The Beginning

Once upon a time, there were two twins, a sister and a brother who lived very happily together with their mother and father. The sister’s name was Daisy and the brother’s name was Ray. They only fought on occasion and for the most part got along very well. They both loved their parents very much and were very well behaved. Their family lived in a small hunting town and Ray was a hunter’s apprentice by the time he was ten. Daisy on the other hand was a cook’s apprentice and by the time she was twelve she could cook anything out of anything. She was such a master that even her teacher envied her skills.

But there was a time when Ray refused to hunt and Daisy refused to cook. That was the year their mother died. She was young and beautiful, as Daisy was one day to become, but she was also weak where Daisy would be strong. Her death came swiftly and painlessly but it tore out the hearts of those she left behind. The twins found solace in each other but their father couldn’t grieve. Instead, at the end of that year, he married again.

The twins thought that he was happy so Ray hunted down a large deer and Daisy cooked it especially for their wedding day. Everyone at the wedding loved it and said it was the most delicious thing they had ever tasted but their father’s bride, Madame Hule, refused to eat it. She whispered to her husband that she believed it to be poisoned by the two children. Their father looked at the twins with suspicious eyes, believing his new wife of the misdeeds of his once loved children.

Ray and Daisy didn’t know of any of this until much later and still loved and trusted their father. And while the memory of their mother’s death was still heavy in their hearts, they were happy for their father and his new bride. So without realizing their coming doom, the two celebrated and lived happily for a month while their father and Madame Hule went on their honeymoon.

Madame Hule was a beautiful woman; every feature of her was sharp and unforgiving. She was getting older though and it was evident in her face. But her eyes still held the energy of a girl half her age, which is what most attracted Ray and Daisy’s father to her other than her great wealth. If he hadn’t been so caught up in this innocent energy, he would have been able to see the cruelty that waited just beneath it. Daisy and Ray saw it but tried to ignore it for their father’s sake.

The night the couple came home from their honeymoon, the brother and sister were anxiously waiting to welcome them. When Madame Hule saw them waiting by the front door to welcome them, she cried out in fear and clung to her husband’s arm. “See how they wait to ambush us and kill me,” she cried. Her husband immediately took her in his arms and said he would never let them hurt her. With that reassurance, they continued up to the waiting twins.

If the twins noticed their step mother’s hesitation they didn’t show it. Instead they held out their arms and walked forward to embrace her and their father. “Stop,” their father said sternly and they stopped coming forward, their confusion now evident on their similar faces. “Tonight and for every night hence you will sleep in the barn. You are only allowed within this house now to take your things away and for meals.” The children, barely thirteen at this point in time, followed his orders with heavy hearts.