The Dreadful Nightmare of Snow White

by Scarlet Danae

  « I’m gonna put your binoculars where you’ve never tried to put a thing before! And who knows, you may like it! You, bastard!», I growled.

  «I don’t want to waste my time», he sighed. «Also, I’m not going to let me put anything where anything never entered, so…»

  I unsheathed my claws and with a leap I attacked him, but he parried my blow; I drew back and tried several times to beat him, surprised by my own skills: which came to me spontaneously despite I had never fought in that way, before.

  «It’s no use!», he chuckled parrying my strokes one by one with his knives’ blades. I punched him in his face and then kicked away his backpack which crashed against the wall.

  He burst out laughing while rubbing, frantically, his face. «Nice shot! But d’you really think that it is enough to keep away from the bag?», he said slyly. «I want Snow White to jump in my backpack!»

  I felt my body atrophied and felt an uncomfortable feeling, the same I had felt as the deer had made me cross the passage. In few seconds, I saw everything disappearing and the darkness came to say hello.

  CHAPTER 5

  DARKNIGHT

  I saw an enormous labyrinth stretching before my eyes.

  It was over.

  Everyone, once in a life, felt that feeling. The unmistakable feeling that grabs you by the throat and makes you think: — I’m fucking fucked.

  «What about now?», Cogito asked. I remained silent as there weren’t other solutions at hand and my legs were shaking.

  The labyrinth still was in front of me.

  «Maybe, if we manage to pass it through…», I stammered.

  No way, there were not solutions other than that. So, I penetrated the labyrinth with no second thought, followed by Cogito’s complaints. When I asked him if he had better ideas in mind, he answered back hushing up.

  I walked at length between those high walls, and I seemed to be eaten up. They reminded me of that movie with David Bowie that once I watched with my father, before he passed away. Down the labyrinth’s hallways, there was a lot of piled up stuff, such as: expired food, skeletons, furniture, even hanging washing and other several junks.

  Those walls were seriously high walls. So high, I almost had a stiff neck just to look at the top, where the darkness widened like a deep-floating cliff. I used my finger to trace the engravings along the walls. I wasn’t able to read them, and I wondered if, somehow, they were telling a kind of story about a never-ending present time of both evil and pain. Despite the circumstances, I racked my brains to identify myself as an Indiana Jones-style adventurer. I did it so to convince myself that, perhaps, a meaning was hiding right behind those signs, or a secret to get out. But, in point of fact, I was trying to convince myself I could decode them. Yet, the effort caused me a headache, which happened frequently there in Snow White’s world, and into total abstinence. Hence, I asked Cogito if he could, instead.

  «I already scanned them», he stated.

  «An’?», asked I hopefully.

  «They’re completely out of meaning. They’re just decorative drawings».

  I was exhausted, I was hopeless and out of my power. So, as usually, I complained with Cogito and, as usually, he did not offer me a shoulder to cry upon.

  «I told you so! We don’t even know if there’s an exit here!», he grumbled.

  «I’ve already asked you if you had a better idea an’ if memory serves, after all these hours of walking and strolling, you haven’t had any!», I replied annoyed.

  «That Tail-guy will surely bring us to the Screw Tower Prison!», he remarked. «We’d better think what to do when he’ll throw us out of here».

  «An’ you really think he’d give us the time to do somethin’? Two seconds would enough for him to send us back in here! No way, we gotta figure out how this place works.», I said looking around. «if his backpack’s closed, then he can’t do nothin’…», I thought, «…But the moment he would pull me outta here, then the backpack would be open too. If I tried to do anythin’, he would send me back in it. Also, I guess there’ll be guards nearby… mmm, what could I do?», I scratched my head. «…What if I showed him my boobs?»

  «What!?», blurted Cogito.

  «Boobs! Boobies… Breast, ya know?», I explained.

  «You’re a total jerk! You, shameless jerk!», he yelled deeply shocked.

  «No, you’re right. In my opinion? He likes men.», I said.

