Theirs was neither an uncommon nor a happy beginning. Irish twins, Hansel and Gretel were born addicted to the crack their mother ingested while pregnant. Their first few months of life were, fortunately, a blur to them, since the theme was constant pain. Sadly, this did not end upon leaving the hospital, since the courts endeavored to keep families together, they kept themselves willfully ignorant of the disinterested dealer who was their father and the “I’ve got myself together this time, I’m gonna take care of my babies” mother who always ended up selling her soul for another hit.

Until her soul was in tatters and she sold her children.

The last time they returned from foster care, she managed to work a whole month at the job the state had helped her find. Her boss was a tyrant and seemed intent on making her life miserable. He was not a fan of the rehabilitation job program. He felt, once an addict, always an addict and he wanted no part of them. He criticized every thing she did, Stood over her while she did the most menial tasks which made her nervous and mistake prone even though she could do anything he asked with her eyes closed. She graduated from Saint Catherine’s first in her class and made it through three years of college as a physics major. I’m not stupid she told herself repeatedly as she tried to ignore him and concentrate on doing and keeping her job.

There was an onsite day care for the children where they fed them breakfast and lunch. She only had to worry about dinner. The first week she tried her hand at making dinner. Fried chicken like her grandma used to make. Meatloaf. Fried whiting. Beef stew that lasted two days so she didn’t have to worry about cooking on Friday night. She burned a lot, but they didn't starve.

Saturday, she took them food shopping and bought more ground beef, powdered onion soup, stew beef, potatoes, carrots, bread, peanut butter and jelly as well as some cans of tuna. They had hot dogs from the food truck outside the supermarket as a special treat. She took them to the park and watched them play from a bench.

“So you got them back again?”

“Forever, this time. They’re my babies. Our babies, Jerome.”

“Not my problem. Listen, I got some good stuff. You working now, I hear. You buyin’?”

“Jerome, you need to leave me alone. If you’re not gonna help me raise them right, you need to go. I can’t anymore. They’ll take them away for good this time if I mess up again.”

“Don’t you think they’d be better off without a crackhead for a mother?”

“I’m not doing any more, Jerome. They need me. Please leave.”

“You keep singing that song, baby. I’ll be here when you ready.”

The conversation with Jerome drained her so she bought happy meals for the children on the way home.

Sunday, she asked the children what they wanted for breakfast. They’d developed a love of pancakes at their last foster home and so said in unison, “Pancakes, please!”

Lina was a mediocre cook when she knew what she was doing. Pancakes were not her thing. She tried. As she scraped the black disks onto plates. She burst into tears.

“Don’t cry, Mommy. We like them crispy,” said Hansel.

“Can I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead, Mommy?” asked Gretel quietly.

Lina ran out of the room. Hansel threw the pancakes in the garbage and made them both sandwiches.

After they’d eaten, they went to find their mother. She was crying on the bed.

“Mommy, don’t cry. “

“I can’t even make pancakes right,” she wailed.

“We don’t need pancakes, Mommy.”

She dried her tears, hugged her babies and prayed to stay strong.

Monday, her boss screamed at her in front of her children.

“You’re late, Ms. Littleton. We frown upon tardiness here.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Charles. The bus broke down and we had to wait for another to come.”

“No excuses. Don’t linger at daycare. I expect you to be at your desk in two minutes.”

“Yes, Mr. Charles.”

She made hot dogs for dinner. By Friday, it was peanut butter and jelly by Hansel.

Saturday, she did the food shopping: bread, milk, peanut butter, jelly, tuna, hot dogs.

Jerome showed up at the park and she gave him half her pay.

Hansel made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Sunday.

She was able to get through another week and get another check. She skipped the tuna this week and gave Jerome a little bit more of her check.

After the fourth week, she woke up Sunday in one of Jerome’s flop houses, shaking. She went looking for him.

“I’ll give you my whole check, I just need a little more.”

