They say there is a beast in the castle.

A monster. A demon.

A being that comes out of your worst nightmare.

The maids picture something with fur. Something that will come in the night. The guards picture something with claws. Something that no sword can win against. The cooks picture something with fangs. Something that comes after the people with the sweetest blood. 

 

But I know what they don’t. I know what the beast that has terrorized the castle for years looks like. 

 

It has hair as black as the night it stalks its prey in.

It has lips the color of the red it takes from our veins.

It has skin as white as the snow that fell the day it came.

 

They don’t know. No. How can they? Everyday they play with it. They feed it. They clothe and bathe it. The whole castle is in love with the monster that kills them. 

They could not possibly know.

 

How do I know, you ask?

Because it’s my job. I hunt the beasts in the woods that come for our young. Our old. Our sick.

 

Why haven’t I killed this beast, you ask? Because this monster didn’t come from the woods.

It was born of the palace. It grew up in these halls. 

This is its home. This is its hunting ground.

 

 

 

 

 

When the king is dead, then the beast can be killed. Without him, it is useless. What good is a hunting dog without its trainer? The queen has already come to my side. She sees the darkness that hides behind the innocence. She feels no sympathy for the monster that has brought death to her kingdom. Together, we will be able to defeat it.

But only if the king is dead.

For the sake of my country, I will do what is needed.

 

 

 

 

 

The king is dead. Now the fall of the beast can start.

My queen has ascended the throne. If the beast was but a bit bigger, it would have taken it from us. We must thank the heavens for that gift. 

It is now an outcast. The maids are not allowed to bathe and clothe it. The guards are not allowed to protect it. The children are not allowed to play with it. Such is the first step in our plan. Unable to feed, it will run to the woods for prey. 

And that is MY hunting ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beast is gone. It has run to the woods. Now, the game has begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has invaded one of the woodland creature’s homes. A family of dwarfs, too dumb to realize what knocked on their door. Soon they will realize their mistake. Too soon, I’m afraid. May the heavens bless their souls.

 

 

 

 

 

The dwarfs are gone. When it comes out to search for other prey…that will be when I make my move. And then its rein of terror will be over. 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been hunting it for three days. It managed to snare a human from the neighboring kingdom that shares these woods into helping it. The arrangement did not last long.

I feel that it will not be much longer. Trying to evade me in this unknown terrain has left it without time to feast. Soon, it will be at its lowest point. That is when I will be able to take its heart. Its heart, for the number of hearts it has broken with its cloud of death. Its heart, to bring back to my queen as a sign that it is gone forever.

Its heart, so that it will not be able to come back.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh joyous day! The beast that has terrorized the castle is gone! No more shall we be confined to our rooms when the sun dips behind the hills. No more will our young be told horror stories to keep them in bed. No more will our dead be burned to prevent them from being defiled. No more will our old and sick have to be guarded against this evil.

Oh joyous day! The sun shall shine upon the kingdom forever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We held the ceremony for the monster today.

“So sad” they say “to die so young and so far from home”

If only they knew that it would have looked that young forever anyway

“May the soul rise towards the heavens”

If only they knew that it belonged in hell.

“Poor child. I should have encouraged them to play together”

If only they knew that they would have lost their child.

 

The queen had the beast burned.

“I don’t want to think about the body rotting in the ground. I’d rather release ashes to the wind than to have bones put into walls. Let the soul be free rather than tied to one place” It was better this way, they all agreed. Little did they know it was a double guarantee that it was gone forever.

When my queen reached her hand into the vase, she didn’t think of her past husband’s most loved thing in the universe. She didn’t think about the small form she had held many a stormy night.

She thought of the beast that prowled the halls of the night. She thought of all the servants that had fallen victim to its appetite. She thought of the peace that was to come to the kingdom, and the child that had been forming in her womb for the last few months.

When my queen pulled out a handful of the ashes, she had tears in her eyes, but they were not from sadness. They were of joy, and of relief. When she threw them into the sea breeze that would carry them out to far lands, she spoke the same words under her breath that I thought, and the same words that I write now.

 

 

Good riddance,

 

 

 

 

 

Snow White.