Little Riding Hood in Red

Ridding Hood in Red

   Angel runs an ivory comb through her fair white blond hair while silently gazing out the window of her and her mothers cozy little cottage, and lightly humming an eerie, yet beautiful, lullaby to herself. She gently puts the comb down and walks to the door of her mothers room. She knocks on the door and gently calls out, "Mama, are you awake? I would like to take some of your pastries to fathers and nonna." Angel can hear a light rustling from behind the door. "Y-yes you may take some to them! I'm sure they would enjoy a visit from you!" came Angel's mothers trembling and almost eager sounding voice from behind the towering door that separated the two. Angel's mother had not left the four protective walls of that room since the last time her mother had allowed her to play outside. Angel had started to worry that her mother had fallen ill and the tremor in the woman's voice had not helped to ease Angels worries. Angel decided not to ask about her mother's sudden vacancy in their shared home, but instead decided to make a mental note to ask her nonna for some of her special pie that seemed to make any type of sickness vanish within seconds. "Well, I am on my way mother, have a nice rest while I am away! I will make sure to be careful on my way through the rough forest path, so please don't fret too much over my safety." Angel bid as she grabbed the tempting pastries, a knife and some forks to eat them with, and her favorite snow white hood that her nonna had gifted her with on her 8th birthday. After a couple of minutes without a response Angel decided that her mother must have succumb to the dark allures of sleep, so she headed on her way.
     Angel's innocent baby blue eyes scan the awating forest in front of her before she heads towards the path that she has wandered so many times before. Until just a couple of years ago someone would of accompanied her on such a perilous trek, but ever since her 8th birthday a couple of months ago, her mother had allowed to make the trip by herself. As Angel is walking she reminisces about when the forest had been full of life and how she could come outside to play and have a bunch of animal friends there to play along with her. Now the forest hardly made a sound and there wasn't a woodland creature in sight. Angel suspected that some hunters had been over hunting of late, because how else would all the animals disappear? Suddenly a sharp snap shatters the deathly silence, causing Angel to whirl around to face the unexpected sound. Angel quickly scans the area she had previously heard the sound from, her heart still race due to the adrenaline coursing through her, but all she finds are red, brown and golden leafs that had been littering the ground since earlier that month. Angel continued walking knowing that its was probably nothing but she couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Now that she noticed it, she realized that she had been getting the feeling for awhile but had been too entangled with her own thoughts to have realized it. Angel slowly started to quicken her pace. She was closer to her father's and nonna's house now but it would still take a good portion of an hour to travel the rest of the way there even while running. A sudden movement in Angels peripheral draws her attention but before she can fully turn her head she feels a heavy weight tackle her to the ground. The thing that had just pounced on her only stays on her long enough for her to notice that it had sharp canines that seemed to be permanently stained red. Then she saw another movement to her right, before the beast on top of her is ripped from her and thrown into a nearby tree. Angel scurries off the ground and quick realizes that not only was the thing that pounced on her a wolf but the thing that had tossed it into the tree was also a wolf. In the span of time that it took Angel to process all of this the wolf that had thrown the other into the tree ran over and ripped the other wolfs throat out. The wolf that now had blood and skin dripping off its mouth stepped back and both it and Angel watched as a waterfall of blood gushed out of the wound. The red liquid seemed to entrance Angel as she stared in awe as the wolf took its final breath. The remaining wolf turned to Angel and seemed to be checking her for injuries. Angel took note of the wolfs dark, almost black, fur and intimidating scarlet eyes as the observed her. " Are you alright child?" the wolf's question startled Angel out of her thoughts. "I'm fine, after all I wasn't the one to get my throat ripped out." Angel replied with a tiny, hardly noticeable, smile. She wiped off some dirt from her hood and walked over to pick up the knife that had fallen out of her hood pocket in the earlier chaos. The wolf watched her intently while licking the remaining scarlett liquid off his lip. "What is such a vulnerable small child doing roaming the dark and dangerous woods without protection?" the wolf asked in a gruff voice. "I was taking some sweets to my father and nonna!" the girl answered in an innocent and unnaturally jolly voice considering the motionless body of the now throatless wolf on the ground. What was even more surprising was that the young child's voice didn't even quiver in the slightest, even after nearly getting killed and still having a deadly predator in front of her. Angel flashed the beast a bright and charming smile. "Will you walk me the rest of the way to their house mister wolf? You see, it is oh so frightening walking in this scary forest alone, I would be very grateful if you would accompany the rest of the way."The wolf looked at the strange child a bit confused but still agreed to walk her the rest of the way to her father's home. The wolf had bad intentions though you see, winter was growing nearer and nearer and the wold was very very hungry and the foolish girl had just given him the perfect solution to solve his hunger. With that all decided the gullible and the devious one headed on their way down the winding forest path together.