“You gave me your whole check yesterday when you showed up, kids in tow. You don’t have anything else I want, Lina. Go home.”

“Please, Jerome, just a little something to tide me over till I get paid again.”

“Baby, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but no one’s gonna be paying you to do nothing.”

“I have a job!”

“And you going there feeling like you are right now? You look like shit. Tomorrow will only be worse.”

Lina started crying.

“Stop your bawling. Tell you what. I can help you and get those kids off your hands so you don’t have to worry any more. You can’t take care of them. You can’t even take care of yourself. I know someone who will buy them off you. Take real good care of them.”

Lina knew it was wrong somewhere in the depths of her crack-hazed brain, but it was too much to recall why.

“How much do you think I can get for them?” she asked, eyes half-closed, hands trembling.

“Go see Miss Abby. She’ll take care of you. When you get the money, you can come see me. I got what you need.”

“Miss Abby? No one goes near her house. She’s cray-cray.”

“Up to you. I’m outta here.”

“But…”

“Get off me,” he said, throwing her off his arm. “Your best bet is to see Miss Abby. Then come back. I’ll hook you up real good.”

Jerome left. Lina sat crying and shivering on the floor.

“Mama? Can we come out now?”

Part of her was mortified she’d brought her children to a dirty, run down house and hid them in a closet so they wouldn’t watch her lose herself. The other part was glad she’d not left them home alone. And that she had kept them from watching what went on in the house.

Lina wiped her eyes and stood up. “Yes, baby. C’mon. We have somewhere to be.”

Miss Abby lived in a house on edge of town. It was the oldest house in town but it was in perfect condition. Everyone considered it a bit of an eyesore since it was painted the colors of the rainbow. Every few years she would hire a bunch of teenagers to paint it their favorite colors. Presently it was purple, yellow, green, orange, red, blue and fuchsia. There was always fuchsia. That was Miss Abby's favorite color.

Little children stayed far away. Unless dared. For as long as Lina could remember, no one under 16 ever went to her house without being dared first. Everyone said she was a witch that ate little children.

That was just ridiculous, of course. No one eats children.

Not finding a bell, she knocked on the door. Loud footsteps approached. A heavily made up face peeked through the curtain then opened the door. Lina, Hansel and Gretel all looked up, mouths gaping. It was the tallest woman they had ever seen.

“Now who do we have here?”

“Um, hello, Miss Abby. My, uh, friend, Jerome..."

“Say no more. Are these beautiful creatures yours?”

“Yes, ma’am. This is Hansel. He’s 5. This is Gretel. She’s 4. Say hello to Miss Abby children.”

“Hello Miss Abby,” they said in unison. Eyes huge in their small, hungry faces.

“And so polite, too. They’ll do just fine. I was just hankering for some little ones recently,” she said, smiling like the Cheshire cat. “Run to the kitchen children, it’s straight ahead down the hall. There are some cookies on the table. I just baked them. I’ll get you some milk when I get there.”

The children’s empty stomachs answered. Taking each other’s hands, they ran without looking back.

She reached behind the door. Lina could hear a drawer open and close. Miss Abby came back with money in her hand.

“Here’s $1000. Don’t return. You won’t be welcome.” Miss Abby closed the door in Lina’s face. But Lina didn’t notice. Stunned by her sudden wealth, she was already hastening back to Jerome and oblivion.

The garbage collectors found her a few days later in the alley behind her building, tossed between the trash cans. The Coroner’s report said her last hit was tainted with a deadly dose of fentanyl.

Meanwhile, Miss Abby was like the grandmother Hansel and Gretel never had.

After Lina left, Miss Abby made her way to the kitchen. Hansel and Gretel were each eating one cookie, slowly, trying to make it last. As Miss Abby got a couple of jelly jars from the cabinet, she said, “Don’t be shy, children. Go ahead and gobble them up. I know you want to.”

