I thought I saw something in the old woman's eyes, heard something in her voice. It started to frighten me, but I fight fear these days. Maybe it worried me more.
She smiled at me. "You like candy, don't you, little girl?"
My brother was busy eating.
I was very hungry, but I didn't like what I saw.
She was still smiling. She was old, and she was offering us food.
To be honest, this was one of the only places we'd ever been where we've been welcome. At least since Mom died. I really hope Dad didn't know about Stella's repeated attempts to lose us in the woods, but I wasn't sure. Home wasn't for us now. We didn't fit in, Hansel and I.
And here this woman was asking us to join her, giving us sweet things to eat. I thought I was being too cautious.
I ate some candy. It was a big mistake.
When I awoke, Hansel was a prisoner, and I was a slave.
What in the distant past broke this woman, this witch? What horrible thing made her this horrible thing?
I swore I'd fight anything like that trying to damage me.
I did my work.
Hansel was under a spell to eat and eat, but he was smart enough to trick the old woman. For a while, anyway.
I don't want to talk about what happened at the oven. I can't stop hearing her screams.
I am a murderer. She was hurting us, would have killed us, and I'm not at all sorry. But still...
When I looked in a mirror just now, I think I saw something in my eyes.
Copyright 2012. Timothy H. Ruppel. All rights reserved.
This work by Timothy H. Ruppel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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