Prologue

Princess Gretel's eyes fluttered open to the view of her ceiling. She blinked back sleep as her bleary eyes refocused so that she could see the intricate patterns that danced across it. She didn't know what time it was and didn't care. She was awake, and that was all that mattered.

She shimmied off her bed, before running across the room toward her brother's. The trek up onto his bed was a lot harder than getting out of her own due to the fact that it was unreasonably high. Especially due to the fact that the only people who ever needed to get up on it were the two of them; and they were only six-years-old.

"Hansel!" Gretel whispered, shaking him as soon as she was on the bed, "Hey, Hansel!"

There was a moment of pause before Hansel's blue eyes fluttered open and focused on her face. He studied her for a second, before sitting up, all of a sudden wide awake.

"Story time?" he asked.

Gretel nodded excitedly, "C'mon!" she yanked him off the bed, the two of them tumbling to the floor as she did so. However, they did not pause as they stumbled toward the door and quietly opened it.

The hallway loomed on either side of them, dark and quiet. The guards weren't around, having already passed by their room or about to. Hansel hesitated a moment, before grabbing a hold of Gretel's hand and yanking her to the right, in the opposite direction that the guards would've gone-

-and in the direction of their older sister, Adelheid's room.

Gretel fumbled behind him, her breath catching in her throat in excitement and her palms growing sweaty. It had been forever since they had a good story time-they were always either stopped by a guard or simply were too tired to remember it.

They pushed open the heavy door to their sister's room and tiptoed in, making sure to close it behind them. Getting onto Adelheid's bed was even harder-and larger-to get onto as she was a whole four years older than them.

"Ada!" Hansel whispered two minutes later when they'd finally managed to get on the same level of her. "Ada!"

"Mmm," Adelheid groaned, swatting them away, "Sleepy time."

"Ada!" Gretel wined, "Story time!"

"Story time can wait for morning," Adeheid mumbled, "Right now is sleepy time."

"C'mon, Ada!" Hansel whined, "Sleepy time can wait for morning also!"

Adelheid shook her head, not having opened her eyes even crack once, "Mm, no it can't. Sleepy time is important."

"Ada!" Hansel leaned forward to pry one of her blue eyes open, "We're not leaving til we get story time!"

There was another moment of hesitation, before Adelheid opened an eye on her own and a smirk graced her lips.

"Alright," she sat up, pushing Hansel and Gretel off of her as she did so, "But you have to promise not to cry or scream again."

Gretel nodded excitedly as Hansel said, "We promise."

"Okay, you know those woods that lie beyond the castle?" Gretel glanced out the window, even though you couldn't see the giant wooded area, but the dock that sat at the front, "Well, once, long ago, there was a girl who went into those woods. She grew up near them so she wasn't afraid, she thought she knew the way.

"However, the woods were windy, and before long the girl was lost. She wandered for days, until she came upon a house that was made entirely of candy."

"Really?" Gretel gasped, her eyes wide.

Adelheid nodded, "Really, but how many times have I told you not to interrupt, Gretel? You know it gets really annoying.

"She came upon a house made entirely of candy. Now, at this point, the girl was starving so she didn't think twice in breaking off a piece of the terrace and popping it in her mouth. However, no sooner had she done this then a-" she was cut off as a screech echoed throughout the room.

"What was that?" Hansel gasped, after him and Gretel had scrambled behind Adelheid.

Adelheid shook her head, "It sounded like it came from outside." she tugged on their hands, "C'mon, let's go see what it was."

"I want mommy and daddy," Gretel whimpered.

"No," Adelheid hissed, "They're not going to let us go,"

"But I don't wanna go," Gretel buried her face in Adelheid's nightgown as her sister led them toward the back door.

"Fine then, you can stay back here, you baby."

"Gretel's not a baby!" Hansel shot back, grabbing ahold of Gretel's free hand with his own, "Aren't you Gretel?"

Gretel shook her head, "I'm not a baby," she hiccupped.

"Then stop crying like one," Adelheid hissed.

They reached the door which swung open to reveal the woods. Gretel gasped and pressed herself against Hansel. A second later, another screech sounded from the trees.

"Wait here," Adelheid ordered them, "I'm going to go check it out."

"No!" Gretel grabbed a hold of her sister, "Ada! It's too dangerous! You can't!"

Adelheid shook her head, "It's okay, Gretel. I'll be right back."

And with that, she slipped out of Gretel's reach, and moved out of the house and disappeared into the trees.

That was the last time Gretel ever saw her.