The midday sun beat down on me as I lifted the axe for the hundredth time that day. The log split right in two as I swung down. One of the more lucky swings. Usually, it took me two or three swings for it to cut through. But, what could I expect, I was barely taller than the log when it was set on the stump.
I wiped my brow off and took a glance at my house. It was small, even compared with the other houses in the village, but it was home. Looking through the window, I saw my little brother, Noel, playing with our father. He had been coddling my little brother for over a year now. It started right after our mother died of an illness she caught during winter. My father was much happier before then and now appears run down when he wasn’t putting on a show for Noel. His hair was more salt than pepper these days and he would get tired more quickly than before. All of this meant I was now responsible for handling most of the manual labor, playing with Noel when Father became too tired, and not being left much time for anything else.
I heard my brother laughing as our father tickled him, and he laughed right along. I already had beads of sweat pouring down my face, but my face grew hotter still.
I was about to go inside and give them a piece of my mind but was stopped.
“LEON!” A kid called out.
Michael and the other kids in our small village ran up to me. They greeted me and gave me flack for looking like a sweaty pig. They asked if I wanted to go do some cliff diving at the nearby lake. Before I could answer, my front door opened and my father said with all resolve, “No.”
I looked at him with fury in my eyes. He then told the boys to leave before he told their parents what they were up to. Without missing a beat, Michael and the others ran as fast as they could. I was about to argue with him, but before I could get the words out, he told me to take Noel out to play. The volcano inside me was about to erupt when he gave me his infamous death stare saying there would be no arguing. I guess I was taking his favorite son out to play.
——————————————————————————
Noel frolicked laps around me as we made our way into the forest. Occasionally, he would pick up a pine cone and throw it at a tree, giggling nonstop. I felt like throwing pine cones myself, but I certainly wouldn’t giggle. I let my brother play for hours, and it still did nothing to tire him out. The sun began to set and I knew it was time to head back. As we walked, the sky became too dark too quickly. The sky, the trees, and the ground were all enveloped in a pitch-black veil. Then it was our turn. As were swallowed by the void, all I could hear was a wicked cackle.
My eyelids were heavy. I managed to pry them open but struggled to understand what happened or where I was. I tried to stand but was stopped by a pain in my wrists. I was chained to a pipe sticking out of the wall. After a moment, my eyes adjusted to the dim light, and I was able to look around barely making out the inside of an old cottage. It was filled with all kinds of weird stuff. There was a large cauldron set up in the middle of the room with a small, unlit fire pit underneath. There were shelves stacked with bottles too dark or dirty to see inside. One of the shelves had a little doll house sitting in the center. There were things on the wall I had no idea what they could be. Some of it looked like it may have come from an animal, but I didn’t want to know which one or what part of it I was looking at. I glanced over and found Noel also bound to a pipe across from me, still unconscious. I stretched out my foot as far as I could and was able to nudge him awake. He moaned a little as he came to, and I shushed him as quietly as I could.
I looked around for any sign of movement and listened for any sound, but couldn’t find any. It seemed we were alone.
“Noel,” I whispered. “Wake up!”
He finally became conscious. His eyes were filled with panic as he took in the surroundings. I could hear him breathing rapidly.
“Stay quiet. Breathe.”
He stared at me for a long moment and slowly started to control his breathing. “Where are we?” He whispered.
“I don’t know.”
“I want to go home,” he whimpered.
“We’ll get home,” I said with as much confidence I could muster. “But, we need to figure out how we’re going to get out of here first.”
Preferably before our captor came back. It was at that moment a loud creaking came from a door, just out of view. Too late.
A fire awoke underneath the cauldron without warning, bathing the room in an orange glow. A Wrinkly old crone hobbled into view. She had stringy white hair coming off the sides of her head. Her nose was as long as a carrot, and her skin the color of a swamp. She looked right at us and gave a malicious smile.
“Well, you’re finally awake, I see.” She rubbed her hands together. “Good, it’s much more enjoyable when they’re awake.”
I was petrified. I couldn’t do anything but stare into those cold eyes. Somehow just looking at them stole all the warmth from inside me. She then turned to Noel. He couldn’t scream or let out any noise at all. He has never had to face something so terrifying. Then again, neither had I.
“Don’t you worry. It won’t be much longer. My poor little home has tuckered himself out running all along the country. Those horrid adventurers have been chasing us oh so long. He just needs a little boost to brighten his spirits. Isn’t that right, my precious?”
She rubbed her hand along the wall, and the whole cottage shivered in, what I could only guess was, enjoyment.
This house can move? This hag has evaded armed and experienced adventurers for who knows how long? How can we escape something like that???
“That’s where you two come in.” She pointed at a decrepit grandfather clock. It read a quarter past 11. I don’t know why, but my brain thought about how it was way past our bedtime. “Once the clock strikes 12, we can begin. And your souls will become one with my home,” she said with a creepy smile.
She crept out of view once more, and the creaking sound came back.
“I just need a few more ingredients. Ta-ta sweet children.”
The door closed. My brother and I were alone again.
“Brother, what are we going to do?”
I groaned. “I don’t know. Let me think.”
