Black and Snow White

Poor Snow White never did anything to deserve the horrible way she was treated... did she?

Black and Snow White

Once upon a time there were a King and a Queen who ruled over a small kingdom. All was well in the land, and the pair was very happy and contended. Still, the older they became the more and more they felt like something was missing in their lives. Eventually they decided to have a child, and were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. She filled the holes in their hearts and made them even happier, serving as a beacon of light and inspiration for the entire kingdom. The girl was the essence of purity and innocence so they decided to name her Snow White.

Not only was the girl stunning to look upon, but as she grew, her impeccable manners, genius intellect, and diverse talents grew with her. Every day her parents and all the staff of the castle would praise her. She was so perfect in fact, that from time to time the Queen wondered if her husband loved their daughter more than he loved her. He certainly made more of an effort to spend time with Snow White, to read to Snow White, and play with Snow White. Still, Snow White was her daughter too, and she loved her, so she tried her best to push the ugly thoughts from her mind.

One day, when Snow White was ten years old, the Queen suddenly died. It was a great shock to the kingdom because she hadn’t been sick, and no one could quite figure out the cause. To add further suspicion, the King remarried almost immediately. He wed a beautiful Duchess who’d had her eye on him for awhile. This made the subjects of the kingdom suspicious of their King. However, they knew how much he had loved his previous wife so the matter was never investigated. 

The subjects were especially soothed by the fact that Snow White seemed to get along so well with her new stepmother. If Snow approved, then surely the woman was worthy of being the new Queen. The King seemed very happy too, and all of his attention went to pleasing his new wife. However, just three years after the marriage, the King suddenly died just as mysteriously as the first Queen had. 

Snow’s stepmother became the sole regent of the land, but didn’t devote much time to her duties. She spent most of her time alone, shut up in the master bedroom, enjoying the palace luxuries. Things also became turbulent between herself and Snow White at this time. Of course, Snow White would never raise her voice to her beloved stepmother, but the workers at the palace could sense the icy aura between the two. They’d often exchange incredibly quick, but hostile burning glares at each other, and the Queen was rumored to be snooping through Snow White’s belongings from time to time. 

On a cold day in winter, a few months after the King’s passing, loud noises could be heard coming from Snow White’s room. They sounded like yelling and heavy objects crashing to the floor. The servants fled to the hall outside of Snow White’s door, when the Queen suddenly emerged. Her robes were askew and her face was burning red with anger.

She demanded that Snow White be seized, and forced to become a servant. She would live in the off ground servants quarters and be restricted to cleaning the outside of the castle. The Queen insisted that Snow White not be allowed back in the castle for any reason. The servants were hesitant because they loved Snow White so much and felt wrong about punishing the girl for no reason. However, Snow White gracefully walked out of her room with a smile and gently insisted that if that’s what her stepmother wanted, then she was happy to oblige. 

And so Snow White was given rags to wear and forced to work as a groundskeeper for her own castle. Rumors spread quickly throughout the kingdom, although there was nothing any of them could do about it. They were all just so sad that their beloved King and Queen were gone, and now even poor Snow was made to suffer. Still, every morning when Snow woke up, she’d do her work with an unfailing smile, and a bright gleam in her deep black eyes.

Things continued on in much the same way until two years later when a Prince from a neighboring kingdom came to call. His people hoped to merge with this kingdom, and the stories of the legendary Snow White’s grace and beauty were well known even in his land. He was very hopeful that a marriage might be arranged.

However, when he arrived at the castle, he was immediately distracted by the beautiful maid tending to the flowers on the grounds. He slowly approached the maiden, and she blushed and stepped behind a thick rose bush when she noticed his gaze.

He apologized for frightening her, and asked if he could have the honor of knowing her name. She curtsied, and gently told him that she was the Princess Snow White. He was surprised and wasn’t sure whether he could believe her, but after she sweetly (yet very honestly) recounted her stepmother’s order, he trusted her and found himself madly in love. He told her that he would speak with the Queen immediately, and arrange to have her marry him as soon as possible so she could escape this degrading life.

Inside the castle, the Queen was told of the young man’s arrival and the kingdom he represented. She was delighted because she too had wanted to establish relations with his land, yet she had no knowledge of his intentions towards Snow White. When he formally explained himself to the Queen, her face turned paler than Snow’s own from the shock. She mumbled her words and lied nervously to the Prince, insisting that Snow White was too young to marry, and that she’d make a terrible, uncouth wife. 

She pressed the Prince to think of another way their kingdoms could form an alliance, any other way. But the Prince’s mind was made up, and he was adamant to make Snow White his. He told the Queen that he would return to his own land for now, but soon be back with his parents, because he was sure they could persuade her to agree to the marriage.    

After he left to return home, the Queen roared in anger and paced back and forth in the throne room. After much thinking, she called for one of her most trusted servants to meet with in private. She told him that he must take Snow White away, as far from the kingdom as possible. He must take her to a distant land and assure her that she’d have no way of returning to this kingdom. As extra insurance to make sure she couldn’t find her way back, he was to cut her achilles tendons once they reached the appropriate distance. The servant agreed and made preparations to leave the next morning.

