Ever since his stepsister had returned from the woods all glittering gold and carrying a chest filled with neverending gold coins, Daniel’s mother had been pressuring him to also get abandoned in the woods, and he had finally given in. Thus, he was reluctantly chasing after a loaf of fresh-baked bread that his mother had rolled down the hill. After finally catching up to it, Daniel realized that he was completely lost and it was starting to get dark. Wandering around the woods, he found a small cottage that perfectly fit his stepsister’s description.
Daniel barged in without knocking, “Hey grandma, can I sleep here?”
The little old lady sitting by the fireplace looked a bit startled, but quickly gathered her bearings and said “Of course, my dear, come in!”
Daniel pulled out a chair and sat down, starting to eat the bread his mother had made. “May I have a slice of your bread, child?” croaked the old lady “I’m quite hungry.”
“No, this is my bread. I’m a growing kid and I need my food, that’s what my mom always said.” Daniel replied, quickly stuffing the last of the bread into his mouth.
The grandmother said nothing. The next morning, well, relatively speaking, closer to 1pm, really, Daniel finally dragged himself out of bed. The grandmother asked him to help with chores, but he laughed at her and told her “This is your own damn house, why would I clean it for you?” then sat down to watch Netflix.
Later that evening, the grandmother walked up to Daniel and asked him to come down to the river bank. “Finally. I thought you’d never ask.” The grandma led Daniel to the river, which changed colors every two minutes and said “Wake me up when the river turns black.” So Daniel sat down and started at the water as it changed from blue to green to red to gold. He dipped a finger into the beautiful gold water, and it came out sparkling gold, like his stepsister. Unfortunately, the gold waters passed before Daniel could leap in. When the black waters came, Daniel woke the grandmother up. Suddenly, and with no warning, the grandma grabbed him and pushed him entirely under the water. Daniel’s skin turned black as coal, but the grandmother didn’t let him up. Daniel struggled and thrashed, but still the grandmother would not let him up. Daniel finally surrendered to the inevitable, took a deep gulp of the black water, and died. Only then did the grandmother release him. Daniel floated for a moment, but when the waters changed to purple, the corpse magically disappeared.
Daniel Grazian was found dead at 8:20PM, inside the front door of ET.
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