Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had little to bite and to break, and once, when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even daily bread.

“So...will someone please explain to me what’s going on here?” Rima urged as she followed the two children into a small town.

The boy looked up at her and smiled. “Sure. We’re safe here in town. The wolves can’t enter here. It’s protected from her,” he answered, leading Rima over to a small park.

Sitting on the bench, Rima looked down from one child to the other, “Who is ‘her’?”

“The wicked witch-,” Gretel started before being interrupted by Rima.

“Witch? There’s no witch in Goldilocks! Then again…..there’s no Hansel and Gretel, either….What exactly is going on here?!” she half yelled, turning her gaze to the town. It seemed just as normal as all the others, but somehow...this Fairy Tale was twisted….big time.

“If you’d let me finish…” Gretel said in an annoyed tone, making Rima furrow her brows.

Who does this girl think she is? I’m older than her. She should have some type of respect. Rude…..

“Now, as I was saying, ‘her’ is the wicked witch. The wolves used to protect this town from her, which is why we are trying to save them. The wicked witch cast some type of spell on the wolves, controlling them with the snap of her fingers,” Gretel snapped her fingers and Hansel picked up the explanation.

“We’re not sure how she did it. We’re not quite sure how to break the spell, either. Another difference between this Fairy tale and the others you’ve been to is that this one doesn’t have a time limit. You can kill the witch six months from now or six minutes. It doesn’t matter here, so keep your eyes open at all times!” Hansel poked Rima in the shoulder.

“Another thing...this isn’t just one fairy tale. That’s why all the rules fly out of the window. You are still the key person in this, and so is the witch. If you die, the wolves stay the way they are, trapped forever and the story ends. If the witch dies, you move on and go home with the rest of them. This one somehow got mixed with another fairy tale and is now actually two...or maybe even more than that..I’m not quite sure. Thus, so far, us and Goldilocks.”

Rima slowly nodded as she tried to process all of this new information at once.

“So I could really die at any point of this…” Rima mumbled. Her mind raced as she thought of all the near death encounters she’s had up until now. This time, however, it wouldn’t be near death. This time it was all or nothing, life or death.

“On the other hand, the faster we figure out how to break the spell and kill the witch, the faster you can go home,” Gretel commented softly.

Rima’s head shot up. The corners of her lips slowly tugged up the more she thought about home and eventually tears formed in her eyes. She quickly blinked them away as she looked at the other girl and smiled brightly.

“Home huh? I like the sound of that.”

Hansel and Gretel looked at Rima and smiled.

“Yeah, we thought you might. So, are you ready to get this over with?” Gretel inquired as excitement came over her.

Rima nodded, “Yeah, let’s do this!”

“Come on, then! There’s one more person you should meet!” Hansel exclaimed as he once again grabbed Rima’s hand.

Rima made sure to not leave her bag behind as Hansel dragged her along. The trio continued walking further into town until they arrived at a smaller house. Nothing too big, yet nothing too small, it was just right.

“Let me guess….” Rima muttered, making the children smile up at her.

As soon as they walked through the door, Rima stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening while dropped to the floor. Looking around the house, she saw heavy weaponry laying almost everywhere. Their appropriate ammo, she guessed, was stored in a different place of the house. Knives, guns, grenades, ropes, mace, tasers...anything a person would use as a weapon could be found laying on tables, propped against the kitchen wall, in the cabinets, in secret compartments that showed themselves when you moved an odd object back into its proper place...

“Who’s there?!” a female voice yelled from the back of the house.

Rima quickly set an object back down the way she found it and crossed her hands behind her back.

“The muffin man!” Gretel yelled back with a snicker.

The voice sighed and not too long after, a young woman appeared. She looked to be around Rima’s age with long blonde hair. As Rima looked closer she could see a set of yellow eyes looking Rima up and down.

“That red cape really suits you, Red. Nice to finally meet the hero,” the blonde smirked.

Hansel looked up at the still dazed Rima and bumped her slightly to bring her back. Shaking her head, Rima smiled.

“Likewise. It’s really nice to meet you….”

The young woman smiled as she dropped the knife she had been holding, letting the blade pierce the wooden table.

“Goldilocks. Who would have ever thought I’d be working with Little Red Riding Hood. Tell me, Red, are you ready to have some fun?”

“Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s get this over with as fast as possible,” Rima replied with a smirk.