I told you never to trust a witch, my daughter.
Snow White jumped, looking around the room, but couldn’t find where her mother’s voice was coming from. The candlelight danced to the sound, throwing shadows across the walls.
Over here, my bird. Over here.
Snow followed the sound of her mother’s voice; it was frightening to hear it in this strange dead place. A place for witches. Then she found her. Her mother’s face was reflected in an oval mirror.
The mirror was situated on the far wall among portraits of the dead queens who had once ruled the dead woods. It was eerie seeing her mother among them. When Snow got closer to the altar, she realized the mirror was cracked, distorting her mother’s grim face.
Look what that witch has done to me!
“Who did this to you?” Snow White was horrified to see her mother so altered.
Circe! She’s broken my cup. I’m barely holding on, my bird. Don’t trust her, Snow! Circe is being used by her mothers to destroy you. It was always you they hated. Always you they wanted dead. They used me to get to you, and when that didn’t work, they used their own daughter.
“I don’t believe you!”
I am being forced from my mirror, Snow! I will never see you again! Please get out of here while you can! They’re coming.
“Circe didn’t know breaking your cup would hurt you! She was angry with her mothers when she did it! She didn’t know that would happen!”
Oh, didn’t she? She’s been trying to keep you from me since you went to Morningstar! She tells herself she is protecting you from me when she should be protecting herself from her own mothers! Vile hags, meddling, plotting, and ruining lives! You’d do well to leave this place before they rain terror on all your heads! They hate you, my bird, hate you because they foresaw how Circe would come to love you.
“None of this makes sense, Mother. You say they wanted me dead because of my friendship with Circe, yet you’re telling me they’ve thrust us together? It’s all madness!”
The odd sisters are mad. They are trapped in promises they can’t escape. Now go. Go before they get here. I can’t keep them back much longer. They’re coming, my bird. They’re coming….
Before Snow could answer, the mirror started to shatter; her mother’s screams were filled with terror and pain, mingling with the sound of breaking glass.
The glass exploded all over the room, slicing the arm Snow White was using to shield her face. When she raised her head from the crook of her arm, she saw her mother’s body on the floor. She was covered with a pattern of gashes that looked like cracks in a mirror. “Mother! No!” screamed Snow, panicked by her mother’s ghastly wounds.
Circe, Primrose, and Hazel rushed into the room. Snow saw the looks of horror on their faces when they spotted Grimhilde.
“Circe! Please help my mother! Quickly!”
Circe appeared to be frozen with fear and revulsion. “Circe! Please!” But Circe wasn’t looking at Snow or her mother. She was looking past them, at the empty frame that had held the broken mirror. Something was crawling out of the frame, contorting its body like a sickening insect, horrific and monstrous. They heard the cracking of bones and the groans of more creatures coming forth from the mirror. Snow White and the witches watched in horror as they unfolded their bodies, straightening themselves to their full natural statures.
It was the odd sisters, lurid, vile, and wicked as ever.
“Oh dear. It looks like we’ve stumbled upon a witch’s nest. Whatever shall we do?” The odd sisters laughed as Lucinda waved her hand, sending Hazel, Primrose, and Circe careering out of the room, and slamming the door after them.
“Excuse us, dears. We want to be alone with Snow White and her mother.”
The odd sisters stood there, laughing at Snow White. They looked like strange creatures out of a nightmare. They were as hideous and unnatural as she remembered them.
Snow couldn’t help feeling like she was dreaming. These witches had plagued her sleep since she was a small child, and now she was standing before them while her mother lay dying on the floor. She’d dreaded the day she might have to face the odd sisters again, and she’d always wondered what she would do if she did. But she found her voice somewhere within her, in a place she hadn’t known existed. A place of strength and fortitude.
“Shut up, you harpies! What have you done to my mother?” Snow screamed.
The odd sisters sneered at Snow White. “Oh, so brave, so strong! Thank Circe for that, dear! Without her you would still be under your mother’s dominion and hiding behind Verona’s skirts!” Lucinda said, laughing at Snow White.
