A different Cinderella story

" Did you read the papers professor Focus left?" I asked once I returned back from the dinner with my brother. Even though we had an argument before Lucas went on his work tour, he was a lot happy to see me there at dinner.  He was grinning from ear to ear through our the whole meal. Just as usual he cracked some jokes along with his curses which earned very painful looking ear tugs from Rita. By the time the dinner was over, Lucas's left ear was completely red. As a result of his impolite remarks, Rita and I had to keep Diana's ears covered. But she would learn those words somehow when she has a father who doesn't have a filter to his mouth. So she would turn to a perfect copy of Lucas eventually. Eventually. After the meal, Lucas was extremely drunk. So much so that he kept mumbling the story Jack and the beanstalk. I had to drive them home since Rita didn't know how to drive and Diana was too small. I had to go back to the restaurant by bus to get my bike and then come back home. Think how tired I was.

"Nope. We were too busy preparing ourselves something to eat." That's when I recalled that Liam can't cook and neither can little guy.

"You didn't burn down the house right?" I quickly walked towards the kitchen. Liam followed me from behind with giving a no as a reply. Eventhough they haven't burnt the house or the kitchen,  it was a mess. Picture the scenes you see in movies. Pieces of vegetables lying everywhere, on the counter top, floor everywhere. Thankfully they haven't used eggs or else it would be too troublesome to remove the stench inside the house.

"Did you guys waste or eat?"

Liam responded with a sound of disapproval," Don't worry. We ate something."

"Good. Now you can help me clean the kitchen."

"Fine."

" Where's little guy?"

" Asleep."

"It's still 8pm."

" He must be tired."

"Hmm." From the way the conversation went on it was clear that no one has the interest to keep talking. So I shut my mouth and began cleaning. Liam went to sleep in the middle of cleaning leaving me all by myself which I didn't care since I've been living alone for many years. It was past 11 pm when I was done cleaning the whole apartment. Let me guess, you thought only the kitchen was a mess but in truth every corner of my house was dirty. Kitchen to the living room, then to the bathroom and lastly my bedroom. I didn't have a heart to wake little guy and clean his room in the middle of the night but I'm sure it needs a clean more than any other room in the apartment. What I couldn't believe was that I had to clean my room again even after cleaning it in the morning. I would always lock the door of my bedroom everytime I go out. Unfortunately because of the hastiness I had forgotten to put the luck. So this was the punishment I get for forgetting things. On my bed and floor I found small pieces of potato chips. I was curious how they got there but I'm sure they did it on purpose.

Remembering the papers professor Focus asked me to read, I jumped out of the bed and went to the living room to get it. I returned back to my room wanting to lie down while reading it. Because of how tired I was and the hot shower I took, I fell asleep. So I was only able to read the first two word, 'The compass'.

"Focus, wake up!" I heard a distant calling again and again. Then I heard it right next to my ear. That's when my eyes snapped open. Liam and Little guy were so close to my face. So much so that I felt their hot breath on my face.

"What do you want?" I yawned. I still felt sleepy unlike any other day.

"Dude, it's 9am. Thank the fucking god for making your professors lazy these days or else you would be in trouble for sure." Little guy was the one to reply.

"9am? I slept that long?"

"Duh!" Liam rolled his eyes at my rhetorical question. "Anyways, did you see the papers professor you left us?"

"Professor you?" The drowsiness malfunctioned my brain but when I started loosing the sleepiness I understood what he meant. "Oh him! They are with me." I said removing the blanket I was covering myself with when sleeping. Three crumbled papers fell down as a result of removing it. Little guy was the one to pick them up.

"What the fuck were you doing with it last night?" He asked trying to get the papers back to their shapes.

"I took them to read asshole." This time little guy ignored my remark. Then he gasped gaini nngi my full attention.

" This is bad! This is very very bad!" The panic in his voice was enough for me and Liam to look at the papers above little guy's shoulder. "The lines, they are fading and then disappearing!" What he said was true. Letters were disappearing. I recalled the warning professor Focus told me. He asked us to read it before 12 hours could pass but because of the dinner and the cleaning of the house I was too tired and fell asleep before I could read the content in the papers.

"Quickly read what's written in it!" I yelled panicking since that was the only clue we got after many days of searching.

"The compass is what shows the direction of time. It-" He stopped.

"It what?" I ripped off the paper from his hands. To my, our disappointment the paper was completely empty. Not a single pen stroke.

"There's no point of trying. They are already gone." Sighing was the only thing we could do.