Now, here is the other ending, where Cinderella does the bad thing and pulls the thread.

Warning: since this is the chapter where the stepfamily gets damned, there will be disturbing content in this chapter. Reader discression is advised.

Ending 2: Hell's Fire

Cinderella thought back to the day when her stepfamily arrived at the chateau after her father and Lady Tremaine married each other. From the moment that woman and her daughters stepped through the door, they hated Cinderella for no apparent reason. Whenever the father was away, the stepfamily would force her to work and even hit her at times.

Cinderella wanted to tell her father what was really happening, but she was under constant threat of Lady Tremaine's cruelty. Even in these unfair times, Cinderella still tried to be good and pious. When her father died suddenly, she felt her resolve waver greatly, especially when her abuse became worse almost immediately after.

Now that she thought about it, Cinderella thought Lady Tremaine seemed happy that her father died…almost too happy. Cinderella thought back to the day her father died. When she saw her stepmother's face in the shadows, she was sure she saw a smirk on her face. The thought never crossed her mind before, but could Lady Tremaine have…?

No.

No. She couldn't have…could she?

All the memories of the stepfamily's cruelty came to her in a single flood. She could hear her stepsisters' snide laughter as they watched her work and gave her the occasional kick. She could also see her stepmother's evil smirk from the shadows and the glare of her eyes. Rage overcame Cinderella and she knew what she had to do, even if it meant disobeying her mother's dying wish.

"I'm sorry," Cinderella told the angel, "but I can't put up with this anymore."

She ran up the stairs to her room, ignoring the angel's warnings. When she arrived in her room, she went to the corner where she threw the straw doll earlier. She saw that it was still there, so she picked it up and looked out the window.

In the distance, she could see the lights of the castle and the dark face of the clock tower. Cinderella wondered just what her stepfamily was doing. Most likely, the prince would be dancing with either Anastasia or Drizella, with Lady Tremaine watching them with a satisfied look on her face. Cinderella gritted her teeth and she grabbed hold of the scarlet thread.

"Mother," Cinderella said softly, "I'm sorry."

A tear dripped down from her eye as she pulled the thread from the doll's neck.

A sudden gust of wind blew past the window and blew both the doll and the thread out of Cinderella's hands. She watched as both doll and thread vanished in the night. As the wind died down, she could hear a man's voice echo, "Your grievance…shall be avenged."

At the royal ball, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella were having the best time of their lives. Though the sisters weren't able to dance with the prince, they found other handsome men to dance with. Lady Tremaine did not dance, as her age was catching up to her, but she was just happy watching her daughters dance.

The sisters took a break from dancing and sat down next to their mother. As they rested their feet, they scanned the crowd for more men to dance with. They both spotted a young man with short black hair standing some distance away, staring at them both with his dark eyes. To the sisters, he was more handsome than the prince, yet why was no one dancing with him? Neither sister questioned that as they jumped out of their seats and trotted up to him.

"Move out of the way!" Drizella shoved Anastasia. "He's mine!"

"No!" Anastasia shoved her sister back. "He's mine!"

The young man watched the sisters approach him and he walked up to them. When he was about a yard away, the sisters fell silent and gaped at how handsome he was up close. He gave a friendly smile and, holding both his hands out, asked, "Would you both like to dance?"

Both sisters nearly swooned at this. They both eagerly grabbed the man's hands and they walked outside to courtyard, where it was less crowded. Lady Tremaine smiled at how happy her daughters were and gave a sigh of content.

"Pardon me, madam," an elderly voice spoke up, "but would you care to dance with me?"

Lady Tremaine turned her head and saw a bald old man dressed in black standing next to her. She said sweetly, "Thank you, but I feel that dancing is more for the younger folk."

"That's not stopping me," the man offered his hand, "and I don't think it should stop you too. After all, royal balls don't happen every day."

"You are right." Lady Tremaine took the hand and stood up.

As they both walked into the crowd, the old man said, "Let's go outside, where there's more room."

They both made their way out of the crowd and stepped outside into the courtyard. Outside, they could see the young man taking turns dancing with Anastasia and Drizella. Now that Lady Tremaine had a good look around, she noticed that there was no one else outside, other than a lone woman playing the violin.

"Lovely evening, isn't it?" The man asked.

Lady Tremaine turned her attention back to the man and said, "Yes, it is."

The man glanced at the sisters and said, "I saw them with you earlier. Are they your daughters?"

"Yes, they are." Lady Tremaine said proudly as she smiled.

"Have they danced with the prince?"

"No. Apparently, he thinks my daughters are not worthy to dance with him."

"The Royal family does have particular tastes."

"I agree with you on that." Lady Tremaine said sourly.

"Don't let that spoil the evening." The old man smiled. "Let's just enjoy the dance."

They slowly swayed in tune with the long notes on the woman's violin. Ten minutes later, Lady Tremaine turned to look back at the ballroom and noticed that it was dark and strangely empty.

Meanwhile, the young man and the sisters sat on the rim of a large fountain and made casual conversation. Eventually, Anastasia asked, "So, who's prettier, me or Drizella?"

"That's a stupid question!" Drizella spoke up. "We all know that I'm the prettier one."

"No, I am!"

Before they could start arguing again, the young man said, "Please, calm down. I'll tell you both what I think."

The sisters crowded around the young man, eager to hear what he had to say. He smiled and said, "You know, Anastasia, Drizella, I think you are both equally the ugliest women I have ever seen before in my life."

Both girls cried out in both surprise and anger and they shoved the man into the fountain. Hearing her daughters cry out, Lady Tremaine ran to their side and asked, "What is the matter?"

