Editor’s note: Content Warning: This story explores violent themes and discusses self-harm.

King’s footsteps slowly getting louder.

King: Our sons are married and my daughter must marry the king from the nearby kingdom but she refuses; she says she wants to marry a wizard! (King slams on table as he says wizard.)

Queen: A princess has one job, marry a prince. Marrying a wizard is absurd!

Together: How HORRIBLE!!!

Meanwhile, princess Penelope is sneaking off to the wizard’s hut.

Wizard: Ah Penelope you have come at last!

Penelope: I must marry a king against my father’s wishes so I came to say goodbye, my love.

Wizard: Well, what if your father is dead?

Penelope: Well, then my step-mother would rule.

Wizard: Well, what if your step-mother is dead?

Penelope: Well, my step-brothers will rule and make me a slave! 

Wizard: What if your step-brothers are dead?

Penelope: Weellll… I guess I will rule then and get to make my own choices.

The Wizard gets an evil gleam in his eye. He only loved Penelope to get the kingdom and then he would kill her.

Wizard: Well, I guess you should leave, my love, your father must be wondering where you are darling. 

Penelope leaves and closes the door.

Wizard: Now I’ll do what I do best: kill. 

The next day, Penelope hears a scream as she wakes up and runs to the noise to find her poor step-mother crying over her step-brother’s dead bodies.

Queen: OH NO! WHAT SHALL I EVER DO….?

Penelope: Step-mother… What happened to my step-brothers… ?

Queen: They were killed in their sleep! Killer is unknown.

King: WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR SONS!?

Penelope: They were murdered, father…

Everyone is silent except for the queen’s cries of heartbreak.

Queen: If I can not live with my sons, I will die, so I will kill myself to join them.

Before anyone could stop her the Queen brings out the king’s sword and stabs herself and collapses onto her four sons’ bodies and dies.

King: I will die too. I am a horrible king to let my sons die.

He takes the sword, pulls off his armor and stabs himself and dies.

That night, there is a funeral for the king, queen, and princes and a crowning for Penelope.

Penelope: I know who did this and I must kill him before he kills anyone else. GUARDS, find the wizard and bring him to me.

Guards come back with a struggling wizard. 

Wizard: My love, how could you do this to me! 

Penelope: How could you do this to ME? I tell my father I want to marry you and in the end, you kill my family! I will marry another man who was my second love. I was going to pick you as my husband but you killed my family. You shall be burned at the stake tonight!

Guards take the wizard away.

That night, Penelope stays in her room but hears the fire burning the wizard away and his cries of pain. When she comes out, the wizard is dead.

Two days later, a wedding is happening for Penelope and the prince of a nearby kingdom. 

Two years later 

Penelope has a family and a life but one of her daughters is magical. 

Ann: Mother, why do I have magic?

Penelope: You must have inherited it from a wizard I used to know and love until he killed my family.

Ann: Wizard? Love? Murder?!

Penelope: It is a long story…

  THE END