"Am I ready to die? What kind of question is that?"
Snow stood. She was wearing a silk black bathrobe and, for no reason at all, impossibly tall black heels. With these on, she was easily over six feet tall. "A rather good one, considering you're about to."
I stared at her and said something really intelligent like, "Um, okay."
I have learned that when faced with death I'm not the quickest on my feet.
"So, a werewolf, huh?" Snow turned to apply more lipstick.
"Pardon me?"
"Oh, don't play dumb. I can sense it. You're not a full werewolf, of course, but you do have explosive anger, super speed, strength, and agility, and unusually sharp teeth and nails. And I'm sure your sense of smell and sight is impressive, too."
"I'm not a full werewolf? What does that even mean?"
"You were scratched by one, weren't you?"
My hand instinctively went to my side, where four perfectly even scars had been since that day. "How do you know?"
Snow shrugged. "Upside to being a witch. Of course, there isn't really a downside..." she tapped her nails on her table as if thinking.
"Why did you kill your friends?" I changed the subject.
Snow ignored my question. "I've been planning this since your aunt married my daddy. I was, of course, going to pin this on her, but then I heard this funny little prophecy."
"You didn't hear-"
"Oh yes, Sorrell Benedict, I did."
A shiver ran down my spine. "What did you hear?"
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I glanced down at it. Gran was wondering where I was.
I bit back a laugh. Great timing as always.
"Just that you were going to change the world or some shit. And I thought, I like the world the way it is. And you're prophesied to kill someone I love dearly, and I'm not going to let that happen." She stepped towards me, a menacing look marring her graceful features.
"I'm prophesied to kill who?"
"Not important." She waved my question away.
"I mean, it kind of is." I stuck my hand in my pocket and discreetly tried to text Gran my location.
"Like werewolves, you can only be killed by silver. Luckily," Snow smiled wickedly, digging into her dressing gown pocket, "I have my silver dagger right here."
I jerked away from her. "Werewolves can kill witches, Snow."
Her smile grew wider. "You kill me, I pin this whole thing on you, darling Red. Although," she pouted her lips. "I'm doing that anyway. I'll just say you tried to frame Arreus because of your unfortunate run-in when you were little. Perhaps I'll say you tried to kill me, so I went into hiding?" She clapped her hands. "Ooh, yes, that's quite good. And to make it better, I'll steal your little boyfriend, Gran, and kill Imelda and those children you're watching."
I heaved a ragged gasp. "Why?"
She shrugged. "Well, Gran's actually pretty hot, so I don't mind-"
"You are not going to hurt any of them. I will destroy you." In the mirror, I could see my eyes had gone amber as opposed to their normal brown.
Snow beamed. "Oh, there's that classic werewolf anger. Come on now, doggie, come tear me apart." She patted her thighs condescendingly.
My hands tightened into fists. "What do you have against me, Snow? What have I done?"
"Simple." Snow pulled out a gun. Her fingers tightened on the trigger. "You're prettier than me."
I barely had time to think about this before I instictively hit the ground, my chin slamming against the marble floor.
"Ooh," Snow sang, "you're quick, aren't you, darling?"
I crouched. "What do you mean, I'm prettier than you? I'm pretty sure I'm not, for starters, and I don't understand how-"
"The mirror told me!" Snow howled. "I was the prettiest once. But then your aunt came along, and she was so, so beautiful that I just had to cut her down so she wouldn't be anymore. But she was still the prettiest so I faked my death and got her thrown in prison. Now no one remembers her beauty, just her crimes."
"That's a little psychotic," I muttered, army crawling away from her.
"Merra was the next most beautiful. All that red hair, ugh. I'm jealous. But she belongs in the sea, so I sent her home."
My phone buzzed, but I ignored it.
"Oh, and then you have Rosie. Oh, she was so gorgeous they started calling her Sleeping Beauty. So," she began sniggering. "I made sure she'd sleep forever."
"Twisted. I don't like dark humour."
