The True Story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears

The flames flicked the night air, warming her freckled skin. She looked into the darkness beyond the fire, closing her eyes. She swallowed hard, and started to speak. "Have you ever heard the story of goldilocks and the three bears?" As her words echoed into the night, the air got even more still and ominous around the fire. Tears ran down her cheeks as she choked out the words in a rasp. "This is the true story." Her words echoed into the depths of the night.

Goldi followed the path, humming to herself, going further into the woods, until the path stopped being a path, and the silence in the woods was louder than her steps on the forest floor. She admired the last rays of sunlight glinting through the pine trees, unaware that the fading evening light was her only lifeline of making it back home. The darkness was pulling her into it, consuming her, each step taking her further into the woods. 8 years old, with golden curly hair, freckles speckling her nose and cheeks, and dark searching eyes, Goldi really was a beautiful little girl. But beauty was fleeting and had no place in the dark forest, where the darkness engulfs everything, even beautiful little girls. Ahead, Goldi could make out a tiny glint of moonlight on the windows of a dark, foreboding cabin, seemingly untouched by the breath of any life. Covered by moss and kudzo vines, so hidden by the choking vines, the cabin was almost part of the forest itself. Goldi could hear a melancholy hum reverberating from the cabin. As she inched closer, she could just make out the words.

Gooooooollllddddiiiiii

Gooooooollllddddiiiii

Come to the woods and you will see

The cabin through the trees

Gooooooollllddddiiiiii

Goldi was instantly terrified. She must not have heard right, how would the forest call to her? Call her by name? It's as if something was beckoning her to come there, to find the cabin. She reached the gate and she could see a tiny light flickering inside the window of the cabin. A tug from deep inside her urged her forward. Curiosity filled her, catapulting her to open the door. As she opened the door, the cabin was immediately aglow in light. A haggard woman sat before a raging fire, rocking back and forth, her skin blackened by soot and ashes, her face etched by time. Her hallowed eyes were sunken and lost, but stared directly at Goldi, like she was waiting for her, almost as if she was expecting her. As the woman moved her hands in fluid movements in front of her, the air in the cabin swirled menacingly.  Cobwebs, dust, and broken pieces of furniture lay where everywhere in the cabin, the inside looking as if it had been shaken hard like a snow globe. The pot on the fire was bubbling over, sputtering brown lumpy liquid onto the fire, causing smoke to flood into the room. Goldi was frozen in place, as the old woman lurched closer to her. The womans cold hands wrapped around Goldi's arm, pinning her in place, her yellowed and broken nails piercing deep into her skin. She chanted whispered words at Goldi, that sounded like another language, pulling her into an almost trance like state. The edges of the room began to blur like a water colored painting. Just as she faded into a deep sleep, Goldi heard the woman whisper the only words she recognized since entering the cabin. "You've come."

She awoke with a start. Through her fluttering pale eyelashes Goldi could see three huge animal like men, growling and sputtering at the old woman, seemingly waiting for something. As she stirred the pot of brown lumpy liquid over the fire, she ladled heaping spoonfuls of the congealed brown sludge into metal troughs on the floor. The three beasts ate with an unquenchable foracity that Goldi was frightened by. Razor sharp teeth gnashed against the metal as they devoured the meal. She could see chunks of something in the porridge like substance, that looked like torn meat and bones. Goldi stifled a gag and held back her whimpers of terror. Goldi could hear the old woman rambling on to herself incoherently. So afraid to move or make a sound, the tiny girl lay unmoving, barely breathing, as the chaos ensued around her. The beasts finished their disgusting meal and she could hear them come to where she was sleeping and surround her. She got a closer look and realized, the huge meanacing beasts were not beasts at all, but huge bears. Their faces were twisted into painful grimaces, each one tangled into a nightmarish display. Their long brown hair was course and covered in dust and dirt, hanging in matted bunches.  The monsters grabbed her by her wrists and ankles with their huge paws, their claws punching into her skin. Their hot rancid saliva drooled down on Goldi as they carried her into a back room. The beasts threw her into the bed in the room and slammed the door closed behind them as they left, grunting and growling in low gutteral sounds. She could hear them angrily tearing through the house, not happy about the delay in another meal.

