Twisted Tales

Little Red Riding Who?

         I ran through the forest, my feet stumbling over gnarled roots and thorny bushes that seemed determined to drag me down. Every frantic footfall sent jarring pain through my legs. My lungs burned as I gasped for air, but I couldn't allow myself to stop for breath.

          Nothing but adrenaline and terror kept me running now, while the jaws of the wolves snapped at my ankles, driven into a frenzy of bloodlust by the thrill of the chase. Tree branches whipped at my face as I sprinted past and my hood was torn from my head, leaving angry red welts on my cheeks and brow. I hardly noticed. There would be time to feel the pain after I escaped.

          If I escaped.

          I could hear them, loping along behind me, snarling and snapping at one another, competing with each other for who would get the first bite. I could imagine how they must look; their gleaming yellow eyes flashing in the darkness, their wide wet mouths open and panting, exposing white, gleaming canines, over and inch long, viciously sharp.

          I had seen the first wolf become two, and then three, before I had fled, and by now it sounded as though there was an entire pack tearing through the trees after me. I couldn't outrun them for much longer, I knew.

          The only reason I was even still alive was because I had had so much of a head start, and the density of the forest undergrowth made it easier for a lone, slim girl to slip through the gaps in the trees and bushes than it was for a pack of overgrown, half starved mutts; clumsy in their desperation, and all jostling violently for position at the front of the pack. If they hadn't kept stopping to fight with each other, I'd have been lunch a long time ago, and I knew my luck was bound to run out sooner or later.

          The stolen crimson cloak billowed out behind me, and without warning it snagged on a branch, jerking me painfully backwards as my desperate flight was brought to an abrupt end.

          I spun around and tore at the red fabric in panic, pulling once, twice, and three times before finally succeeding in yanking it loose; but it had cost me my precious few seconds of a head start. I looked up with terrified eyes into the shadows of the forest, and saw the wolves bearing down upon me like hounds from hell.

          There was no point in running any longer, I knew I wouldn't be able to outpace them. So instead, I willed my shaking legs not to give out on me just yet; summoned what little was left of my strength; and leaped straight up into the air as high as I could.

          My fingertips barely brushed against the closest tree branch above my head.

          "Come on!" I grunted, jumping again. Again, it remained just out of my reach. "I won't-" I jumped.

          The wolves were twenty feet away now.

          "-Go out-" I missed.

          They were ten feet away, and I could see their glistening teeth, barred and wet with drool.

           "-As dog food!" I was so close this time, if only I could have been an inch, a centimeter taller!

          I tried, one last time, and just as the closest of the wolves leaped into the air, my fingers closed around the branch and I hauled myself up into the tree.

          A moment later, the creature's mouth snapped closed futilely at the space where my legs had just been dangling. All seven of the wolves had reached the foot of the tree now, and were clawing at the trunk, half crazed with blood-lust, snapping at the air with their foaming lips pulled back over black gums. But it was too late, I was out of their reach.