"Rapunzel was the next prettiest. You know how that one went, I pushed her out of a tower, blah, blah, blah." Snow picked me up by my hair. She was unnaturally strong. Her other arm gripped mine, making it difficult for me to get away.
"And then Eloise. She should have known better than to have a party and not invite me."
"Okay, but I still don't get where you're getting all these rankings from."
"From the mirror," Snow explained. "I found it in the basement of the manor. And-"
"Snow, I really think the mirror was lying to you," I interrupted.
"What?"
"First off, beauty is completely subjective. It's impossible to say someone's prettier than someone else. And it shouldn't matter at all in the first place. And second, Jazz was literally labelled the most beautiful girl in the country and you haven't killed her yet. And third-"
"Can you shut up?" Snow snapped. "I don't really care right now. What matters is that you'll be dead and so will the prophecy."
She raised the dagger and I kicked her in the stomach. She screamed and dropped me.
I managed to crawl away from her to the fireplace. I grabbed a burning log, ignoring the pain seeping into my hand, and brandished it like a flamethrower. "Stay back!" I yelled.
She ignored me. "I'm willing to die if it means you will, too!" she screamed, her eyes wild.
She lunged towards me and I darted away. I could smell my own flesh burning, which was not a pleasant experience. My hand seized, forcing me to drop the log onto a curtain draped on the ground. The entire thing ignited, creating a wall between Snow and me.
She was more unwilling to die than she'd lead me to believe, and she carefully edged around the wall to avoid the fire.
The pain in my hand became excruciating, and I saw spots before my eyes.
The only thing I could see that would aid me was a vase of flowers. I tossed the flowers in Snow's direction and stuck my hand in the vase. It made an unsettling sizzling noise.
Snow lunged for me and I instinctively leaped up brought my hand down on her head. The vase on my hand shattered, raining her with glass.
Snow wavered and sneered. She looked terrifying with blood flowing down her head like a waterfall. [20 000 WORD MARK]
My vision blurred again, and in this moment of weakness, Snow jabbed me with the dagger in the stomach.
I gasped, the air knocking out of me. The pain was so intense I forgot about my hand. Normally I'd have left the dagger in to prevent bleeding, but silver was poisonous to me. I removed it with difficulty, holding the wound tight with one hand and the dagger in the other. I turned and threw it out the window with my remaining strength.
"Good hit," I wheezed, falling to my knees.
"Are you ready to die?" she asked once more.
"Not yet." I suddenly jumped up and as she fell back in surprise, I shoved her into the firey curtain.
She screamed, unable to move.
"I recorded our conversation and sent it to the GGPD," I added, my voice fading. "They know what you did now."
Snow hissed at me before falling to the ground, her face melting into red sludge, her eyes still filled with a crazy light.
I heard the loud thuds of dozens of footsteps just before someone busted through the door. I managed to look up. "Gran?"
"Are you okay?" Gran started towards me, but I couldn't let him get to close to Snow. I stumbled towards him with strength I didn't know I had.
"I didn't tell you something," I sighed, falling into his arms.
"It's okay. You can tell me later, we just need to get you to a medic-"
"No. If I don't tell you," I took in a ragged breath, "I'll probably die."
Gran looked confused and afraid. "What?"
"I'm apparently a half-wolf. She stabbed me with a silver dagger."
"What?" To his credit, he held me tighter.
"Look." I peeled up part of my blood-soaked shirt, revealing my scars and the greenish stab wound on my stomach. "I was scratched by that werewolf when I was ten. That's when I never went to the Bureau... I didn't want to know the truth."
"Red, it's okay. We can get you help."
I managed a smile. "No, you can't." I stretched up and softly kissed him on the cheek.
I knew it was my time. It was an eerie feeling, knowing you were about to die, but it was also sort of... warm, like falling asleep after being awake for a couple of days.
I could feel myself fading, feel the wound draining me of everything I had. The pain was so intense I just wanted it to be over. I was ready.
I closed my eyes. "I'm sorry," I whispered.
The world spun to a soft, silent black.
And I could feel nothing anymore.