Free Ashes to Ashes and Cinder to Cinder by Cameron Jace Page B

stake.
    Eventually, I have to say my last goodbye since you will never meet again.
     
    Sandman Grimm
     
     
     

Ashes to Ashes &
    Cinder to Cinder
    as told by Alice Grimm
     
    Present day, whenever you think that is .
     
    The remains of the dead witch’s skeleton were found in a small town near Venice in Italy. To inspect it, I had to fool my teachers in California and tell them that my German grandma died and that I had to fly overseas to attend her funeral. No one even asked me to have my parents call the school to confirm my claim. When you are a descendant of the Brothers Grimm, every body treats you like a modern day Cinderella.
    Ironically, I was flying over to Venice to find the real Cinderella. The one everybody accidentally killed when they believed that she was a fairy tale character and didn’t exist.
    It didn’t take me much time to travel from Germany to Venice, and I was so curious to see the corpse: an 800-year-old Italian witch found by archeologists with seven nails driven to her jaw. Gruesome stuff. My perfect taste.
    “Why seven nails?” I asked Bella, the Italian archeologist’s assistance while standing over the grave in broad daylight. Bella was about twenty-four years old, seven years older than I was. I am sure her name wasn’t Bella. Some of the investigators around the world preferred not to make their names known to others.
    “No one really knows,” She said. “It was what they used to do to European witches in general, nailing them in the jaw.”
    “You mean women who were accused of witchcraft,” I corrected her. Women had been burned, crucified, and killed for practicing things like playing a game of dice, which was considered witchcraft at that time. I hate when they are were called witches because they were not. “We all know these women were innocent.”
    “Whatever,” Bella said absently as I noticed her wearing those white gloves. It was ironic that I was the one defending witches, since my ancestors had taught me to search for the likes of them all of my life. Not only witches, but also fairy tale characters that secretly lived among us without us knowing. Sometimes, they didn’t even know who they were.
    “What’s really interesting is that the skeleton was wrapped up in a shroud that is nailed to the ground.”
    “Any reason for that?” I wondered.
    “Of course. It was the common believe to cover the body of a witch or a vampire in a shroud and nail it to the earth so its spirit stays trapped and can’t wake up again and hunt them.”
    “Oh—“ I still couldn’t understand why they sent for me. They knew that I wasn’t here for this. My secret investigations were about discovering the truth about fairy tales. The stories my ancestors actually managed to forge.
    “I’ll get to what you want in a minute,” Bella said, pointing at the corpse covered in white sheets in its grave. Then she gazed toward the other workers leaving the site. “I need to make sure everyone leaves the scene and only us, who know why you’re here, stay.”
    Finally, Bella uncovered the corpse. That is when I got a glimpse of why I was here …
    There were seventeen glass slippers surrounding the corpse.
    “That’s odd.” I mumbled, kneeling down.
    “See? Italian witches from the 12 th and 13 th century are usually surrounded by 17 dices because dice was the game that women were forbidden to practice at the time since it was thought of as a form of witchcraft.”
    “Why seventeen?”
    “17 was considered bad luck. Don’t ask me why.”
    “And we have … glass shoes … Hmm.” I thought I knew why there were seventeen glass shoes surrounding the corpse but I needed to know more to confirm my suspicions.
    “That’s why you are here,” Bella announced. “These are 800 year old glass slippers, astonishingly still looking as new. I think it is her. ”
    “This is almost impossible. She should be buried Six Dreams Under ,” I touched my lips with my reluctant finger. “If