The next morning Ria calls for her brother to get up only to realize he had not slept in his room the previous night.

She pulled on her shoes and hurried into a fresh frock and pinafore, Her chores would be waiting for her and it was her duty to now carry out her brother's in his stead until he returned.

'That's right, he will return. I must not give up on Ansel.' she thought as she tied the strings of the pinafore around her waist.

Ria went down the steps to see her mother polishing a piece of silverware, staring absentmindedly into the wall in front of her.

"Mam, I'll be going to the town now." Ria said. The woman said nothing, not even a grunt of acknowledgment to her daughter. She had always liked Ansel best after all.

Ria sighed, closing the door behind her as quietly as she could.

The walk to the town would be long and silent, as she stayed within her thoughts.

All through the day Ria could feel the pitying stares she received as she walked down the path with her basket to buy the salt and flour her mother would need to make bread. The shopkeeper greeted her with a solemnity in his voice Ria didn't want to hear.

"Lost children always find their way home." he said with a hint of a smile but Ria could see through his paper thin visage of an apology. He didn't care but, he was obligated to show some concern for her well being.

"Yes, Mr. Benedict, I'm sure he'll turn up sometime soon." Ria said not looking up from the things she had placed on the counter. She already knew the precise expression on his face, one of dismissal, of pity.

After all none of the lost children had ever returned so what hope did her brother have?

But Ria would prove him wrong, Ria would find Ansel and they would show the town that the forest had no power over them.

The second day passed, and Ria sat at the dining table tapping her feet and chewing her nails to stubs.

He was supposed to be back by now, why wasn't he back? Her thumbnail ripped from the middle, she hissed in pain and began pulling on it. It worked as a distraction at least.

Where was Ansel? She was supposed to keep him safe, that's what her mother said all those years ago. Ansel was just a baby so keep him safe.

'I failed.' Ria thought the nail continued to rip until a drop of blood dripped down the side of her finger. She cried.

The third day passed and less and less people were joining the search for her brother. Too many were scared to go so close to the border of the woods, too many scared they would be next.

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Ria watched the so called brave men retreat like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs. Offering sheepish apologies as they ran scared of a figment of their own imagination.

'Cowards.' she spat in her mind, no glare came to her pleasant face as the men looked her dead in the eyes while leaving. She pulled her cloak around herself, a deep red cloth with a hood she could pull over her head. The stark scarlet let her be spotted against the backdrop of the forest.

Her mother said it highlighted her strangeness, but her father, who had gotten it for her said it suited her.

Red, the color of life.

Her eyes fell on her father, one of the only men left. The constable, Doctor Alfred, her Father, and Mayor Manfred stood with their backs to her.

Manfred was a tall balding old man, whose hair left his head and went straight to his mustache and beard. His watery blue eyes stared deep into her father's as he gave his condolences, this wasn't the first search he had joined since the children started going missing and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

"We'll search west of the border now, why don't you run along to your mother little lady." Manfred said to her patronizingly. Ria gives a single nod, looking to her father for further instruction.

"Take care of your mother Ria, this is very hard on her."

'It's hard on me too, he was my responsibility.' she thought but didn't say, she only clasped her hands to her chest and let the freezing fall winds blow through her hair.

"I can only imagine what Clara must be going through and you too Lunaria." Manfred said. Ria blinked at the use of her full name, only her mother and father ever called her that. What right did Manfred have to use such informality with her?

She nodded again, selectively mute in his presence.

The walk back to the town was quiet once more, houses shut for the evening and families were lighting up their homes with warm dinners. In the twilight of the setting sun, she spots a figure hobbling from the town square into the forest.

An old woman walked, hunched over as though she carried the weight of a thousand books pressing down her spine all at once.

In one of her hands was a basket, the other grasped a walking stick helping hold her figure up. Both hands were stained black as night, like hands dipped in ink. The woman's walking stick clacked across the cobblestone town floors as she made her way down the path to the woods.

'But no one ever goes to the woods and comes back.' Ria said to herself.

She followed.

The old woman read her intentions before she could move her feet. Ria faced a pale shriveled hag with a prune for a face. A single eye with a milky iris fixed itself on her, the old woman's swollen blood filled nose seemed to wink at her from its perch high on her face.

"You're a curious one aren't you?" the hag's surprisingly gentle voice said. Ria nodded slowly, frozen where she stood just away from the woman. The old hag laughed, continuing down her path, before leaving she said.

"The forest is not yours to fear, it would not harm someone like us."

'What do you mean?' Ria wanted to ask but like a morning mist, the old woman quickly disappeared from her sight. Ria blinked, she spun around trying to see where the old woman could have gone into the woods from, but nothing caught her eye.

"A witch." Ria gasped, running back home, her mother warned her of witches. Women who would cast spells and steal your soul right from under your nose, witches who consorted with unholy things. A shiver ran up her back at the thought of the woman's words.

'Someone like us.' did that mean she was a witch too? or was the old woman just trying to scare her? The door opened and Ria took off her cloak to hang on one of the old door hooks her father carved for their worn house. Her mother was nowhere to be found.