CHERRY BLOSSOM FALLING FREELY

“Cherry Blossom Falling Freely” is a series of short stories designed to make you think, in different genres and different styles by Mizzy (mizzy_.uk)

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CBFF Story (iv)

Mirror, Mirror

 (a “Snow White” short story by mizzy_.uk)

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"Am I not beautiful?”

            Her voice was like honey.  It swept over him; running through his consciousness, seeping in, all sugar and sweetness and light.

            “Do you not admire my beauty?”

            He nodded once, struck dumb by her presence.  It was all he could do.  She seemed satisfied.  A brief smile curved her lips before being replaced by the cruel sneer so familiar to him.

            “Am I the fairest of them all?”

            He wanted to nod.  He wanted to betray.  He wanted to lie.

            He shook his head slowly, watching as her face turned red.  Watched her eyes bulge.  Watched the pulse in her neck quicken in anger.

            “Who is it?”

            He resisted.  Ignored that sweet, persuasive voice; the imperative tone.

            She wasn’t pleased.  Her eyes were cold shards of ice that blazed into his own.  If she grew too angry, she would destroy him and another would be brought.  Another who would not lie.  Was it worth it to risk two lives when only one could be risked?

            He shifted, changed, as the girl appeared in the doorway: ebony hair cascading over ivory shoulders,; crimson lips so much like blood that they seemed to be a red gash of futility in the emptiness.

            She seemed to understand the reluctant image and added the girl’s murder to her “To Do” list.  She let out a triumphant smirk and he shifted again as the girl moved away; that red slash of colour in her lips betraying the flow of blood that would flow, froth, drown, choke, consume her.

            She smiled again in triumph and he smiled in horror.

            “Now I am the fairest,” she said.  She hummed a little tune before assuming her strict expression again.  He frowned sternly back at her, cursing the mage that placed him in the mirror, cursed to cater to Her every whim.  Cursed to see the future.  Cursed to know the Truth.

            He was tired.  Tired of everything, and in the moment he finally knew what to do.  He showed her a lie; a false image of the girl, running free, the bright slash of red turned into a happy smile.  He showed her her own death, tumbling from a cliff into a dark abyss.  He showed her the girl, free in the forest.  He showed her the Truth.

            He watched, triumphantly, as the colour drained from her cheeks.  He watched her fist rise in anger.  He waited, but soon felt the inevitable painful twist deep inside.  He had shown her the Truth, and betrayed his own fears.  He had shown her the one thing he could not bear.

            It was silent for a while, and then she looked up; tears in those cold eyes.

            “Am I not just?  Do you not admire my sense of justice?  Who is the truest and fairest of them all?”

            Her voice was quiet, all the sweetness gone.  Arrogance fled and she collapsed to the floor in horror - he, in despair.

“I will try to be fair from now on,” she said slowly, her voice catching.  He nodded slowly along with her, feeling the future and Truth twist and change.  She stared at Him.  He showed her images of the girl, happy with Her.  She nodded, accepting, showing her thanks as she stalked off and ordered the destruction of her tortured mirror, mirror, on the wall.