Snow White

"You never existed. Your name is not Fawn Belrose, and you don't have any parents. Understand?" The boy's icy eyes burned straight into my own. The torch he held in his porcelain hand painted a soft, muted glow across his white skin. Flames flickered and danced, and I knew that soon they would engulf the entire house. All the boy had to do was unravel his fingers, open up his palm. Although I commanded my mouth to speak, or my head to nod, my body remained frozen and silence hung in the air.    

"Run away, hide, and never return," his words echoed in my head. I glimpsed down towards my father. His charcoal skin made the boy's look like pure snow. My father was crumpled on the ground next to the boy, crouched like a caged animal. A captured prey, waiting for the fangs of his predator to sink into his neck. Normally, his dark eyes looked past me, as if I was just thin air. But now, he gazed at me with eyes that screamed at me to flee, eyes that overflowed with desperation. His eyes  resembled dark pits, and I was sucked into his state of terror. We stared at each other for a long time, neither of us able to look away.     

I backed away from the two, inching closer to the door. The pallid boy's expression softened as he stepped forward.   

"I'll make sure that your father is safe, now go," he said gently. I didn't even nod or thank him, I just sprung around and started running. Although I didn’t look back, I knew that a sea of fire engulfed our house. 

Unpigmented snow smothered the forest floor. The thick blanket buried my ankles. As I stumbled forward, my heart seemed to hurl itself at my chest, as if it wanted to burst out. Claw-like twigs snagged onto my clothing, and the twisted roots of the trees knocked me down. I slammed face-first into the frozen earth, and a pang of cold electrocuted my body. Snow stuffed itself into the collars of my thin, white blouse, oozing down the front of my torso. White slush latched onto my hair like leeches. I pulled myself up and continued trudging through the hideous ocean of white. I urged my legs to carry me faster, but invisible hands gripped onto me and kept dragging me backwards.    

Forcing my numb feet to keep moving, I traveled through the woods for about twenty minutes. The flimsy, satin ballet flats that I wore suffocated my feet. As exhaustion slowed down my legs, my heart's pulse subsided as well. The fear from before that propelled me forward died. The chaotic panic that  pushed me to keep running slipped away. I continued walking until the burning sensation in my muscles and throat forced me to halt. I bent over, hands resting on my knees, panting for air. My frizzy hair fell around my face, curtaining it from the cold. Some of the damp curls tickled my face, reminding me that I probably looked like crazed lion at the moment. I felt melted ice and sweat trickling down my neck and back.  

I stood up straight and scanned the forest, looking for a dry place to rest. Most of the trunks of trees were thick as houses, and my eyes landed on a crumbling tree with a gaping mouth in the center. The wrinkles that creased its face made it resemble an old man. I tread over to it, and ran my hand across the top of the hole. Thin layers of black bark drifted off, like small pieces of shredded paper. Crouching down, I crawled into the dark, tent-like gap. Once inside, I removed my shoes and wrapped my feet with the ends of my skirt. A trembling possessed my entire body, and I curled up into a tight ball hoping that the cold would subside.    

"There is no Snow White's Disease. The Queen is just poisoning people." The boy's words from earlier kept ringing in my mind. If that is true, then why were so many of our women poisoned by the Queen? She wouldn't just poison countless of her own, young, female subjects...why would she?   

"Well well well, what do we have here?" My head jerked up towards the source of the voice. My entire body tensed up when I saw a malnourished, rat-like man accompanied by a piggish one. Cautiously, I crawled out from the hole and stood up.   

 The first, short man flashed me his yellow fangs, his eyes reflecting a glassy gleam. His skeletal body almost slithered towards me. 

"So, what's a young kitten like you doing all alone?" He took a step forward, and I took one backward.    

"Trying to avoid old geezers like you. " I responded. The corpse man laughed with his shrill, grating voice. I flinched when I heard it, and tensed up when the bulky man took one step forward to join his companion.   

"Darkies like you really are fiery," he said. I clenched my teeth and fists, and my eyebrows furrowed together. 

"Excuse me?" My voice sounded strained. He smirked at me, wrinkles creasing his ghost face.   

"You have beautiful, brown, skin." The man reached to touch my cheek with his dirt-smeared fingers. Right before he could lay his  hands on me, I slapped them away. He chuckled once more.   

"Listen darling, you're coming with us to the Gold Mining Kingdom." He said. I froze, and a thin layer of cold sweat enveloped my body.    

"What?"    

"Have you heard of us perhaps?" He dug his hand underneath his shirt, and then took it out. A pendant of a howling wolf dangled between his black fingernails. I gasped. They were the Gold Slave Traders, and I was their next victim. I was going to become a gold mining slave.  

Before I could whip around and start bolting, the bony man trapped my arms in his hands. I screeched and kneed him in the stomach. His iron grip on me slipped off, and he crashed into the white-littered ground. The other fat, giant man reached towards me, but I scrambled backwards. I felt a hand clench around my ankle and drag me down.    

I kicked and thrashed and clawed, but they were able to easily grab hold of  my limbs. Despite scratching, growling, and twisting and like a savage animal, they tied me up. The burly man hurled me over his shoulder with ease, carrying me as if I was nothing more but a sack of flour. The men started treading through the forest, opposite from the direction I was going.  

My heart thundered inside of my chest, and I kept scanning around the forest. Even though I wasn't walking, my breaths grew uneven. I didn't know how, but I knew that I had to escape. 

Author's Note

I am panicking. I stressed over the first chapter the most because it's the most important one(in my opinion).

Did I show and not tell? Was it too confusing so that you didn't know what was going in? Did I succeed in "hooking" y'all? Was the dialogue okay? Can you tell the story is gonna be like a "fairy tale?"

Please tell me! T-T