Snow was standing by the window when there was a sudden thud on the heavy wooden door.
"Snow White!" one of the servants, Stephen, was calling. "Snow, are awake?" he called with another loud thud. She had been friends with Stephen since she was first neglected by her step-mother. He was kind to her and around her age unlike most of the other aids since they were adults and all had had to attend to her, her father, and of course, her step-mother. They became friends and played in the large court yard in spring afternoons until everyone saw that they were old enough to help around the palace. She opened the door and greeted her friend in the empty hall.
"What are we attending to this morning?" she said in her usual morning tone.
"You are to wash the steps by the well in the yard while I help take care in the kitchen for breakfast for 'her highness'" he replied, "and when you're finished, come back and meet me in the stables."
She sighed. They parted and snow went to fetch her shoes and went out toward outside to do her chores. Walking down the hall, she remembered her dream last night. It was another of her fantasies of going off with a prince of who-knows-where and living just as the stories her father told her. Riches and luxuries and true love that only came in a great long time. She could never tell her friend this because every time she'd mention it, he would laugh and say: "Those stories are stories for a reason. They're only meant to help little girls to sleep." But she was a little girl. She still dreamed of the impossible. Flying. Fairies. And wishes.
She finally made it out side and went out to get a bucket of soap and water and a brush to scrub the concrete steps. On her way to the yard, a few doves had followed her and kept her company while she worked and cooed too her singing.
Through a very large and curtained window, someone watched. She watched with an envy of the girl's beauty and grace and had a hatred of how the aids had eventually come to care for her because of her kindness and empathy. But out of it all she knew she was the more beautiful. The queen peeked through an open space between the curtains so the girl could not see that she was spying. She walked from the window and headed to the large double doors guarding her room. She pulled it open and made sure no one was to disturb her. Shutting the door, she went to her wardrobe and opened it to reveal the finest of gowns and capes but under all the wear, there was hidden a compartment sealing a magic looking glass that if you ask it a question, of anything, it is to give an answer. Every day she asks the mirror:
"Magic mirror in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?"
And the mirror answers: "My Queen, you are the fairest in the land." But when she reaches for the mirror and she asks, she gets a different answer.
"Magic mirror in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?"
"My Queen, you are the fairest here so true. But Snow White is a thousand times more beautiful than you."
In her shock and anger, she throws the mirror into the wardrobe and slams the doors shut. She looks toward the window and storms over to it and pulls back the heavy curtains, letting light flood the large dwelling, and stares down at the girl outside. In her outrage she knows only one way to make sure that she remains he fairest. She must kill Snow White.