Page 5 of Hansel and Gerhardt
Consumed by Darkness
Dead? Was he dead? He couldn’t see a thing. He could feel only the frantic urge for air. Lungs on fire, his stomach screaming, he retched and gasped and his black and empty world seemed to spin. It was all horror, displacement, desperation.
Then a hand on his chest, a body laid out long next to him, and, “For god’s sake, Hansel, do try to be quiet.”
Gerhardt. Gerhardt stroking his cheek, his arm around him, and the molten breathsslowlycoming easier into his chest. The sound of his own wheezing raspswasallthenoise beyond his blood beating violently and Gerhardt’s soft, “Shhh. Please, Hansel.”
Hansel reached up andgrabbedGerhardt’shand, his panic melting into the firm squeeze that came back. Then,hack!A blinding light struck through the dark.Hackandhack, and a large triangleof white appeared before them.
Vines. It was a wall of vines that had enclosed them somehow, and his father’s axe hadsmashedthroughit.His hideous face came into view.“Let me in, boys. I’m hungry!”
Gerhardt scrambled back, pulling Hansel with him. But before their very eyes, the darkness came alive.
The split vines curled and snapped, looping and knitting together, thick and thin, to obliterate the view of their father, his axe, every sound and every gasp of light.
The vines must have parted for them when Gerhardt pushed him in, just in time to aid their escape, before locking their father out.
It was too strange to be true.
Hansel’s fingers squeezed into Gerhardt’s wrist. “What the fuck was that?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Gerhardt whispered. “We have to run.”
“Where are we?” Hansel flung his gaze around blindly, nothing visible in the impenetrable black to orient him. “Is this the Dark Forest?”
“We don’t have time for yourstupidsuperstitions. Get up!” Gerhardt’s fingernails scratcheddeep into Hansel’s skin as he tried to raise him to his feet.
“Don’t you understand what you’ve done?” Hansel blustered.
Crack!Dazzling sunlightsmashedthrough the vines, but faster this time, it closed into darkness.
“Would you rather be out there?” Gerhardt’s fingers linked so tight into Hansel’s they hurt. “Run or we’ll die.”
And so they did. And they fell, and they rammed into trees, and sharp sticks stuck their shins so theybled, but they ran. Cut and scratched and bruised, they foughton for what felt like aeons.There wasn’t the smallest gap in what must have been a forest canopy overhead. There was no possible comprehension in the vastness of magical nature they’d foundthemselves lost in. Their only drive was fear, and they ran on and on,untilfinally,some distant shimmering caught their eyes.
“There!” Gerhardt whisper-shouted, though he needn’t have. Hansel’s eyes were lockedon and he’dalready adjusted direction.
They sprinted for the light, tentative and strange, but inch by inch, more and more sparkling lights appeared before their eyes, an eerie glow beckoning to them.
Hansel slowed his pace, pulling Gerhardt back with him. “What is this place?”
The light did not appear from any cracks in the impenetrable covering above. It shone from the ground, the bark of the trees, the leaves themselves.
Trepidatiously now, the two edged closer, the forest coming to lifewith every step.
They’d never seen anything like it. The fireplace in the cottage, the one lamp they’dall sharedat night,were all the light in the dark Hansel had everknown. Even the dimly lit town windows of Gerhardt’s childhood couldn’t compare.Their viewbecame dazzling as even the fallen leaves they trod upon illuminated the forest floor.
Together, they surveyed their surroundings. Hansel remained terrified, repeatedlysearching the pitch-black darkness behind them, expecting their father to come through at any moment, and wary of what these strange lightsmight mean. But Gerhardt… His smile in the glow of the luminous woods was as magical as the scene itself.
He bent down to pick up a leaf, eyeswide,careful. Fingers tentative on the stem, he broughtthelong and tawnytreasure close to his eyes. Hansel crouchedbyhim, almost equally entranced. Two small and fluffy spores of luminosity—flower-like—clung to the leaf. Gerhardt twisted it around to examine underneath, a yellow glow lighting warm brown eyes that struckHansel strangely just then. He couldn’t recall ever having seen such curiosityandwonder in those eyes.
“Have you ever seen such a thing?”Gerhardtwhispered.
“No.” Hansel checked over his shoulder again. “I do not think we should be here. The Dark Forest is a place of magic. Dark magic—”
“They’re just plants.” It was bright enough for Hansel to see the eye roll Gerhardt added to the comment. “We’re better off in here than out there.”
“You don’t know what that is,” Hansel countered. “Or what it means.”
