What Makes A Villain

I was born a disappointment, a midget. I was never loved as a child, but I found someone to love in my early adulthood. She was a beauty, her smile radiant like sunlight, and I couldn't help but find myself drawn to her. I watched her quietly, I didn't dare approach her, not with this hideous form. She drew people to her and I adored her for it. She always had a kind word for everyone and she lived humbly. As much as I loved her I hated her father. He was an arrogant boastful man. One day he came home drunken and miserable telling her how he had bragged to the king about his beautiful daughter who was able to spin straw into gold. The wonderful girl she was my love agreed to go to the king and try to spin straw into gold as the penalty of failing was her father's death. I followed her in shadow as the king's men came to take her away to the palace. They locked her in a room full of straw and a single spinning wheel with orders to turn the pile into gold before morning. I watched as she crumpled to the ground in tears of despair. My heart broke for her and I managed to do what I hadn't been able to for years, I stepped forward and presented myself before her. I did not give her my name, but I told her I would spin the straw to gold for her. I was never gifted with looks but tricks and that mysterious thing that is magic, those were my strengths. I spent the night turning the straw to gold for her and vanished back to the shadows right before the sun came up the next day. She presented the king with the gold, but the king was a horrible greedy man and demanded still more. This time she was sent to a room twice as big with twice as much straw and the same orders as before. She was once again in despair and once again I helped her with her task. However, that greedy king still wasn't satisfied and demanded one more room to be filled with gold by morning. The king told her if she could complete this last task she would marry his son and become a princess. As much as I loved her I could offer her nothing in comparison and so with a heavy heart I spun the last room full of straw to gold. Before morning an idea struck me and I persuaded her to give me her first born in exchange for all the gold. She was overcome with delight at the idea of marrying a prince and being free from the dreaded task of spinning straw to gold and agreed immediately. At least, I thought, I would have a small part of her to cherish, and so after I had finished I took my leave. I stayed in the shadows for years until at last she gave birth to a child and I could have my slice of happiness. I presented myself before her at once. This time it was my welcome that was met with despair and she begged me to reconsider. I was hurt at her pleas, I gave her everything she could've wanted and she did not want to grant me this little gift. I told her if she could guess my name she could keep the baby and I would leave and never return. She had three days to correctly guess. It should have been an impossible task, no one knew of my existence. Yet the same family that had abandoned me before came back to help the princess. On the third day she managed to correctly guess my name and I was forced to leave behind my one chance at happiness. Centuries later I heard the tale she told of the tiny man who had tried to steal her child. In every version of the story I was the villain. I had helped her, I had kept my word and left her the child and she couldn't even remember me as the one who helped her. It was then I made my decision to become the villain she had remembered me as. It was too late to avenge myself on her family, but I would never help anyone again. I turned to deals where I gained something as precious as the magic I used to give them what they wanted. Time does strange things to a person and even my magic began to leave me. I closed my eyes at last and dreamed of a world where I was not born a midget, where I got to keep the girl. I fell asleep to happy dreams despite the unhappy world I had only ever experienced.