“Ugh!”
As soon as I put my head out of the water, more water roughly rushed in. I still couldn’t breathe.
“Oh my gosh!”
“Call 911!”
I struggled with my limbs, but I was still easily swept away by the water. My head submerged back into the water, and the screams of those standing by began to fade.
“Help…”
Cough.
My cry for help was silenced by the rushing water in my lungs.
Was it foolish of me to jump in the water to save a boy even though I wasn’t good at swimming?
But I have no regrets.
The child will safely return to his parents today.
Soon, my vision blackened. The pain in my lungs slowly subsided, and I felt myself floating.
Is my body floating on water? Or is my soul separated from my dead body?
But I don’t want to die yet… I had a lot of things I wanted to do…
Funny enough, it was the first time I thought I had never been in a relationship.
“I don’t want to die yet!”
The scream of a strange woman rang in my head.
The moment, a hand grabbed my wrist roughly, and I opened my eyes wide.
“Hah, hah…”
I breathed heavily. The breath that I always took for granted couldn’t be so sweet.
“Did someone save me?”
As the blurred vision gradually became clearer, it was neither the sunny autumn sky nor the face of the savior who saved me.
“What is this?!”
The skeleton thrown from my hand rolled around on a rough table.
“…What?”
The skeleton wasn’t the only strange thing.
On the table littered with candles and old books, magic circles I’ve only seen in fantasy animations were drawn on a large scale.
There was even a treasure chest opened widely by my feet. I reached down and picked up a gold coin.
“Hun?”
The imperial emblem on the gold coin was familar.
This is nonsense. I must’ve died from saving a kid during a autumn picnic at the kindergarden where I was working…
This was neither the park nor the underworld which I should’ve fell into.
“Isn’t this from a fairy tale?”
Looking around, I was once again terribly surprised.
“Huh? This is…”
In the mirrior hanging on the wall, a familiar, yet unfamilar was staring right back at me with widened eyes.
Soft, curly brown hair, emerald eyes, and smooth, ivory skin.
A young woman with a face anyone would want to have.
“Witch.”
So I became a witch in the fairy tale.
***
My name is Hazel.
Originally, I had a different name, but I haven’t been called that in years.
My hobby is baking human-shaped cookies. Another hobby is inviting people to serve those cookies.
However, the people here are also very bad-tempered. They would eat the cookies and then went around spreading rumors.
“Hazel, the witch of the Black Forest, grills people!”
Because of that, I became Hazel, the ‘man-eating’ witch of the Black Forest.
After that, no one comes to my hut to play. So it was lonely.
So, after much deliberation, I decided to build a cute and sweet trap.
It’s a house made of sweets that is so cute and sweet that you can’t just ignore it.
‘Oh, caught one!’
A rustling noise echoed through the wide open kitchen window.
“Hah… Hah…”
I also heard the sound of breathing in and out.
I quietly pushed my head out the window, calming my beating heart.
A girl with a basket full of mushrooms by her side tore off a human-shaped gingerbread cookie from the wall. She bit the cookie.
At that moment, I asked with a friendly smile.
“Isn’t it delicious? There’s more inside. There are different types.”
“It’s a cannibal witch!”
A witch who bakes the best gingerbread cookies at best and is a cannibal witch? Isn’t that too much? Still, kindness…
“Come in…”
“Come alive!”
The girl jogged along the path by the creek. As she ran, the tossed basket was scattered across the lawn.
The corners of my lips drooped down. But I soon picked up my energy and rolled up my
sleeves. It’s not something I’ve been through in a day or two.
“I’m going to have to put the decorations back.”
When I flicked my index finger, the whipper that was stirring alone in the large bowl stopped. White icing fell from the whisk to the bowl.
I held the icing bowl in my arms and opened the door to my little comfy cabin. The dazzling sunlight poured over my head.
“Great. It’s a perfect day for tea time.”
