Liza Hazelwood

Period 1
VASILISA
The forest holds a multitude of monsters, witches, and tricks. Everyone in the village
knows this. Theyve known it for years, parents telling their children to never go into the forest.
And then the children told their children and thats how this whole thing got started. It isnt a
very large village, and its been shrinking for generations; some leave each year for the big cities,
and suddenly there are only the same families, living in the same houses, tending to the same
land, and listening to the same stories.
As many stories go, there is a family. A merchant, his wife, and their daughter, Vasilisa.
The mother falls ill and as she lies dying, she beckons to her daughter. She presses a doll to her
chest and whispers, This doll is my blessing. Keep it with you and if anything bad ever happens
to you, give the doll food and ask her for advice. The mother dies that night, leaving the
merchant alone and her daughter with only a doll for maternal instinct.
And because it wouldnt be a story in the first place if something bad didnt happen,
something bad does happen. Her father marries again. Her stepmother and two stepsisters are
envious of Vasilisas beauty, so they try to ruin it, as one does. They make her do hard labor
outdoors, so that she would be thin and her face become a mess from the wind and sun. But
Vasilisa, a maybe the definition of spite, becomes more beautiful with each passing day.
Needless to say, the stepmother is angry. As the years carry on, she is more beautiful, just as her
stepmother is more angry.
Now comes the real plot. Vasilisas father leaves for business one day, leaving his
daughter to deal with three jealous materialistic females. The stepmother moves the family to the
edge of the forest, much to the surprise of the townsfolk. All of the stories tell of Baba Yaga, the

Liza Hazelwood
Period 1
witch who lives in the center of the forest, who eats people for dinner. Its even hypothesized that
this is the true beginning of the phrase tastes like chicken.
The stepmothers sends Vasilisa into the forest every day, but she always comes home safe
with the blessing of her doll. But her trips continue. For future reference, the definition of
insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So the
stepmother tries a different tactic. She extinguishes all of the candles in the house.
Its impossible to see, children. How are we to continue our work if we cant see?
Someone must go to Baba Yaga and ask for a light, she asks.
And because children are obnoxious, the first stepdaughter says, Well, Im not going. I
can see my needle.
The second stepdaughter seconds the notion, I can also see my needle.
So can I, Vasilisa begins, but then she has already been thrown out into the forest.
Forests can be foreboding in daylight, but at night, they become hosts of the imagination.
In this case, every horror story that she has ever been told is suddenly hiding behind every single
tree.
Vasilisa takes out her doll and asks it for advice. Dont be an idiot, Vasilisa, it says,
Theres nothing here for you. Go to Baba Yaga and ask for a light.
She huffs and shoves the doll in her pocket. She detests being called an idiot, as most
people do. All night, she walks through the forest. The doll gives her directions from its secure
position in her breast pocket. At least its travel is smooth. Vasilisa loses track of how many times
shes tripped over roots, stumps, and, most unfortunately, squirrels. Scratches and bruises start to
line her legs and arms as she pushes through another patch of briars.

Liza Hazelwood
Period 1
Then light! A horseman races by, all white. Literally everything is white, his face, his
clothes, his horse. As he passes her, the first light of dawn appears. Then another horseman
comes by. This one is all red, and he makes the sun start to rise. She walks all day until she
finally comes to a house in the middle of a clearing. It stands on chicken feet. One of the talons
tap every few seconds, like its been waiting for her and shes late. In a more disturbing fashion,
the fence surrounding the house is made of human bones, crowned with skulls. The lock is made
of a set of teeth.
This is the part where the white girl in a horror movie comes into play and she actually
goes in. Thats the dumb thing to do. The smart thing to do is to go back to the stepmother and
show her a match, because they have those, and then to tell them that theyre just going to have
to deal with her existence. Unfortunately, Vasilisa is the white girl in a horror movie. She wants
to go in.
But first, the last horseman. He is black, his face, his clothes, his horse. He rides through
the gates and disappears. As he passes her, night descends. So there, another need for a light. As
if they can hear her, the eyes of the skulls begin to glow. Here her horror movie alarm should be
ringing every single bell its got, but she needs that light.
Then she hears it. The earth starts to shake and the trees groan. Vasilisa turns around to
face the noise and then she gains her first look at Baba Yaga. The witch flies in riding in her
mortar, using the pestle to steer. She stops and sniffs the air.
I smell a human! she screams. Its a scream of joy, excitement. Usually she has to go
kidnap someone a few towns over for her fix. Instead shes got a morsel waiting at her front door.

