Hansel and Gretel

It was a chilly evening the night we met her, as if the wind had predicted the coldness in the witch's heart and the intimidation in her brilliant, hypnotizing golden eyes. Of course, at the time, Hansel and I did not know of the beautiful woman's evil. We did not know our soon-to-come demises and our unhappy endings.
It was the first snow of the winter season and as the sky grew dark, the air chilled. Hansel had forgotten to gather firewood, and he had to go out searching for some in the woods on this night.
"Please." He has begged, "If I carry my sword and the lantern, I won't have any room for the wood. I need you to come. Please, Gretel, please!"
"No." I said, my nose high in the bitter air. I had spent the entire day inside, sewing our new quilts, and now Hansel expected me to go gather old wood with him? I didn't think so!
"Gretel, please be reasonable. We will freeze to death without some fire. And if we are separated at nighttime, the wolf will come around and eat at least one of us for his supper."
I sighed and reconsidered. I'd fancy a steamy evening, wrapped up in my new quilt and a bowl of my signature rabbit stew. But I couldn't possibly warm without fire. And there had been a recent sheep-napping on our farm. Hansel believed it was a wolf, but I pressed that it was a larger, stronger force. Whatever it was, it would surely come back to eat the sheep, and I didn't want Hansel or I to be alone with it.
"Fine." I grumbled, fetching our lantern. Hansel placed his hands on his hips in victory, and went off to go get his sword.
Hansel's sword was hued bronze, but the paint was beginning to slowly peel away. Its blade was almost entirely covered in rust. Even though Hansel was a gifted swordsman and the blade was twice as terrible because of the corrosion, I doubted Hansel's sword was going to protect us from everything we saw out there.
Hansel and I entered the forest together, hand-in-hand. The wind blew wildly and stirred up the snow. The wind picked up more and more. It stung my nose cold and whipped my cheeks like razor-sharp claws. It seemed to howl to go back.
I had never been in the forest, because only Hansel was in charge of collecting firewood, and that was all we needed the nearby forest for. But even Hansel hadn't gone into the forest during the night. He constantly trembled and he jumped at every tiny noise. He pulled me along, his nails clenching my hand so hard it hurt. I glanced down at my palm. Hansel had nicked deep scars into my pale hands and scarlet beads began to seep out.
"You're scared." I whispered, looking at his indirect face. "You're scared." I repeated. "You're scared, Hansel. You're as scared as a swine in the middle of a great, big slaughterhouse in the middle of a—"
"Shut up." He sharply told me. "I'm…I'm not scared. Nor should you be. We're not scared, all we…" His voice trailed off in confusion, his pea green eyes suddenly attached to something ahead. I turned my head, and my heart skipped a beat.
It was beautiful—complete with gingerbread walls and a licorice garden with Hershey kiss flower petals. Its roof was constructed from graham crackers caked with layers of strongly scented cinnamon and it was all bordered by glittering white frosting. It door was crafted from an enormous brownie. A gentle chocolate milky stream ran like a moat around it all, with little, very much alive Goldfish swimming happily around and nibbling occasionally at their friends and family. They were cute little cannibals.
Mint stepping-stones led across a chocolate éclair bridge and to the front door. Candy canes created the windows on both sides of the brownie door and a milky, caramel-tinted light spilled into a pool onto the newborn snow. In the light danced a shadowy silhouetted of a woman. She sang beautifully about a little bird being forever trapped in a cage. Though the lyrics were heartbreaking, she sang it upbeat and cheerily.  
I ran forwards, approaching the candy house, but Hansel pulled me back, his hands wrapping around my wrist like a snake constricting a mouse. His guard was back on, I could tell it from his narrowed eyes. He shook his head.
"No." He said. "It's a fishy place…we're not going in."
I grew livid at Hansel. He had to be the responsible one all the time, even though we were twins. I felt the urge to slap him.
I looked again at the sugarhouse. It smelled of every pastry I could think of—cake, éclairs, freshly baked bread, gingersnaps, and crescent rolls, and a whole lot of others I couldn't name. It aurora was a clear, warm golden-brown, the color of a perfect piecrust. How could Hansel sense any danger?
"Hansel…it's getting colder and colder, my feet hurt, and it smells like whoever is in there is quite the baker. You are the one who brought me out here, can't you just listen to me for once?"
Hansel narrowed his eyes and released his grip on my hand. He motioned for me to lead. "Fine." He said. "But don't eat anything!"
I rolled my eyes, stepped forwards, and got on my knees. I took a nibble out of the éclair bridge. He shouted at me, but before he could thoroughly discipline me, the brownie door flew open.
Caramel light filtered down behind her like an eclipse. She looked as if she was in her early twenties—her face was clear of acne and her hair was at its fullest. It was long, wavy, and it draped over her shoulders like the snow on mine. Her lips were full and hued a bloody crimson. Her skin was as deep and auburn as the caramel that she perfumed of. She was horribly thin for a woman who seemed to bake so frequently. She wore a dress similar to what a maid would wear and she wore black tights with some occasional tears in the fabric. Her shoes were fancy—a russet color with pretty black bows. They were the kind of shoes one wears out to tea or to a classical music concert. She was beautiful—but they way her innocent eyes tied in with her fuming door-opening scared me.
