Warnings: Implied Abuse, Rape, Abortion. Read with caution.
The girl is young, she notes, a girl in every way. Dressed in expensive clothes just a tad to big for her, the sleeves at least long enough to be played with. Although 'play' wouldn't quite describe it, it's more a nervous fret. The mother of the child takes one of her hands and squeezes it. Just a bit too hard. Pain flashes over the girl's face, but it is just a flash, she regains her composure quick enough. Like she's used to it. And then the girl turns and meets Emma's eyes. A pleading look. A desperate look. Emma does nothing.
The girl is still young but yet she is not. The innocent look has left her face to be replaced with indifference. She sits on the bed, her mother gone. Bruises mare her arms, her neck, anything really, that isn't covered by her silk night-gown. The child plays with the heavy ring on her finger, a stone larger than her eye. She makes it turn around her finger because just as everything else in her life, the ring too doesn't fit. She stops playing and looks up. A bored look, an annoyed look. "Hi." She says. Emma says nothing.
The girl isn't a girl anymore. A woman. Because women carry children and children carry nothing. She is clearly uncomfortable as she sits at a rich table, with more food than she could eat, more food than an entire family could eat. She sits alone. She stabs her dinner, her special meal. Food she absolutely despises. She looks angry, raging on the inside. The guards don't notice but Emma does. Emma notices everything. When she's back in her chambers, her angry expression has changed into a pained one. She's bleeding. She holds up a vial with a cruel smile. She's gone. Emma does nothing.
The girl is no more. And so is the king. A woman now sits on the throne, her eyes dead and dark. Guards listen to her every whim, villagers fear her, she is free. Yet she's still unhappy. She explains to herself that it is because that insipid Snowflake still breathes. And so the hunt began. A thousand gold coins on her head! Two thousand! Ten thousand! But they don't care. She could offer her kingdom as a reward, eternal life, dead loved ones, anything. But as she slaughters an entire village she realizes no reward is grand enough, no reward could ever compare to the life of Snow White. "I will have her heart!" Emma says nothing.
When darkness engulfs the two of them, the woman smiles, her teeth bare and then she's gone. The darkness stays for a while longer and it's enjoyable. When it clears up and they meet again it's in foreign clothes. The woman is a familiar stranger. She smiles and for the first time, Emma sees some happiness within the woman. But Emma. Emma feels nothing. And it hurts.