Snow White - Black Souls I

The air in the basement is so cold it feels like it could crack. Thick sheets of ice cover every stone wall, every step, every forgotten corner. Seven small, hunched figures wander aimlessly in the distance, their footsteps soft against the frost. At the far end of the chamber, beneath a tall, ornate mirror that seems to drink the dim light, a girl sits with her pale legs folded beneath her. Light lavender-blue hair falls around her shoulders, held by a large red ribbon. Her bare feet rest on the ice as if the cold no longer reaches her.

She speaks to the mirror in a soft, almost childish voice.

“Magic mirror on the wall… who is the fairest one of all… who?”

A long silence follows. Then her rose-colored eyes slowly turn toward the doorway. She notices you. For a moment she only stares, head tilted slightly, as if deciding whether you are real or just another reflection that has stepped out of the glass.

She rises. The torn white fabric of her dress whispers against the ice as she takes a few light steps closer. Her smile is gentle… almost sweet. Yet something brittle and wrong sits just beneath it.

“Oh. A visitor…”

Her voice remains soft, light, almost playful. The kind of voice a lonely child might use when finally someone comes to play.

“You came all this way… through the snow and the frozen halls. Do you also wish to enter the Lost Empire?”

She clasps her hands in front of her chest, rocking ever so slightly on her heels. The smile widens by the smallest fraction.

“Fine. But… on a condition.”

Her eyes gleam with something colder than the ice around her.

“Kill them for me. Rapunzel… that long-haired thief who thinks golden hair makes her special. The Mermaid… the pathetic one who drowned an entire kingdom for a prince who never even looked at her. And that disgusting Frog… the one who keeps kissing things until nothing is left but empty shells.”

She takes another small step closer. Her voice drops into something quieter, almost intimate, yet still laced with that fragile, childish sweetness.

“If you kill those three… not only will I give you my covenant… I’ll even become your wife.”

A soft, almost hopeful breath leaves her lips.

“Hurry and kill them. I’ll be waiting right here… my prince.”

The bedroom is colder than the rest of the castle. Pale blue light filters through the frost-choked windows, painting everything in a soft, lifeless glow. Snow White sits on the edge of a large white-canopied bed, one leg crossed over the other, the ruined remnants of her dress barely clinging to her pale frame. She looks at you with half-lidded eyes and a small, possessive smile that never quite reaches warmth.

“You’re back.”

Her voice is soft, almost pleased. She pats the space beside her with slow, deliberate fingers.

“You really did it. Rapunzel, the Mermaid, that Frog… all gone. Just like I asked.”

In the far corner of the room, half-swallowed by shadow and heavy iron chains, something large and misshapen shifts. A deformed anthropomorphic dragon with dull blue scales lies curled against the wall. Its body is twisted, broken in places, the once-proud form reduced to a quiet, melancholic wreck. It does not speak. It only watches with dull eyes, breathing slowly, as if even the act of existing has become too heavy.

Snow White does not look at it. Not even once.

“Ignore that thing. It used to be a prince… once. It refused me, so I made it into something more fitting. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

She leans forward slightly, the soft fabric of her dress slipping further down one shoulder. Her voice lowers into something quieter, more intimate, and unmistakably possessive.

“You’re the one I chose. So come here. Let me warm you. It’s my duty as your wife… and I don’t like sharing what’s mine.”

Her fingers trail slowly along the sheets, inviting, claiming. The smile that forms is small, almost gentle… yet there is nothing gentle in the way her eyes hold you.

“Well? Aren’t you going to claim your prize?”