The sisters pointed at the man in the water and both talked about how he insulted them. Amongst their complaining, the old man walked up to them and shouted, "Would you both quiet down?"

The sisters fell silent and stared at the man, with Drizella asking her mother, "Mother, who is this man?"

"You need to understand," the man said, "that the man you shoved in the fountain was giving his honest opinion, and quite frankly," he frowned, "I must agree with him."

The sisters cried out in anger again and Lady Tremaine snapped, "How dare you insult my daughters!"

The woman stopped playing the violin and approached the women, saying, "Cinderella is more beautiful than all of you. She should have been here, but you made sure that her only dream would not come true. Why is that, I wonder?"

Lady Tremaine demanded, "How do you know about Cinderella?"

"I saw it." The young man said. "I saw everything."

The women turned around and they were instantly engulfed in darkness. Staring at them from everywhere at once were many large blue eyes. They screamed at what they saw, with the frightened sisters embracing their mother like children.

"I saw how you treated Cinderella." The young man's voice echoed in the dark.

The next thing they knew, they were back at the foyer of the chateau, except they wore rags instead of their dresses. They also found that they were kneeling on the floor with sponges and wash buckets next to them. They tried to stand up, but a sudden pain shot down their legs, forcing them to kneel again.

From behind, someone kicked each of the women on their rears. The sisters shouted complaints while Lady Tremaine demanded, "What is going on? What is the meaning of this?"

"Get to work!" They could hear the old man shout from behind them.

"Work, you wretched things!" They heard the young man shout.

"No!" Anastasia screamed. "We're not lowly scullery maids!"

"You are all going to pay for this!" Drizella also screamed in fury.

"You're not going to work?" They heard the woman ask.

The women lifted their heads up and saw a skeletal woman in a purple dress glaring down at them with a whip in her hands. She raised her whip and struck Anastasia across her back. She screamed in pain as the woman proceeded to whip her sister and mother in the same fashion.

"Get to work!" The woman yelled at them. "Those floors aren't going to clean themselves!"

The sisters whimpered and they picked up their sponges. Her mother snapped, "What are you doing?"

The woman whipped Lady Tremaine until her back bled. Both sisters cried out in fear and they began to scrub the floors. Despite this, the woman also whipped them until their backs bled. Their blood welled up, dripped down the sides of their backs, and fell onto the floor. Seeing this, the young man groaned, "They're bleeding all over the floor."

"Clean it up at once!" The skeletal woman snapped.

Finally, Lady Tremaine obeyed, picked up a sponge, and began to scrub the floors along with her daughters. The skeletal woman smirked and said, "Oh, and while you are all at it, I want you to clean the carpets, wash the windows and the tapestries, clean the garden…"

The old man chimed in, "Do the laundry, scrub the terrace, sweep the stairs…"

The young man also chimed in, "Sweep the halls, clean the chimneys, and mend the clothes, and they all have to be done before tonight."

"But it's already night." The old man noted.

The skeletal woman raised the whip and said to the women, "Then that makes you all lazy, good-for-nothing wenches!"

The woman laughed madly and whipped the women while the men kept kicking and insulting them. The women never stopped crying in pain, nor did they stop scrubbing. Eventually, their blood formed a large pool around them and they had no choice but to keep scrubbing the floors with their own blood.

From the shadows, a girl with long black hair and red eyes stepped out. The men and the skeletal woman moved aside and allowed the girl to walk up to the women. She stared at them coldly and said to them, "Oh pitiful shadows lost in darkness, bringing torment and pain to others…oh damned souls wallowing in your sin…perhaps…it's time to die."

"Die?" The sisters shrieked. "What did we do to deserve this?"

The girl did not answer, but she lifted her arm to the side. All the flowers from her black kimono flew off towards the women, and they were once again in darkness.

When they opened their eyes, the stepfamily found themselves on a boat in the middle of a gray lake. Floating on the water were little lit paper lanterns and, ahead of the boat, there was a large, red Japanese gate that stood in the middle of the water. Rowing the boat was the girl with the red eyes.

Lady Tremaine stood up and demanded, "Where are we? Where are you taking us?"

"Hell." Was the only thing the girl said.

"Hell?" Anastasia cried out. "Why are you taking us there?"

"I don't wanna go to hell!" Drizella bawled. She stood up and was about to jump off the boat when she saw the figures of many skeletons raise their arms out of the water. She screamed and sat back down, huddling close to her mother.

"Listen, young lady," Lady Tremaine tried to be brave, "you take us back right now-."

"You have tormented someone who never did anything to you." The girl said without emotion. "This is vengeance, so I am to ferry you to hell."

All the stepfamily could do was huddle close together and cry until they passed underneath the red gate to hell.

Back at the chateau, Cinderella got wind of her stepfamily's mysterious disappearance. People searched all over the kingdom, but they were nowhere to be found. Eventually, Cinderella gained the rights to her home and money again, and she opened her chateau up as an inn where travelers could stay overnight. There, she managed the inn while some of the local maidens helped by cooking and cleaning the chateau. Of course, Cinderella sympathized with the women and also helped them to clean the place. She searched the place for her animal friends to see if they could also help, but they were nowhere to be found, nor did she ever see them again.

Every day, Cinderella would look at herself in the mirror and see the black flare mark over her right breast, which was the reminder of her covenant with Ai. She was well aware that she was going to hell when she died, yet she did not really regret her decision, and she decided that it would be best if she lived her life to the best of her ability.

Though she wasn't able to attend the ball and meet the prince on that fateful night, at least she was rid of her cruel stepfamily forever.

The end! I hoped you enjoyed the story!

Final note: I highly doubt Hell Correspondence can damn multiple people upon a single person's request, but for this one story, I've decided to allow it.