Submitted in response to Words Alive’s prompt, Flip the Script in This Upside-Down New World

Ever since I was a child, I have been raised by my stepmother and been forced to work several hours a day to clean the palace and make it spotless. Whenever I cleaned down in the cellars, I would learn the art of healing from one of the prisoners in my step-mother’s cells. She taught me how to revive an unconscious person and how to make medicines on the spot, in case of an emergency.

Then one day, this Prince showed up at the castle while I was making a wish in the wishing well and we talked for a little while. He was a chivalrous young man. A few days later however, my step-mother’s favorite huntsman took me into a forest and told me that he was escorting me for a walk. However, things took an interesting turn when the huntsman raised his knife to kill me. I was petrified because no one had ever tried to kill me before. Before I screamed, he dropped his weapon and said:

“I’ll make sure no one finds out, run away as fast as you can!”

I nodded, breathlessly and made a run for it as fast as I could.

After facing horrors, I would have never imagined, I managed to find a small house with seven kind, friendly dwarves who I looked after as if they were my siblings. One of those days, that same Prince came over and dropped by the dwarves’ home while I was cleaning. After we talked for a while, an old woman came by and we brought a basket of apples from her. Unsuspectingly, the prince ate an apple, immediately falling to the floor, seemingly dead. When I checked his pulse, it convinced me otherwise. That moment, the dwarves came home and seeing the predicament gave a gasp of horror.

“Give him the kiss of life!” Dopey exclaimed.

I scoffed, effortlessly performing normal CPR, not mouth-to-mouth and revived him, dislodging the piece of apple in his throat.

That day, he had asked me to marry him, but I turned him down, saying I wanted to take care of the animals in the forest and the dwarves’ home. He stalked off, angry that a maiden in shining armor would have to save him, a bachelor in a bind. Heh, I mean after all, don’t judge a book by its cover and you obviously can’t marry a man you just met.

So here I am, Snow white and her seven dwarf brothers, the animals of the forest living happily ever after.

(Bet you didn’t see that one coming, am I right?)