  «I did not mean that!», he sighed.

  «But who knows… Maybe the guards…»

  «This would not work in any case! Cut it out!», he shouted.

  I kept on thinking until I heard suspicious sounds. I got used to that, by now: I couldn’t end a conversation with Cogito, that something occurred. Unsheathed my claws, I stealthily awaited hidden behind a wall. As soon as I saw the figure approaching, I jumped on him and aimed the blades at its neck.

  «Wh—?», I said puzzled. The figure was the red demon

  «Halt! Halt!», he begged frightened.

  «You were supposed to be dead», I said without retracting my claws.

  «I survived by hiding in a wall’s hollow, but my brothers did not. They’re all dead.» he explained.

  «Why did you attack us?», I asked brushing my claws against his white neck.

  «What would you do if a burglar broke into your house? You would attack him, right?», said the demon.

  «No. I would hang him by his feet, open up his stomach and then I would eat the guts », I explained briefly while he stared at me horrified. «However, that house ain’t yours!», I tried to put the squeeze on him.

  «It used to! Before that damn fool of a Baron took possession of it!», he talked back.

  «Tsk! You make it sound like a freakin’ wandering spirits tale!», I grunted realising him. I realised the demon was not the danger in there, that’s why I set him free. He could be quite useful.

  «You won’t kill me!?»,

  I watched his long and slender legs swinging as parched rushes.

  «No», I took a look around, «We’re both behind bars here».

  I sat once more on the floor and began to think. The demon looked at me with his big black eyes, which seemed to be dug in a pair of ashen orbits. I did hope he would not start playing: I was trapped in backpack and my dancing will lay on the lowest step of my personal fun-scale. But it was so, however, that I finally got an idea.

  «Hey, you!», I said pointing the demon out. «D’you want to get the hell out of here, avenge your brothers and go back home?», he nodded back as planned. «Listen up! At any moment, the guy who’s locked us will try to pull me out, I will drag you with me, hoping it’ll work. As soon as we’ll be outside you’ll have to start playing, right away!».

  «That would be awesome, but I lost my instrument when he closed us in».

  Awesome. We just had to look for another instrument throughout the hallways of the maze. Moreover, I needed to find something to block my ears, if I didn’t want to fall under the demon’s dancing spell. And, as if this wasn’t enough, Cogito disappointment came timely to add fuel to my fire.

  «It will never work!».

  «Maybe, but it’s worth a try! C’mon, demon! You’re comin’ with me!», I urged him.

  We carried on walking for a long time. That place was a real tangle of paths. But, in the end, we found ourselves before a donkey’s skeleton that was clutching a lute.

  «We got an instrument!», I exclaimed excited. «Hold on. Why the hell this donkey has a lute?», I asked.

  «What a question is that? He used to play it!», Cogito scoffed at me.

  «Okay, how can a donkey…»

  «Master!», shouted the demon, rushing to the bag of bones. «So that’s where he ended up! Oh, that’s so sad!», he whimpered in despair.

  I stood petrified for a little time. If everything wasn’t so odd and dramatic at the same time, that would look like a tragicomic scene.

  The demon cried grieving over and narrating the praises of his teacher, but I
was lured by a small heap of adult magazines that had been left in a corner — who knows when. So, I bent down and took one of them to page through it. There were only me. Maybe — I thought — even if I had put the telescope inside Tail, I wouldn’t be the first.

  «See? He fancies men!», I said referring to Cogito in a triumphant voice.

  «I already told you that this was not the point!», he replied upset.

  «You’re right». I had not time to waste on sexual preferences, no matter whose. I just had to comfort a musician depressed demon that, at that moment, played a vital role in my plan.

  «Stop whining!», I told him off. «Can you make it work?»

  «Sure thing! The master…»

  «Okay, okay. Fine! Got it!», I stopped him by waving my arms before his face. «So, is it clear what you have to do?»

  «Yes, I play the lute!», then a brief silence followed. «…But then?»

  «Then you’ll leave it to me!».

