"Come and get me then, five years you've been haunting me, turning everyone against me!" I cursed to the trees that have towered over me ever since I came here, "I'm sick and tired of you playing mind games. If you want me- come and get me! For the past 7 months I've avoided these woods out of blind terror, but guess what? I'm not scared anymore. What have you got to give now? This is all ridiculous, I can't avoid the woods opposite my house for any longer. Are you real, or am I as crazy as they all say?"
Silence. Even the wind stopped.
Turning around, I checked all corners of the clearing I was stood in. Everything was towering over me, dark and gloomy even in June. The grass was a permanent burnt ash colour from a year ago when a fire broke loose in the depths of Autumn... it mysteriously lit the day after I went on holiday. I remember getting a phone call from our Hotel, our neighbours at the time were saying how the entire woodland was ablaze. We flew back and everything was sorted within a day of our return.
Frustrated at myself, I started talking to the empty clearing again.
"My Mum's got me counselling, apparently I'm crazy. INSANE, they tell me! She tells me that I have to keep coming to this god forsaken place to overcome the fear and anxiety that I have! My friends are driven away by my stories of how I'm haunted here." I picked up a branch, and threw it at the nothingness that teased me. "LIAR, FAKER, ATTENTION-SEEKING, CRAZY, RETARDED, LONER... You think this is helping me? I'm not even speaking to anyone, maybe it is my imagination."
Kicking the dead roots- I started running home. Nothing replied, nothing teased, nothing even moved. It must be in my head, there must be a good explanation of why this is happening to me. Through the familiar pine trees, through the shadows, past the streetlight that meant safety for me... I cried as I ran home.
~~~~~
Prodding my mash with my fork, and cupping my chin with my fist, I avoided conversation at the dinner table.
"How was the woodlands today, honey?" Mum smiled, knowing full well what I wasn't going to answer.
"Oh, it went perfectly fine," I drew out sarcastically, "nope, no creatures, no voices not even a shadow this time Mummy! You must be proud of how you're daughter is normal."
"Destery Rebecca Meadows. Don't you dare address me like that, you're fourteen, not my mother. Stop playing with your food and, next time, remind me not to care." Mum said sharply, and I tried to ignore the pain it sent to my heart, and focused on my brother sitting silently.
Mumbling, I said, "My counsellor said it's good to let out how I feel."
"I don't care what you're counseller says, you're my daughter and you'll do as I say."
I laughed. "You pay for this person that I don't even like, you should care!"
"Well I don't."
"Wow Mum, you should be a lawyer. I'm going to my room, go ahead and tell my perfect brother just how perfectly perfect he is."
YOU ARE READING
Blood-Red Riding Hood
Werewolf"Licking my pale and chapped lips, I tried to wet my bone-dry mouth so I could speak. Between cold shivers, I noticed the crawling under my skin rippled through me over and over again. Tears pooled and my vision blurred as I crawled flat on the floo...
