• Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived alone. Beautiful but vain. She spent many hours in front of the mirror in the palace - a gigantic mirror taking up most of one of the castle walls.
    One stormy winter night while standing in front of the mirror, a beggar came to the castle, seeking shelter. The beggar was close to death but the princess, not wanting to be seen housing such a vile looking man, turned him away from her door. The beggar said to the princess
    "If you turn me away from here, I will surely be dead by morning", but still she did not agree to shelter the man.
    "Very well", he said, "as a young man I was cursed by a witch, and after my death I shall return as a spider. A cursed spider, and whoever is bitten by me shall see their worst nightmare reflected back at them in every surface".
    The princess chose not to believe the beggar and sent him back out into the cold, winter night.
    Several weeks passed, and while the princess was sleeping peacefully in her bed a spider scuttled into her chamber. It crawled up a leg of her bed and stalked across her sheets toward her head. Feeling its thick hairy legs make their way toward her, she awoke and called to the spider.
    "Are you the beggar I sent away?"
    "I am. I have come to offer you a choice." the spider replied "You must house me until my natural dying day, catch and feed me insects whenever I please, and you must keep me warm in your home. You must also carry me on your shoulder for the rest of my life".
    The princess was disgusted at such a thought.
    "And what is the other choice?" She asked, angrily.
    "I will bite you" answered the spider, "I will sink my fangs into your flesh and place a curse upon you with my venom. You will live the rest of your life with your very worst nightmare stalking you in any and all reflections."
    The princess, hearing this, was relieved. She did not believe in such a thing as a curse.
    In fact, she assumed the spider to be an apparition, caused by her drowsiness.
    She spat at the spider and started to slumber peacefully, believing its presence to be non existant.
    The spider crawled slowly, so as to not startle her, toward her face. His fangs drawn, he plunged them into the soft skin of her cheek and delighted in the feeling of his curse gushing into her veins. The princess awoke, and killed the spider. Her face painfully swollen, she rushed to the garden to apply ice to her wound. After the pain subsided she returned to her bed and slept until dawn. Awaking slowly, she put on her gown and walked to the palace mirror to disprove her apparent nightmare and see nothing but her reflection.
    She turned to the mirror and saw her worst nightmare.
    Reflected back at her was her own face with with a ******** great mole where the spider bit her. Imagine that.

    The end.