“Oh, you’re a witch’s daughter, all right. Just look at the way you glare at us. I thought you would be more afraid. I thought you would cower and cry like you did when you were a little girl,” said Martha before Lucinda took over.
“Are you sure you want us to save your mother, dear? Do you really want to go back to your lands with your mother always watching you from behind the mirror? Trapped forever in the company of the woman who tried to kill you?”
“You made her do it! I read the book of fairy tales! I read your journals! I know the truth!”
Lucinda inched her way closer, her eyes locked on Snow. “So brave. You surprise me,” said Lucinda. Then, looking down at Grimhilde’s bloody and broken body, she cackled. “Can you hear me, Grimhilde? Can you feel how frightened your daughter is? You wouldn’t know it by the look on her face. You should be proud. She has found her hate at last.
“When was the last time you saw your own reflection in the mirror and not your mother’s, Snow? She doesn’t want you to know how beautiful you are! She never has! She’s the same spiteful, hurtful witch she always was! Do you know she begged us to kill you? Begged us! So desperate to be rid of you so her father would call her the fairest in the lands. She wished for your death!” said Lucinda, taking delight in hurting Snow White.
“Shut your mouth! You did that to her! My mother loves me! She loves me now, and she loved me then.”
“So she does. Loves you so much she trapped Maleficent’s bird Opal, using the poor creature against her will so we could lure Maleficent from beyond the veil! And then your mother marveled in awe as she watched us use debased and black magic to bring Maleficent’s dragon form back to life! Loves you so much she helped Pflanze aid us in our escape from the land of dreams so we could raise Maleficent from the dead. All in exchange for you! She’s been plotting and scheming with us without a care about who lives or dies in the process! So don’t you see, my dear? Your mother is, and has always been, a witch. She is just like us.”
“Lies!”
“Your mother came to us in the dreamscape! She begged us to help her! She agreed to do whatever it took as long as she had you back at home with her again. So who is lying, Snow White? I think it may be you who are lying to yourself!”
Snow White looked down at her mother. Her breathing was shallow and blood was starting to pour from the long slashes that covered her face and body. “She’s dying, please help me!”
“Look at this. Snow White asking us for help? Asking the vile harpies who turned your mother against you to save her. What would King Charming think of that?”
But Snow wasn’t listening; she was bent over her mother, trying to hear what she was saying. It was a small whisper, barely audible, like a small hiss.
“Come closer, my darling. I love you,” said Grimhilde as her wounds started to crack open. She was falling apart like a shattered mirror, blood pooling all over the floor around her, making Snow White scream. Her mother was dead. Shattered into a million pieces. Snow had lost her forever. And to her surprise, underneath the horror, pain, and grief, she felt relief.
The odd sisters laughed as they watched Snow White looking down on her mother in horror. “Oh! We see into your heart, Snow White! Not so pure after all! We see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Wishing death upon your mother, we see!” The odd sisters spoke in sickening har
mony.
“It’s not true!” screamed Snow. “It’s not true!”
“Speaking of apples,” said Ruby. “Did you find the gift your mother left on our doorstep?” Snow White looked up at Ruby, disgusted by the delight she was taking in these horrors. “What are you saying?”
The odd sisters laughed again. “Who else would bring you such a nice red apple but your mother?”
Snow White stood up, her hands and the hem of her dress covered in her mother’s blood. “Lies!” The odd sisters’ laughter filled the room, and something about it made Snow White feel as if these wretched women were telling the truth. She hated to admit it, but she knew in her heart her mother had left the apple. She had felt the same way that day in the odd sisters’ house that she felt right before her mother appeared this evening. Panic. The need to flee. But that feeling was gone. Dead with her mother. And with that she found a great sense of power within herself. She wasn’t afraid of the odd sisters.
“Don’t be a fool, Snow White. Witch’s daughter or not, you have no power over us. No antidote. True love’s first kiss will not help you to defeat these witches!” Martha said, cackling, as Lucinda grabbed Snow White by the throat and squeezed tightly.
