"No!" I scream as I am plummeted backwards into the rift. I could only watch in horror as I see Michael get snatched upwards, his blood leaving a trail as he gets higher and higher into the sky. Bit by bit, my body disappears as I struggle to go back. Let me go! My body was getting sucked in and in an instant, I was on the ground of a dark room. My heartbeat soars through my ears like a drum as I can't understand what just happened. "FUCK!" I scream, punching a wall beside me as I hear loud thuds on the other side, a lot of them.
I pull out my gun as I move onwards, moving slow. I could barely see; the only source of light was a single torch lodged into the ceiling. With its dim light, I identify the source of the noise. Books? The wall I hit was actually a bookshelf, its contents now on the ground after I struck it. Something was weird about it though, it seemed out of place. It was then that I realized that the bookshelf seemed loose, as if it wasn't grounded on the floor. I put my weight on it and pushed. With a loud creak, it moves forward, the sound of mechanical contraptions whirring below it. It was a lot lighter than I expected.
"WHO DARES TO DISTURB MY BOOKS?!" A loud scream echoes in the darkness, the shriek of a woman who exuded madness. "MY PRECIOUS BOOKS! I'LL SKIN YOU AND USE IT TO MAKE LEATHER STRIPS! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" I dip immediately behind cover as I hold my breath to maintain silence. Long limbs limping on all fours with long, black hair dragging itself on the floor. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" She scuttered around, moving like a reptile who got its tail cut off.
Well, shit. I was barely able to move the contraption and I could already see a pathway below it. This was probably my only way out right now, and I needed a way to pry it open. "THERE YOU ARE!" She screams in my ear, her body hanging above me as I immediately dive sidewards. I barely avoid her grasp as she squirms around in a tantrum. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
I pull the trigger and hit her square on the head. She drops, now inanimate as her sick elongated body lies on the floor. My gun barks as I fire three more shots, making sure she was dead before proceeding. She doesn't move, her blood now splattered all over the floor. Most of her head has now turned into gore, a pile of brain and flesh scattered around.
I proceed to walk towards the bookshelf, the pathway below it now half open. I push, revealing a tunnel that reeked of rotten flesh. My arm instinctively covers my noise as I struggle not to hurl, the mere whiff of it is almost enough to make me fail. "This must be where she gets rid of the bodies…" I mutter.
"You're not wrong on that one." A voice from behind me responds. I turn, my gun already pointed towards them. Them? In front of me were two unknown people, a woman in a red dress and a guy who seemed beaten up. The woman raises her arms in surrender, simply smiling as she tries to show that she has no ill intent. "Anthony, it's me."
She seemed familiar, the guy beside her made me feel the same way. "I don't know what you're talking about. Who the hell are you?" The red dress she was wearing, one that seemed oddly familiar, looked tattered and seemed torn in places. She had cuts in some places, as if she's seen her own share of struggles. The man was worse, scars all over his face as he clutches onto his right arm, limping on the side of his body. "Wait, Gretel? Is that you?"
She only nods, her smile now fading away as her expression turns grim. "Where's Michael? I expected him to be with you." Michael. It still hasn't sunk in, the hope that he might somehow be alive still clutches on to the back of my mind. "Anthony? Are you okay?"
"He… Something took him. He gave himself up for my sake." If only we moved sooner, if I had been quicker and sharper, this wouldn't have happened.
"I'm sorry to hear about what happened, Anthony." She approaches me and puts a hand on my arm, trying her best to comfort me. "But we need to move, and we need to move now." Gretel's head turns to face a much older Hansel than the one I remember, who only nods in response.
"Where would we even head? I can't seem to figure a way out of this hellhole." I say, the determination I once had now seemed to be failing me. What's the point?
"We're on our way to end all of this, and we need your help Anthony." Gretel looks me in the eyes, and I can sense her seriousness through her words. "We need to kill mother. That is the only way we get out. And I need you to be the one to do it."
Why me? She seems to have noticed my confusion and she pulls away, procuring a dagger from the inside of her dress. I watch her carve something on her skin as her blood moves upwards. It clumps together as from it, an old, worn-out book emerges. "We have found out only recently that mother is no longer just mother. She split her being into pieces, each one given to each of her children." Gretel pulls down the dress on her shoulders to reveal a nasty web of veins bulging through the surface of her skin. It was dark, as if it contained black goo in the place of blood coursing through it. "If we want to kill her, we need all of her children to die."
"Then, that means…" I did not like where this was going.
She only nods, knowing what I have to say. "Yes, that includes us."