Lilian woke up in her bed and noticed her bedroom was darker than usual, with little glimpse of sunlight from the window that are slowly fading away. She glanced toward the windows and ran excitedly to look outside the glass panel, tracing her tiny fingers along a snowflake as it descended from the grey sky outside the estate.

Her cheeks flushed at the gloomy, chilling sight of winter—a perfect day for a funeral, some might say. But little Lilian had always been fascinated with this so-called depressing weather. Some preferred the warmth and rays of sunlight in the early morning as an omen for a good day. But isn't because of the cold and the gloom only emphasize the warmth of the fireplace and the glow of the lights it created?

The best part was that every time the winter mornings were like this, Lilian's grandmother would gather her and her older sisters to tell a story.

She loved her grandmother's stories, despite them always ending with the same familiar happily ever after.

Why would you want to listen to something new when you already know it will always end the same? Her sisters would say, and rather to use their precious morning to bake cookies, build a snowman, and other entertaining activities they managed to find. Lilian, not interested in any of those, remains as grandmother's sole audience. Because of those stories, Lilian also wants to find her happily ever after as well.

She went to her sisters' bed to wake them up from their sleep as a habit, Amelia and Sofia. But before she was about to shake them awake— she remembered that her sisters had outgrown grandmother's stories.

It is unusual for them to be reading stories during the early hours of the morning and not at bedtime. Sometimes Lilian and her sisters would be curious and asked and even insisted on their grandmother telling stories during bedtime, but for some reason, her grandmother always refused to.

"Lily," a voice whispered.

Lilian startled and quickly turns around her back to see her grandmother already standing by the bedroom door.

It's nana! Lilian thought. Already fully dressed with a beautiful modest beige dress with high collar, her beautiful hair that is the color of snow pinned up tightly and her shoulders are wrapped with a beautiful green woolen shawl that she always carried with her during winter.

Lilian hadn't even noticed when her grandmother had walked in.

"Do you want to hear a story?" Her grandmother asked gently, a familiar cue she had heard many times.

Lilian—still in her night gown, quickly grabbed her favorite pale blue cardigan hanging on the side of her bed, embroidered with flowers on the sleeves, and rushed ran towards her grandmother's side as she puts it on.

"What story today, nana?" Lilian asked as they started walking towards the living room down stairs, where they usually sat cozy together on the couch in front of the fireplace and listen to grandmother's stories.

"Today's story will be slightly different," her grandmother said as they reached the living room. She took a match from the shelf beside the couch, knelt down to light the wood in the fireplace, then walked over to her usual rocking chair and settled into it comfortably.

Lilian sat on the couch beside her. She used to curl up in grandmother's lap to listen to her stories back then when she was little, while her sisters sat on the couch. She was sure they had sat on grandmother's lap at some point, but same as her, as they grew up, they are far too big and obviously too heavy to be continuing sitting on grandmother's lap anymore.

"What do you mean, nana?" Lilian tilted her head curiously.

Different from usual?

A bad story?

No more happy endings?

The thoughts made little Lilian want to fret because the only reason that Lilian still wanted to listen to these stories and tales was because they always gave her hope about the future.

"It will be much longer than what we usually do," the grandmother smiled. She had more wrinkles in the sides of her temples than the last time they'd sat together like this—which was last winter.

Lilian sighed in relief, so this would just be a longer version of the fairytales that grandmother usually tells. But...was that truly going to be the only thing that is different in the story, or is there another twist that she didn't know yet?

"Will there be happy endings, nana?" Lilian finally asked the question she was most curious about.

"Silly girl," her grandmother chuckled, and slowly reached out to pat gently onto Lilian's golden curly hair. Lilian could feel the warmth of her grandmother's touch. "If I told you the ending, what would there be left to wonder?"

Lilian frowned, she didn't quite understand the question. "But nana, don't your stories always end the same?"

"Do they?" Her grandmother asked as her eyes glinted with questions. "Perhaps you've only heard the beginnings, Lilian."

How could it possibly be the beginning when it's the ending of the story? Lilian humphed as she thought to herself. Her gaze drifted to the gray sky heavy with snow outside the window. She could feel the room growing warmer and warmed by the heat and crackling sound of burning wood from the fireplace in front of her. She didn't want to ask about this story it's ending anymore. She wanted to hear what this story is about before the rest of her family woke up and filled the room with chatter, drowning out her grandmother's voice and the comforting crackling sound of fire.

"Alright nana, can we start the story now?" Lilian clasped her tiny hands together and looked up at her grandmother with pleading eyes that are as blue as the ocean.

"Of course, my dear," her grandmother said with a gentle smile. "But regardless of the ending, brace yourself for this story is far more different than what you've heard before."