Chapter 15

Rhett

After finding our way back to the path where Helga left us, Hansel and I had another long walk ahead of us. We were starting to regret wasting the bread on the birds and forest animals.

"I'm so hungry," Hansel whined when the sun was high above our heads. In his defense, he was a growing boy and had missed two meals.

"I know, but maybe this woman Helga talked to will have lunch waiting for us," I said hopefully.

"Really?" Hansel tripped over a root in his excitement and I caught him by the arm. He huffed out a breath and pushed the blond hair he'd let grow long out of his eyes. "Do you think she'll have us working right away? My blisters from Helga's last trip to the woods just healed before this excursion."

"I don't know," I answered as we started walking again. "But she has to feed us if we're going to be there for a week."

Hansel nodded, either in agreement or hope, and led us around a bend in the narrow path. It was well-worn, but not wide enough for two people so far into the forest. I wondered how someone got supplies in and out. It was possible she grew the food she needed. A bicycle with a basket would probably make the trip easier.

An image of the rich lady from the beginning of The Wizard of Oz came to mind. She was mean to Dorothy and her dog, and I started to think of the woman we were headed toward as looking like her, sepia tones and all. Better than green.

The trees started to thin, and we spotted something colorful between their trunks at the same time. Hansel whooped in excitement and sped up. "Yes, we must be there."

Wherever there was.

Another curve in the worn path had us facing a large clearing. At the forefront we found the most amazing house I'd ever seen.

It was made to look like candy and decorated in bright colors you didn't usually see on houses. I followed Hansel's hurried pace and saw the details more closely. Pastel gumdrops for lane edging, red and white peppermint sticks for fencing, lollipops at the corners of the building like pillars, and white icing dripping along the roofline.

More sweets than one could imagine, all on a giant scale.

He was so hungry, Hansel rushed forward and tried to eat the sweets. His groan of disappointment reached me before I could tell him to stop.

"What?" Hansel leaned against the outer wall with his tongue out and a look of sadness. "It's not real."

Hansel's tone was so melancholy, I laughed at him. Tapping at the plastic top of a fencepost, I shook my head. "Of course not."

The creaking of a door sobered me and had Hansel stepping away from the wall he'd been licking a moment before. I was going to tease him about it for years, but the dark opening revealed a person and kept me from teasing him right then.

Unlike the mental image I'd conjured up, the resident of the candy house was short and plump, with curly red hair framing a grandmotherly face. Though really, I couldn't guess at her age, anywhere from forty to eighty? She wore a flowered dress with a stained apron, complete with frills, and had a smile on her rosy face as she dusted her hands on the fabric as if we'd caught her in the middle of baking.

"Well, hello. You must be the Hinders, here to help me?" She greeted us with a syrupy-sweet voice. "I'm ever so grateful to Helga for connecting us."

So, we had the right house. Not wanting to be rude, I finished my walk up the path to her door and held out my hand. "I'm Rhett. This is my brother, Hansel."

"Perfect." She looked me up and down and I felt an odd chill as she took my hand. She hadn't said her name. "Come inside. I have real food and sweets in here, if you're hungry?"

Hansel stared at her in shock, open-mouthed and blushing as she turned to go back inside. Either she'd seen us through a window, though I couldn't see inside, or she had security cameras.

Another option is that others had been lost and hungry and tried to eat her house before. I chuckled at the thought and followed her into the warm house.

The space was one big open room with cement walls and a fireplace between two doors. I assumed they must lead to a bedroom and bathroom, since there was no place to sleep in sight. The drab gray walls were a stark contrast to the outside appearance, and the air was cloying with the scent of incense and herbs.

Looking around for the woman, I found Hansel right behind me as she closed the door.

"What was your name?" I asked, curious and also feeling weird for thinking of her as the old woman.

"I'm Brunhilde," she answered.

The answer felt like it was not true, or not complete, somehow.

"Sit at the table, you must be hungry."

We sat and saw there was a variety of foods, from pretzels to sausage, and water already in two glasses. She had been expecting us after all. Hansel didn't hesitate to dig in, but I ate more slowly. Hansel looked like he wanted to take a nap, but we probably had to work after we ate, so I didn't want to feel overfull. Everything tasted so delicious, though…

Waking up when you didn't remember falling asleep was such an odd sensation, made worse when your surroundings were unfamiliar. I'd had a similar feeling in the meadow on our hike with Helga, but it was pretty there. This time we weren't in a pretty space.

Rough, industrial walls and ceilings were barely visible in the low, flickering light. Humid air with an earthy scent tickled at my memory as mumbling in a foreign language jarred me to awareness.

"Incantare, sol invictus," the low voice muttered with purpose, and a light brightened in the room.

My head hurt at the change, but when I lifted a hand to rub my eyes, I was met with resistance. A metallic clink rang out as I felt the weight on my wrist. My eyes widened as I adjusted to the brightness, and found a heavy metal cuff attached to a chain.

Then, my eyes fell on a horrible sight: Hansel in a cage, not moving and limp.

"Oh, you're awake."

The woman–Brunhilde–spoke close to me and I whipped my head around to find her near the fire with a large, old book on a stand I hadn't noticed when we entered the building.

"You were naughty and didn't eat properly, like your brother," she tutted, and there was no hint of kindness in her tone any longer.

Scrambling back until I hit a wall, I cleared my throat. "What is going on?"

"Your stepmother has sold you to me," she answered with a hint of glee, malicious and joyful at her horrific words.

"I see." My voice trembled, as I tried to keep my calm and get more information. "And why is Hansel in a cage?"

Brunhilde didn't spare a glance for my little brother, casually flipping through the brittle pages of the tome as if it was infinitely more fascinating than the teenage boy she had locked up in her house.

"I need to fatten him up." She licked a finger and turned to another page. "So I can sell him."

"Fatten him–" My words cut out with my inability to process what she was saying.

"Yes. Skinny boys sell in some markets, and he is pretty, but he'll fetch a higher price from my buyers if he looks healthier." Brunhilde sighed. "It will take a few extra days, but they can't pick him up for a week anyway."

The concept of selling people wasn't new to me, but only from news stories and novels. How had we fallen into the plot of some scary movie? She hadn't mentioned her intentions for me, though.

"What are you doing with me?" I chewed at my lower lip until I tasted the coppery tang of my blood and sucked at it to soothe the pain. Anything to distract from how she was not answering me.

When Brunhilde lifted her head and met my eyes, a chill similar to when I'd shaken her hand went through me.

"You are mine to experiment on," Brunhilde crooned with excitement, as if telling a baby how much they had to look forward to in life. She came closer but stayed standing over me. "I so seldom have a young person stumble upon my property, with the wards, so the opportunity to sell one and keep the other was too good to pass up."

"We're people, not toys," I spit out, my anxiety causing bile to rise. "You can't just buy and sell us like lab rats."

"Science is not what I plan to do to you." Brunhilde lifted a hand to caress the book with tender care. "My spellcasting gets rusty over the years, and you have so much life left to play with."

Spells? Did this crazy lady think she was a witch?

I didn't believe magic was real, until she started torturing us.