NOTE TO READERS: The prologue and Chapter 1are in my portfolio. I know I have made quite a few mistakes on this so I'll be needing some help from everyone! Thankyou!
------
“Damn it, Hansel, the rats ate the crumbs,” Gretel stared, disappointed, at the sidewalk. The two children slouched, dirty faced, in the shadows of an alleyway.
Hansel sighed and tried to hold back helpless tears, “It was bound to happen; if only we had been able to use stones like last time.”
“This is all that woman’s fault,” Gretel spat, “She strolls in on our lives, decides to become our mother, eats too damn much, makes us filthy poor, and convinces our dying father to disown us. Who the hell does she think she is?”
Hansel shrugged and looked down at the pavement, “Maybe the rats didn’t eat all of the crumbs.” He peeked around the corner, his face illuminated by the orange-yellow glow of the street lamps. “Nope, I can’t see anything,” he turned back around to face Gretel and accidentally nudged a trash can. Its metal lid clanked and rattled before Gretel reached out and silenced the vibrations.
“You’ll get the police after us,” she hissed into his face
“Sorry.”
“Whatever.”
“What’re we going to do?” Hansel hazarded to inquire.
“How should I know?” Gretel snapped in return.
Hansel gave a slight flinch before continuing into dangerous territories, “We could always go to Candie.”
Gretel reached up to slap him, but her hand froze midair. “That’s a terrible idea,” she mock pouted, “Although it may be a good option.” Her voice shook slightly, allowing the fear she felt to bleed through.
Hansel nodded slightly and carefully agreed, “I thought so. She has food and a map of the city, probably.”
Gretel’s hand recovered from shock and slapped Hansel across the face.
“Idiot! You speak of her as if she’s safe. She’s a witch, I swear she is. She’ll invite in any person into her home. She’ll feed them until their ripe and fat and then she feasts upon them. She’s grown frail and thin because normal people have wizened up to her scheme and they stay away, but she’s always looking for new prey,” Gretel whispered dramatically, flailing her hands around in wild gestures. Hansel crossed his arms and pouted.
“I’m not afraid,” he mumbled, his eyes fixed at the ground.
“Of Course you’re not, and you wouldn’t when you see her either. They say she’s beautiful, except for when she smiles. Then, they say, you can see her white pointy teeth that she files on her own,” Gretel continued her tale, whispering quieter now, as if the very words she spoke composed a deadly secret.
“You sure say ‘they’ a lot; who do you mean by ‘they’?” Hansel asked.
Gretel rolled her eyes and took a moment to think. “The ones who survived, I guess.”
“I could survive if anyone could,” Hansel objected.
“No you couldn’t. You have too much confidence for your own good. You wouldn’t last a week being fed by her. Besides, I heard that story from Rossa,” Gretel held her nose ever so slightly into the air.
“What does Rossa have anything to do with Candie?” Hansel asked.
“Rossa and her brother have the ‘honor’ to visit Candie and return alive.”
“Why?”
Gretel looked at him with raised eyebrows, “Hasn’t Father talked to you about us?”
“Us?” Hansel’s eyebrows bunched together.
“Right, I guess not then. Well,” Gretel glanced around at the shadows of the alleyway suspiciously, “I think you’re old enough. Father was supposed to tell you around this age, but seeing to the fact that we’re utterly lost, I guess its fine to tell you.” Gretel took a seat on the dark ground and crossed her legs, and Hansel mirrored her actions and did the same. He leaned in closed her to her words as she spoke them.
“Father told me that we are special. People like Rossa, Faolan, You, and me, we’re all fairy tales.”
“What are you talking about?” Hansel interrupted.
“Don’t interrupt me. Anyways, we’re literally fairy tales come to life. Fairy Tales are written, but we aren’t allowed to read them because we’d end up knowing our future. Father explained that if we did break any of the rules we were to abide by, Candie, the goddess of folklore, will find and punish us.
