The curtains that enveloped her attic room were covered in soot from the open fire place at the end of her room. Suzy looked around her hollow room in a hurry, almost tripping over her feet from all the sharp turns she was making. She pushed the bronze toy box towards the clock window ledge and squatted down on her knees, positioning herself for her breakthrough.

“One, two,” she lunged back and forth with the toy box in her arms, “three!” she puffed out. The box shattered the glass as it went through; Suzy placed her hands on her hips triumphantly.

“Boo.” A male’s voice echoed through the hollow room and Suzy fell backwards in shock. Her friend — no — he was more like a brother to her, she smiled, was usually late, very late for any important date they ever had. He peered down at Suzy who sat contently on the floor and then he studied her reminiscent face.

A few moments later their faces were close enough for Suzy to feel the warm breath on her face and soon his tongue that her cheek. He had an intimation of playfulness in his eyes while he watched her dazed face react.

“Did you just me?” She wiped the saliva off her chalky white cheek, got up and rolled up her sleeves haughtily. But before she could pummel him, he had ripped off the faded black curtain and stretched it as though he was going to slide down from the broken window. They exchanged side-eyed glances, her eyes doubling up more than usual for what was going to happen next; he flew out of the window with only a soot-filled curtain and the courage or stupidity of a human.

“Myungsoo-ya!” Suzy screeched. She looked down from the window, her nostrils flared as she inhaled the scent of freedom. Suzy paced around the attic room again, searching for something to glide with and pulled out the leftover curtain. She was afraid that it would rip suddenly if she used it, but now that Myungsoo had safely landed, she reassured herself that she had nothing to worry about.

“Pabo,” Suzy remarked once her feet hit the ground. She stood up and dusted the white debris off her hands. Myungsoo grinned at Suzy, making her blush feverishly. She had never reacted this way before with him. In the past he had always accompanied her on their escapades together, or rather what she had been told by him.

They walked along the road towards the woods in absolute silence. Except this kind of silence was a nice sort of silence, a silence filled with an aroma that embraced the long-term relationship between the two. He would usually tell her stories of their past adventures as she had a bad habit of forgetting the important details, like woodcutters or candy houses or even the undeniable fact that the stories Myungsoo told Suzy were not only fairytales, but were some excerpts from her early childhood. Now she was eighteen; she could no longer fully invent a fairytale scenario. Her identity as a pretender was slowly diminishing. 

“Let’s pretend we’re a cute old couple going on a late afternoon stroll through the woods for our 100^th anniversary!” Suzy suggested excitedly clapping her hands. Myungsoo paused for a moment, tapped his finger on his lower lip and then answered her.

“Wouldn’t that make me one-hundred and twenty years old? I’d be busy sleeping serenely in my grave.” 

Suzy giggled at his straightforward response and smiled at Myungsoo who returned her eye-smile. It was Suzy’s turn to stop in her tracks, for she had suddenly seen a scene that had suddenly unlocked a piece of her memory; a house in the middle of the woods had caught her eye.

“Haven’t I been here before?” she speculated in a whisper. And when they came quite close they saw that the house was made of bread and the roof was made of cake; as for the windows, they were made of pure sugar.

“I have been here before. Some time ago…” Her voice was washed away by the howling winds that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

“Let’s stay here for a bit,” said Myungsoo. “You haven’t eaten for quite a while, am I right?” Suzy nodded.

“I’ll eat a bit from the roof, and Suzy, you can eat some of the window, that’ll taste sweet.” Myungsoo reached up and broke off a little of the roof to eat, to see what it tasted like, and Suzy stood by the window panes and nibbled at them.

In the night sky the sun was slowly dissolving into the end of the clouds. Suzy started to yawn. Myungsoo had noticed this and gestured for her to enter the house with him.

“Ladies first,” he said lowly. She tip-toed inside the house, but no matter how gently she wanted her feet to step on the floorboards; they would make a creaking noise with every single step they took.

