Hansel, Gretel, and the Vampire

by Claire G.

Hansel, Gretel, and The Vampire
Once upon a time there was a deep, dark forest with unknown creatures haunting the
trees. It had mazes of bushes and gates to old, run-down buildings. Just a few miles away were a
few small cottages. In one cottage lived a man, his wife, and their two children. A boy, Hansel,
and a girl, Gretel. They were a poor family and were barely feeding themselves. One night, after
the children had gone to bed, the man and woman decided to have a talk. “What is to become of
us? How can we feed our children when we can barely feed ourselves?” The man asked,
hopelessly.
“You know what? I have a plan.” The woman answered, shrewdly. “Early tomorrow morning, we
will take the children out to–” She pauses, “the Thick Woods of The West.”
“What!? No! We can’t do that! That’s practically murder!”
“Just wait. We will give them a piece of bread and–” The woman’s eyes bounced around the
room. They eventually settled on a small pocket knife on the kitchen table, “a knife… so they can
protect themselves.” she finished, confidently.
“You think a knife is going to save them from whatever is in those woods?”
“Let’s be honest, there is no monster in the woods, it’s all myths! They’ll figure something out.”
“I guess you’re right, there is no way there could be a real monster in the woods, that’s so
childish.” The man reluctantly agreed to the plan.
Early the next morning, just before dawn, the woman woke both the children, “We are
going to a forest today to collect some firewood. It will get cold soon, so we must be prepared.”
All together, they walked out to the forest. They arrived at an old, spooky gate, “Here we are,”
the woman said, “We are going to go collect some wood, why don’t you all walk through the
path behind the gate and meet us on the other side. It won’t take too long.” She lifted the
backpack off her shoulders, handed it to the children, and walked away. The man gave them a
worried wave and followed her.
The gate was tall and heavy, but the children managed to pull it open. “I wonder why
they want us to go this way instead of following them,” said Gretel.
“It’s probably safer. We are pretty close to the Thick Woods of the West,” Hansel replied. As
they walked down the path, Gretel dug through the backpack, “A knife? Weird.” They suddenly
stopped at the walls of a huge maze! “What are we going to do?!” Hansel screamed. After a
minute of thinking, Gretel came up with a plan. She pulled the knife out of the backpack and
poked her arm just enough for it to bleed. “We can track our trail like this,” she held her arm out
and let the blood drip onto the grass, “See? Come on!” As they continued turning random
directions, they began to hear weird sounds. It sounded like something was walking behind
them! Everyone once in a while there was a quiet licking sound. Hansel turned around to see
what it was and saw a huge, red, vampire-looking creature. The vampire scooped him up and
pulled him around the corner. The vampire tried to catch Gretel, but wasn’t successful. It left a
large scratch mark on her ankle. Gretel started to freak out and ran away as fast as she could. She
finally made it to a small opening in the surrounding bush. She crawled through the whole and
was once again covered in woods. She ripped off part of her shirt and tied it around her ankle to
stop the bleeding. All she could think about was her brother and how there was no way she was
going back! She walked down a narrow path for a few minutes and came across a nice-looking
cabin. She knocked on the door and a sweet, old lady answered. “Hello there, child! What are
you doing all the way out here? And what happened to your ankle?” she asked kindly.
“I can’t find my way back home, my ankle really hurts, and I don’t know what happened to my
brother!” The old lady took her inside and placed her on a cushion, “This ankle doesn’t look so
good, sweetheart. I can help you, though. Why don’t you just get some rest…” The old woman
rested her warm hand on Gretel’s forehead and Gretel dozed off to sleep. The old woman
smirked and untied the cloth around Gretel’s ankle, leaving her to bleed out.
Now that they had fewer mouths to feed, the man and woman lived happily ever after.