Snow White

Snow White is a princess, the strangest of the land. And possibly the most dangerous.

It began with a wish to the woods. With a drop of blood on the fresh white snow, with the crow of a raven. It began with a mother's desire for a child's beauty. The wish came true, but it didn't come free.

The child's first breath was her mother's last. It was a very bittersweet moment for the kingdom, but they soon got over it. The king remarried, and raised his daughter, whom he named Snow White, as best as he could. She was a beautiful, but strange child. Pale skin, red lips, hair as dark as ebony wood. Very skinny, with long limbs. She loved playing in the woods, and would spend most of her time there. Her father would joke,

“Everything born in the woods always returns.” But strangest of all, she was always hungry, no matter how much she ate.

Then, when Snow White was seven years old, the hunger finally took over and she slit her stepmother's throat, and drank her blood. For the first time in her life, she was full. The king was appalled when he found out and considered killing his daughter right there and then, but he loved her too much to do so. So he tried his best to keep his daughter's secret. He told the kingdom that his wife had died from an illness and kidnapped peasants for Snow to live off of. She was fine for a while, but soon the hunger came back. This time it was stronger, her bones felt hollow, her head felt weak and her whole body shook.

“Daddy” Snow told the king.

“I'm so hungry. The only time in which I didn't feel hungry was when I drank Mommy's blood.”

“Mommy's blood…” The king trailed off. “Mommy's blood! You need a mother's blood!”

The king married again, and Snow White managed to live off of her new stepmother for a few years. But soon enough she died, and Snow was devastated. She had grown very close with her stepmother and felt awful for killing her.

“It's not your fault.” The king assured his daughter.

“She was weak.”

This process continued over and over again for a few years. The king would marry, the princess would feed, and the queen would die. By the time Snow White was seventeen years old she had already gone through six mothers. Her seventh one was different. The new queen was very beautiful and elegant, with pale skin, red lips and hair as dark as ebony wood. She was quiet, and never ate during meals. Very much like her stepdaughter.

After a week of the new queen living in the castle, she was feeling comfortable, and Snow was ready to feed. She silently passed through the dark castle halls, stopping occasionally to admire the paintings on the walls, until she reached her stepmother's bedroom. Snow knocked on the door.

“Come in,” She responded.

“Oh hello darling. How are you?” Snow looked up at her and said

“I'm very hungry.”

“So am I darling. I was just getting ready to go feed right now. Would you like to come with me?”

“To feed?” Snow White asked. The queen smiled.

“Yes, to feed. My mother made a wish to woods too.”

“Is she dead?”

“She has been for a long, long time.” Snow kept quiet and watched as her stepmother draped a thick, black cloak over her shoulders.

“I'll be back soon.”

Snow White spent the evening wandering around the castle, pondering what to do. She couldn't feed off of her stepmother, as she was a bloodsucking woodland creature just like herself. She would just have to feed off of peasants until she became strong enough to kill the queen.

During the first few months, Snow would only take a peasant or two per month. A weak one, whom nobody would miss. But none of them were as satisfying as her own mothers, and soon enough she was killing up to five peasants per week. Yet she was still famished.

The queen became aware of all the disappearances, and suspected of Snow White. She knew that if her suspicions were correct, then the princess would have to be stopped.

“Snow, darling, can I talk to you?” The queen asked one chilly autumn evening.

“Yes stepmother. What is it?”

“A lot of peasants have been going missing. Do you have any idea why?” A flicker of fear crossed Snow White’s face, but it soon turned to a smirk.

“I need to eat, you know.” The queen sighed. She knew what was coming.

“Snow, you’re a princess. You’re their princess. You need to keep the village safe, and keep our secret safe.”

“Why? They’ve never done anything for me. And anyways, if anyone finds out, I can just eat them.”

“Snow.”

“What?” The princess was becoming impatient, and the queen was losing hope.

“I’m just so hungry, and I have been for so long.” The smirk returned onto Snow’s face.

“You know, I’ve got quite a taste for mothers.” Yet again, the queen sighed.

“I prefer kings.”

“Oh.” Snow White seemed amused.

“Well go ahead. I won't stop you.” As soon as Snow said this, the queen knew that her stepdaughter had to be stopped, and Snow realized that the queen would do whatever it took to do so. And so she fled before her stepmother had time to act. But the queen did not worry. She knew that Snow would go to the woods, after all, everything born in the woods always returns.

