Week 1 (Sky Kovac)

 

Hansel and Gretel

Story Pitch

        A modest woman named Iris Renato is walking down the street. She always has to walk past a rundown section of town with abandoned buildings to get to the subway station. But, today she noticed something new on her route home. A brand new butcher’s shop between two dilapidated buildings, how did she miss this shop when it sticks out like a sore thumb? The shop was called “Carnicero Family Butcher Shoppe”. A large sign on the window said “Grand Opening! 60% Off All Day!” 

        “Wow! That’s a great deal” thought Iris. 

        Looking through the window Iris could see all sorts of meats, there was; prosciutto, salami, mortadella, pancetta, coppa, bresaola, and even guanciale! Two children playfully beckoned her to come inside. The boy’s nametag said Damian, and the girl’s said Daeva.

        She wanted to run in and order as much as she could carry, but then she stopped. A nagging feeling washed over her, why did she feel this pull to keep her out of the shop? She brushed it aside and opened the shop door, Ding Dong! The moment the door closed, the quaint butcher shop disappeared. 

        “What just happened!? Where am I? What happened to the butcher shop?” Iris frantically thought as her heart started pounding in her chest. “Why is it so cold?” She said to herself.

        What was now before her was a dark room with a cutting block table in front of her, an assortment of knives littered the table along with spare bits of meat. As she looked around the room before her, she could hardly make out bodies dangling from meat hooks. 

        Iris gravitated toward the hanging bodies, asking herself, “Are those pigs? No, those don’t look like pigs. WAIT! THOSE ARE…” 

        Iris now understood her current situation. She was somehow in a meat freezer surrounded by human bodies, each of which had already been prepared and stored to be used at a later time. She quickly looked around for the door leading out of the freezer. 

        “There it is!” She exclaimed.

        She ran to the door and desperately tried to open the door only to find that the door was locked from the outside. 

        “This must be how those children kill their prey, by freezing them to death. Are they even children?” She thought to herself.

        Iris feverishly searched for something to aid her in opening the door. After several minutes, she decided a large meat cleaver was the best option. She hurried over to the door and raised the cleaver in the air and with all her strength she slashed at the door handle. Nothing happened. She frantically struck the handle over and over until finally it fell to the floor. The door opened slightly and Iris took a step out of the freezer, stopping to look at the knife which was now chipped and useless. 

        “I’m going to need another knife,” said Iris.

        She ran back and found another cleaver and ran out the door. She was immediately hit by extreme heat in the hallway. Walking cautiously and listening to the slightest sounds as she peaks around corners. The heat is so intense, she is sweating up a storm and is forced to take off her sweater. Over the next 10 minutes she searches for a way out, clinging to her cleaver. Then she heard voices around the corner.

        “Do you think that woman is a corpsicle yet?” asked Daeva.

        “Give it a few more minutes.” replied Damian.

        Iris gasped. Both of the children quickly turned their heads in her direction.

        “She got out!” yelled Daeva.

        “Impossible!” screamed Damian.

        The children sprinted in Iris’s direction. She frantically ran for her life down the hallway, searching every door to hide from the children. Finally! Iris ducked into a room and hid behind a pile of clothes. 

        “Must be from all their victims,” she thought.

        With her heart pounding, she did her best to slow her breathing.

        “We lost her!” cried Daeva.

        “She must have hid in one of these rooms. You check the rooms on the left and I’ll check the rooms on the right.” Damian commanded.

        After a few minutes the door where Iris was hiding flung open. Daeva, the girl, or is she some kind of demon? Either way, Daeva stepped through the door and closed it behind her. 

        “Mmmm, I smell something sweet!” said Daeva.

        “Now’s my chance!” Iris thought.

        Iris leaped from the pile of clothes swinging at the demon child. They were locked in a tussle, rolling left and right, striking blows to one another. Daeva had claws growing out of her fingernails. At last, Iris struck the killing blow to Daeva’s neck with her cleaver. The demon child desperately tries to call out to her brother, but the words fall short. Finally, she stops squirming and is still.

        “I can’t believe that just happened,” Iris says. 

        She feels faintish. Checking herself, she finds a gash on her stomach. She takes off her sweater, cuts it in pieces and creates a tourniquet. After treating her wound, she checks the rest of her body. Cuts appeared all over, but the worst was the gash to her stomach. At this point she looks like she had been in a horror movie. I guess that’s not far from the truth.

        Iris exits the room slowly, peaking around the corner both ways. She silently walks through the hallway, following the smells of something cooking while keeping her eyes and ears at the highest alert. At last she enters a large kitchen and an old fashioned meat furnace. 

        “Daeva! Where are you? Did you find her yet? Daeva!” yelled Damian.

        Iris quickly searches for a place to hide. There was a dining table in the kitchen with a large tablecloth draping over it. She sprints toward the table and slides under the cloth. She was too loud and Damian heard her from the hallway.

        “I found her!” cried Damian.

        He bursts into the kitchen and starts sniffing the air and looking around.

        “I can’t make out the smell with this damn furnace cooking our meal!” Damian cried.

        He turned his back to Iris as he was checking the opposite direction. This was her chance, it’s now or never. Iris slowly lifted the tablecloth and crawled out from under the table. She stayed crouched as she inched closer and closer to Damian. Too slow!

        Damian turned around and gasped! At that very moment Iris stood up and slashed with her cleaver. Blood sprayed from the demon boy’s throat, but he desperately tried to grab Iris. She dodged his attack and body slammed him into the furnace, unlocking the door. As the door slowly opened, both of them were frantically trying to kill the other first. Each landing several hits on the other, Damian with his claws and Iris with her cleaver.

        Iris noticed the furnace door was open. Damian took a swing at her face, she ducked and immediately lunged at his torso, shoulder checking him straight into the furnace. She quickly ran to the door, closing it and locking the door shut, wincing as she burned her hands in the process. She watched with fierce eyes as he screamed in agony, burning to death.

        Days went by as Iris looked for a way out of this place. Giving into her starvation, she began eating the meat the demon children stored in the freezer. With each piece she ate, she lost a piece of her humanity. Until she finally turned into a demon herself. 

        Some time went by and she had run out of food. Sitting in a corner Iris waited for death. 

        Ding Dong! A familiar bell went off in Iris’s ears. With inhuman eyes, she began laughing maniacally to herself as she muttered, “Fresh meat…”