Red Code

18. With Shawn

"Diane... are you all right?"

Shawn's voice takes me out of my melancholy. Plunged in my childhood memories and the dark, I didn't see Shawn getting closer. His arm on my shoulder tights me against his torso. My nose almost touches his neck. His forest perfume mixed with my soap.

"Diane, I missed you so much this year."

He whispers but I hear him like if he was shouting. I only hear him and my heart beat.

"Shawn, listen..."

I put my hand on his burning torso to put him away from me but he doesn't move.

"No, this time, you're the one who listen and you're going to listen to me until the end. You won't run in the text room or through the snow, or in the library pretending to study for you riding hood exam. This time, I'm the one who speaks."

I hold my breath. Shawn got so much self confidence. I barely recognize him.

I'm scared of what he will say.

"Do you remember our promise?" he asks
"To... to become hunter and riding hood?"
"Yes. You know, Diane, I don't care being a hunter! I only do it for my mom. To maker her proud. And also for you, because you want to go across the world and doing it as a riding hood won't be easy. I don't want to protect other and I don't want to die for a village that doesn't like me. But if it is for you, it's different. When I left, I told you that I will find a way for us to be together, because no one is going to allow a sheep and a vixen make a team. It's against nature. I found Wolfgang with Mina's help."
"Ah yeah... Mimi..."I sigh
"Mina is the riding hood they attributed me in the beginning of the year. It's the Grannys' council who decides the team with the jury's propositions. I asked her to hack the folder of the council of the village."
"But it's..."
"Yeah. It's against our rules, but I don't care."

He tightens me even more against him and nothing can prevent him from hearing my heart and me, his who beats as fast as mine.

"Diane, the whole village is under surveillance and the others too. Mimi discovered a fault in their system. Someone gets it and already created the teams. I think a mole or a wolf already know the identities of the new graduates."
"Our identities are secret! That's why we don't have any link with the outside. If the wolves discover who er are, our covers are usefulness. But the worst would be that they know with who we work and who are our friends, our relations."
"I think there's an intruder in the village, Diane. And I think that you are in danger."
"We are all in danger!"
"But you are the one they tried to kill tonight," he specifies. "Not the others."
"What the interest in having me as the target?"
"Because you won't be a riding hood."
"Pardon? I really messed up the exam."

I knew it but it's still hard to believe it.

"You didn't really messed it up. It's..."

Shawn gives me some space and at the moon's light, I see his gray eyes staring at mines.

"Diane, you won't be a riding hood... tomorrow, they're going to send you far away from everything and faraway from me, I won't let them do this."
"But if I'm not a riding hood, why would I be banished?"

I panic and my breath is cut.

"You won't be banished, you're going to be in training."
"I don't understand..."
"You won't be a riding hood or a huntress..."
"So what will I be?"

I will break if he doesn't tell me.

"Tomorrow, Diane, you will be name apprentice Granny!"

The sky could crash on me, the effect would be the same.

"What? Repeat?"

Shawn doesn't say anything else and I just feel his lips on my forehead. He kisses me without breaking our friendship but I feel his tenderness and his anxiety. I'm almost crying. It's the most complete misunderstanding and I'm scared. No one that I know became and apprentice Granny. We know a little bit about them and I totally ignore what to expect.

"Shawn... it's impossible. It's impossible isn't it?"
"I will protect you," he says his hands taking mine.
"I wanted to see the world... I don't want this role..."
"I will find a solution."
"But..."
"Even if I have to put the fire to the Village or bring the wolves here. I will find a solution and we will leave together. Tomorrow, you have to do like you don't know anything, otherwise, they will know we had this information by illegal manners and I will be banish."
"But..."
"I'm first hunter: they will allow me the wish I will say. My wish is to be your hunter. They won't have the choice. Until then... let's sleep and tomorrow, you will do what I will tell you. We will get out o the village hand in hand or I will kill the world!"
"You're not a killer, the sheep!"

I'm making fun of him but I'm scared.

"You don't know what I did outside, Diane. Don't underestimate me."

His sentence scare me a bit but his hot hands that hold mines are so reassuring. Agaisnt him, I fall asleep.

Tomorrow... we will see.