gear ... more

Thank you to Elffriend for starting this one off, it was fun. And thank you to Torr for inspiring me so much with his entry. And apologies for the length! Tiny bubbles of sweat, like little glass beads, formed on Cindy's forehead as she leaned closer to the flame. The beads coalesced and slid slowly downward, making thin pink rivulets through the dark sooty smudges coating her cheeks. The flame danced in petrol shades of blue, pink, red and yellow as she took a breath and placed the blow hose between heat chapped lips. Exhaling slowly and evenly, she twirled the pole, watching intently as the ... more

A few weeks back I asked Ciao to introduce this category for several reasons. My first idea was to take a fairy tale and adapt it to modern-day stories thinking this would be a challenging experience for many of the excellent writers on Ciao. My second reason was to allow people from different cultures to share their own folk stories with us. My third and maybe more important reason was to see if a writer could come up with a story to suit the times in which we live. I am sure that many people learned a love of reading and writing through the old fairy tales some grim and dark, others full of ... more