Lips as Red as Blood

by GalaxyofCastaborous

Skin as pale as Snow, Hair as black as night, Lips as red as Blood. A vampire Snow White in a richly imagined fantasy world, where we go deeper than is probably wise into why a good king would marry an evil witch, why on earth was the evil queen so obsessed with her own appearance, and why is no-one who knows the girl willing to help her? This is a tragedy, it is not a nice story.

11. Song

Snow stood, breathless and still. Torn between her instincts pulling her toward the blood in the creatures veins, and the part of her mind that was screaming of danger. Nothing in these woods could be harmless.

Nonetheless, practicality must win out. She did not know how long she could last without blood. She had never gone more than a week before. By bad luck, it had been nearly that long now, and she was feeling it. She needed blood, if not now then soon, and who knew when she would come across another creature again?

Decision made she slipped out of the tree line and stood by the lake. The maiden in the pond did not notice her. Two days of avoiding the river, and now this. Snow slipped off her slippers and stepped into the water. The moment her foot touched the water's surface, the maiden whirled around. Her eyes glowed green in the darkness.

Calm silver eyes held thoughtful green for a long moment. Suddenly the maiden turned away and began humming in the darkness. Snow continued wading through the water, disturbing its mirrorlike surface. She went slowly and cautiously despite her thirst pulling her forward.

As the seconds went by, the humming grew louder, and Snow began to move faster. Jittery hurry seeped into her movements as a strange curiosity began to grow. It pushed her forward recklessly, a strange desire to meet the lovely maiden growing painfully strong. Nearly running now in the water higher than her waist, she realized, with a sudden strange clarity, that the maiden's humming had grown louder and fuller. An icy chill passed through Snow, though she was unsure why. She stumbled slightly, suddenly afraid, and the maiden burst into song.

Against her will she was pulled several steps forward. She knew, now, something was wrong, but was pulled forward still. Suddenly, the ground disappeared beneath her, the dark reflective surface of the lake hiding the sudden drop off, and fell forward into the water. Just before her head went under, she saw a green blur moving down and heard a splash, loud in the sudden silence.