Ehrhart

Last Plot Twist :-) (For Now)

The four children, breathless and exhausted, took about ten minutes or so to regain their composure. Anastasia ripped part of her tunic at the trim and tied up her wound, though it still burned. Snow White helped to clean it as best she could, and finally, after everyone felt slightly better after the horrific experience, they all crowded around the Evil Queen's unconscious, dying body.

Suddenly, she didn't seem like the second-fairest person in the land anymore.

"The throne room," Snow White said softly. "We must put her where she belongs-- on her throne."

It seemed strange, but it also seemed right somehow. So the four of them took a limb and carried the Queen into the throne room, leaving a trail of blood behind. They rested her on the throne in an awkward position, and Dopey made her arms cross similar to Snow White's when she had been in the glass coffin. It seemed symbolic somehow, but how so, Anastasia couldn't quite place.

Then something incredible happened. Somehow, life became sucked back into the Evil Queen's body for one horrific moment, and her head turned to the Magic Mirror, which still hung on the wall, and she spoke one word, her voice gurgling with blood: "Haderoy!" Then she coughed, sputtered, and then returned to her limp, lifeless position.

The children stood frozen, staring at the Queen. Then they turned their heads at the sound of breaking glass. As if on its own, the Magic Mirror began to shatter.

"No!" Anastasia yelled, running toward it. "Ehrhart! No!"

Then the Magic Mirror shattered into a thousand pieces that landed on the floor. Sobbing, Anastasia gazed at her cracked, broken, sorrowful expression in the shattered glass. She looked so different now from the girl she'd seen when she'd first looked back at herself through the Magic Mirror. More scarred. More mature. More... Anastasia.

She wiped away her tears and sputtered, "I... I... My promise... I..."

"Come," Casper said, his voice rough and sad. "The Evil Queen is dead. It's time for celebration."

But none of them felt like celebrating.