"I don't like walking around this old and empty house," Suzy's voice drifted away. It seemed to seep into the ancient floorboards below them. 

Myungsoo clasped his cold hand over hers. "Don't fret too much, dearie."

Her grip tightened as they walked past a carcass of bones covered in cobwebs that sat the matted old couch in the corner of the awfully lit room. Suzy let out a bewildered gasp and let go of Myungsoo’s hand. There were more bones hidden behind the walls. She sensed it. Suzy looked waner, Myungsoo watched her with an unreadable face, but he trundled on closer to her while she stepped further away.

“Calm down Suzy-ah, I’m not going to hurt you,” Myungsoo almost pleaded. Suzy tensed up at his every touch and he continued to stare at her; void from any emotion.

“Are you scared?” he whispered into her ear.

No response. Not even a shiver from the young girl. She knew what story she was in; she knew the cause and effect; she needed to get away before the witch came. But she stood there frozen, only letting time pass even quicker than normal. The clocks in the house whirred and the windows enclosing the kitchen shook wildly.

The witch had entered.

She had one spectacle over her right eye; the bridge of the eyeglass barely fit the young woman’s humongous nose. She had faded auburn frizzy hair and wore long black drapes with matching pointy black shoes. Despite her actual old age she remained timeless in human form, and Myungsoo glanced at her bleakly.

“She doesn’t remember, noona." His voice became dark and distant, camouflaging into the room around them.

"The girl will remember. And if she doesn't," the witch stomped across the floorboards to Suzy with spine-chilling intent, "I will lock you in that bird cage." She hissed into Suzy's ear. The icy breath did raise hairs on Suzy's forearm; she knew something eerie was occurring, but yet again, she did not flinch, not even the slightest.

Myungsoo’s shoulders drooped, he wasn't expecting it to be so hard to let her go, but some kind of madness was swallowing him whole. He knew what he had to do, but could he do it? He could risk Suzy's life if he let the witch out of his sight. What if he accidentally buried Suzy in her past without her bare necessities?

Without anything but the candy house to live on.

Without the existence of time. 

Without him.

It was like everything was happening in slow motion for him. He pushed the old witch out of harm's way and she crashed to the floor.

"Leave now!" He shouted sternly, not removing his eyes from the witch who quickly revived herself and stood up with what looked like flames blazing in her eyes. 

The next sequence of events happened in a blinding flash: Suzy spun on her heel as she made a run for the door, her hand reached the knob but her body was being pulled back forcefully by magic that caused her hand to retract from the knob and fully back away from the only means of escape. She involuntarily walked into the cage; it was fit for a human just like the witch had threatened. She was now a puppet on strings, and her captors controlled the next move.

The witch sneered, she watched the helpless girl become her prisoner, she watched how Myungsoo couldn't do anything because this was how it normally went; Suzy had given into the witch's superiority too easily and now she was about to suffer the same fate as the character of Gretel would have.

"Now go on, go on away," she watched him disappear, all that was left was a ghost of him. They were torn apart, but there was nothing they could do. Myungsoo's spirit clung onto her wrist, trying to pull her out of her trance and out of the cage, but her body wouldn't budge.

"Just let me go, we'll meet again soon." He slowly loosened his grip, then his eyes widened in realisation to what she actually meant.

"No wait! Wait, wait for me!" Myungsoo was pulled back by the pointy bony fingers of the witch and was thrown against the wall. He landed on top of the carcass of bones, unconscious in the oblivion of sleep.

"I'll see you when I fall asleep," Suzy said.

The witch morphed the remains of their surroundings until everything was put back into it like it originally was in Hansel and Gretel because another fable was about to begin, where the characters did not live happily ever after.

 If there are any specific questions or queries about anything, please do ask! 

gaaaacck you can all critiscise me. ^______^ pwuhahaha. I sound like a masochist.