They looked at her then at each other then at the plate of cookies.

“Go on. We can make some more after lunch. Would you like tuna sandwiches or peanut butter and jelly?”

“Peanut butter and jelly, please,” said Gretel.

“Me, too. Please,” said Hansel. “I know how to make them. I make them for Gretel and me all the time.”

“Here’s your milk,” she said, placing the glasses in front of them. “Peanut butter and jelly is my favorite, too. “I’m partial to sweet things,” she said, smiling at Hansel.

She gave them a room to share with clean sheets. And in the closet were clothes that, oddly enough, fit perfectly.

For a month, she fed them, bathed them, told them stories. She taught Gretel how to bake cookies and cakes that Hansel in particular loved. She taught Hansel to wash the dishes and stoke the fire in the old-fashioned wood oven in her kitchen.

No, not big enough for a small boy or a big witch. This isn’t that Hansel and Gretel.

More’s the pity.

"I have a surprise for you two today!"

On their one month anniversary, Grandma Abby, for that is what Miss Abby asked them to call her, led them upstairs. She opened the door to a room they'd never entered before.

"This is Hansel's new room." It was a little boy’s dream with lots of toy cars and trucks, an erector set, as well as some stuffed animals and books about little boys on grand adventures. There was a slide, and a train set, too. Hansel ran straight to the books.

"Will you read to us, Grandma Abby? I can't read very well yet although when Mommy was well, she was teaching me…that was a long time ago though."

"Is Mommy coming back, Grandma Abby?"

"No, my dear."

"Will you take care of us?"

"It is my great pleasure to do so. Come give Grandma Abby a hug." Both children ran into her arms. She held them close, burying her nose in Hansel's neck and sighing.

"Come along. We mustn't leave Gretel out of the fun."

She led them up another set of stairs to the attic. She opened the door and it was the perfect room for a little girl. Pink and white with a frilly canopied bed. Princess costumes in a toy chest, baby dolls, a play house, a small table with chairs set up for tea, and myriad books about princesses that lived happily ever after. It lacked only windows.

And it locked from the outside.

That night, the door to Hansel's room slowly opened. The light from the hallway shone upon his face. He looked like an angel. Grandma Abby closed the door and approached the bed.

"Hansel?" she whispered, caressing his arm gently.

"Grandma Abby?"

"Yes, baby."

"Is Gretel okay?"

"Gretel is fine." She sat down. "You like it here, right baby."

"Yes." Suddenly wide awake, Hansel sat up. "Are they coming to take us away? We don't have to go, do we?"

"No, of course not, baby. You belong to me now." She took his hand. "Grandma Abby needs you to do something. It will be our secret. You can't tell Gretel."

"We tell each other everything."

"If you tell, I will have to make you both leave."

"Please don't make us go, Grandma Abby."

"There, there now, don't worry. Grandma Abby is going to take good care of you. Promise you won't tell?"

"I promise," Hansel quickly agreed.

"Good boy," said Grandma Abby, kissing him on the forehead and standing. Pulling the sash on her robe, it opened.

"Grandma Abby?” Hansel looked confused. “You're a Grandpa?"

"Hush, sugar. Grandma Abby is gonna take good care of you."

Gretel was the vicious one,

the vindictive one,

Hansel found her charming,

if not somewhat alarming.

The old woman kept a secret,

close to her heart,

She had one, that didn't look like her,

ragged and torn apart.

They drew a hex,

whoever was in the circle wept,

forever and ever and ever.

Hansel wondered at the rapt

attention that Gretel kept

focused on the old woman

and her gentle pet,

the gingerbread cat.

It came to pass,

as everything does,

that the old woman in question

was none other than,

Gretel herself; Hansel the cat.

For as everyone knows,

You become what you eat.

And for all eternity, Hansel lay at the feet

Of the old women who did nothing

but weep and weep and weep.

