Chapter 3
I pushed open the half-shut door and was stunned by the scene before me.
There were seven-no, only six Dwarfs inside.
And Snow White was no longer the way I remembered her. She wore a red bow, and her dress was red and blue, but it was tattered and filthy with grease stains. She was kneeling on the floor, polishing the Dwarfs’ shoes.
“Hey, fellas, look who’s here!” A Dwarf with a belly like a ball-twice the size of the others-warmly invited us in.
“Oh, it’s girls-two of them. Such pretty faces, such curvy figures… I’d really like to have a proper taste-”
“Can you put that out-of-place lust of yours away for once? You woke me up!”
A Dwarf, his face twisted with rage, slammed a fist into the other.
Little Red Riding Hood and I looked at each other.
The Dwarfs had Snow White make a whole table of dishes and called for Little Red Riding Hood and me to eat with them. While they weren’t paying attention, we slipped into the kitchen and exchanged information with Snow White.
There were seven Dwarfs in total, each representing one of the seven deadly sins: Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust.
Snow White had been placed under a curse. Only when all the Dwarfs were dead could she leave this little cabin. But an additional rule prevented her from killing them with her own hands, so she could only set things up and make them slaughter one another.
Yesterday, Envy killed Sloth, because Snow White deliberately confessed her love to Sloth-who was sleeping like the dead-right in front of Envy, thus provoking Envy’s murderous intent.
“Later, I’m going to have Wrath kill Gluttony. This time I didn’t prepare enough dinner. Once Gluttony eats everyone else’s portions by himself, Wrath will naturally take it out on him.”
After whispering the plan to us, Snow White went back to cooking. To avoid arousing the Dwarfs’ suspicion, Little Red Riding Hood and I left the kitchen.
After dinner was ready, before the Dwarfs had even started eating, a rapid, urgent knock suddenly sounded from outside.
The Witch pushed the door open and walked in. In her hand wasn’t a red apple, but a cluster of Black Grapes.
“Everyone, please forgive my unannounced visit.” The Witch raised the fruit in her hand and drawled, “This bunch of grapes-eat just one, and you can have a wish granted.”
I counted carefully. There were seven grapes in total.
Gluttony, all fat and flab, charged up first and bit into a grape without the slightest courtesy.
“I want delicious food that I can never finish eating for the rest of my life!”
As soon as he made his wish, the dishes on the table underwent a bizarre change: one chicken now had seven legs and wings. Gluttony’s eyes gleamed as he sprawled over the table. No matter how much he ate, the food would grow back.
Lust stepped forward second. He gnawed down a grape and pointed at Snow White. “I want ten wives as beautiful as her.”
The moment he spoke, ten women identical to Snow White appeared in the room, but on closer inspection, they were all stiff Puppets.
Third to try was Greed. He plucked three grapes at once and ate them all by himself.
“I want to be the most handsome man in the world, I want to be the richest Prince in the world, and I want to marry the most perfect woman in the world!”
After rattling off three wishes in one breath, he turned into an impossibly handsome Prince, with a flawless woman standing at his side. When the two of them kissed, countless gold coins and jewels would spill from the woman’s mouth.
The next second, Pride snatched a grape aggressively. “I want all the Dwarfs to obey only my commands!”
The moment he finished, Gluttony stopped eating; Lust collapsed on top of the Puppets without moving; Greed clutched gold bars with a vacant expression. Wrath and Envy, who hadn’t yet eaten any grapes, also became unable to move.
“Idiots. A bunch of fools who do nothing but sew wedding clothes for others-ha… ha… hahahaha…”
The smug Pride looked at the Dwarfs in the room-now all at his beck and call-and laughed triumphantly, completely failing to notice Snow White picking up the last grape.
“Don’t eat it! The Witch has bad intentions!”
Little Red Riding Hood and I shouted in unison, but before we could stop her, she swallowed the Black Grapes and said coldly, “I want the curse broken, and I want to leave this place.”
The instant her words fell, the little cabin became deathly quiet.
So quiet that we could hear the strange sound in Snow White’s throat.
“Mommy, Mommy.”
Snow White looked around in terror, searching for the source-but it was the grape she had swallowed that was speaking.
[Food doesn’t talk. If you discover food that can talk, do not eat it; destroy it immediately.]
Snow White had broken the rule.
In an instant, her young, beautiful face turned sallow and withered. Her belly slowly swelled into an enormous balloon, crawling with horrifying purplish-red striations.
From inside her stomach came the voice of an innocent child.
“Mommy, Mommy.”
The Witch propped up Snow White, who was now too weak to fight back, and dragged her outside.
“My dear Snow White, congratulations-you’re carrying royal noble blood. I’ll take you back to the castle and hold a grand wedding for you and the Prince.”
Little Red Riding Hood and I chased out after them, but Snow White and the Witch had already vanished from sight.
She had indeed fulfilled the wish she’d made: leaving this place.
Just then, neat, synchronized footsteps sounded behind us.
“Snow White… gone… no… servant…”
I turned around in horror and saw Pride advancing toward us with a crowd of Dwarfs.
“You… hateful… must… stay…”
This was bad.
Little Red Riding Hood and I didn’t have time to think. We fled deep into the forest. But the Dwarfs commanded the Puppet Snow White they had created earlier, and it chased after us effortlessly.
The distance kept closing.
The Puppet’s claws were about to seize the hem of my skirt.
Suddenly, a familiar carriage came rolling in from afar. Little Red Riding Hood and I threw ourselves forward with all our strength and successfully tumbled into the Pumpkin Carriage.
“Thank goodness for Cinderella-otherwise we would’ve died at the hands of that bunch of mad Dwarfs.”
Little Red Riding Hood slumped in her seat and adjusted her Red Hood.
I didn’t echo her words, because I noticed that in the corner of the carriage lay a blood-soaked Glass Slipper.
Other than Little Red Riding Hood and me, there was no one else inside.