"Hello, dearies." She sang. She danced over to me and helped me onto my feet and pecked my brother on the cheek and led him by using one hand (the other tightly gripped mine) to grab his wrist and pull him into her house. "I haven't had lovely company like you two in a while! Oh, the last guests I had were named Nefig and Amee. Of course, in the end, I found out that they had lied about their names, hee-hee! I mean, who would dare lie about their identity to me, Madam Lucky? Oh, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it, hee-hee!" She giggled unpleasantly and a little too much. "Come in!" She coaxed as soon as she noticed our disgust. She smiled warmly and gave us both little hugs. "I'm sorry." She said. "I guess loneliness had driven me a little off!" She smiled and giggled, but this time it was less frightening and she did it less. I trusted her enough to step inside, and my trust eventually cajoled in Hansel.
"My name is Bun Lucky, dearies. And as you've probably guessed, I bake!" She sat us down at her kitchen table and handed us fresh scones. It was so delectable that not even a million words could describe it.
The inside of Bun's house was beautiful. The walls were painted a smooth banana-colored yellow, and the floor was cemented with grassy green tiles. The house was only one big room, each different room sectioned off by invisible lines. There was a thin door on the back wall, which I assumed led outside or into a closet or to the washroom.  
We had a small, fifteen-minute talk at the table with tea and cookies. She never did tell us what happened to Nefig and Amee, so we told her our real names in fear that false identities would lead us to an appalling conclusion. We still had our suspicions about the woman because she almost instantly took Hansel's sword from him, as if she feared it. I got to keep my lantern, however.
"Hansel," she wheedled to my brother, who awkwardly squirmed in his seat. "So…tell me…what is your favorite animal?"
Hansel grew confused. The original topic had been about mushrooms.
"I like...owls. A lot. I guess." He said, knitting his eyebrows together.
Suddenly Bun began to tremble and shake in her seat as if she was experiencing epilepsy. Her once striking form began to grow larger and her skin grew cobalt blue. Her maid clothes tore under her enormous form. Her stomach had to enormous abnormal welts sprouting from opposite sides of her lower stomach. They stretched out and grew into arms. Her hands grew elongated, yellow claws and two of her fingers disappeared and the rest webbed together like spider web. She opened her mouth in pain, and her teeth grew long and sharp.
An enormous heavy arachnid-like abdomen grew outwards from her backside, and her legs sprouted another pair as her hands had. Each of them had round, thumb-like points at first, but they transformed into legs that would belong originally to an insect. Her hair stayed the same, but it grew curlier as if she had stepped out of the rain.
Her ears managed to slither down the sides of her face till they were right above the imaginary line separating neck and head. They grew pointed, like an elf's. Her pupils grew larger until they absorbed the rest of her eyes, and they paled into a fearsome grayish color. Her muscles rippled as she howled,
"I am Arachne, mother to all spiders and rival to the goddess Athena! I will avenge my former life…forever! You shall die, supporter of the Olympians!" She howled, but her voice was not the same. It seemed as if it had grown deeper and multiplied, which instantly made her sound more fearsome.
I understood now. The owl was the symbol of Athena, and apparently, Hansel had woken the arachnid beast in Bun Lucky. If that was her real name, even.
Hansel wailed in fear as the spider monster plucked him up from the ground and into her clawed hands. She smiled evilly into my brother's face before biting into his neck like a vampire. I watched as the maiden stole the blood from drain from my brother's body and into the monster's jaws. His skin paled as he grew dead. Arachne let Hansel drop to the ground when she was finally finished with him. I cried out in horror at the sight of my brother's broken body.    
He eyes stung into my gaze, and I was instantly fearful. "Porus!" She cried awfully as I ran out of the sugarhouse. She ran through the front wall and destroyed the house's front wall. But when I was outside, the house was no longer made of candies and sweets, but it was now the image of a spider's cocoon. "Let me kill you Porus!" I began to run faster down the path Hansel and I had come as the monster labeled me the sibling of Athena. I tripped and fell, twisting my ankle.
I managed to limp as quickly as possible, but Arachne was faster. She swept me off the ice and killed me with one magnificent bite. I could feel life slipping away from me…spinning into dizzying darkness…forever gone.

I could feel everything around me as something sharp prodded my back. Where was I? Wasn't I supposed to be dead by now? The snow was the first thin I saw. But instead of seeing its usual white color, everything was caked with a pale gray, as if my vision had darkened. Suddenly, a crane-like object scooped my once-lifeless body from the ground. I was face-to-face with Arachne, my murderer, again.
I wasn't scared. I was already dead. She could no longer hurt me. In fact, this was probably all a dream and I would wake up, wrapped in my new quilt soon.
Arachne hissed, as if she was disgusted by my appearance. She was also caked in the gray coloring. Everything was darker.
"Porussss…I have a deal to make with you and Athena…." She hissed, her voice no longer a million deep voices coming from nowhere. She was more of a snake, now.
She set my brother, who I hadn't noticed before (In fact, my whole brain was clogged with fuzzy information and I couldn't think properly), and I down. I rubbed my eyes, for my whole body was tired and the gray light was growing annoying. I didn't help anything.
"Athena…Porusssss…listen to me…"
"I wish you'd stop calling us that…" Hansel moaned, as if tiredness had consumed him as well. "Hansel…Gretel…brother…sister…" he let out an enormous yawn and fell backwards into the snow again.
I could hear Arachne swear about zombies under her breath. "Children." She hissed, and propped Hansel up correctly. "I have a deal…if you'd like to ssssee the light again…I advisssse you take my offer."