The girl looked at the stable boy. She brushed the snow-white hair away from her face and continued looking at the boy who now seemed to caress the horse.
Loath resided in the girl’s heart where love had once been.
The boy turned around and froze. His moonlit face glowed and his blue eyes held warmth. But she didn’t feel the warmth and it made her angry.
“Ciara? Where have you been?”
She didn’t answer.
“Are you alright? You look very…different.” He ran a hand through his hair.
“I feel very different.” She said in an almost inaudible voice.
She knew what he meant by different. Her hair was more white than ever, her grey eyes turned crystalline and her heart a sink of malice.
“I tried to keep him.”
“Who, Ciara?”
But Ciara had already started to leave and as she ran, she heard him shout “Please come home, Cia.”
She ran until she was surrounded by nothing but the snow. A harsh wind blew destroying the shape of hair but she didn’t feel the cold. She had to remember his moonlit face, and his blue eyes and the warmth of his lips before the ice reaches to her heart and erases any joyful memories she has of him.
The monumental castle stood tall and cold. She made her way inside and found the snow sisters seated.
“Where have you been, Ciara? We were about to begin the ceremony for the crowning of the snow queen.”
The sisters formed a circle and she joined. The ritual began with the chanting and the decided queen stood at the centre of the circle.
When it was the time for the crowning ceremony, Ciara held the crown made of snowflakes in her hands and started towards the decided queen. But instead of the crown, she stabbed an ice shard into the queen’s stomach and her white dress turned scarlet.
The queen’s eyes went wide before she collapsed.
“Now I am the Snow Queen.” With that, Ciara placed the crown on herself.
The sisters kneeled before her and pledged their loyalty.
She left the castle to do one final deed.
It was beginning to dawn when she reached the streets. She stopped outside a yellow house with a small window. A little boy peeked through the curtains and on seeing her hid behind it.
She had told the love of her life that she tried to keep him. Him, she thought with pain, was their child behind that curtain.
Submitted by: Kasturi Banerjee