Liza Hazelwood
Period 1
My stepmother sent me to ask for a light, Vasilisa says. Her hands are shaking but her
voice isnt. Good first start.
Baba Yaga nods to herself. I know that lady. Stay with me for a bit. If you work well, I
will give you a light. If you do not, I will cook and eat you! Ah, cannibalism.
Now Vasilisa isnt the most educated person of all time, seeing as the people in power
didnt see girls as important and didnt send them to school. But she is pretty sure that a few days
of work dont equal a light. Maybe seventy lights, but not just one. But her stepmother will not
let her back in, so she follows Baba Yaga past the gates and into the house.
Baba Yaga orders Vasilisa to bring her what is on the stove. There is enough food to feed
ten men but Baba Yaga eats everything. She only leaves Vasilisa a crust of bread. It takes a lot of
effort for Vasilisa to suppress the judgy look that she gets sometimes, but this woman will eat
her. Its enough incentive to keep her expressionless.
Im tired, Baba Yaga says, Tomorrow you have to clean the yard, sweep the house,
cook supper and wash the linens. Here Vasilisa has to cover her face to keep the look off her
face. Then you must go to the corn bin and separate seed by seed the mildewed corn from the
good corn. If you dont do any of this, I get to eat you! What do you think I should make? Meat
lasagna or a pie?
Lasagna, Vasilisa says.
Baba Yaga falls asleep in the chair, snoring loudly. Her long nose rattles against the roof
of the house. Vasilisa takes the doll out of her pocket and feeds it the crust of bread. Her stomach
growls but she pays it no mind. What am I going to do? she hisses to the doll, If I dont get
hustling, shes going to eat me! I cant do all of that.

Liza Hazelwood
Period 1
The doll says, First of all, you have to believe in yourself. Second of all, go to bed.
Mornings are wiser than evenings.
Vasilisa wakes up early the next morning, and Baba Yaga is gone. Her mortar and pestle
are gone, too. The girl goes to the corn bin, and finds the doll picking out the mildewed corn. All
of her other tasks are also done. I swear, Vasilisa, I was definitely meant for more than this.
Where did I go wrong? Where did I miss my path to stardom? Also, you just have to make dinner
and youre set.
Cool, Vasilisa says, shooting a quick thumbs up. She goes back to the house and cooks
dinner. She sets the table and then goes to the corner of the house, waiting. Darkness arrives with
the dark horseman, and with Baba Yaga.
Baba Yaga enters the house and looks around. All of the tasks are complete. Damn it,
she says, I got the ingredients for lasagna just a second ago.
The witch eats the supper, although grumpily. Tomorrow you have to do all of that
again, and then go to the store room and sort out the dirt from the poppy seeds.
To absolutely no ones surprise, except maybe Baba Yagas, Vasilisa finishes all of the
tasks with the help of her doll.
Over dinner, Baba Yaga looks at Vasilisa. Ive got only one question for you, girl, and
then Ill tell you what you have to do tomorrow. How on earth have you done all of my work so
quickly?
As weve already established, Vasilisa isnt the smartest tool in the shed. She actually
tells the truth.
My mothers blessing has been helping me.

Liza Hazelwood
Period 1
Now Im not one to play the blame game, but that sounds a lot like cheating. I wont
have people with blessings, and here she spat at the word, in my home.
In what seems to be an emerging pattern for Vasilisa, she gets shoved out of the house
and through the gate. Baba Yaga takes one of the skulls and sticks it on the end of a stick and
gives it to Vasilisa. Under normal circumstances, Vasilisa would have been less than pleased to
be handed part of the human body, but she was already lucky that she hadnt been set aside for
lasagna.
Take your light, Baba Yaga says, and then she is gone.
Vasilisa walks all day and by the next morning she reaches her home. Maybe its not a
home. Its a house, where she should feel like home, but really doesnt. As she approaches the
gates, she starts to throw away the skull, but then she hears a voice. Not only is it a dead skull,
but its also a talking skull. Things involving talking skulls have never ended well, for future
reference.
You must keep me, your stepmother and stepsisters need me, it says. Mhm, Vasilisa
thinks, and why should I care about what they need? But because she is a nice person, she
doesnt throw away the skull and takes it home.
As she enters the house, the skulls eyes begin to burn. They fixate on the stepmother and
her daughters. The eyes burn like fire. The stepfamily tries to hide, but the burning eyes follow
them. By the end of the day, nothing is left of the three women except for three heaps of ash on
the floor. Vasilisa is unharmed. In fact, she is enriched. That is probably the best thing shes ever
seen in her life.

Liza Hazelwood
Period 1
Part of her wants this to become her backstory so that she can become a superhero, but
the other part knows that she doesnt know the first things about fighting, and not the things that
she could learn about. So she buries the skull in the garden, letting flowers grow above it. Her
father comes back and he, frankly, is bewildered. But this is her story to tell. So she tells it.