Circe finally managed to burst through the door. Her face contorted in horror as she saw what her mothers were doing to Snow. Hazel and Primrose followed, readying themselves for battle.
“Snow! The locket! Drink it!” screamed Circe. She and Hazel flung curses at Lucinda, but they only made Lucinda laugh more—that is until she heard choking noises coming from Ruby and Martha. They were being strangled by an invisible force. Lucinda released Snow at once, and Ruby and Martha fell to the ground as well, gasping for air. A look of utter disgust crossed Lucinda’s face.
“What witchery is this?” she whispered, looking at Circe. “Did you do this?”
Circe could feel her mothers’ anger. It sent a chill throughout her body, making her shiver. The odd sisters were screaming so loudly she thought they would bring the mansion down around them.
“How dare you share your blood—our blood—with Snow White!” screamed Lucinda, her eyes blazing with anger. “You can’t protect Snow White from us forever!” Then she turned to Snow White. “And you can’t have her! Circe is ours! As she was meant to be! As she was designed to be! Together we will bring darkness into this world and we will sing and dance to the sounds of screams from the land of the living!”
“Daughter, stop this at once!” It was Jacob. He stood there, serene and composed. Stoic and fatherly. Lucinda stopped cold. Her face crumbled into that of a little girl being scolded.
“Father?” Lucinda whispered, her voice so small that it seemed unnatural.
Circe had never seen her mother so passive. A calmness came over Lucinda, as if seeing her father somehow brought her out of her madness, if only for a moment. Martha and Ruby looked transfixed, their heads tilted to one side, their eyes too wide, and their mouths agape. Something about the man calmed her mothers, bringing them back to the edge of sanity and making Circe remember why she loved them.
“Calm yourself, my precious girl. All this rage and anger. You’re too much like your mother and grandmother. You must learn to quiet your souls,” Jacob cooed, trying to soothe his daughters.
“Don’t speak to me of my mother and grandmother! They cast us away, sending us off to live with the fairies and into the hands of the One of Legends! You realize that is how she got her name, don’t you? It wasn’t coined because of her greatness!” said Lucinda, her madness returning.
“We didn’t want to send you away! We had no choice, my girl! I promise you it was the last thing your mother and I wanted to do!”
Circe could see her mothers slipping into and out of sanity. She saw the madness washing over their faces, overtaking them like a foul demon, and releasing them again when they heard Jacob’s voice. It was the strangest thing she had ever beheld, her mothers’ transforming like this before her eyes, returning to their former selves. She wanted Snow out of the room, away from her mothers. Hazel, take Snow down to my mothers’ house. Hazel nodded, hearing Circe’s thoughts. While the odd sisters were still being lulled by Jacob, she took Snow by the hand and led her out of the room.
“Mothers, listen to Jacob, please!” cried Circe. “He loves you. I know he does. Just listen to him,” she said as Jacob slowly made his way to his broken daughters, approaching them tentatively, like they were wild beasts that could attack at any moment.
“Lucinda, my girl. Can I please hold your hand? I felt so ashamed after I shunned you and your sisters all those years ago, when you came to the dead woods. But I was afraid.”
“I didn’t know who you were that day,” said Lucinda. Her eyes welled with tears. “We didn’t learn who you were until we read Manea’s journals many years later.”
“My daughters, please sit down with me. There’s so much I have to tell you. Come, let us sit and talk somewhere we will be comfortable.”
Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha let Jacob lead them into the large dining room. Circe watched, stunned at how calm they were in his presence. How willing they were to do as he asked.
“Come along, my little girls,” he said as he helped them to their seats, pulling a chair out for each of them, treating them as cherished daughters with tender touches and a loving look in his eyes. Circe stood in the doorway with Primrose, amazed by the scene, waiting for something to go wrong, worried the odd sisters would fall back into delirium, worried Hazel wouldn’t get Snow White to the safety of the odd sisters’ house before the odd sisters lost their minds again. “My girls, sit down. I need you to listen to me. All of you,” he said, looking at them.
