5 Snow White

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"Mirror, Mirror, on the wall. Who is the fairest of them all?" a mother asked her child in her kind, sweet-hearted voice.

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"That's right, sweetie. It's me." She answered her own question. "But that's okay. You are just a child. You are just a pretty as you are. And one day you may just be as beautiful as me." With a pair of scissors in her hand she carefully snipped away at the ends of her daughter's hair.

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"But even still-" Snip! "-You are getting there, aren't you? And it's all because of me. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even be able to dress yourself." -Snip- "But that's okay. Mama is here, sweetie."

The mother smiled as she brushed her fingertips through her daughter's hair. "But I have to say…If there was one thing, I love about you the most, it would be this." She took a fistful of her daughter's hair, "Your shiny black hair." She took in a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her daughter. It seemed to be intoxicating to the mother.

"If only we could do something about it's length. If it's too long it will be too much, but I fear that I would cut it off too short. We don't want to lose your best feature." She asked with caution in her voice. "What do you think?" She asked her daughter.

"…"

The mother stopped. Then she started to motion with her finger as if she remembered something. "You're right, You're right. How could I forget. It isn't just your hair that is perfect." She circled around her daughter and knelt in front of her.

"Your skin is also flawless." She said as she ran one finger down the child's cheekbone that was white as snow. Her hand moved towards her daughter's chin, "It really compliments your lips" she said pursing the pair of lips in her thumb as she was looking for any fallible detail. But from the mother's perspective her daughter was the cutest. In fact, she was more than cute. Had she gotten any older-

"…" -The mother stopped to think. The atmosphere grew heavy in the room. She looked up to her daughter, her shoulders tensing as if she were to reprimand a naughty child. But she stopped as her eyes met her daughters. In those precious perfect-blue doll-like eyes reflected to the mother the most beautiful creature in the world – herself.

The woman let out a deep sigh as her tense. She felt like she could have just slapped herself right then and there. While it was true, she was prideful in her love in her own beauty, she loved her daughter just as much. And she believed while her daughter could one day be as beautiful, or heaven forbid even more, as her one day, but if she was this small it would never come to that.

The mother smiled at her child, a loving and caring smile a parent would give. "I love you, sweetie." She said as she placed her hand on her daughter's cheekbone.

Ding dong. The doorbell rung.

The mother looked over her shoulder – almost as if she were expecting someone to stand right behind her. "I wonder who that could be? You…weren't expecting someone, were you?" she eyed her daughter, almost as if interrogating her.

"…" there was no response.

"No, no. You wouldn't do that. Would you?" she asked again, but this time whom it was directed toward was left up in the air.

Ding dong. The door chimed in as if to answer.

The mother shrugged and proceeded to get up and move towards the door. She opened the door and turned to look at her daughter, "Stay up here and be quiet. Mama will be right back, sweetie." She winked as she shut the door behind her leaving her daughter in a darkened room. A soft click echoed through the soulless room as the mother locked it behind her.

The mother proceeded down the steps of the home that was once a home for three - now two – and moved to the front door. Through the drapes two shadowy figures stood on the other side and without even looking to see who they were, the mother opened the door. As if she knew who it was.

Standing in front of the mother were two police officers.

The mother looked over the two members of the police force, and then started to straighten herself up – especially for the young man to her left. Despite his loose uniform it was clear to the mother that he was fit, possibly he hadn't ordered a new uniform after losing weight. His baby cheeks were highlighted by his strong blue eyes. He had a strong, yet cute aura to him.

"Good evening, Officer…?" the mother spoke up, eyeing the young man up and down, trying to get all the detail. He was someone she would have no problem seeing more-

The young man cleared his throat. "-Katelyn. You can call me Officer Kate." The person to the mother's right spoke up. "And this is my partner, Andre." Andre shifted his form as if to present his uniform openly to woman that greeted them at her front door, reminding her that this was an official investigation.

The mother turned her attention away from the man and laid her eyes on the woman beside him. The third whe-person was a young black woman with a firm structure that showed off the hours of training and hard work that she had placed into her job, a beauty to be sure was the mother's thoughts.

Like a switch clicking in her head, the mother straightened herself out. "How may I help you, Officer Kate." She said it in a way as if she was trying to sound imposing.

A shiver crawled up Andre's spin, but Katelyn seemed unaffected. "Are you Ellen Ravana?"

The mother smiled, "Yes, I am Ellen. How may I help the both of you?" the tone in Ellen's voice clicked again.

"And you have a daughter named 'Mabel?'"

Ellen's expression softened with a hint of confusion. "Yes, is everything all right? Did she do something wrong?"

"…" Katelyn's expression slightly tensed, but quickly she regained her composure. "We received a couple of phone calls, one of them came from child's protection service that she attends to. Apparently, it's been a few weeks since she was last been in class."

Ellen's shoulders eased up. "Oh, is that it? I could have sworn I had let them, and Mabel's school, know that she was sick. I do apologies about this inconvenience. She should be ready to show her face to her friends in the next couple of days-"

"As I mentioned before, we had two calls come in about your daughter." – Officer Kate interrupted the woman. "The second call came from your home."

"Really, now?" Now Ellen had seemed to be really confused at this notion. "Are you sure? I know I didn't make a call, and I can be certain my daughter wouldn't make such a call."

It was slight, just barely unnoticeable to Ellen, Andre's hand twitched. Katelyn held out her hand between her partner and the mother. "Is it alright if we come inside? So that we can confirm that everything is fine." she spoke to the woman in a clear firm tone.

Ellen placed a finger to her chin, thinking over the situation. "…-"

Click

It happened again. Ellen tilted her head to look at both the officers, "- So, you wish to come inside to see my daughter?"

