Page 7 of Hansel and Gerhardt
“No, I don’t—”
“Of course you fucking don’t,” the creature snarled. “You’ve probably never once seen a mushroom lantern in your whole entire life, have you?”
“No, I—”
“I didn’t fucking think so. Fucking brats, acting like you own the fucking forest.”
Hansel pinched Gerhardt’s elbow, hissing, “Apologise.”
Gerhardt frowned hard at him. “I’m trying to apolo—”
“Meant for attracting deer, that was,” the creature went on. “Now what am I supposed to eat?”
“Deer?” Gerhardt dropped to his knees, levelling eyes with the being. “There are deer in these woods?” His stomach growled at the very thought.
The little red eyes lit, and the creature leaned its warty face close to Gerhardt’s, talking low. “No, there fucking aren’t. But the lantern did its job well enough today.” Its thin lips pulled into a sharp grin, and a long, purple tongue licked over a jumble of yellow-brown teeth—all fangs.
Gerhardt was caught staring into the horrifying mouth of his strange predator, but it was Hansel, who’d never lowered his guard enough to approach, who saw the glint of red light on metal. Another second, and the barbed cuff would have closed around Gerhardt’s wrist, spiking him through with twelve irremovable hooks.
But Hansel hurled himself on Gerhardt first, tackling him to the ground and away from the being.
“Get back here, you fuck!” the thing screeched at them, clamping a hand around Gerhardt’s ankle.
Gerhardt kicked his other foot at it, shocked by the strength in its tiny limbs holding him tight. “Get off me!”
“You’re not getting away that easy.” He wrenched Gerhardt’s long socks down, exposing his shin. Sharp nails dug in, and Gerhardt recoiled from the drool that dripped onto his skin almost as violently as he did from the impending bite.
A great branch swung, and using all his woodcutter’s muscles, Hansel smashed the branch into the side of the creature’s head. It barely flinched, but, very deliberately, dropped Gerhardt’s leg.
Gerhardt reeled back against a tree, seemingly unnoticed by the thing now.
A quivering lip let out a guttural growl, and the being levelled eyes at Hansel. “You first, then.”
It lunged with cat-like agility, seventy-two razor-like teeth flying at Hansel with the full intent of ripping his face from his skull. Gerhardt’s foot shot out, connecting hard with fifty-four of those teeth. They sliced straight through the leather of his boot, and it was just lucky for Gerhardt that the shoes were hand-me-downs from Hansel, too large and bulked out with straw, otherwise his toes would have been gone. The tip ripped clean off, exposing Gerhardt’s foot, and the creature dropped to the ground, mouth stuffed full of leather.
Hansel’s hand shot out at the same time as Gerhardt reached for him, and they bolted from the scene, neither half as scared of the black of the forest as they had been—not compared to the light, now they knew what dwelt there.
“Come back, you fucks!” The creature spat a clod of wet straw to the ground, glaring at their disappearing backs. “Assholes.”
He climbed to his feet and dusted himself off, then readied his chain and cuff for the next catch, muttering to himself. “Ah well, they’re for it now. Herr Candy never lets ‘em get away.”
Glimmer
It felt like aeons of stumbling through unbroken darkness before Hansel and Gerhardt ground to a halt out of sheer exhaustion.
“Do you think it’s nightfall yet?” asked Gerhardt, hands at his waist, catching his breath.
“Does it matter?” Hansel returned sharply. “Not a speck of light will find us in this damnable forest. We’re going to die. I told you we should never have come in here.”
“Oh, shut up, Hansel!” Gerhardt snapped.
“I haven’t spoken a word in hours!” Hansel protested.
“And it’s still too soon, you prat!” Gerhardt would have loved to storm off ahead, but he couldn’t see a thing. And the fact was, every time his arm brushed Hansel’s, every time he heard his brother’s breath, or a grunt of effort, a little spark of relief eased down his spine.
The place was terrifying, every bit as supernatural as Hansel had told him it would be in the many stories he’d frightened him with during their teenage years. He wasn’t sure if he’dbelieved a word Hansel said about it back then, always having thought Hansel was a bit of a coward, and that he was probably embellishing for the sake of entertainment.
But both those beliefs had been turned on their heads that day.
