I can’t remember, now, what was going on in my head. The only thing I know is: that spit fell down my lips on its own and hit the man right in his face. Then, a long-lasting minute of silence fell upon us. We stood still, every one hushed; even Cogito did not say a thing, nor complained about the spit. Darknight, for his part, kept his only eye closed, as the drool clot slowly slid along his fully-masked face.
I smiled though that was not a pleased smile…
Darknight wiped his face with a single gesture, and when he opened up his eye — I swear — it was burning in flames. He approached the tree’s trunk and began to shake it, furiously. I can’t tell whether it was the trunk to be extremely lightweight or Darknight to be extremely strong as an ox, fact is I lost my balance and, falling down, I clung onto a branch.
«Stop! Stop! You, bastard!», I screamed while I tried to reach for the branch with my legs, so that I could pull me up.
Darknight stopped. «Well, well, well. You’re being less snippy than before, isn’t so?» he laughed out loud. «You climbed up high, if you fell from there you would get hurt!»
«You’re a sadist even more sadistic than my stepmother! You, bastard! Swine! Mid-eye! Mummy! Ogre! Tramp!», I whined.
«The coins!», his only eye aimed at me.
«First you save me, then I’ll do that!», I felt my finger pressing painfully against the rough bark of the branch.
«You are in no position to decide», he replied spitefully.
I was about to give up, I could not hold the grip any further.
«Fine!», I sneered, without being seen. «Come here! I’ll cast you the sack! But you will help me, then, right?»
«Yes!», he said fed up.
Darknight walked towards the branch where I was hanging on and, when he was right under me, I let myself fall, pouncing on him with all my weight. Rapidly, I tried to flee but he was faster and grabbed my hips.
«You’re not going anywhere! Give me my money, first, and then you’ll be free to go wherever you like». He put his arm around my neck.
«I don’t. I’m not going to do that! First, you have to say sorry! You, boor-knight!»
«Never!», he kicked me down, on the ground, and then he tried to force my fingers. He wanted to open the fist that was held the money tight.
«This is Snow White’s body. Don’t you mind damaging it?», I tried to scam him using the words.
«Do you really think this could stop me?».
My hand punched Darknight right there, where he had what that made a man out of him. I managed to flee, somehow, and so I began to run. I just wanted to run away, but I turned because I wanted to look at him as he wriggled; because I wanted to gift him with the last joke that he would have never, ever, forgotten: «I bet my ass this has stopped you, instead!». The moment I turned forward, it was too late: I beat my face against a branch. The only branch, of all that forest, that was haplessly stiff, sturdy and thick.
I fell on the ground, without issuing a single cry. My ears whistled, and my sight got blurry. Although, I could see Darknight coming up.
I stood up, but the hit was so hard that the world seemed to spin around me. As I teetered from a side to another, Darknight became closer. I did not know which way to turn, there was only one chip I could play at that moment: I made the sack slide down the neckline of my bustier.
«C’mon, now! Take the money!», I challenged him, holding out my breast.
And the, Darknight froze. The only thing I thought that would have never worked, to my great surprise, it worked!
«Well, well, well. I see, you’re not so insensitive to this body, right?», I mocked him bitterly.
«I would never touch you. Neither if you were the last woman left on Earth!», he replied austerely, recovering all his self-control.
I left my arms falling along my hips. «You’re right. We’ll never get along».
«Splendid. Now that you got this, giv…»
«I do need you!», I shouted against him, «I need you! I’m willing to set aside my pride, if you wish! I was wrong before, okay? It’s… just that I am scared!», I sighed. «I don’t know anything about this world and, what’s more, I can’t come back to mine! Not now, at least! How d’you think I feel about that? Up until yesterday I had an ordinary life, well, I would not define that as “ordinary” but I had got used to that, by now! And then, you know what? I wake up. I wake up here, where I can’t figure out a damn thing; I’m overwhelmed by Snow White’s responsibilities and then there are these… Parallel dimensions! The teleport, the City of Mercenaries and then that Tower!», I looked at him straight, right in his eye. «I need your help, Darknight, please! Please!»
Time seemed to have slowed. Waiting for his answer was as painful as a torture: I could hear every sound of the world, the rustling of leaves, dead branches murmuring violently windblown. The same wind that howled passing through the crevices of those trees.
«I’ll help you.», he assented sighing. «But let there be no mistake: I don’t like you. You are clumsy and speak with cryptic words», he pointed out. «I don’t what your intentions are: if you want to try and save this world and if you ever manage it; or, if you don’t intend to save it and you’re actually waiting for your chance to leave…»
«I’ll tell yeh, it’s the second», I said shortly.
He chortled. «At least, you’re honest».
«What about you? Are you honest with me, Darknight?»
He replied with another question, that is to say: what I meant.
«The real and sole reason you don’t want me with you it’s because you can’t bear to have on your side a woman who used to be Snow White and who no longer is», I said. «I know, it hurts. But I’m sure this will blow over: you won’t see me anymore as a changed Snow White, but as a woman you don’t like and that only looks like Snow White. Trust me, give us a chance. So says an inept, paranoid crackhead gal…», I sighed. «However, I want to hear the rest of the story», I chuckled to loosen the tension.
He remained silent and the same did Cogito.
«Let’s try to get along!», I encouraged him.
I took out the coins from the bustier, then I handed the sack to Darknight who, instead, rejected them.
«No way! I don’t even want to touch them!»
I stood motionless, while Darknight set forth. He invited me to go after him.
«No way. We’ll never get along», I grunted.
TO BE CONTINUED
CONTACT
AUTHOR:
scarlet_danae
ILLUSTRATOR:
federica_lisbeth
DEVIANTART:
LisbethKramer
TRANSLATOR:
missariellane
The Dreadful Nightmare of Snow White Page 10