Greetings fellow Writers,

A few quick updates for you this afternoon. We apologize for the extended delay in addressing some bugs and feedback pointed out to us. But at long last, we've finally surfaced to address some nasty little splinters.

Bug Fixes

- Challenge entries in challenges that are part of a portal will now be displayed in the proper portal. This has been fixed retroactively as well - any such posts are now displayed in the appropriate portal.

- There was a bug that prevented tagged users in comments from being notified if they were tagged alongside a non-existent user (for instance if a username was misspelled). Valid users will now receive comment tag notifications regardless of who they are tagged alongside.

- Profile pictures and profile banners can now be properly updated. YIKES.

- Issues with our newsletter email system have been resolved. As such, regularly scheduled Challenges of the Week and Challenges of the Month will resume.

We apologize once again for the delay in addressing some of these issues and are eternally grateful for your patience and your words.

If there are any features, bugs, or suggestions you have, please let us know in the comments below!

Happy Writing.

“I left in love, in laughter and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I’m there in spirit.”

-Bill Hicks

“Please leave the window open.”

-Jim Varney

“I do my best. I look. I listen, but in the end, I know it’s my story. Not Kamau’s, not Kenya’s, or Kenyans. Those stories are yet to be heard.”

-Anthony Bourdain (last show)

“I'm so tired. All I want to do is go home and be with my family."

-John Candy

”I joyfully await the exit and I hope never to return.”

-Frida Kahlo

“I myself don’t believe in my death.”

-Salvador Dali (last interview)

“It’s been a slice of pie in the sky.”

-N.P Guttí (Me)

LOVE

The answer we found on a night not to exchanged numbers,

better to have known, then to live with it.

A smirk hides that smile.

DEATH

Our way to say;

This was, is, and will be,

while watching her danced to flamenco.

"Oley!"

"Uh-Oh..."

Boom!

I went flying through the air and slammed into the wall.

"Oh frick..."

Too late to turn back now.

I drew my weapon I knew I didn't have much time.

One came in. His head was covered by a green helmet his chest had a bulletproof vest. I shot at him twice and hit him twice, once in the leg and once in the chest. The vest really worked because he wasn't dead! He started to crawl away gritting his teeth. I shot him once more and he was dead. I wasn't going to be taken. I had to resist this wave and run away. The resistance was counting on me. I had the information we needed. I knew who was really in control! I had to get out of there.

More soldiers were coming in and I was shooting them as they came. I was running low on ammo and had to go. I made an executive decision to shoot the window to my right and jumped through. I began to run. Then the chase began.

Bullets were whizzing by my head. I turned and shot behind me. It hit the nearest soldier and dropped him.

I was so close to the pickup spot when I felt a sharp pain in my leg and fell on my face.

No no no no! I thought. I tried to crawl away. I rolled onto my back and fired five times killing two soldiers.

"Chris!" I heard Val yell.

She shot three shots and killed an enemy.

"Come on Chris!" She yelled, "I got you."

"No," I said, "Just go I'll cover you!" I shot more soldiers.

"I am not leaving without you!"

"Please just go!" I yelled you need to tell Keith! It's Tarry! He's the one!"

"What!?" Val yelled, "How, why!"

"Just run!"

"No!"

I sat up and shot five more shots before I was hit in the left arm.

"Go!" That was the last thing I said. I was hit again and everything went black.

