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The Children Who Played at Being Butchers

A Gruesome Story of the Brothers Grimm

By Tom BakerPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Once upon a time, there were two children, Hans and Grans, who watched their big strong Papa go to his chores in the field.

One day, Hans said to Grans, "Oh Grans, I cannot wait for the day when we will be big and strong, just like Papa. For then, we will go to the fields and work all day and come home in time for supper. And then we will go out again, work until sunset, and come in, kiss Mama, eat our toast, and drink our tea. Then, we will read our Bibles and go to bed. Then, after sleeping forty winks, we will be up by the time the old rooster crows, And won't that be delightful?"

And Grans did indeed agree with Hans that that would, most certainly, be delightful. And so they waited all day, and they waited all night. And they waited and they waited.

Unfortunately, they did not seem to grow any bigger, as long as they waited. In frustration, Hans said to Grans, "Oh Grans! We have waited all day, and we have waited all night. And we have waited through the morning, and we have waited through the afternoon. We have waited in the evening, and we have waited and been patient through the dead of night! But we are not any bigger! And we are no nearer to being like Papa than we were before!"

And with that, Hans fell to weeping, and Grans soon followed suit.

Well, one day, the two little spies followed Papa into the pigsty, where he had a place all prepared for the slaughtering of hogs. They hid behind a tree and watched in wonder and amazement as Papa hoisted a hog high with a rope slung over a low hanging branch. Then, placing a bowl beneath the animal (which he had brained beforehand with one huge swing of his mighty hammer), he carefully sliced the throat of the thing, letting the blood course down and fill the bowl.

Then, when he knew the animal to be dead, he sliced it clean open and pulled out loop after bloody loop of entrails, casting them into the bowl. And he began to pull out the organs, and pull off the skin, and, in a short amount of time, became a dripping, bloody, sweaty mess.

Hans and grans, still hiding behind the tree, looked at each other in wonder. Hans said, "Oh Grans, now I see what we must do! For, Papa has slaughtered the pig for us to eat, and so has done a man's job! Come, we must be like Papa if we ever hope to become men ourselves."

And Grans asked Hans how they were to do that. Hans replied cheerfully, Come, you must let me slaughter you! Then, we will be like Papa, and grow up big and strong, and work in the day, and work in the evening, and read our Bible, and sleep forty winks at night!"

And so Grans, uncertain, but finally agreeing to this rather strange arrangement, went and fetched a knife and a bowl. He bent low over the bowl and pulled the hair back from his collar.

Hans took the knife, and then, with only a moment's hesitation, he slit his brother's throat from ear to ear.

Meanwhile, upstairs, watching out the window all the while, bathing the boys' baby sister, Mama glanced out at her two young sons in the yard. She blinked once. Twice. She couldn't just now believe what her eyes were showing her.

Hans had sliced his brother's throat, cut off his brother's head, reached his arm through the severed neck, and pulled out loop after loop of bloody, dripping intestines! His little babyish face was spattered with gore, and his teeth were dripping red from his idiotic smile!

"Gott in Himmel!" yelled the horrified woman, "Hans has killed his brother! Now he must die for his crime!"

And the madwoman (who must have been every bit as crazy as her idiot sons) raced from the house bearing a huge kitchen knife.

Hans turned, wet with his brother's gore, and said, "Oh Mama, see what I have done? I am such a good boy! Why I have butchered Grans just as I saw Papa do to the hog! Now, when I grow up, I shall be as big and strong as he! Isn't that wonderful?"

And Hans' mother fell upon him, exclaiming, "You thrice-damned child of HELL!" And, cursing the day of his birth, she thrust the knife into little Hans' chest up to the handle.

Hans shrieked in pain and fell to the ground, grasping at the handle of the knife, looking at his mother as if to say, "How could you do this to me, Mama?" Then, he expired, a pool of crimson red spreading out beneath him, dampening the earth.

In despair, Mama flew back into the house, suddenly remembering the baby in the bath.

When she entered the tub room, her hands flew to her face once again in horror. The baby had slipped beneath the filthy water. It was drowned.

Mama exclaimed, "Oh, God has seen fit to curse me with an idiot child who killed his brother! I have killed the product of my womb! Now, I have come back in to find my beautiful, innocent baby girl has drowned. All my children are dead! Oh, curses! Curses! I curse the day I was born!"

And, ripping the hem of her dress, and fashioning from it a noose, the anguished woman tied one end to the banister, and then, placing the noose around her neck, jumped over the side of the stairs to her death.

As night fell, Papa finally came home. He had been out hunting all day and was now very tired and very sore. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into his bed and go immediately to sleep. However, he was not to be so lucky.

Coming into the yard, he saw the twin lumps on the earth. At first, he couldn't believe his eyes as to what he was seeing. But, coming closer, he saw, to his utter horror and grief, the butchered, headless body of little Grans. Then, he saw the stabbed and bloodied corpse of little Hans.

Papa fell to his knees, exclaiming, "Oh Lord, thou hast seen fit to punish me for some sin or wrongdoing that thou hast deemed me guilty of! I hope thou seest this horror thou hast visited upon me as sufficient punishment for all my deadliest sins!"

And weeping, but remembering his wife and daughter, he picked up his rifle and his ax and went inside.

The first sight to greet him was the

body of his wife, hanging from the banister of the stairs. Again, the man fell to his knees, crying out in anguish, "Oh Lord, it is even worse than I first imagined! What wrong have I done, what sin committed, that thou has seen fit to punish me yet again for the error of my ways?"

And realizing then that there was one more member of his doomed family to see about, the poor man raced upstairs to the tub room.

There, he saw, to his horror if not his surprise, that the baby's body was drowned, floating atop the waters of the bath.

The man fell to his knees, and tore his hair, and tore his beard, and rent his garment, and cursed God, saying "Goddamn the moment of my birth! Curses, curses, vile curses! Let me die and be cast into Hell, rather than bear another moment of this rotten life! Strike me blind, oh Lord, I pray thee!"

And with that, the doomed man reached up and, putting his fingers in his eyes, pulled out his own eyeballs, and cast them to the floor. Then, he fell over, stone dead.

Or so they say.

Others say he used his final shot on himself.

Still, others say he lived on in the same house, a lonely, forgotten old man, until sorrow "pulled his grey hairs to the grave."

Of course, no one, not one of them lived; "happily ever after," or otherwise.

The Tea That Ran Up the Wall (and Other Fiendish Fairy Tales) by Tom Baker (Ebook)

vintage
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About the Creator

Tom Baker

Author of Haunted Indianapolis, Indiana Ghost Folklore, Midwest Maniacs, Midwest UFOs and Beyond, Scary Urban Legends, 50 Famous Fables and Folk Tales, and Notorious Crimes of the Upper Midwest.: http://tombakerbooks.weebly.com

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  • The Invisible Writer11 months ago

    Omg they all died what a gory fantastic story!

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