The Other Daughter: Fairy Tale

The mirror's slick silver skin embraced her as she leaned against it, wrapped her arms around it, and sank her face into it. It gave beneath her like a gentle lover. Her mother had loved the mirror, and the mirror had loved her. Until the other one came along. But they were both gone now, ashes and dust in the ground, and she lived on. She'd never even touched the mirror until today. She'd stayed away from it, away from all mirrors, but she couldn't resist the urge any longer. She'd more than half expected some horrible thing to rise up from its depths and swallow her with sharp and pointy teeth like the alligators her father kept in his menagerie. But nothing did. She opened her eyes. At first, she saw nothing. Her eyes were open, but it was darker than the darkest night she'd spent huddled under her bed during one of her mother's tantrums.


Inspiration: Thinking of mirrors. Currently displeased by what I see when I look into one.
Story Potential: High.
Finished Length: Short story fine, could also be expanded to novel. Short story is realizing that not all of her mother's legacy is bad, novel is everything else that goes along with it.
Notes: They lived happily ever after is not an adequate ending. This girl, the protagonist, is Snow White's much younger half-sister. You think Snow White grew from a girl into a woman without getting any siblings? Now just think of the incredible amount of shit this girl has to deal with. Try growing up the daughter of the most powerful man in the country and the most beautiful woman in the country, who is also crazy and a murderess. Could you ever look in a mirror and not see their reflections?