Once upon a time 

Laughter mixes with bludgeoning music. The sounds  bring no smiles to Harry and Gina. Fear turns to terror as voices raise, doors bang, footsteps approach. Harry sits behind the bedroom door, pressing his scrawny back against its flimsy, dirt-encrusted panels. His sister cowers on the bed, her nails sunk into Ted, clutched tightly to her quaking chest. A bang on the door, a shove, resisted by adrenalin-fuelled strength. Words exchanged, demands and pleas. The boy does not win. 

Morning brings no solace. With the man asleep, the mother seeks to reassure but they all know these are lies. The man is a troll, but hides his appearance behind a suit. The boy knows though. Mother weeps and offers a ragged apology. The boy is boiling. If he isn’t cooled soon he will explode. The girl squeezes Ted. Any harder and it will explode too.  The troll awakes. A collective sigh as the front door slams. The troll is gone, but he will be back, they know, to feast again. The mother decides. Escape. She takes them to a safe place, although it is not. When the troll returns, he sees the mother alone. BAM. THUD. The mother screams and resists until she cannot. Later that day, Harry and Gina are back in the bedroom. That night, more noise, more barricades, more breaches. Mother cries. Her tears acid pearls that burn a path down her face. The troll leaves again the next day, fangs bared, knuckles hard and wild. 

Mother gathers up her bairns and flees again. She hides them in a better place. Thinks about hiding herself but that is impossible. He is a magnet, pulling her back to his clutching hands. Once more he extracts the truth. She tries to avoid fists, boots, bites. Once more she submits. The boy and girl reclaimed. Gina, beautiful, fragile, bowed, but not broken. Harry, fierce, a fighter. He has the strength of the martyrs running through his core. For a third time he leaves. Mother knows that it must be now. She does not take them to a place she knows, because when asked she will tell him. Instead, she pushes them into the forest and will not let them see the way back. When troll returns, she knows she will pay. Troll returns. She pays in full. 

Gingerbread 

Harry has found a place for them. Led here by a jackal, who hides his teeth with a glistening smile. Gifts offered, although they are as fake as a politician’s promises. There is another jackal, a bitch. Tells Harry she will return them both to their mother when his sister ripens and looks more beautiful. Says he is safe if he co-operates, but they cannot leave yet.  

Harry is clever. He is young, but has the wisdom of ages. He can sense a jackal. After all, he has shared a home with a troll. They are not so different. The bitch jackal, he knows, is a ragged knife, a black hole, a demon. The other, the dog jackal, just runs with the pack. 

Harry knows that when his sister is ready, all will be lost, so he tricks the bitch. He shows Gina how to hide her blossoming when the bitch examines her. When patience is almost run, he buys more time by cutting himself and making his sister look unclean. Although he is cunning, he can only delay the inevitable. A plan made. Knows when the bitch will be alone. Tricks her into showing her back to him. STAB. SLASH. A blade fashioned from a broken mirror, wrapped in a sock. SLASH. STAB. She resists but he is a tiger fighting for his cub. The bitch is dead. Harry’s soul is stained crimson red. His hands too, but with his own blood. Gina shakes like a kitten threatened.  Harry knows they have to escape the gingerbread house. The dog jackal will return soon. Broken window, a fall to the ground. Moments later they are free. 

Armed with strength that Harry never realised he had, he takes his sister back into the forest. They find mother. Harry has sensed her shattered, fluttering soul, and it acts as a beacon to him. The troll has long since gone to seek more children to devour. The three clutch to each other, and laugh, although there is a tear in Gina’s eye because Ted has gone too. Life is never fair, especially for the good and the meek.