Of course, it rains on a rainy day, and it snows on a snowy day, so it’s perfect.
I circled the hut and approached the kitchen window. On the open windowsill, a plate of cookies baked today was cooling down.
“Great. It’s just right.”
I tilted my head as I grated icing on the wall and stuck the cookies that had hardened well there.
“What?”
There were dents in one corner of the house. Is the height a little below my waist?
“Who eats that way? Oh dear. Did you mean that you ate deliciously and left without saying thank you?”
I finished the refurbishment by putting a cookie the size of my face in the devoured spot.
Today is tea time alone.
I set up the tea table with familiar hand movements.
On a sunny autumn day like today, a red mushroom-patterned teapot and teacup are
perfect.
On top of that, I placed a dessert plate with a cute lace pattern on the edge, and placed a
human cookie that would be the prey of today’s ‘man-eating witch’.
“How would you like to be decorated today?”
First, I drew the eyes, nose, and mouth with chocolate icing. When I lifted my finger
towards cookie, the flat cookie trembled and got up on the plate.
“Shall we try to be a gentleman today?”
I opened the cookie box and took out a chocolate cookie in the shape of a fedora. The human cookie took it and put it on his head and wrinkled one of his eyes.
“Hmm, something is missing…”
I clapped my hands while holding the brim of my fedora hat while contemplating.
“Ah! A cane!”
After all, if you are a gentleman, you must have a cane.
I pulled out a red and white striped candy cane from the cupboard. The cookie quickly took it and swung it it was doing a trick.
In addition, the perfect gentleman was completed by me beautifully drawing a bow tie and suit with icing.
“Now, take a look around.”
Gentleman Cookie turned around and elegantly set his fedora hat down with one hand.
“Great. Today is perfect.”
Gentleman Cookie moved like a puppet, following my gestures and thoughts, but it was not alive. I left the cookie dancing on the plate and picked up the teacup.
From carrot cakes to apple pie to cookies in a variety of flavors and baskets full of scones.
Some might say that it is too much for a tea table for me alone.
But my grandmother, who passed away, was like that.
“It’s a job to make everyone want to stay, but even if they stay for one meal, you have to dress up well. “
It’s a reward given to me for working hard.
Now my appearance and name have changed, but my habits have not changed at all.
It would be perfect if I had someone to drink tea with.
Actually, I wasn’t really alone. There is just no ‘person’.
“Daisy, I say this every day, but no.”
While enjoying the homemade chamomile tea, the tuxedo cat was sitting at the table and drooling while watching the dancing cookies.
A golden retriever, lying on its back under the still warm fire pit, looked over and licked his tongue.
[Daisy, pig for short.]
“Lady.”
I rolled my eyes at the Lady who was making fun of Daisy, then stroked the crying Daisy.
“I’ll bake you cat cookies.”
[Then can I eat it too? Good! Great!]
[Wait, no. Don’t make my body fat. Look at me now. I mean, it wasn’t like this before.]
I drank tea while watching the puppy giving a pint cup to a cat that behaves like a dog.
Before I took possession of this book, the evil witch who occupied this body changed her
soul by saying that she was doing an experiment.
I’ve seen many romance fantasy and BL novels, but it’s possible to be possessed by a
children’s book.
This is inside a children’s book that I illustrated.
Hansel and Gretel in Wonderland.
As a kindergarten teacher by day and an illustrator by night, I was commissioned to draw
illustrations for a children ‘s book with this name shortly before I died.
“The artist who drew this before is not feeling well. Since your drawing style is similar,
can you take it?”
He asked me to redraw the illustrations for the book that had already been published, and only the scene in which the witch appeared.
The reason is…
[The witch looks so scary TT TT]
It was because the book reviews were flooded with 1 star and protests.
[My child who slept well on his own suddenly said he needed to sleep with mom and dad again after reading this. The second plan went in vain…again.]
How serious. I couldn’t contain my curiosity at that time and searched.