Gingerbread House

I flew to the furthest corner I could seek from that world of pirates, mermaids, and unaging children. The world that blurred past me was not as vivid as the world I had come from. It crawled with shadows that grasped for me and suggested that far greater evils were waiting ahead. I didn’t know where I was going. So I kept going faster so I wouldn’t care. Finally, when I was too tired to hover in place, I took harbor in an abandoned nest for two weeks. The time was mostly filled with sleeping. When I finally awoke, it was to screams. I followed the noise, expecting the worst. What I found instead was a cheerful cottage in a clearing. The house radiated a smell like sugar sitting out in the sun. As I flew closer I realized why. The cottage was made of candy. Gumdrops lined the windows and licorice framed the door. Frosting caked the roof in sloppy folds. I extended a hand and took a corner off a brick. It appeared to be gingerbread. Despite my ill feelings toward so many sweets, hunger pains shot through me with a vengeance. It had been days since my last meal. Caught in the moment, I began to nibble on a brick. Before I knew it I had finished the whole square. Suddenly, a shrill scream resonated from the house, startling me from my binge and making me remember why I had gone searching in the first place. I fluttered to the nearest window and looked in. The scene that unfolded was almost comical. Inside the house was a witch and two fat children in a dog cage. The witch was ghastly, old and hunched with a face full of moles. Not the kind of woman you’d take cookies and milk from. She was squinting at the children while licking her lips and feeding the furnace beside her. It was obvious what she intended to do. As bleak as the situation seemed for the kids, I couldn't think of any way I could (or wanted to) help. So instead I made off to leave. It was then that I made the horrifying realization that I was stuck. In my haste, I had failed to see that the window was made of pressed rock candy. The heat of my hands had melted me to it. I beat my wings frantically in an effort to break free, scolding myself all the while for being so stupid. Witches are known for making fairy traps. When I looked back through the window I was startled by two large eyes staring from the other side. She had caught me. As the witch came out to retrieve her fairy prize, I thought how fitting I should meet my end so pitifully. Of course I would die so soon after seeing myself free from Pot's prison. After ungluing me with a bitter smelling salve, the witch threw me in a cage. "Fairy pudding to add to my child stew!" She cackled. "Oh but wouldn't it be lovely if I had two? Got any friends with you dearie?" I scrunched my nose at the unbearable smell of her hot breath. She stunk like rotting meat. “No. No friends to throw under the bus.” "Very well. I can solve that." Before I could move from my spot, a wand came crashing down through the bars of the cage and split me neatly in two. At least that's the conclusion I've drawn. I was unconscious at the time I was divided. When I awoke sometime later, it took me a moment to remember where I was. At first my vision was blurry. As my eyes began to clear, I realized I was staring at myself. A mirror perhaps? I fluttered closer and my reflection moved in a way that was not consistent with my own. I reeled back and called out to it, "What are you?" "I’m a fairy," It called back. Clever answer. I studied it for a moment. Clearly it was a “she” as she appeared to be another version of me. I thought dark thoughts about her and turned away so as not to be distracted. What kind of witch magic was this? Who was this imposter at the other end of the cage? It took awhile for the fog to clear from my brain. By the time I remembered what the witch had said before I’d blacked out, the cottage had grown deathly quiet. It was then that the children came crashing into the room. They were headed for the door when my twin got their attention. "Let me out!" She shouted. The witch was nowhere in sight. The children skidded to a halt and turned to the cage. "What will you do for us?" Asked the chubby little boy. "I will bring you luck and help you find home.” They turned to me with expectant eyes. "Don't look at me. I hate children," I mumbled with distaste. A pudgy hand opened the cage and both of us fairies moved forward. The hand whipped to the right, knocking me into the bars. I watched in horror as the hand grasped the other fairy around the middle and yanked her from the cage. The latch snapped shut behind her. "Don't leave me here!" I screamed from my confinement. But they were gone. The sound of the stillness that followed roared in my ears for days. Not a noise could be heard from my prison. Not a bird or beast cried out from the enchanted forest. So I waited. I don’t know how long I sat in that cage. I wasn’t a good judge of time, seeing as I had never been pressed to judge it before and had never felt the need to learn how. I know the sun rose and set for seven days before I stopped paying attention. The significant thing is, no one came to rescue me. I hummed and sang to fill the void. I slept and dreamt and plotted to keep me sane. Eventually I got hungry. It was my rumbling stomach that led to my escape from the witch’s house. The need for food brought about the realization that the bars of my prison were beginning to sag. I had pressed through the bars, fingers sprawled in an ill attempt to fetch some gingerbread. But no matter how far I pushed, the wall always seemed out of reach. I tried again and again until I finally scraped it with the tips of my fingers. I pulled back, sucking the gingerbread from behind my nails. It was then that I noticed the bars. Where I had leaned, an imprint of my body remained. Since the witch was dead, the house could no longer sustain itself. It began to wither away, much like the remains of her body. Gingerbread tiles began to fall from the ceiling. Windows and doors leaked icing in sticky streams. I stared at the holes in the walls as sunlight poured through like stars. Suddenly, one of the bars from my cage fell through. I blinked, unsure of what I'd seen. I had expected something more dramatic, a pop or hiss perhaps. This had happened so effortlessly. Without another moment’s hesitation, I flew from the house as fast as my little wings would carry me. Not a minute after leaving the front door, I heard a sickly noise that caused me to turn around. The forest shuddered as the Gingerbread House caved in on itself, much like a rotting pumpkin would. Soon, nothing would be left to indicate a witch had lived there, luring dinner in with her house of sweets.