Wherein Snow White kills the poisoned apple and frees herself. She is on her way to find the Queen.
Weiss Schnee is a fourteen year-old girl who lives under the ever watching eyes of her father. Her mother is absent; drinking, probably, somewhere out of sight. Her elder sister was gone – left home long ago, left Weiss to fend for herself in a family of cruelty, all alone, long ago. Her younger brother was just a photo-copy of their father. She hated him; her father and her brother. She often struggled with whether she hated her mother and sister or not. Her sister abandoned her, left her here to deal with these people by herself, but she was the only one to show her genuine kindness among all of the hatred and cold hands. Her mother had never directly hurt her, but her absence was... a different kind of painful.
She survives here, in this family, in this big, empty, cold home; but she does not truly live.
Weiss Schnee is fourteen years old when she tries to leave home. Fourteen years old when her father "tests" her strength with an Arma Gigas. Fourteen years old when she's thrown across the hall and her face splits and she gains a new scar across her left eye – her vision is permanently impaired in that eye now.
Weiss Schnee is fourteen years old when she wins the fight against the Arma Gigas.
"Congratulations," her father had said sarcastically with a wave of his hand. "You've won. Are you happy now? You get to leave your family behind and go to Beacon. Is this what you wanted? To run off without a farewell, like your sister?"
Yes. Yes and no.
She knows he's manipulating her. She looks down at her feet, pale and thin like a dancer, she looks at her hands that are clasped elegantly in front of herself. They are covered in yellowish bruises that are fading, a few band-aids that cover the scratches from all her years of training. She looks at the harm her body has endured all these years at the hands of her father – the hands of this beast.
I want to leave, yes.
She looks up at her father, his back is turned, he's reaching for some books on the bookshelf behind his big desk. He reaches, skims over the book cover, then retracts his hand like he changed his mind. Another manipulation tactic, she knows. Pretending he has better things to do than to talk to his own daughter. She sees the letter-opener on his desk, a freshly opened document from the general. Her eyes trace the sharp edge of the blade. She looks at the blade, looks at her father's turned back.
I don't want to leave without a farewell.
She is graceful. She is fluid. She is quick and she is smooth, she moves without a sound, like she was always taught to. She moves before he turns around, before he sees her, before he hears her beating heart. It's beating so hard, she thinks, that it might beat right out of her chest. She grabs the letter-opener. She leaps over his desk.
Farewell, she thinks.
It's just like killing a Grimm, she thinks. Just like killing a beast – mindless and cruel and only ever wanting, needing, with greedy eyes and a monstrous, clawed hand. Just the same.
"Farewell," she mutters aloud when the deed is done. When her father is down on the ground, gasping up at her, looking at her with eyes just like a Grimm – so wide and proud, so confused about how this little girl could beat them, how how how? How did she win? I was so confident – so sure I would win - so sure I was stronger -
Weiss feels the same rush she's ever felt with Grimm hunting, the same joy.
She's removed one more monster from this world.
As she was taught to.
Weiss Schnee is fourteen years old when she defeats an Arma Gigas. Weiss Schnee is fourteen years old when she loses most vision in her left eye. Weiss Schnee is fourteen years old when her father finally allows her to leave home, to travel abroad. Weiss Schnee is fourteen years old when she realizes her father is a Grimm in human clothing.
Weiss Schnee is fourteen years old when she kills her own father and runs away from home.