(a modern tale)
Her husband, shocked by this, shouted “you little bastard!!!” and tried grab him and throw him to the side so he could save his wife. But the little one just said with and evil grin “you cant catch me, Im the gingerbread man!” and bopped him on the head knocking him out cold. He went to the liquor cabinet, got out a bottle of whisky and poured out a little into the old mans mouth and onto his clothing, then finished of the bottle himself, leaving it empty in the poor old mans hand. Then he jumped out the window and ran away.
When their son and his family arrived. They knocked and knocked to no avail, when their 9 year old son peered in the window, he saw the horrendous scene, he shouted for his dad to look. After a half shocked moment he busted in and told his wife to call 911 and to tell them to send an ambulance right away, but it was already to late for his mother. The police arrived on the scene a few minutes after the ambulance got there and arrested the old man on a charge of murder.
Well, when it came time for the trial, the evidence was not favorable for the old man. He was there, apparently intoxicated, with his dead wife shoved into an oven. Even his own son thought he had done it. Throughout it all, against the advice of his attorney, he stuck to his gingerbread man story. The trial went on for months but eventually he was declared unfit to stand trial on account of insanity, and was ordered to a mental institution until he was mentally fit to stand trial.
Meanwhile, the gingerbread man had begun his crime spree across the mid western united states, robing liquor stores and gas stations at gunpoint to support his cocain habit. Of course, none of the shop keepers would admit to what they saw, or thought they saw. But there were reports coming in to many of the major tabloid newspapers of a living cookie man who was robbing convenience stores in the night. Eventually, the tabloids tracked down the man who started this chain of reports, yes, the old man who was charged with killing his wife in the oven.
They got him the best lawyers and got him free of the institution, and acquitted of all charges brought against him. The old man and the newspaper people were in this together now. The paper, hopping to get some clear footage of this “gingerbread man” and the old man, was in it for revenge.
After months of study and many more calls, they finally noticed a pattern in his robberies. By this time the gingerbread man had made it all the way to Las Vegas and was quite taken with the Vegas strip, the showgirls, the gambling, everything. Of course in a place like Vegas, nobody would even blink twice looking at him, most everyone figuring he was some sort of tiny actor in one of the shows. They tracked him down to a very likely gas station to be hit, the reporters armed with their cameras, the old man armed with a semi automatic weapon and a sense of vengeance. Sure enough the gingerbread man was there, armed and dangerous. The reporters snapped photos and the old man popped up to fire at the gingerbread man.
The old man took a small piece off the side of his foe, but the gingerbread man quickly turned around, fired a few shots and ran away screaming “you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man” the old man was hit twice in the leg, he called the police immediately saying only that they were in pursuit of a known criminal and convenience store robber. The police set up a road block right where the fugitive was headed, the gingerbread man was trapped.
When he ran into the police blockade, he was almost as shocked as the police themselves. They could not believe their eyes at what they were seeing. They were still in slight disbelief when the gingerbread man shouted “you’ll never get me pigs, you cant catch me I’m the gingerbread man!!!” and fired a barrage of bullets seriously injuring 4 officers and killing one more. The police opened fire blowing the gingerbread man to pieces.
It was about that time that the old man, still limping from the gunshot wounds, caught up with the gingerbread man, seeing his cookie like remains scattered all over the place and realized that it was finally all over, although disappointed that he did not witness the demise of the gingerbread man, he was glad to know that he had been killed and he could go home to live his life as best he could.
But about that time a maniacal laugh echoed through the nearby hills and that eerie voice was heard shouting “is that all you’ve got? You cant catch me I’m the gingerbread man” the old man looked downward to see the decapitated, but still animated head of the gingerbread man at his feet with that same evil grin on his face that the old man had seen so many years ago. The old man, still armed, took his gun and fired three shots into that familiar face, blowing it into dust. About then, the police K-9 units released the dogs who quite happily finished off the remains of the gingerbread man. And then, there was silence.
Most people say the gingerbread man was killed on that night, some say his spirit is still alive, watching, waiting, gathering up all his strength for a time to return and seek out his revenge on the old man, and his children’s children’s children, but we may never know.