Before the sun rose, Snow White was coldly pulled from her bed and dragged along on the journey by the Queen’s servant. He explained to her that she was more or less banished, as per the Queen’s orders. He expected Snow White to cry and carry on, since he knew he was separating her from that Prince, but to his surprise she smiled sweetly all the while and consentingly matched his brisk pace. 

The more they walked, the more and more guilty he felt about subjecting the sweet Princess to this terrible fate when she rightly deserved to be with the Prince. He even verbalized his apology to Snow White and told her that he wouldn’t injure her at all, even though he’d been told to. 

The Princess thanked him but let out a sad sigh and told him how hard it was for her to leave her own country, the land she loved so much that her parents had once governed. His horrible stabbing guilt at those words led him to think of an alternative. Right now, they were close to the border of the kingdom, which meant they weren’t far from where the miners lived. These miners weren’t the normal kind who chose it as a career, but rather they were misfit men who were either dwarfs or born with other birth defects that society deemed “unpleasant” to look upon. They were forced to live in a small dilapidated cottage that sat directly on the border, and dig up jewels for the kingdom while making a pitiful wage for themselves.

The servant wondered whether or not this would be a good alternative for Snow, seeing as they were all men. When he suggested it to her though, she was delighted at the chance to stay in her kingdom, and agreed to see if they would take her in. 

So, the servant escorted Snow White to the miners’ home and pled their case, where the misshapen and elderly gentlemen graciously agreed to take in the Princess. Snow White hugged the servant in gratitude, and he returned home to the castle. However, after relating a false story to the Queen that his mission had been completed as directed, he died a sudden and mysterious death.

Back at the miners’ home, Snow White began a peaceful and happy life with her new housemates. She cleaned and cooked for them, and in turn they were very kind to her and used any of their spare wages to buy gifts of gratitude for her. She grew to love them like uncles, and they too cared for her as their own family. 

Things were not running so smoothly back at the castle however. The Prince had returned with the King and Queen of his land, and the three of them simply refused to believe that Snow White was dead. The Prince went so far as to interrogate all the servants of the castle, much to the Queen’s dismay, until finally one of them cracked. She’d been awake, although pretending to sleep, the morning the servant had come to fetch Snow White. She explained this all to the Prince, and how that servant had died shortly after returning.

The Prince was now determined to search all the land, the world if necessary, to find his beloved Snow White. The Queen knew she had to locate Snow White first, and so sent her own servants on a mission to find the girl before the prince could. During this race, rumors of the Princess living with the miners reached the Queen’s ears first, and she decided to take actions into her own hands. She put on a black cloak and walked with a limp to disguise herself, slipping a dagger into her cloak’s pocket.

At the miners’ home, Snow White had just finished serving them dinner when she announced she was going down to the stream to fetch more water. When she returned with her jug, she found all of the miners lying dead on the floor, and a mysterious cloaked figure in the center of the room. The figure seemed confused and surprised to see her, but beckoned her forward nonetheless. Snow White smiled.

A few moments later, the Prince arrived on horseback outside of the cottaged. In a blur he dismounted and kicked the door in, hurrying inside. He was horrified to see not only the bodies of the miners, but also a cloaked figure lying dead on the floor. Snow White was on the floor as well, her eyes closed but lips smiling, as her head rested on the stomach of the figure.  

The Prince sadly walked over to the body of his love and kissed her on her lips. His heart soared when her eyes suddenly fluttered open and she smiled up at him. He asked her what had happened and she told him she couldn’t remember, and that she felt sick. He picked her up in his arms and carried her out to his horse. He told her they’d go straight to his kingdom where no one would be able to hurt her ever again. He promised her his undying love and she smiled sweetly, like she always did.

Then she subtly slid her hand into her dress pocket and fingered a small vile. Her smile widened as she thought about how she in turn would show him her form of love. Just like mommy and daddy, her dear stepmother and all of her friends.

Author's Note

Ok, so I realize I may be "explaining the joke" here, which is ironic since I kind of purposely wrote the story to be somewhat ambiguous and make you figure it out yourself, so if you don't want me to spoon-feed you the explanation, then ignore the next paragraph:

The idea here is that Snow White is basically a sociopath, because it explains early on how smart she was and how people were always calling her perfect and such and it made her go crazy. She was the one who killed both Queens, the King, the servant, and all the miners by means of poison. The stepmother had suspected Snow White was the killer (hence the tension between them) and found out it really was her after searching her room. She didn't have the heart to execute Snow, so that's why she made her a servant- she also didn't want Snow around her so she couldn't kill her too. Later, she doesn't want Snow to marry the Prince because she's worried she will kill him too and ruin things between both nations. Also, as for the scene where the prince walks in and finds Snow, she wasn't really dead, she was just nuzzling up to the dead stepmother's body (she managed to poison her before she could stab Snow). So yeah, I left the story as is because I personally like ambiguous stories that make you think, but I know that only serves to frustrate some people, so for those of you who get frustrated, I hope that helped :)