In the end, I can’t just think about myself... I also have a family to protect.
Snow trudged forward through the forest, barely taking healthy steps as her dress had been tattered to shreds with the ends burnt terribly. In her hand was a worn out photo that False’s mother had shown her barely a week ago along with some of False’s notes for his experiments. It was a photo of a young Sophie Anderson smiling happily with his mother; this happened to be his mother’s precious keepsake. The photo had been stolen and placed into Jacques’ hands, in which Snow chased after him just to retrieve it back. She knew how important this photo was to his mother and how it surely must have been important to False as well.
Frère Jacques, frère Jacques,
The masculine voice that begun to sing this lullaby that she had come to despise was nearing her ever so slowly. She held onto a tree branch, rounding the tree in front of her and looking back while she saw the glint of the glasses nearby. Swallowing hard, she continued to dash forward in hopes of getting back to the sanatorium. It would explain her absence and why she wasn’t there to comfort anyone. She needed to find False and his mother so that she could hand him this photo without any regrets. After all, Snow knew how much False cherished his mother and this was a fact that she was going to take care of and respect.
Dormez-vous ? Dormez-vous ?
“Ah, Snowflake dear, why would you steal such precious things from me?” he called out. Snow ended up falling, body unable to keep up while she backed up in her spot as a shadowy figure approached her in the dark depths of the eerie forest. He placed his hands together and started to clap, laughing at her efforts to be heroic yet turn out to be a failure in the end. “I applaud your efforts but as I have said and surely your lover will agree, you’re nothing but a failure... my ultimate creation that failed.” he said in a loud voice, crouching in front of her while cracking his neck.
Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines!
“I’m not a failure.” she answered coldly, glaring at him from afar as all he could do was laugh at her comment. Standing back up in his spot as he walked toward the girl closer, he pulled something out of his pocket. Snow watched him reach out for the papers and photo in her hand, struggling against him to not let him take it again but since she was so weak, his grip was stronger and thus, he got them back. But this was where Jacques wanted to see what decision Snow would make as he finally revealed what he had his pocket.
“I’ll give you a choice. You can have this photo and papers back or you can have these letters from your real family that I have stolen. Choose wisely, my dear.” he smirked, holding up both documents in his hands. In his hands were the only physical keepsakes she had left from her family, the letters that give her a sense of what they were truly like. Those letters were so important to her that she ended up thrashing in her spot, unable to move properly to get them back. “W-Why....” she said in a cracked tone.
It was a test from Jacques to see what was going to be more important in the end.
“Oh? What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to get these back so quickly for your dear lover.” he said, shaking the photo and False’s notes in her face. He started to laugh while he crouched down in front of her, taking one of the letters from her family members and opening it up to read in front of her face. “Oh, how delightful... this one is from your mother.” he mused. These were something that only Snow’s eyes should have seen that she started to scream, wincing from her injuries earlier.
I hope that you never forget about us. I hope you know how much we love you now that you’re in this world. And that no matter what, we will always stick with you through thick and thin. There is something that you must know and I hope that it won’t change how things are between us. But Snowflake, the truth that you need to know is that I am--’ he paused, beginning to laugh while he sighed to himself and didn’t bother finishing the letter or it would only satisfy Snow in a way. Instead, he took out his lighter and waved it under the letters and then towards False’s stuff. Snow pleaded for him to not do anything yet. “Well, what is it, my dear?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.
Snow looked back and forth between the letters from her family and the photo/papers for False. After he read that letter to her, she wanted to know what it was that her mother was hiding but at the same time, she also knew how important that photo and papers were to False and his mother. All of the letters from her family were a gateway to what could have been and it was the only way Snow could keep close to them now that they were up in the stars. Swallowing hard, Snow knew that she was making a sacrifice here as her bangs covered her eyes. Pointing at the one she wanted to keep, Jacques started to laugh and threw the contents into his daughter’s arms as she was forced to watch him set the other stuff on fire.
The tears were trailing down her cheeks in silence as she glanced down at the burn marks across her skin and the dry blood upon the fabric of her white dress. Backing up in her spot, dirt getting all over the back of her dress, she watched him smirk in her direction. “Pathetic piece of shit.” he said, spitting at her face and throwing the burnt pieces at her while she hugged the safe documents close to her chest. Jacques turned his back, satisfied with what he did as this was what he and Maria wanted. “My dear, we shall play again and next time it will only be worse.” he cackled, walking away and leaving her all alone in the forest.
All the life drained from her eyes in that moment while she stared down at the burnt pieces upon her lap. She knew there was going to be so much regret and she knew how much it was going to change things now. Getting up in her spot, she staggered and fell a few times while trying to make her way back to the sanatorium at this point. For a while, she felt so empty in her heart after what just happened and there was nothing she could do in trying to save everything because of her weak state. Touching her swollen eye, she didn’t say a word and finally arrived to the entrance of Clan.
Two days I have been gone...
The creak of the doors could be heard as she trudged through the elegant interior of the sanatorium. Heading up the stairs, she walked down the tall corridors, steps echoing through the deafening silence. Arriving to a door, she pushed it open and saw the damaging room and the blanket of blood that covered it. At this point, she couldn’t find the will to react but knew that she had to finally be there for her own lover. Reaching for his shoulder, she tapped him and as he turned to her, she hid away her tears and rose up her hands to reveal the photo and the papers to his experiments. Her hands were trembling as she beckoned for him to take them.
The tortured and bruised girl had a swollen eye, red claw marks across her torn sleeves and burnt marks placed variously across her tattered dress. The last forty eight hours had been hell in trying to get back these precious things. “I’m sorry I’m late...” was all she could say to him, dropping to her knees and reaching out for the broken boy. Her eyes started to shut while she held onto him in the dead silence that took place in his room.
Giving up her letters from her family and never knowing what her mother was hiding from her was painful but it could never compare to the isolating pain that False had to suffer this entire time. And that photo and those papers were something that she couldn’t let him lose either. He had already lost so much and that’s why she took the sacrifice of her stuff instead. It was a test but it also showed how seriously important Snow took False’s life into consideration. It showed how much she cared and wanted him to be happy, to never lose anything else. And while it might have seemed like a pathetic move to others, Snow would stick by her reasons because she loved the TRUMP dearly.
I know that at this rate, I can never learn anything else about my real family. Those letters were the only thing that I had left of them in this world but at the same time, I never knew them physically. I know that them watching over me from the stars is enough. And I also know how much False loves and cares for his mother... I couldn’t afford to lose these things because of that. I never knew what it was like to have a mother physically love me but I see the love and young Sophie Anderson in False’s eyes when his mother is around, a life that wasn’t trapped by TRUMP... and if I can still keep that alive somehow, I will do it.
Because I know that my own mother would support my decision. A mother never stops loving you even if you’re far from one another. This is what I have learned as a mother myself. When Ul and I were far from each other and he was in Hel’s hands, I never stopped loving him. This is what has helped me to grow as a person and this is what I need to do in order to protect my family too.
This is what it means to sacrifice.