When Alissa finally pushed her textbooks away and crawled into bed, she overheard her mother reading a story to Aiden.
'A bedtime story at this hour?' It had to be past midnight.
“And the handsome prince rode up to the house of gingerbread, wielding his sword of flames. He ran in to find the princess shoving handfuls of candy, chocolates, marshmallows…”
Alissa turned over and tried to sleep. She folded her pillow in half and wrapped it over her ears to muffle the sound, but to no avail.
“The witch's skin blackened and peeled as the prince pushed her face into the flames,” the story continued.
'This is getting dark for a kid’s story…'
Alissa snapped up in her bed, tilting her head to better detect her mother’s voice.
“And the last thing the witch smelled was the