It was let’s say June 2016 The sun was bright and then all of a sudden it went white and I was filled with all of its light. It’s been a fight, every single night. Grace made a little Or-ie-ji board and I was. Ripped away from my own self unto her. What a life. They should not sell it at Walmart or anywhere should be illegal. Well, Something urged me to get up and walk down and this is my mom’s rental house I’m staying in Chaucer Circle I’ll let my friend stay there for free she asked for a daughter comes in that I said as long as there’s no jobs in a party and you know how I feel about that I don’t have my son around the block have them and save environment and she said of course lol her daughter comes and stays the night and it was either that day after she got there in the morning and something urge me to get up and walk down the hall where Tabby is staying, for free. Well as I see your daughter in the fridge without tabby normally I probably wouldn’t have cared but I don’t know if she played the Ouija board before that she made it herself during or after but when I wanna talk to her for a minute and then when I walk past her my whole life is a huge part of me got ripped off on her and then when I went to sitt down in my room . whenever you’re scared of the devil when you’re alone and all the suddenAnd then I was that I saw from that part of me like with my minus all the living room and I saw that from that part of me. & then I met these These two singers came over they were tabby friends and I told him they weren’t welcome because they had that five point star in a circle around it I asked them when it was first and they told me and I said you guys are not welcome I’m sorry and then I felt bad. And told them they could stay because I felt bad and they were tabby friends and I prayed over them while he is going to start the stuff OK with her you know it’s scary movies I have a mirror in my window cause I broke the window and he says that it’s a window to the underworld a while I was like that’s not true but the way he speaking I rebuke Satan as I believe Satanist are inbred then all of a sudden I said I don’t believe that that’s not true well then I fell out that’s like like scary because it was blowing and I believe in God and I was and I felt myself getting yanked away from me like I couldn’t contain being still but I got jerked away and then he picked up my chainI got electrocuted with this necklace around my hand I played the blood of Jesus around me and my family and my children and I ask God to remove these demon entities from my life and my love ones in from all of our lives in Jesus name and well there’s still a Ouija boards at Walmart with the titanic five point star And I’ve been trying to like get them to remove it and my dad told me about astroprojection when I was little and hypnotism and reading peoples minds so I try to do that and I pray that it’s reversed because only people that know how to do it can do it and I also got my friend Michael’s we’re going to receive Jesus Christ into his heart and 1116 and in 2016 and after that we walked on church property and a little window popped up and it stole my mind into the clouds so I can get Michael’s work I receive Jesus and heart and my mind it stolen out of me and the sun got put on me and I got proposed to by Jesus Christ and I said yes and we’re supposed to get married when I turn 26 or sometimes when I’m 26 and he said I’ll be 26 and I turned 26 this year on July 17 and also I can hear my baby in the wall where I flushed them down the toilet and I need a miracle I’m not trying to sound crazy I’ve left the baby down where he was small enough to go down the pipe but I can still hear him and please you guys pray for me or for miracle and pray for God‘s at dinner being in my life an apartment guy went into outer space and they have it on film on a Disney on findings and also me being the bride of Christ talks about the bride being hot with the sun well I was the Devil went up on me and oh and I also said something weird but I take back what I said because Ryan had went in me and leave them ride with me and I commands play that stuff is real and I wish your board is connected to satanic insane worshiping and I am only a child of God you are can I come in nor Jesus help me. Well it talks about on the fornication of Babylon or whatever I went into somebody but he didn’t do it he didn’t hurt me well that’s on me on me I had toomen a lames tertestrogone and because Of he had been talking to Grace’s Ouija board I’m and my brother had given me a males tertestrongene pill. I looked at the photo of Lucifer because I could hear him talking to me through grace of the Ouija board Ryan in LaytonAnd he had one on me and hurt me and some weird thing to happen with my sister Megan when I smoked around her eye and I had explained it to her and in a little tiny dot from her went on me. Well after the Melcer tile ground I was pushed out my body I was like astroprojection I don’t know how to do astroprojection that’s where someone could leave their body lifeless and travel with her so like you’ve died and gone to heaven and that woken us but I don’t know how to do that and and I had went into someone at my dad’s house and I’ve been trying to get back please Lord help me get back and also I have thought about people well after this girl in Bethany she had a angelic symbols I read one that said mind release and it come back now and it stole my mind .And because of that pill I took I thought Satan came up on me and I was convinced they are do you were saying my homeboy my friend was him but he wasn’t and and Iran hypnotized by Michael’s forgo he compelled me not hypnotize me blue to me and said sleep and then I’ll dial-in and I fell asleep I’ve heard that’s broken I pray that’s broken I pray that’s broken and I also seen this video of this guy hypnotizing girl with the white watch it with a chain on it and I was stolen from my own body right away and she went on me and I was. Stuck in a hymnosise trance for 3 years. Finally broken. My mind was stolen in a weird way I had got knocked out by Cody bland and I just pray that God comes into my life and he loves me in the name of Jesus yes I do and also OK so I’m getting married to Jesus OK he’s my bodyguard mocha and this is the story that was told me I’ll get the best ones of me and he spoke to me he said and asked if he could have sex with me but when he spoke to me I believe that he blew and then he spoke on me and he said and he said yes and then no and when he put it in you to have sex with me he put it in but it was like like it was connection connected in a magical way to my neck and I feel like he was doing me in my neck and I was told that he actually took that as his penis because he couldn’t get hard and he use me for sex and fornication with every woman and then whenever I had the sun on me I I had gotten hurt real bad I guess it closed up and I felt like it was pried open well I’ve sunk in my bed like as if I died and I’ve seen I’ve got him Chester Wilkinson and he says in his dream to have sex with Lucifer you would have to use your son and then he spoke on me and said yes but I feel like I was dead like I couldn’t move and I had actually stung from my body like I was sung and I was awake and we’re sunk in the center of my bed and I can see a casino like a casino like a computer like where are youAnd it hurt real bad and he said whenever he had said yes I am I will say no I will never use my child or anything like that but the thing is when I woke up I heard a loud voice that I was go to hell said due to the fornication you are going to hell for eternity and I was in the fear of my life I was scared every day that I was hurting my child and I I realize though that the SUN was used on me the sun not me and that was someone else’s fornication so I was I thought there and took there I guess I their punishment was put on me how are you guys pray for me please.

