I didn’t want the candy. Not when the others grabbed theirs like starving crows, not when the old woman’s yellow eyes locked onto mine, whispering something under her breath. I was just Alice—small, quiet, orphaned—but my mother’s necklace grew warm against my chest, humming like a heartbeat that wasn’t mine. The others didn’t have that. They laughed as they ate it. And now… now they’re gone. All of them. Trapped in her oven. And she’s still looking for me.