Snow White ran and ran, away from the castle and into the woods. The afternoon sun burnt her delicate skin, but she didn’t care. She had to get away. Then, as the light faded, Snow saw a small cottage not too far away. The princess walked towards it and knocked on the door, and when no one answered let herself in, and then looked around. There was a kitchen, a table with seven chairs, and seven beds lined up against the back wall. Snow was surprised by how small everything was, but then assumed that the cottage must belong to dwarves.

“I’m quite hungry.” Snow thought to herself.

“And tired. I hope the dwarves don’t mind if I eat something.”

She then prepared a bowl of porridge for herself, and, although she was still hungry for blood, settled down on one of the beds.

“This is the princess?” Snow White was woken by the sound of voices.

“Why is she in our cottage?” Nervous sounding, squeaky voices.

“Is she okay?”

“Oh I’m fine,” Snow said, opening her eyes and sitting up.

“Just hungry.” She looked at the seven dwarves crowding around her. They looked frightened and confused. Then the tallest one said,

“We noticed that you had some porridge earlier. Would you like some more?”

“No thank you.” Snow smiled. “I’d rather have blood.” She grabbed his head, pulled it to the side and sunk her teeth into his neck, ignoring the screams around her. After she had drained him, she  smiled a psychotic smile at the six remaining dwarves while blood dripped down her neck and said,

“Who’s next?” before killing them all.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, the queen devised a plan to kill her stepdaughter. She considered sending a huntsman out to slaughter her. Would it work? Maybe. The queen decided it was worth try. She searched far and wide for the best huntsman in the kingdom, and when she found him, she told him the plan, and explained how he had to kill Snow White.

“Cut off her head, and bring it back to me as proof.” But instead of her stepdaughter’s head, she received the huntsman’s head, drained of all the blood, with a note saying

“You thought it was that easy to kill me?”

Many months passed but the queen was unable to come up with a plan to kill Snow White. Then, one early spring day the queen came across a scraggly apple tree while walking through the gardens. The tree still had very few leaves and was covered in snow, but it had managed to produce a single, gleaming red apple. This gave the queen an idea. It was dangerous, and it would involve sacrificing herself, but she was certain that it would work.

“Snow, darling, are you in here?” A voice said from outside Snow White’s cabin. The princess recognized it immediately.

“Stepmother? What are you doing here.”

“So much time has passed since you left, your father and I have missed you very much and we want you back.”

“You do?” Snow had to admit that she missed them a little bit as well, and so she opened the door.

“This is a nice cabin.” The queen said.

“How did you come across it?”

“I killed some dwarves.”

“Oh.” After a short silence, the queen pulled out a beautiful, shining apple and held it out to Snow.

“I brought you a gift.” But the apple was too perfect, and so Snow realized that something was off.

“And here I thought that you had come to make peace with me. A poisoned apple?” Snow smirked.

“You should have known I wouldn’t fall for that.” She lunged for the queen, grabbing her and pinning her to the ground before sinking her teeth into her neck. But immediately after, her head started pounding, the room started spinning, and she dropped to the floor.

“Just as you realized the apple was too perfect, you should have realized that my skin was too smooth, my hair too silky.” The queen whispered to Snow.

“You should have realized that killing me would be the death of you.”

The princess and the queen lay there, side by side, as they took their dying breaths, deep in the woods. After all, everything born in the woods always returns.

Author's Note

Hi everyone, this is my first story, I hope you like ti! Please tell me if there's anything wrong (spelling, grammatical errors, etc.) and what you think of it. Thanks!

Reviews

[Jacob Clifford]

What an appalling, yet engaging story! The plot was thoroughly sickening, but I couldn't stop reading. I've seen quite a few Disney-twist stories, but none quite like this one. You had an interesting concept with the wishing in the forest ("After all, everything born in the woods..."). The queen's sacrifice at the end was strikingly noble and haunting. Something that stood out to me was the king's many wives. It seemed very odd to me that the king had so many wives who kept dying, yet no one raised any objections or suspicions. I would suggest just adding a sentence or two just to mention some fear the king's subjects had. As far as grammar goes, you had a number of comma splices in the story. It's a fairly common and simple error, so if you're interested in remedying it, a quick Google search could clear things up for you.

I hope you write more; I very much enjoyed this story.

[Juliet E.]

Thank you so much! I'll try adding in something to explain the king's wives and fix the grammar. :)