Bleak walls

Pervading darkness

Stillness cuts like a knife

Famished for meaning

Emptiness swells and suffocates life...

Ah! Once vibrant and beautiful… now devoid of function or purpose

A ravished and animated existence… now lifeless and driven by bitter cold…

Into the grim deadness of winter

The bell tolls… hushed at first… but then more loudly… the enlarging deafening shrillness

The vociferous pandemonium

Cancelling out the bittersweet recall

Oh! Tortuous anguished memories, wilt thou leave me?

When will the turbulent stillness end?

Someone's lost lover - quakes and shivers at the hollow Nothingness…

Evading Solace for eternity...

My Dear dear Baby. My Babys, I was pregnant with twins.

It was the night. Jesus touched me, oh the love of my life. & he said your pregnant with twins One is a girl & the other is a boy, Well In the beginning or late september, She came out into my hands, Oh some may ask oh how is this possible? Oh she lieing... well Ill tell you there it was a little tiny baby in my hands. And im like God what do I do? I dont want to lose my baby. God what do i do? God what do I do? I cryed. Thou nights before when i was informed i was Pregnant with two I felt them closely i layed upon my bed & i held them closely so closely. I cryed so inlove and held on. Held on to them very closely. And I thanked God for them. And im so so sorry. But as im staring into the eyes of my little baby about the size of a kewi she wasnt even fully formed she was like as if A little mermaid The cutest little baby ive ever seen And what did i do? I said im not gonna lose baby. I put her back in my mouth where she came out. Due to using hem or iods cream on lower part of body then mouth my part of my lower body came up to my mouth. Its healed now. But I gave a great swallow & i begged God with all my heart over and over God let her be healed God let my baby live, God please save me baby. what then? She would have been gone? Couldnt survive without me? Well i tell you Two months later i see a little sweet babys hand in the back of my mouth about the same size as she was when she came out, And I heard baby Crying, And to this day baby real cute. & Red but more to come. Whats gonna happen next?