Circe and Primrose took seats across from the odd sisters, eyeing the doorway as they waited for Hazel to return. Jacob was sitting at the head of the table, and the stone harpies that dominated the room loomed over them. He was smiling at Lucinda, lost in the beauty of her face, lost in the memories of their mother. “You’re so much like them, my daughter, so much like your mother and her mother,” he said, looking at all the witches. “And when I was brought back to life as a servant to the queens of the dead woods, and you were made three, I loved you even more. But the ancestors were angry with your grandmother for her plots to extend her reach outside of the dead woods and became convinced you would do the same. They foresaw that you would destroy the dead woods if allowed to stay within its thicket. I see now how mistaken they were.” Jacob seemed to drift off into a place only he could see, a place they couldn’t follow him to. Perhaps he was remembering those days, or perhaps he was just happy to be in the company of his brood of witches.
“Your grandmother Nestis once tried to extend her reach beyond the dead woods, just as you are trying to do. She wanted to make the world black, to unleash her creatures on the many kingdoms, but the ancestors stopped her and forced your mother to give you to the fairies. They convinced her it was the only choice.”
“But why didn’t you fight to keep us here? Why didn’t Mother?” Lucinda asked. She seemed like a lost, lonely child, not the terrible witch she had become.
“We did, my girl, we did! But your mother wasn’t strong enough. Not yet. She hadn’t come into her full powers, and by the time she was strong, she believed the ancestors. She found herself fearing you as much as the ancestors had. But I see now we should have kept you here, kept you close. We should never have unleashed you on the many kingdoms only to cause havoc and destruction! If it were up to your mother and I, you would have ruled here after your mother passed, not Gothel, not that poor wretched child, or her sisters here, as much as I love them.”
“Then why didn’t you tell us all of this when we visited here?” asked Ruby, not looking as convinced as her sister Lucinda that her father was telling the truth.
“Because, my girl, I believed the ancestors. And your mother believed them. I thought you would be the ruin of this place. I was bound to protect Gothel, as I am bound to protect all queens and future quee
ns of the dead, and to keep my mistresses’ secrets.” Jacob gathered the odd sisters’ hands and took them into his own. “Oh, my poor girls, you have been wandering the many kingdoms lost, forever searching for your true home, acting out your nature, the nature you inherited from your mother and her mother before her.”
Circe sat quietly, listening to Jacob. He was right. It made sense that her mothers would want to create a daughter in the same fashion their own mother had. But they had gone about it the wrong way. They had given too much of themselves away. They had lost too much.
“If you had been raised here, you would live within the confines of the dead woods. Here you would have had a purpose, a place to rule. The ancestors never should have tossed you into the unsuspecting world, where you are just chaos and destruction. Here you would have ruled after your mother.”
“You say our grandmother made us into three. What do you mean?” Martha asked, staring at Jacob with wide eyes. She seemed to be examining his every detail, as if the answer could be found in his face.
“What does he mean, Lucinda?” Ruby chimed in. They became manic, and Lucinda saw them spiraling into the same insanity that seemed to seize them more frequently than ever. “What does he mean?” they screamed, standing up and ripping at their black dresses and pulling at the feathers in their hair, tossing them onto the floor, and scratching at their own faces.
“Sisters, stop this at once! You will ruin the dresses I only just conjured for us before we left the place between. You don’t want to do that, do you? You don’t want to ruin your pretty new dresses.” Lucinda tried to calm her sisters in the best way she knew how.
Ruby and Martha stopped their fussing, but they still wanted to know what Jacob meant. “Lucinda, please tell us what he means. We don’t understand.”
“My dear sisters. My Ruby and Martha. I was born of our mother, Manea, and Jacob’s love, and Nestis, our grandmother, split me into three, creating you. She created you the same way we created Circe and helped Maleficent to create Aurora, don’t you see?”
The Odd Sisters Page 11