Envy's Heart

Brief Note: None of these characters are based of real people! These are all figments of my mind! My cousins and I actually get along very well... If you read the Grimm Brother's Story Snow White and Rose Red you'll get the reference! On with the show.

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Name: Rosemarie Nesbitt
Class: Creative WritingDate: 10/9/07
Assignment: Lesson 5 Prefab Story

Envy’s Heart

Princess Rose Redd stood leaning against an arched window hollow and watched as her sweet cousin exit a gleaming ivory carriage, gilding glittering around the entire thing like some gaudy music box… How fitting for the little white princess.
Snow White looked up at the crimson palace shyly and, even from a distance, Rose saw the younger girls pale eyes widen. The older girl’s plump scarlet twisted into a smug smirk; Red Palace crowned the top of a steep hill that overlooked gardens filled with small labyrinths made of garnet, trees pruned to look like they were burning and constantly robed in the colors of autumn. The Palace itself was carved out of gleaming, ruby stones with great warriors flanking the doors and winged gargoyles leering down from tall, twisted parapets, long crimson fangs bared in hungry smiles.
It was a place for great warrior queens… not pampered princesses.
Rose’s cousin brushed fluttering hands over a simple white dress, sweeping tresses of pale silver-blond falling over her shoulders in gleaming hanks. Rose felt a twist of envy and hatred inside her; her cousin was prettier than she was… Damn her pretty white head.
Self consciously, Rose brushed long, tanned hands tipped in shining red nails through the mass of crimson that curled from her head to her shoulders in wild ringlets. Rose herself was lovely in a very… red way but she knew that the waif-thin, delicate girls were what was considered pretty this year.
“Probably weighs ninety pounds when she’s wet,” Rose sneered, running her hands over her curvaceous body, almost reassuring herself that she was still there.
“Who ever are we talking about?” a guttural voice spoke from somewhere around Rose’s ankles. The princess looked down and saw the monstrous hound that had curled himself around her feet. The beast looked up at her with eyes that shone like two gold coins and, like the rest of everything owned by Rose, was the color of freshly spilt blood. This great beast of a dog was aptly named Bull.
“My cousin, Princess Snow White,” Rose growled, looking away from her dog to watch the other little princess pick her way delicately up the path. Rose bristled; as if the palace was uncivilized and messy!
The hound stood on paws as large as tea saucers and stretched out, wagging the tip of his sleek, red tail. He sat heavily next to his charge and watched with her as the Snow White came primly up to the door.
“And the woman next to her?” Bull asked, looking up at Rose, though he didn’t have far to look; his head came up to a few inches above her elbow.
Rose followed the golden gaze of her dog and looked at Queen Ella. The Queen of the White was a tall, slender woman with hair as straight and as white as bone, cascading down to her hips and swaying with the most subtle movement. Even paler than her daughter, the White Queen seemed to glow beneath the pumpkin-orange sun that hung low in the hazy sky. Of course she was covered from head to heel in the palest ivory and the most delicate tracing of winter blue.
“Aunt Ella,” Rose grunted, disinterested in her aunt. It was her cousin who she hated, her aunt was just a faceless enemy to hate later.
“What are they doing here?” Bull growled, so much like his mistress.
“Invading my privacy,” Rose muttered.
As dog and girl watched, the enormous black-red doors were opened and a tall, magnificent woman swathed in crimson and ebony swept out, curls of crimson flurrying behind her head in an elegant tumble. She grasped Queen Ella’s arms and the two women embraced looking like blood and snow. Rose thought her mother was the prettier of the two; with a strong jaw and a proud curl to her full lips.
Then the Red Queen turned to smile down at her young niece and Rose felt the weed of envy bloom brightly in her chest and start coiling venomously around her heart. She watched with mounting dislike as her mother embraced the tiny, white creature and dropped a kiss onto the little girls pale head.
Rose said something that she was sure would have made her mother gasp and the White Queen faint.
Then the Red Queen led the White Queen and the Pale Princess into the Red Palace and Rose swung around and pressed her back to the window, sliding down until crimson skirts puddle around her, making her look as if she was bleeding to death.
“Here for the entire holiday,” Rose muttered bitterly, “As if they couldn’t spend their Mid-Summers festival in their own kingdom.”
She sighed bitterly and felt hot, frustrated tears flood her eyes. Angry, ashamed and disgusted with herself, Rose knuckled them away ruthlessly. Tears were a weakness; the Redd Family could not abide weakness.
Bull looked down at her with his knowing yellow eyes and leaned forward, rubbing his soft, sleek muzzle against the princess’s ear and neck in comfort. Rose ran her fingers through the beast’s fur and took comfort from his warmth.
An entire weekend thinking she was second best… Rose’s teeth tightened; she would have to handle it… like she had every year for her entire life.
Rose closed her eyes, finding comfort in the darkness within her mind and began to drift through her own dreams filled with crimson.