  I searched amidst the scraps and the bric-a-bracs something that could plug my ears, and, in the end, I found a tangle of earphones: by unravelling them, to take a pair, I wondered myself how much ambiguous and odd that world could be. But my questions quieted down when we heard, as an echo, Tail’s voice talking to some guards.

  I approached the demon and grabbed him tightly, at the same time as Tail negotiated with the sentinels. I stood sharp and put the earphones on. A shining gap opened through that black sea above us; a cut sound and then an undertow, an authentic water swirl that began to lash its stormy whips right towards me.

  I felt, once again, an unpleasant sensation to the height of my stomach: as if an invisible hand had grabbed me for my guts. I felt my body bending out of shape and I hold the demon tight for his arm, while that dazzling light tried to suck me at all costs. I put up a certain resistance and I seemed to feel my own flesh grazing away from the bones. Despite the pain, the nausea, despite the fact that I was pissed off, I held on tight. The backpack was forced to throw me out; with me he spat the demon as well, who began to play his instrument immediately.

  Even though I was exhausted and in spite of the temporal journey, I managed to cling the backpack and then closed it right away.

  I now held the magic item.

  Tail placed a kick in my stomach flinging me away, but he had no time for a second hit, because he soon started to dance and could not stop himself. I kept the backpack with me, since I didn’t want Tail to cage me again. I trusted so much my plain that I even had the time to take a look around: there were three guards dressed in armours made of rusted and metal pieces; pieces that were glued together with coarse welds and patched with studs. The couldn’t help but dancing like mad. I was amused by that scene, but in the distance two threatening robots were approaching for they were secure against my demon's power. Once again, I did not know what to do. I got up on my feet and then I began to walk back and forth, for I felt defenceless and unable to concretely do something.

  «If only I could use myself this backpack!», I thought angry, trying to make it suck the automatons. Nevertheless, apart from Cogito’s annoying whine, nothing happened.

  «Shit! If only I could use...If only...», and then I remembered: my skill. «I want this backpack to become a weapon that can suck up whoever I want in a maze with no egress!», I thought.

  Shortly after, the rucksack changed its shape into that of a bazooka that worked as hoover.

  «Hello mama’s boys!», I cried out loud, «Here’s your din-dins! Remember to wash your hands, first!», I pushed the button and a wave of air grabbed the androids, shrinking them like two cans; dragging them inside the hoover big mouth: two fleshy lips with sharped teeth.

  I clenched my fingers in a victorious fist and then I aimed my bad-ass hoover towards Tail, which still danced like a halfwit. It was his turn.

  «Game Over, sweety! Now, have fun with your masochist guards-friends in my labyrinth. Feel free to put whatever you want wherever you like!», I pushed the button. «Bye bye, Brother Lustig!», and, in a second, they were all sucked within.

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I made sure that the demon had stopped playing his music, then I pulled the earphones out and I heard the deafening sound of the alarm bell; only few seconds before it had seemed to me just an annoying buzz.

  «You’d better find a way to get out of here!», I told to the demon. «Go back to the stronghold, get wed and have children, many children!», I added soothingly.

  «I will keep you in my mind», he spoke in a great bow and after that he ran away

  «Get wed and have children?», Cogito echoed. «What the hell kind of greeting is that?»

  «I know! The idea of getting married and having children makes my skin crawl!»

  «That was not what I meant»

  «Let’s not waste any more time! Where is this guy, Ducksfright, Dashfries, Darkfly…»

  «It’s Darknight», Cogito said angrily. «His name’s Darknight! Turn on your right and proceed down the corridor!».

  The Tower was a place built up in steel; everything, from the scaffoldings to the floor, had been made using that material. It had high ceilings and the corridors were wide as much as they were long; but these latter were not filled with anything except for the long-necked cameras anchored onto walls, that followed me as I ran with their artificial eyes. I was following Cogito’s direction, as always, and after a while we met new androids and guards which stood in our way. But I held my bad-ass hoover in my hands and so I used it for a second time, and then again, making everyone vanish in a blink of an eye. And that went on for quite a few minutes: here and there, we cleaned out everything and anyone and — to be honest — we were having some fun. Up until, unexpectedly, we found ourselves before a flight of stairs embedded in a round-shaped room, which looked somehow darker than the others we had left behind. There, in that room, even the steel appeared to be listless and bashed, but more than ever.

