Those Who Dream of Freedom (Scaramouche x fem!reader)

Chapter 13 ☆ Stories

☆ y/n

"Once upon a time there was an emperor and a Queen, both young and beautiful. One winter, as the snow fell from the unmarked heights of the sky with great, fluffy flakes, the Queen happened to be sewing by a window with a black, ebony sill. And as she sewed like this, looking from time to time at the snowflakes, she pricked her finger with the needle. Three drops of blood then fell on the carpet of mildew. The red of the blood looked so beautiful against the immaculate white of the snow that the Queen said to herself: 'What I wouldn't give to have a child with a face as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony!'"

It's raining tonight.

I came home to Scaramouche quite early in the morning, as I wrote in my note. He was still asleep when I arrived, but I found the note left open on the floor. While I waited for him to wake up, I made some more food that I knew would help me when I was little.

Yesterday evening, after drinking some more of Zoe's tea I felt much better and felt like I could do anything, so I had no problem leaving the house so early this morning.

I didn't spend all day at Scaramouche's house, but I did go back to his place from time to time to see how he was doing. The whole time I was wandering around I noticed that no one came to visit, and that made me sad. I realized that what Mr. Goth said was true. He really doesn't have anyone.

Throughout the day I saw storm clouds approaching the city and it wasn't until late in the evening that it started to rain. Something unexpected happened after that, after I went back to his house to make him some more food. At one point lightning flashed and Scaramouche flinched, covering his head with the blanket on the bed. I looked at him so shocked I didn't know what I should do, and when I asked him if he was afraid of thunderstorms he didn't answer. Then, when I wanted to go home, he asked me to stay. I had never seen him like that before, but I blamed it on his condition.

So now I'm still here, waiting for it to stop raining. In the meantime, because I saw that he couldn't fall asleep, I thought I should calm him down, so I started telling him all the stories I could remember. And now I'm telling him...

"Not long after, the Queen gave birth to a little girl just as she had wished: with a face as white as snow, a mouth as red as blood and hair as black as ebony. And they named her Snow-White! But after she gave birth to her daughter, the Queen died."

"An orphan..." I hear Scaramouche say, but he doesn't continue.

"Just from the point of view of her mom's death," I say and then I continue with the story. "As the year passed, the emperor took another wife. The new Queen was beautiful as a fairy, but she was unbelievably haughty, and she wouldn't have allowed anyone else to surpass her in beauty. The Queen had a magic looking-glass, and whenever she looked into it, she never forgot to ask it: 'Looking-glass upon the wall, who is fairest of us all?'. And the looking-glass would answer: 'You are, my dear, you are the fairest of them all!'. Hearing this, the Queen was contented, for she knew that the looking-glass was telling nothing but the truth."

Scaramouche is staring at the ceiling.

"Now, Snow-White was growing prettier and prettier, and when she was seven years old she was as beautiful as day, far more so than the Queen herself. One day, the Queen asked her looking-glass again: 'Looking-glass upon the wall, who is fairest of us all?'. The looking-glass answered her thus: 'Queen, you are full fair, 'tis true, but Snow-White fairer is than you.'"

Now he's looking at me, but I don't see a smile on his face. Of all the things I didn't expect from him, being afraid of storms was last on the list. It seems so childish.

"This gave the Queen a great shock, and she became yellow and green with envy. Her heart grew like the evil weed, and her pity had taken root so deeply that she could not rest day or night. And so it went on for a few more years... Finally, the Queen could no longer bear to see the child's face. She called a skilled hunter and ordered him: 'Take the child out into the woods, so that I may set eyes on her no more. You must put her to death, and bring me her heart for a token.'"