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【6】Fading Hope

Gretel leaned forward to take a bite of the bread that had been sitting on the ground for a few minutes now. At first, she was reluctant to eat it because she was scared it might have been poisoned, but if she was poisoned, she would vomit all over their floor, and that would give her at least some satisfaction in this dreadful place.

Closing her eyes and hoping for the best, Gretel was quite surprised that the bread actually had a decent taste.

Like blueberries, she thought to herself as she took another bite and licked her lips. She kept going until the whole thing was gone and the only remaining leftovers were crumbs.

"Bruno would have liked this," Gretel thought aloud. "Wait."

Bruno.

Where was he? Gretel shifted most of her body weight onto her chin until she finally plucked up enough strength to sit up and have a proper look around. Neither Bruno nor Shmuel was there with her. While she hoped that they weren't hurt, the main thought that pulled at the strings of her mind was whether they were alive or not.

"Augh..." A pained groan emerged from behind Gretel, and once she realized who it was coming from, she nearly shrieked.

"D-dad, wh-what did they do to you and mum?" Gretel asked in a horrified tone, because she had never seen both of her parents in such a poor state. The two of them had their hands cuffed together with their mouths duct taped shut, but that wasn't even the worst thing. Mother and father's shackles were also tied around a metal pole, making it nearly impossible to escape.

Father was spitting into the duct tape, making it come a bit loose. He continued this until Gretel crawled closer to her father, wanting to give him a hug and tell him that this was all just a nightmare, a bad dream that would be over with when the morning came.

A light buzzing noise came into Gretel's earshot. The pole father was connected to was capable of electrocuting him. She had learned in school about what a high number of volts could do to the human body, and she didn't want to see father experience that kind of damage.

"Gretel, stay ba--" A louder buzzing noise than the one before rang out, a couple sparks flew in Gretel's direction, and father blacked out for a moment.

"Gr-Gretel, I said stay back..." He said, coming back to his senses. "I don't want to-- Augh!"

Another buzzing noise, another row of sparks flying, and another flinch of fear.

"Mmm," A soft whimper escaped mother's lips as she looked up from the pool of blood surrounding her. "Gretel."

"Mum," Gretel choked, daring to meet her mother's exhausted eyes which were lined with slightly smeared tear trails across her face. "Mum, they hurt you too?"

"Gretel," Mother said again, the duct tape blocking her speech. "Doesn't matter. Are you okay?"

"Yes, mum," Gretel said very quietly. "But Bruno and Shmuel. Where are they?"

"Bruno?" Mother called, sounding perfectly clear though there was still a piece of tape sealed onto her lips. "Shmuel?"

"They're not here," Father said, still working to pry the tape off. "We have to get out of here before they get hurt or killed."

"How?" Gretel asked. "How are we going to get out of here?"

"We'll bust out somehow," Mother's muffled voice broke into the conversation.

Gretel sniffled. "What if we can't?" she asked fearfully. "Then what?"

"We are going to get out." Father's glance directed itself down to the chains on his hands as he tried to force them off. "Your mother is right. We will get out of here, and we are going to find--"