The Hunting of Snow White: A Grim Tale - Chapter 59

“Prina.”

And again night came. As always, Hunter came to Prina’s room, and, as always, he called her name. Prina.

“Look at me, Prina.”

Tonight, she would talk to him. She would say she forgave him. That she was sorry. That they could be happy again together.

She had resolved it. She was just about to rise when… Thud. With a dull, grinding sound, the coppery stench of blood filled the air.

Startled, Prina lifted her curled-up body and turned toward the door. A man stood there, still large, yet with shoulders that somehow seemed shrunken.

The room was silent, as if there had never been any sound at all.

Yes, he looks so remorseful.

I should talk to him properly.

The moment she met those golden eyes, brimming with something heavy,

“I’m hurt.”

He stepped closer to her. Blood dripped from him as he pleaded with her.

In his hand was a pair of scissors, from which blood dripped steadily. He had stabbed his own shoulder with them.

“Heal me. Take care of me, Prina.”

The stench of blood was suffocating.

Shwaa— She heard the sound of rain.

Outside, the night was so quiet, so clear, but it was as though the rain that had once fallen in the forest had never stopped. Her ears rang with that metallic rainfall.

Her vision flickered, threatening to go dark. A flash of lightning lit up the room.

Crash—!

Suddenly, the mirror hanging on the wall plummeted to the floor and shattered into pieces.

Prina could no longer tell whether this was a dream or reality.

A broken mirror cannot be put back together.

Only then did she once again realize that simple truth.

* * *

Even if she couldn’t keep her mind steady, time flowed on without pause. And time had every right to do so. Because the passage of time was natural, and the only one lingering, hesitating, clinging to the past… was herself. She had only not known, had only wanted to turn her eyes away. Nothing had actually changed. All she needed to do was accept. She was the one who had decided to accept him no matter what, and even if she refused now, what else could she do?

A broken mirror cannot be mended, but it can be left broken.

And even shards of glass… still reflect something.

A shattered mirror is still a mirror in the end.

She couldn’t live outside this mansion anyway.

She couldn’t live without Hunter anyway.

This place, after all, was her coziest home.

That fact pressed down on her chest like a heavy stone, leaving her powerless.

And so, she lived the same day over and over. Every day, every moment, she thought of him, of the things he had done. She chewed over the words she had spoken, and always, her thoughts ended with the decision to accept him. Then morning would come. And again, the same day would repeat.

More precisely, every day was the same because every day she lived it with him.

He never missed their meals together. He held her and slept beside her. On Sundays, he went to the market. He took on all kinds of dirty work.

She had abandoned cleaning out of sheer weariness, but still the mansion remained spotless.

Of course. It had always been clean even when she didn’t sweep or scrub or tend to it.

Time itself remained mismatched. And there was no need to match it. Even if she tried, it would never align. Time stretched on, filled with resignation upon resignation.

She told herself, someday it will be fine. And if not? Well, then there’s no answer anyway. That was the thought.

She treated the arm he had stabbed himself. How desperate must he have been, to stab his own arm? For attention. Out of fear that her heart might leave. Out of fear. Out of impatience. That must have been it.

He had only harmed himself, and he hadn’t wronged anyone else. How desperate must he have been.

Thinking on it, she too knew how deeply unsettling the absence of one’s refuge could be. Hadn’t she spent a sleepless night, storm raging outside, praying and praying out of fear that Hunter might not return? Hunter had felt the same.

If Hunter had been like this from the start, then nothing had changed.

It was only that, in a moment when his emotions surged, he hadn’t been able to hold them back, and he made a mistake.

Anyone can make mistakes. He admitted it. He said he wouldn’t do it again.