She is called something different by every family. For example: Rossa, Faolan, and her mother all call her Alda. Father says that Candie requires a sacrifice of wine and cakes from Rossa’s mother every day. Rossa delivers them to her, and the rest of Candie’s meals are supposedly human,” Gretel leaned slightly in and quieted her whisper for dramatic effect.
“This is ridiculous,” Hansel objected, “What about Faolan then? What’s so special about him?”
“Well, do you notice that Faolan is gone for long periods of time?”
“Yeah…”
“During these times, he is sneaking around, being Candie’s eyes and ears, doing her dirty work, or taking her place and making sure the others obey the laws,” Gretel’s set face made Hansel’s doubtful one into one of grim acceptance.
“What does it matter if we’re fairy tales or not?” Hansel questioned.
“It’s like being prophesized about, I guess. I mean, someone knew our story before it happened. Other than that, I don’t know.”
“This is stupid. Why would we need a separate ruler? Are we going to affect anyone or anything?” Hansel’s voice was tinted with denial.
“I said I don’t know, damn it!”
Hansel flinched, “Sorry.”
Gretel stood and pulled her brother up after her as a car drove by. After catching them in the headlights, the car's red and blue lights glimmered for a moment accompanied by a wailing siren.
It sounded like someone had yelled “Surprise!” as another guest of the party came through the door. The ‘surprise’ slowly lowered in pitch and came to a halt.
A man in a navy suit, which looked black in the darkness, stepped carefully out of the driver’s side door and out onto the pavement. The soles of his shoes audibly ground against the tiny gravel pieces on the road.
“Sorry, wrong button. I didn’t mean to scare you kids,” he looked up over the car and shined a strong flashlight beam into the alleyway, “everything alright here?”
Squinting into the bright white light that decimated all shadows in the alley, Gretel took a moment to hear what the man she could barely see had said.
“Yes sir, we were just taking out the trash,” she yelled back, patting the lid of a nearby trashcan.
“Oh, sorry then, I’ll be on my way,” the officer flicked off his flashlight and climbed back into the car, slamming the door behind him.
The landscape plummeted into sudden darkness, Hansel and Gretel’s eyesight gradually returning. The police officer did not drive away.
Hansel glanced around frantically, spotted the doorknob, grabbed his sister by the wrist, gave the police officer a toothy grin, and dashed inside the apartment’s humid stairwell.
He put his ear to the metal door and smirked as the roar of the engine grew further and further away.
Gretel took a moment to observe where he younger brother had dragged her. It was stuffy and the square LED light overhead was dotted from the inside with the bodies of small bugs.
Hansel stood up straight and turned to face his sister, “He’s gone.”
“Good.”
“So, we’re fairy tales then.”
“That’s right,” Gretel nodded slowly.
“I guess that’s why we’re not allowed in school; so we won’t hear any fairy tales.”
Gretel nodded again.
Hansel smirked, he had caught her now, “Then why did Rossa and Faolan go to high school and drop out?”
Gretel’s blue, bright eyes dulled, “Stupid! The lied, of course! They never went to school at all!”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, ‘oh.’”
“Well then, does our family have to do anything for Candie?” Hansel asked.
“Obey her laws, nothing else that I know of,” Gretel answered as she peeked out the door into the alleyway, “Come on, no one’s out there.”
They walked into the alleyway and out onto the sidewalk. While strolling along casually, the two silently hoped they were heading home.
-------
Faolan pounded down the street fiercely. Every once in awhile he would look back and see his sister leaning over, her hands on her knees, and panting for breath. He would then run over to her side and attempt to patiently wait.
On one of these moments, Faolan trekked back to Rossa to find her not only out of breath, but sobbing as well.
“Rossa, come on, it’s not much further,” Faolan pleaded.
“It’s not that,” Rossa replied, weakly standing up, “Faolan, I messed up big time. I’m so sorry.”
Faolan replied with honesty, “I don’t know what to say, Rossa. You did mess up, but if we make it to Alda in time we might be able to fix it.”
She nodded and began to walk alongside Faolan who slowly and unnoticeably increased speed until they were once again running through the black streets which sparkled and twinkled like the stars which light pollution dulled.
They ran like comets, and they tread on stars.
