FEATURED STORY
RECENT STORIES
STORIES BY TOPIC
NEWS
TRANSPORTER
Take me to a...
SEARCH
Enter any portion of the author name or story title:
For more options, try our:
SUBSCRIBE
Sign up for free daily sci-fi!
your email will be kept private
TIDBITS
Get a copy of Not Just Rockets and Robots: Daily Science Fiction Year One. 260 adventures into new worlds, fantastical and science fictional. Rocket Dragons Ignite: the anthology for year two, is also available!
SUBMIT
Publish your stories or art on Daily Science Fiction:
If you've already submitted a story, you may check its:
DAILY SCI-FI
Not just rockets & robots...
"Science Fiction" means—to us—everything found in the science fiction section of a bookstore, or at a science fiction convention, or amongst the winners of the Hugo awards given by the World Science Fiction Society. This includes the genres of science fiction (or sci-fi), fantasy, slipstream, alternative history, and even stories with lighter speculative elements. We hope you enjoy the broad range that SF has to offer.






Cracks in the Mirror Glass

Anna Yeatts is a horror and dark fantasy writer hiding out in Pinehurst, NC. Her short fiction has appeared in Penumbra, STRAEON, Spark: A Creative Anthology, and Fantasy Scroll Magazine among others. Anna lives with her two wildling children, two cats, two dogs, two guinea pigs, and the world's most patient husband. She publishes Flash Fiction Online (www.flashfictiononline.com) and can be found at annayeatts.com. Follow her on Twitter @AnnaYeatts.

I didn't miss the little house in the woods until it was gone--its stools carved to fit my stunted legs and its eaves lowered for my unnatural arms to fetch the dried apples down on a winter's night.
Our king has lost his queen. He has ordered his forests cleared. His grief has become my own.
The village is too large for me. Its stairs are too high and the villagers, long limbed and smooth-faced.
"Hideous," the milkmaids call me.
"Dwarf woman," the tavern-keep says.
"Rose Red," I tell them again and again. "My name is Rose Red."
My mother and I huddle in our filthy room, paid for in the potions she is teaching me to make. Her twisted arms hold me tight. Our reflection in the mirror, the only thing my mother brought from the little house, is kind and good.
"You're beautiful," she says. I believe her.
The king and his little daughter will pass through the village in three days time. My mother and I will beg him for our little house in the woods.
The tavern-keep wants an enchanted barrel that will never run dry. His slick, leather boots reach as high as my chest when he bargains with my mother. He brings his daughter, a green-eyed beauty with red lips that frown at the sight of me.
His daughter wants a love potion to serve the king. She would be the new queen.
My mother shakes her head. "Magic for self always ends poorly," she tells them both.
The tavern-keep will not accept this. He threatens and stomps his enormous feet. But my mother doesn't tremble.
He spits on us.
His daughter hesitates.
I stare at the gob of spit on my mother's skirt.
I beg her to make the barrel and potion. Perhaps the tavern-keep's daughter will become queen and grant us our little house.
The tavern-keep rants. His daughter tells tales of the monstrous dwarves—half male, half female ghouls who steal love from the unwitting and spin it into foul magic.
My mother sends me to collect marigolds for a tonic. The baker's boy and his friends chase me down an alley. The tavern-keep's daughter watches from the window above. She turns away when they beat me with a stick.
"Monster!" the baker's boy says.
"Die!" his friends say.
I cover my oversized head.
"Rose Red," I say. "My name is Rose Red."
When I stagger home, my mother is not there to comfort me. The mirror lies cracked on the floor. I collapse in our pallet of rags, pretending I hear her voice reminding me that I am beautiful. My shattered reflection shows me a bloodied dwarf with a torn face.
My mother does not come home. Not that day, nor the next, nor any day after.
The tavern-keep laughs when I work up the courage to ask him. He sizes me up like a huntsman his prey. "Better dead than like you."
As I leave, his daughter whispers the foul things the village boys will do to my deformed corpse. "Like your mother," she says.
I flee, but my bandy legs are not fast enough and my gait is a waddle instead of a run.
Cracks slash my reflection in the broken mirror. I am not beautiful no matter what my mother said.
But I am Rose Red.
My mother has taught me well. And our larder of ingredients is well stocked. But the enchantment is difficult. I curl up on the floor and rest, mirror clutched against my chest, for a night and a day, before I am strong enough to go on.
"You are beautiful," I tell the mirror.
My face contorts into a withered mask, but the cracked glass heals. The mirror takes on the faintest sheen. My joints ache.
I force one foot in front of the other. My back is crooked now, and my fingers curled into claws. I clutch the mirror to my chest.
Dust on the horizon and flaring trumpets announce that the king and his little daughter are nearing our village.
I shuffle to the tavern. The tavern-keep's daughter doesn't recognize me. She cringes from my toothless smile.
"Go away, old crone" she says.
"A gift for the future queen." With shaking arms, I hold out the mirror.
The reflection of her glowing skin and red lips entrances her, and draws her forward.
The king's carriage rattles into sight. His little daughter sits upon his lap--hair black as coal, skin white as snow. She is a beautiful child.
The tavern-keep's daughter lifts her eyes to the king's as he passes.
"Mirror, mirror," I whisper as I pass the mirror into the keeping of my enemy, "who's the fairest of them all?"
"I am," the tavern-keep's daughter says.
The king's carriage draws to a stop.
"Yes, my Queen," the mirror answers.
"For now," I whisper. The child truly is beautiful.
The End
This story was first published on Wednesday, April 8th, 2015


Author Comments

This story came from a flash fiction challenge at Liberty Hall. I love a good cracked fairy tale and I'm especially obsessed with villains. But even villains have to come from somewhere. I started thinking about where Snow White's wicked queen might have originated and how she might have come upon her infamous magic mirror. And since the traditional version leaves out all the female dwarves, I had to add Rose Red to the mix. My eleven-year-old, budding horror writer daughter gave this story the green light so off into the world it went.

- Anna Yeatts
Become a Member!

We hope you're enjoying Cracks in the Mirror Glass by Anna Yeatts.

Please support Daily Science Fiction by becoming a member.

Daily Science Fiction is not accepting memberships or donations at this time.

Rate This Story
Please click to rate this story from 1 (ho-hum) to 7 (excellent!):

Please don't read too much into these ratings. For many reasons, a superior story may not get a superior score.

5.1 Rocket Dragons Average
Share This Story
Join Mailing list
Please join our mailing list and receive free daily sci-fi (your email address will be kept 100% private):