No more strangers

Mental Health

For weeks, the witch had watched the children who lived at the edge of the forest. Their parents, she saw with distaste, were indifferent and neglectful. The little girl and the even littler boy spent their days barefoot and playing their sadness-tinged childhood games, resilient but so obviously in need of more attention, care, and instruction than they could ever hope to find at home. 

The witch's heart broke for them and she longed to snatch them away and raise them for her own...until she remembered the undeniable compulsion she felt to fatten, cook, and eat such children. That would have to be overcome, she decided, before she could offer a better environment for the brother and sister who lived and played at the edge of her forest.