A short, dark retelling of the fairy tale.

Greed can turn nice people nasty. But you can't live in a greedy world for too long without turning nasty yourself – and once you're in that world, there's only one way to win. The character in my story, sadly for him, does not win.

???As the stitches stretch wider I see flesh behind them: shiny, pink, seashell-ridged. I go to the doctors with my belly held in my hands, shoes slipping against the rain-wet pavements. They peer inside me with long thin torches and use bigger needles. The stitches start thick as prison bars, but as they stretch they thin to string.