Mirror, Mirror upon a tree

Show the beauty I long to see

Lest I unleash my wrath to thee

Cast only the image of me

-oOo-

The Snow-white Queen waved her hand over the hollow of a gnarly oak tree, shifting her weight on the balls of her feet as she waited for the empty void to turn into something tangible—a mirror upon which she could stare at her own beauty. She studied her milk-white arms as wisps of black smoke took its sweet time doing her bidding.

She was anything but patient, the Snow-white Queen. But every second she could spare to gaze at her fair complexion is time worth living and killing for. In fact, just this morning, she had gotten rid of the last of her seven dwarf slaves.

Clumsy, the youngest of the lot, had made the mistake of asking the Snow-white Queen what she fancied for breakfast.

Now you might think her heartless for silencing the poor fellow forever, especially when he had only meant to make her a pleasing breakfast.

And you would be right, for she was indeed heartless. She was also in the middle of admiring the skin of her feet when Clumsy had raised the question.

Alas, the black smoke was decently circular now, and on the dark surface, she could just make out the silhouette—the white silhouette—of a human being. So stark was the shape's contrast to its inky-black background that it made her even blacker heart flutter with pleasure.

Yes. That's it, wise old oak. Show the beauty that I long to see. Cast only the image of me. The impatient part of the Snow-white queen itched to claw at the gnarly oak tree for being so old and therefore so slow, but she knew there would be no gain in doing that—until it showed her the beauty she'd always dreamed of—the beauty of fair beyond compare.

Slowly, so slowly the Snow-white Queen thought her coal-black soul would ignite, the white outline in the dark mirror turned into a full, human reflection.

It wasn't the Snow-white Queen.

It was the Snow-white King.

Only a thousand dead leaves falling off grey branches were left to witness as the Snow-white Queen plotted the demise of the Snow-white King.

-oOo-

NOTES:

The nonsense you just read above is my attempt at flash fiction back in 2013. I felt the desire to dig it up from its grave after reading Tolkien's beautiful, lyrical prose (shout-out to my sister-in-Christ, CoffeeRanger, for recommending that I pick up the books despite having seen the films! ^_^). I submitted it to our college publication in the hopes of getting published in their literary magazine. Sadly, it didn't see the light of day.

It's inspired by a lot of thing-that line from The Horse and His Boy describing Edmund being "among the fair-skinned men," or something to that effect. Scenes from The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn-Treader film wherein Edmund (played by actor Skandar Keynes) looked like a male Snow White to me, the song Snow White Queen by rock band Evanescence, and the countless reimagining of classic fairy tales in young adult/contemporary original fiction, TV series and films. For something so short (and apparently so unworthy of being published) it does have a lot of inspirations.

Now the question:

Should I continue and turn this into a one-shot at least? Do you guys want to see what the Snow-white Queen (note: she isn't Jadis, the White Witch) did to Edmund? Or should I leave it as it is—especially since it has (in my humble opinion) fulfilled its purpose of implying a larger story as a flash fiction should? In which case, I would have to mark it as Complete shortly.

Kindly let me know in your reviews or personal messages. ^_^ Thank you so much for reading!

God keep us and bless us all!

*** I don't own The Chronicles of Narnia, or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They belong to C.S. Lewis and The Brothers Grimm, respectively. ***