Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

(A.N I have no idea where this idea came from, and yes I know it's quite strange, but oh well. As for who the princess and the sorceress are, I'll let you decide. I hope you enjoy.)

Gingerbread Coffin
By Silver Sailor Ganymede

Her life had been a fairytale: a bitter, twisted fairytale. She was born the most beautiful girl in the land with her eyes of cerulean and hair of spun gold. She was also a princess, the only heir to her father's throne, so her father set about to find her a suitor who could become king of their kingdom after his death. The princess however had no wish to marry: she was too young for such things, but her father was insistent so she soon found herself married to a prince from lands that lay far from their own.

It was not long before her father, the king, was found death. Some said he had died from old age, but many said that he had been cursed.

"The king was in good health, no matter his age," they wispered on the streets. "It was the prince, our new king; he killed him so he could take control of this kingdom."

Little did they know that they were right; the prince had made a deal with a sorceress who dwelt in the dark woods that bordered the kingdom. This sorceress had cursed the king to death in return for immense riches: riches that were nothing to the new king. At least that's what the princess had heard from the servents as they gossiped.

One day the princess could stand it no longer so she went to one of the palace officials and asked what had happenend to her father. The official did not reply: he simply went ashen. The princess turned around and saw her husband standing there: he looked normal but his eyes were cold as stone. He smiled; her father had been old, it was nothing for her to worry about; no misfortune was going to befall her.

The next day the king took his wife for a walk out into the countryside and then into the woods. The woods scared the princess; they were unnaturally dark and the gnarled branches of the trees seemed to her to be like the twisted limbs of shrivelled corpses. Soon she realised that the king had left her; he had taken her out into the woods so that she would get lost and die, nothing more.

The princess continued to walk as the darkness pressed closer and closer around her. She began to feel terrified: she could see things moving in the shadows, demons and evil forest creatures that were going to kill her if she didn't escape soon. The princess felt tears coming into her eyes. She began to cry silently; she knew she was going to die in these woods. Yes, she was going to die just like her father. She heard an unearthly scream and broke into a run, fear taking over her. She ran and ran and ran until she reached a clearing in the middle of the woods.

The light of the pale, silver moon that stared down from the starless sky that night lit the clearing. Usually the princess would not have been able to see in that light, but after the sheer darkness of the woods the light of the moon was painful, almost blinding. In the centre of the clearing stood a cottage: it was small but beautifully decorated. The princess sniffed; she could smell something… something sweet… gingerbread. It was coming from inside the cottage, she realised; soon curiosity got the better of her and she went against her better judgement and walked into the cottage.

The inside of the house was dusty and dark but it smelled very strongly of a mixture of gingerbread and some strange spices she didn't recognise. She felt strangely at home in the cottage even though she'd not even known it existed until a few minutes ago. The walked over to the wooden table that stood in the centre of the room and found a tray of gingerbread men lying upon it. All of them had been decorated with utmost care, but the most striking thing about them was that all of them had faces that implied sadness or pain.

The princess was so wrapped up in looking at these gingerbread men that she didn't even notice when the owner of the house came in, until, that is, two crows swooped down on her and scared her. She turned around, her heart racing, and realsied for the first time that this cottage was the home of the sorceress she had heard spoken of. She realised with a shock that this sorceress was little older than she was, and she was not hag-like as sorceresses were said to be. No, in fact the sorceress was beaututiful: as beautiful as the princess herself, albeit in negative form. Where the princess had eyes of cerulean and hair of gold, the sorceress had hair as black as obsidion and eyes like asphodel that contrasted sharply with her colourless skin.

"What," the sorceress hissed, "are you doing in my house."

"I," the princess stammered. "I… I got lost."

The sorceress' eyes widened, "So you're the princess," she whispered.

"Yes," the princess replied. "I am."

The soreceress smiled and shook her head, "I can't kill you."

"Wha… what?" the princess gasped.

"He left you here," the sorceress replied, "he left you here and told me to kill you as soon as you came here."

The princess took three steps back and turned to escape, but she felt a hand grab her before she could go anywhere.

"Don't worry," the sorceress smiled. "I'm not going to kill you. I can't."

The princess turned to her confused: "what do you mean?" she asked.

"So you don't remember…"

"Remember what?"

"This," the sorceress replied as she grabbed the princess and crushed her lips to her own. She forced her tongue into the princess' mouth, and the princess was so shocked that all she could think was that the sorceress tasted like gingerbread. The princess fell back stunned; what had just happened? What had just happened?

"You still don't remember?" the sorceress asked and the princess shook her head. The sorceress took the princess by the hand and led her to a large, ornate mirror. However instead of showing their reflections it showed a series of images. It showed the princess as a young girl lying ill, then her father bringing a healer to them. This healer was still a girl herself, not much older than the princess… she was the sorceress.

"I saved your life: you told me you loved me when you were healed," the sorceress replied. The princess was amazed; yes, she remembered.

"But I am the only princess in these lands, how did you not know that it was me that he meant you to kill?"

"I had no idea that he is now the ruler of this kingdom."

"You speak as though you know him."

"Your dear husband is my father," came the reply. "He seduced my mother then left her. She died when I was three years old, died of the only thing I can't cure."

"A broken heart," the princess said and the sorceress nodded.

"Yes, a broken heart."

"And what did my father die of?"

The sorceress smiled darkly; she had not cursed the old king. She had merely given the new, evil king the herbs that he had used to poison the old king. She had not meant to kill the old king: he had ruled his lands with a fair hand, a rare thing in those times. The princess looked into the sorceress' eyes and knew that she was telling the truth.

---

For a long time afterwards the princess and the sorceress lived happily together in peace. That is until one day when the crows flew back in a fright. The sorceress spoke to them and was terrified. So, the king had found out that the princess had not been killed: troops had been sent to kill them both.

Both the sorceress and the princess knew that the crows would not lie; they were doomed to die. The princess began to cry and screamed that she would rather take her own life than die at his cruel hands.

"If that is what you wish, that is what we'll do," came the reply. The sorceress took some herbs from her shelf. "If we swallow these then we shall die," she said, "are you sure this is what you want?"

The princess nodded and with that their fates were sealed.

Finally, as the princess lay down in her gingerbread coffin beside her lover she learned that yes, life truly is bitter. Life is bitter like poison, like the poison her father had drunk and now that she had drunk also. Yes, life is bitter: death however is sweet, sweet like gingerbread.