'The Moment You Learned There’s No Such Thing as Grownups' by D.E. Hardy

It wasn’t when you realized the witch meant to eat you, or when she made you cook to fatten up your brother, or when you crept in the dead of night and tried to pick open his cage with the bones of other children. 

It wasn’t when you discovered she’d lured you with candy, that her gingerbread house was a trick. 

It was the day your father took you into the woods, hard-eyed as he handed over a loaf, his duty done, you finally understanding: if breadcrumbs were your best bet, you had always been on your own.

---

D.E. Hardy's work has appeared in Pithead Chapel, Fractured Lit, X-R-A-Y, Lost Balloon, among others. Her work has been anthologized in Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction. D.E. lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find her online at dehardywriter.com.