  «Now you have to climb up to the 45th floor!», said Cogito fiercely. «C’mon lady! Those stairs aren’t gonna be climbed by their own!»

  I stood still, silently. The stairs jumped upward into a spin, as far as my eyes could see. A smirk warped my lips. The moment Cogito spoke to question me what I was waiting for, was the moment I noticed a goods lift not so far.

  «I guess we could jump on it», he muttered.

  «Did you say 46th floor?», asked I.

  «I said 45th, actually».

  «You sure? I thought it was the 44th»

  «I’m sure!», he affirmed. «But, wait! Maybe… Maybe it was… Maybe you’re right…»

  «Can’t you read it on the map?»

  «I can’t», he replied desperately. «Snow White have paid someone to find it out, but she never saved it in my database! She feared to create a glitch and that this could give the Queen the chance to track us down! Diggity!»

  «Okay. We’re going to the 44th floor. In case this wasn’t not the right floor, we’ll have to check the 45th and then the 46th. God, this is such a tongue-twister!», I said while activating and getting on the goods lift. «Try to say 44th, 45th, 46th, in a row!»

  «I don’t play such jerky games!», he said indignantly, whereas I kept on repeating the floors’ number several times — mixing up the letters.

  The lift was a circle in the heart of that spiralling staircase. From there, I could see the passageways surrounding us, but also the crown of armoured lockups along the walls. From those cells the only thing that left were the feeble laments of the prisoners. But their cries were strangled by the noise coming out of the alarm bell, which lessened little at time as we reached for the top. When in the end we stopped at the 44th floor, the cockpit wavered treacherously. I grasped the rope, but a slight and electric tremor forced me to let it go.

  I turned around and saw that we stood before a huge, bolted, portal. I quit the creaking cab by opening the small door that brought to the attaining footboard of the floor.

  I moved few steps onward.
The semi round open space we have reached had no other paths nor crossroads, except for that gate. I heard my footsteps thundering above the noise of the alarm bell, which was but a distant buzz, at that height.

  «What d’you say? Shall we knock or make an entrance?», I asked Cogito.

  «Seems like you’re having fun», he reprimanded me.

  «Having fun keeps my mind from thinking about my abstinence. Even though I’m pretty used to tame it. Anyway, I choose to make and entrance!»

  «You’re being a gasbag, now. Your Transformer skill has a limit: any abuse will cause the item to get back on its original shape. And you won’t be able to change it a second time», he explained.

  «It’ll be enough to find something else and turn it into a hover. Right?»

  «You can’t do that. You were allowed to transform the rucksack in a suck-up-all weapon just because that was its essence, its nature.», he said. «So, be careful!»

  «Balls!», I grunted. «What can I do, then?»

  «Cross the threshold carefully».

  «Awesome! How can I open this colossal and limitless gate?»

  «I have not the slightest idea.»

  «Shall I knock?»

  «Don’t be ridiculous!»

  I passed over his remonstrations and knocked loudly. We kept a sharp look-out, ready for a signal of any sort.

  Nothing happened.

  «Well, at least I’ve tried», said I listlessly, turning my back to the door.

  «Told you s..», Cogito blurted out loud.

  An ear-splitting creaking cut his sentence, brusquely, and a blissful melody filled the empty space.

  Slowly, I turned around again and saw a figure, on the threshold, who stared at me all dressed in latex; a latex-made tunic which tightened the waistline of the shadow with a studded belt. Right, it was staring at me. Or, at least, that’s what I supposed the figure was doing from behind its big bottle-top glasses: they had been fixed to a pointy hat and to the mask’s filter which veiled both mouth and nose.