Goldis mind was foggy, and she didn't know what was going on, but she knew she had to get out of this place. She felt pressure in her mind and sadness leaching into her as something took a hold of her thoughts. This was what nightmares were made of. She could feel deep inside of her something pushing into her thoughts. She was locked into place in this huge bed, suffocating down into the layers, something mentally holding her there. She could feel the old lady chanting words into her mind, sending visions of torture and torment at the hands of the bears in front of her eyes. The old woman wove a story of a hidden cabin in the woods, untouched by the outside world, shrouded by a curse, never to be lifted. Her children were turned to bears, to roam the forest, with an insatiable hunger for human flesh, for the rest of eternity. She was their keeper and Goldi knew without any words utterted that she was their next meal. This woman was a witch. Something Goldi had only heard of in the fairy tales that her mom read to her at home. Home seemed so far away at the moment, almost hopelessly far away.  

Goldis mind was released again and she felt the full awareness of her surroundings. She jumped quietly out of the bed carrying a pillow, ran to the window, and holding the pillow to the window, without a moment of hesitation, she hit it as hard as she could with her elbow. Glass cascaded down around her, and before anything else happened she jumped through the window and started to run. Panic wrenching her insides, she took off as fast as she could go down the trail. It was only a few minutes before she heard a heard a high pitched shriek vibrate through the forest, followed by distance low menacing growls rumbling through the night. She hoped those few minutes were enough of a headstart.  

She ran through the woods, hearing the sounds of the bears tearing through the underbrush of the forest floor. She ran as fast as she could, briars tearing at her skin, tripping, tears silently streaming down her cheeks as she held back her fear. As she ran she could feel the fog in her mind lifting. The thoughts of the cabin getting farther and farther away. Goldi was gasping for breathe, covered in scratches, and dirty from head to toe, her red hood tattered to pieces. She kept running with the monsters nipping ferociously at her feet. Just as she broke free of the forest a still silence immediately cut through the pitch black night.  Everything faded back into the forest like a dream and Goldi collapsed from exhaustion right in the middle of the field. That is right where the search crews found Goldi when they combed that area of the forest searching for a blond haired, dark eyed, 8 year old, missing little girl. Because she could only remember blurry memories of porridge, a too soft bed and three bears, the story turned into somewhat of a fairytale as you know it. The news crews coined her Goldilocks and the rest as they say, is history.  

However for Goldi, as the initial media attention and her parents constant worry faded away, she was left with a curiosity, and so many questions. All memories were wiped clean from Goldi's mind, as if it were a mere dream. As the years passed Goldi could always sense some type of foreboding if she was out too late or too near the woods, but she never could bring about the horrors of what she walked into, in the forest that night. She could only feel the missing pieces of her memory like dark grey areas in her mind, foggy and buzzing like an old black and white tv. She didn't know what they were,but she could feel the memories tickling at the back of her mind like an itch she couldn't scratch.

She opened her eyes, and cleared her throat, goosebumps coursing down her spine. The fire was dimming and the forest was still so quiet. The cold chilled her to her core. She was exhausted, this was the first time she had told that story, and hopefully the last. "And that was the True Story of Goldilocks and the three bears" she whispered. She got up and stretched. In the distance, there was a rhythmic humming that slowly turned into words. She turned away from the last embers of the fire, pulled on her red hoodie, and started down the familiar path, darkness covering her golden curls.  

Gooooooollllddddiiiiii

Gooooooollllddddiiiiii

Come to the woods and you will see

The cabin through the trees

Gooooooollllddddiiiiii

Goldi's searching eyes looked back one last time as she faded into the forest.