Vanity

'Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" The queen would stare at her reflection, and wait for a response. "It's you, my queen. You're the fairest of them all." The queen would smile with satisfaction. and went on with her maleficent life. 

Until one day, the  mirror answered "It is no longer you, my queen. Snow White is the fairest of them all." I wonder if the queen grimaced then. "What the heck, Snow White. I wanted one thing. One thing, and you had to take it away from me. Off with her head."  

Thus the hunt began, and Snow White was forced to run for her life.The rest, as we knew, ended happily ever after. 

I've read many reincarnation of the story since, but two stuck to me the most. One was a short story by the almighty Neil Gaiman, called "Snow, Glass, Apples." Another, amply named as "Revolting Rhymes",  was nominated as the best short animation for the Oscar this year. They were two very contrasting view of the original, but one thing remained the same: Vanity would be your downfall. Trust was meant to be broken. Food was weirdly prominent. 

Agatha Christie, the King and Queen of detective novels, had many best sellers. "Crooked House" was not one of them. I fumbled through it one night while learning there was a movie being made. “I've never met a murderer who wasn't vain... It's their vanity that leads to their undoing, nine times out of ten.They may be frightened of being caught, but they can't help strutting and boasting and usually they're sure they've been far too clever to be caught.” 

Sometimes, we were too clever for our own good. Whatever malevolent acts we committed, we wanted the whole world to know. We would give our best Mona Lisa smile, and dangle the secret at the corner of our lips. We would leave enough breadcrumbs for you to hazard a guess, but we would never tell you straight out. We were too vulnerable for prison, mentally and physically. Yet we kept on pushing. Until one day, our deeds would be discovered for the world to see, and then, and only then, we would give our confessions loud and clear. 

What did we have to lose, except our vanity? 

Got a secret
Can you keep it?
Swear this one you’ll save
Better lock it, in your pocket
Taking this one to the grave
If I show you then I know you
Won’t tell what I said
Cause two can keep a secret
If one of them is dead …

Edit: This is the lyrics from Pretty Little Liar's theme song. It's called Secret (haha, so creative), by The Pierces. It's here because it fits today's Penny for Your Thoughts. I'm not that morbid, gosh.