As much as I tried to focus on how we could get our hands free, my mind kept going back to earlier that day. I couldn’t ignore the fact we would’ve never been in this mess if Father had just let me go with the other boys. We could’ve both been safe, and I could’ve had fun. No, instead I had to take my little brother out to play, like playing with our father wasn’t enough. I was so angry and I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“AAARH!” I wailed while yanking my chains against the pipe not caring how it was futile.
Noel cowered into the corner as much as he could. After a moment, my shoulders dropped and my face relaxed while I panted. I took one deep breath and became calmer.
“I’m sorry.”
Noel didn’t look at me. “No, I’m sorry.”
“This isn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong by wanting to play.”
“Maybe not for playing, but you’ve been caring for our family ever since Mother died. I’ve noticed how hard Father is on you. I should’ve helped you more.”
I looked at Noel with my mouth agape. I never heard him talk like that before.
“I guess,” he continued. “I got used to the idea there wasn’t anything you couldn’t handle.”
That certainly wasn’t true. I definitely couldn’t handle Mother’s death. Thinking back to the days after she was gone, I isolated myself from everyone for weeks. I stayed in my room and wouldn’t even talk to my family more than I had to. Noel wouldn’t stop crying. Whether he ate dinner or tried to sleep, he always had tears in his eyes and never once smiled.
Wait…
It was then something came to me. Maybe Father tried to give us what he thought we needed. He gave me a push to help me move forward, and he gave Noel a reason to smile again. I was so absorbed in my own misery for doing so much work it never occurred to me that Father was trying to help me.
“Listen. I may not be able to handle things this time. But, we certainly can.”
“W-what can I do?”
“A lot more than you realize. We just have to wait for the right opportunity.”
Noel hesitated before responding with a semi-confident nod.
The minute hand on the grandfather clock steadily crawled until it was a quarter until midnight. I still hadn’t thought of a way to break these chains, but I was not about to give up. The hag finally returned with the last of the things she needed and went straight to work. She gathered all her ingredients around the cauldron and brought down the doll house from the shelf. She placed it next to the cauldron with a delicate touch. She threw a bunch of things into the brew and poured numerous liquids as well. The light coming out of the cauldron changed colors with each new addition.
At one point she set down one of the bottles she poured closer to where Noel and I were chained. The bottle was clear and I could see bright green liquid inside. One drop hung on the lip of the bottle and dripped down the side. As it made contact with the wooden counter, it made a sizzling sound, and a small wisp of smoke came off.
That’s it. If we couldn’t break the chains, then we could melt them. The bottle was way too far from me. Where Noel was sitting, his feet were the closest to it but still out of reach. I gave myself a headache trying to figure out how to get the bottle without the hag noticing.
My eyes shot open.
“Noel,” I whispered as quietly as I could.
My brother looked at me.
“That bottle. Put your legs together next to the counter under it.”
He looked confused but did as I asked.
I made sure the hag wasn’t looking. I reached past the pipes I was chained to and carefully rubbed the wall, holding my chains with the other hand so they didn’t rattle. The cottage shivered once more, and the bottle migrated closer to the edge.
“Yes, yes. I know you’re excited,” said the hag. “It’s almost ready.”
The bottle finally went over the edge. I held my breath as it fell. Noel caught it with his legs with no sound to be heard. I let out the breath as silently as I could. I signaled him to bring it over to me. With careful work, we managed to transfer it from his feet to mine. I then brought it up to my hand and gently removed the stopper. I poured the liquid on the chain links closest to my wrists. I gritted my teeth as some of the acid made contact with my skin, but I refused to make a sound.
After what felt like ages, the chain link melted and my hands were free. I shuffled over to Noel and got to work on freeing him. Once we were both free, it was time to make our move.
I got up and gestured for Noel to stay back.
“Hey, Hag!” I yelled.
She jerked around in time for me to splash the rest of the acid in her eyes. She wailed, shielding her face with her hands as she stammered back. She crashed against the counter knocking over all her weird stuff. I told Noel to run for the door. While he did that, I turned and looked at the dollhouse near the cauldron. I grabbed it and threw it into the brew.
The house quaked violently. I almost lost my footing but managed to run right out the door. I crashed into my brother outside and we stopped and looked back at the hag’s cottage while holding each other. The outer walls were not only shaking but also bending and twisting. The house was being pulled inside of itself until it finally vanished without a flash or sound. The house, and the hag inside, were no longer there, and there was no sign it had ever been there.
A moment passed and I recovered from the shock. I looked down at Noel and whispered in a shaky voice, “Let’s go home.”
———————————————————
We trudged through the forest for about an hour, looking for some familiar ground to lead us back to the village when a voice barely reached our ears.
“Leon! Noel! Leon…”
Both Noel and I summoned what strength we had left and sprinted toward the voice of our father until we saw a torchlight in the distance. We called back, and within seconds the three of us hugged each other, not daring to let go. With tears in his eyes, he demanded to know where we had been. We told him everything, and he didn’t accuse us of lying. He may have believed or maybe he realized he didn’t care. All that mattered was he had his son back. We headed home and had a few pieces of bread to quell our hunger before collapsing on our beds.
The next day I learned one of the boys who went cliff diving was badly injured. He managed to get himself back home and get his injuries treated. He told everyone how the other boys ran off when he hurt himself without even checking to see if he was okay.
I guess I was wrong before. If I had gone with them, I may not have been safe. Although, I definitely would’ve had worse company when trouble came.
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