The young girl jerked sharply, curled up on the floor, her head pillowed in her arms and her arm draped across Bull’s massive chest. At her sharp movement, the hound woke, snarling, his ridge standing up in a swath of black fur down his spine and his tail held rigid, prepared to rip anything in the room apart.
Rose smiled slightly and rubbed her fingers behind the big dogs ear.
“It’s all right, you moose,” Rose chuckled.
Bull sighed gustily and put his head back down looking around the darkening room suspiciously.
Rose sat up and groaned softly as her back protested with a series of creaking pops, sounding like an old house in a gusting wind.
“It’s what I get for sleeping on the floor,” she yawned, pushing herself to her feet and straightening out her scarlet skirts that looked black in the dimness.
Rose turned and looked out the window, searching the dark orange-brown sky for the jack o’ lantern moon. She saw it hovering just above the steeple of a church, basking the Red Palace in its Cheshire smile.
“Why do you suppose they didn’t come get us for the evening meal?” Rose asked Bull as the dog heaved himself to his feet and stretched.
“Maybe they couldn’t find us?” he asked, tipping one ear forward in thought.
“I guess we would blend in with the floor, wouldn’t we?” Rose asked with a small smile.
“We would. You don’t suppose they’re worried do you?” Bull asked, not really concerned.
“With the little white princess here to fawn over?” Rose scoffed. “For the next four days we’ll be lucky to be noticed enough to be yelled at.”
Bull snorted angrily and pressed himself against Rose’s leg, it was a moment before he said, “I’ll always remember you’re here.”
The young, red princess smiled a little sadly at that and patted Bull’s massive head.
“Let’s get something to eat and then head to a real bed for some sleep,” Rose said and crossed the dark ruby room in a whisper of crimson skirts.
The princess and her constant canine companion whispered through the darkened Red Palace until the found the kitchens. There Rose hunted for scraps of dinner without waking a soul, despite the fact that one of the fire maids had fallen asleep on her post. With out her administrations, the fire that should have constantly roared in the hearth was nothing more than a bed of glowing, ruby coals.
Rose made herself a cold chicken sandwich and gave Bull two whole rabbits, which he ate with much slobbering and crunching. Blood spilled down his chin and chest, pooling on the kitchen floor and darkening his already dark fur. Rose thought he looked rather nice with blood on his lips and imagined it to be her cousin’s precious blood.
Though it’s more likely it’s white than red, Rose thought and giggled.
When the two had fed on kitchen scraps, a fact that both of them laughed bitterly at, they returned to Rose’s massive bedchamber and in silence and in darkness, Rose slipped from her voluminous gown to a simple nightgown.
Bull settled down at the foot of Rose’s bed, spreading across the many blankets and sheets that crowded the goose-down mattress. He was long enough to have his front paws dangling off the edge and his tail waving over the other side.
Rose herself snuggled beneath the blankets, throwing her head against the mountain of down pillows and letting the darkness spread over her again, a comforting cloak of sleep and perhaps in her dreams she would be the favored child instead of Snow White.
The sun was high in the sky when Rose awoke the next morning. She opened her eyes to crimson darkness and stared up at the silk underside of her canopy bed, admiring the ripples the wind made over the thin silk.
Bull looked away from the window where he had been gazing thoughtfully and wagged his tail when he saw that Rose was awake. As if he was a puppy much smaller than he really was, Bull trotted from his post at the end of the bed and flopped heavily down near Rose, throwing himself into her side with bruising force and smiling a doggy smile at her. The young princess had her breath knocked out of her and she started laughing before she even got it back.
“Alright, alright,” Rose groaned, still laughing, “We’ll go out.”
She dressed simply and, after tying it back in a black silk ribbon, ignored her red curls flawlessly… it came from years of practice, she told Bull as they walked through the red corridors, Rose munching on hot toast that she had stolen from the breakfast table and tossing the crusts to Bull.
They entered the sloping, emerald lawns on the royal gardens and Bull bounded off, Rose following at a dreamy pace. The big dog never strayed far, too protective of his princess to leave her side for very long.
Surrounded by flowers opening shyly to the suns tender light, Rose felt a semblance of peace and dismissed her cousin for the time being. There was no point in letting a pale little waif ruin such a glorious day. Besides, the weekend would be over soon, if Rose was very clever, she could avoid seeing her little cousin altogether.
“Rose!”
The voice was just as pale and delicate as the girl herself. The Red Princess felt her spin stiffen and her lips firm together in a disapproving line. She turned and looked on the delicate girl-child gliding towards her, looking as sweet and as pretty as a snowflake.
“Not as clever as I had hoped I was,” Rose muttered to herself.
“Hello, cousin Rose!” Snow White said sweetly, “Isn’t it wonderful that we get to spend the weekend together?”