Katelyn nodded, hiding a released sigh of exasperation in the process. "Yes," She answered in a reassuring tone for the mother, "That's exactly why we are here. Exactly as the call we received had said.

"…" Ellen paused for a moment, but then she smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. Mabel is dolled up right now, you'll love her." She said stepping back into the house. "Please, come in."

"With pleasure!" Katelyn smiled to the mother as she followed the woman inside. Unbeknownst to Ellen, both officers shared a glance with one another before entering her home. Ellen took to the stairs that led to the upper floor. Katelyn and Andre both follow suit.

As the three made their way up the flight of stairs, Ellen took the time to talk about and dot on her sweet daughter. Behind her Katelyn kept the woman talking, keeping Ellen's attention on her, but kept her guard up. Andre, from the back, kept his eyes firmly on the owner of the house he was in.

"And then Mabel-" Ellen stopped mid step. Something had caught in her chest as if she was forced to swallow a large gulp of air.

"Mrs. Ravana? Are you okay?" Katelyn raised an eyebrow as she just stepped outside of arm's length of the woman. She was worried for the lady of the house, but she was clearly being cautious around her.

Ellen blinked a few times before looking at the office with a response. "Yes. I'm fine." She said sternly. "You wanted to see my daughter, correct?"

"…" Katelyn swallowed hard, as if preparing herself for the worst possible outcome. "Yes, ma'am." She nodded with determination to see this through.

"Okay." Ellen nodded slowly. And without a single word proceeded to lead both officers up the rest of the stairs and through the second-floor hallway without a single word spoken.

Then the three paused at the door at the end of the hall. Ellen reached into her breast pockets to receive the key to the padlock and proceeded to insert the key. But then she stopped.

"Ellen, is everything okay?" Katelyn asked. She was keeping her distance from the woman, mainly acting as someone keeping her partner, Andre, whom had slowly, over time, seemed to become more and more antsy.

Ellen unlocked the padlock with a click, "No, no, no. nothing is wrong." Ellen turned to look over her shoulder to look at both officers. "I'm just glad both of you got my call this morning. But I'm afraid I wasn't able get my daughter perfect yet." She said in an almost apologetic tone. "But I hope you'll forgive me, she is still a cute doll, though."

This time it was both officers turn to be silent. Katelyn's eyes and nostrils flared up. Andre's hand went to the gun in the holster at his hip. Both waiting for the woman in front of them to make their move.

The door was opened. Both officers lurched forward as their senses and stomach was attacked by a heavy amount perfume that was enough to sting their eyes. But despite the strong stale scent that wafted in the air, it was nowhere near enough to hide the stench of a decayed corpse.

"Mabel," Ellen spoke, as if used to both strong smells, "I brought some friends to come see you. To see your beauty." She said while moving into the room.

Despite her senses diluted, Katelyn lunged herself into the room as she started choking through the strong perfume and the stench of death. Through what felt like needle digging into her eyes she pushed through opening her eyes to the sight before her –

She would soon wish she didn't

-Katelyn's eyes seemed to almost gape wide as her retina felt as if It started to tear itself apart from not only the strong scent that burned into her retinas but also by the figure that tried to sear its image into her mind. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes; be it from the pain or from the mere shock, it was too indistinguishable to tell.

What caused this reaction was sitting silently in the middle of the stuffy room, only slightly revealed in the small slashes of light. It was what, from first glance, seemed to be a small doll sitting in the middle of the room in a perfect snow-white dress. From the pictures that Katelynn had seen that morning, she knew right away that it was the corpse of Ellen's daughter. Mabel's form was sitting quietly in the chair with her hands in her lap.

Mabel's corpse was set in full display with her raven black hair draped over her shoulder, freshly trimmed and combed through to be rid of any webbing that could have gathered. A fly was see moving over her cheek. No. It was moving through her cheek and out through the other side. It was still shrouded in darkness, but it was clear that the girl's body was striped of her skin and her bones were bleached pure white.

Click. Ellen pulled the chain in the middle of room, brightening up for all living to see. "Don't be so shy, Mabel. Let everyone how beautiful you are."

The light in the room revealed even more details of the "doll" in the room. There was a crack in the skull, from what seemed like a blunt object, running down from what seemed like staples keeping the child's hair in place and running down the side of her left cheek. There was red lipstick painted on the bone where the young girl's lips would be. The blue eye shadow around the child's eye socket highlighted the speck free porcelain eyes that seemed to have been carefully place inside their home.

Be it because of the sight of the body or the stench that attacked her nostril, Katelynn started to vomit. And almost as on reaction, Andre vomited as well.

Ellen moved over to Mabel's corpse. But the way she moved was unnatural, it was like she was in a trance. Placing her hands carefully under child's shoulder, with a rattle of bones clattering into one another, she picked up the form that once was her daughter.

Katelynn senses started to return to her. Looking up she saw the woman holding the form stripped of flesh as if it were some baby doll.

"My baby girl. My sweet, sweet little Mabel." Ellen held her daughter's corpse close to her chest as she stroked her fingers through her long dried up black hair. "You are the most beautiful doll in the world." as she said that a single tear rolled down her cheek and splashed on her daughter's frozen smiling face.

The reflection in the mirror is more than just that. The glass shows more than our physical form as it brings our personalities to the surface. As the surface of the mirror cracks so does our own self break apart.

A loving mother that dotes on her beautiful daughter. A jealous woman that is envious of her own daughter's appearance. As the surface of her reflection cracks, so does her own mind fracture. It leaves a poison that rots even the purest of souls to its core.