“Thrilling.”
Rose looked down at her cousin’s smiling face and curled her lip in a sneer then turned away. She made no secret of her contempt for the White Court and yet Snow continued to bother her.
Without looking to see if the younger princess followed, Rose continued on, following the oath of broken and bent grass that Bull had left in his wake.
“Where are we going?” Snow asked, trotting to keep up with the taller girl.
“I’m following my dog,” Rose said, rolling her eyes, “I have no idea what you’re doing.”
“Following you!” Snow chirped. Rose pressed her lips together.
The two princesses walked around the gardens, Snow talking insistently, Rose responding with a noncommittal sound now and again.
When Snow finally fell silent Rose looked around to see what miracle had caused the younger girl to shut her trap. The younger princess had fallen behind and was peering curiously at something a young lord was holding. Rose watched as the knight grinned at the little princess and held something up to her. Whatever it was caught the light and spun it out in a hundred different directions in a hundred different colors.
Unimpressed, Rose continued on, walking into the dim, red interior of the palace and with Bull walking beside her. Done with the outside world, Rose locked herself in her room and lost herself in her daydreams, staring over the shining city and into the land beyond without moving for hours.
The only clue that any time passed was the slow shift of red shadows over the walls. At one point a timid knock came from her door. With nothing more than annoyed glance, Rose ignored the intruder and soon they walked away, sure that no one could be so rude.
Rose smirked.
In her darkness and solitude was where Rose spent the day, lost in a wonderland of her own design and only when the church tolled midnight did she realize that she was hungry.
“Sneaking kitchen scraps again,” Rose said standing and stretching her fingers up towards her ceiling. Bull woke with a start and a yelp and then shook his head, blinking blearily at her. Rose smiled and said, “Stay here, I’ll bring you back something.”
Alone, Rose wandered the abandoned red halls to the kitchen where she collected parcels of food for Bull as well as herself and then started back towards her room.
On her way back to her haven, Rose passed Snow’s room and found herself unable to move forward. From beneath the closed door, golden-red light glittered tauntingly. Looking left and then right, Rose confirmed that she was alone and pushed the door open just enough for her to slip through.
The dancing light was coming from a small, round table set against one corner. Rose cast a clandestine peek over at her cousin who slept heavily beneath a mountain of blankets.
Silently, holding the basket of food on one arm and feeling absurdly guilty, Rose hurried across the room to study whatever it was making the taunting glow.
A gleaming pendant sat on the table, a fine, dark gold chain lay coiled like a sleeping snake above it and though the chain was lovely and as fine as spider-silk… the pendant out shone anything Rose could have imagined.
Shaped like a blooming flower with petals made of dark gold and the center made out a jewel that looked like a fire caught under glass. It shifted from deep orange to pale, buttery yellow, to a dark crimson that Rose found particularly fetching.
Completely spellbound, she reached out a tentative finger and brushed the jewel gently. The moment she caressed the face of the gem it pulsed to a deep red-black that called out to Rose in a way nothing else did.
She lifted the now pulsing jewel up by its chain and allowed the angry light to bathe her features. Carefully, she turned it over to look at the back, hoping to see more of that magnificent glow.
She was disappointed, there was nothing but that dark gold setting that, while pretty, did not compare to that blood light that came from the jewel. But… there seemed to be something more.
Squinting in the darkness, Rose managed to read the small inscription on the back of the jewel.
“To my love, Snow White, the loveliest flower in bloom, ” Rose read allowed in a whisper.
The little lord who held in his hand something that sent out beams of light and color… this must be what he had been holding out to Snow, a gift.
“‘To my love’,” Rose whispered, looking over at her cousin. She held the jewel tightly in her hand, smothering the lovely crimson glow as she stared at her cousin, knowing nothing but hatred.
I’ll take it, Rose thought viciously, I’ll take it and hide it so she never finds it again… It’s not like she’d miss it anyway, stupid girl that she is.
Rose didn’t feel the tears spilling down her cheeks, didn’t notice how her entire body trembled. Her cousin rolled over fitfully, moaning gently as if she could feel the hatred in Rose’s glare.
But then, as if she had meant to do it to begin with, Rose opened her tightly clenched hand and let the pendent drop back onto the table.
“What would I do with such a foolish thing as love anyway?” she asked her sleeping cousin. “Everyone loves you best, cousin… But I can rule better with fear.”
Rose turned and slipped out of the darkened room, taking one last look at the glittering pendent on the table and then vanishing into the dark, crimson halls of a castle that would, sooner rather than later, belong to her.