     The wolf and Angel walked in silence, with the exception of Angels humming. The quiet was only broken when the wolfs curiosity got the better of him. "So, why would your parents send you into the forest if they know the dangers within it?" The wolf's question caught the girl off guard for a moment, for she had never stopped to think that her mother might have not cared about the dangers she would face on her journey. Was that why her mother had never told her to be careful of the dangers in the forest? Why her mother had never warned her of what to do should a big bad wolf try to harm her? Or why her mother had not put up much of a fight when she asked to walk the perilous path alone? No! Angels mother loved her she knew it. Her mother had to love her! Perhaps her mother was only getting too ill to go on the long walks and just hadn't told her for fear of scaring her. Yes! Angel nodded to herself. Her mother must just be too ill and had enough faith that Angel could handle herself to let her go. Once again nodding to herself the little blond cheerfully responded, "Mother is just too ill to make the trip with me, but she has so so much faith that I can handle myself that she let me make the trip myself!" The wolf had noticed the child's inner turmoil and wasn't convinced, but instead of questioning that he decided to ask another question that had piqued his curiosity. "Then what of your father little one?" upon hearing the wolf's question the young girl stopped in her tracks. The wolf kept walking a few paces before noticing that the child was no longer in toe. He stopped to look back at the child in concern for you see the wolf wasn't as cruel or as heartless as you all might have thought. Though he was hungry the only possible thing he could think to do with the little girl was to steal her sweets once he knew that she was safely home. But what the wolf was not counting on was for the little girl to stab a knife through his chest as he turned around. As the wolf turned he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to find the source of the pain only to see the tiny hand against his chest. But you see, it wasnt the tiny hand that had caused him such mind shattering pain, no, it was the sharp kitchen knife that was clenched in those tiny, innocent, child hands that had caused this overwhelming amount of pain. The wolf slowly allowed his gaze to follow up the arms and to the owner of those small childs hand. What his gazes found was the tiny, shaking, form of the child he had been protecting. She was shaking surely, surly that must mean that the child had not wanted or willingly shoved the blade into his chest, surly such an innocent kind child would never... The wolf did not get the chance to finish his hopeful thoughts as the child harshly riped the knife out of his body, giggling. The giggling soon turned into full on unrestrained, hysterical, inhuman laughter as the tiny child lifted the knife once more before bringing in down of the wolfs widened disbelieving eye. The howls of pain and laughter mixed together, filling the forests silence. "You're wrong mister wolf, father did care if I was in danger, you see he loved me, therefore he wanted to be the only one to hurt me!" The child shouted pausing every couple of minutes to giggle crazily. The ground was now coated in a thick layer of crimson liquid. The child then continued to repeatedly stab the now motionless body of the wolf while mumbling irrationally and spouting out complete and utter nonsense. Once the child was finished the ground was littered with entrails, organs, blood, and the unrecognisable corpse of the wolf. Angel then gently tapped the mutilated corpse. "Mister wolf, are you okay? You don't look well and you are bleeding." Angel then decided that the wolf must have grown tired and fell asleep. Not wanting to wake him, Angel grabbed a couple of pieces of meat the she was lucky enough to have found on the ground, and picked up her kitchen knife that seemed to be covered in an unidentifiable red sticky syrup. The same cherry colored syrup that her hood was now drenched in for some unfathomable reason. Worrying about how her nonna would react when she saw how Angel had dirtied her hood, Angel hurrided the rest of the way to her father and nonna's house.
    Once Angel had safely made it to her destination she knocked on the cottage door. Angels nonna opened the door and upon seeing Angels small form, swiftly swept Angel into a tight, bone crushing in embrace. "Oh, my little Angel how I have missed you! Young lady what have I told you about getting too carried away while playing just look at your new hood that I made you! And this is your second one this week!" Angels nonna prattled on still fusing with Angels hair and clothes. "Sorry nonna, I don't even remember spilling anything on it this time. Maybe mister wolf got something on me on accident without me noticing." Angels nonna looked behind Angel, her gaze scanning for some visiter she had missed. "Is mister wolf a friend of yours? Would he like to join us for lunch?" Angel replied to her nonna in a disappointed, yet hopeful tone, "No I don't think he can join us, he seemed very tired earlier and decided to take a nap, but maybe next time! He did leave these pieces of meat for me before he fell asleep though!" Delighted to have more ingredients to make their lunch with, Angels nonna pulled her inside and they both began making lunch together. A little while later as they were eating their lunch, that consisted of the wolf meat and the pastries that Angel and her mother had made together, Angel started to share everything that had happened to her since the last time they had spoken. "I am quite worried about mother, she seems to have become ill. I don't think she has gotten hurt recently other than when we were baking the sweets together the other day and I 'accidentally' nicked a 'little bit' of her finger with the knife but I don't think that would cause her to stay bedridden in her ro-" Angels story was cut off suddenly by a sharp ring the resonated within the small house. "That must be your father. Would you be a dear and get that for me my Angel?" Angel excitedly replied with a, "Yes, nonna" before hopping out of her chair and heading over to the oven. Angel put an oven mitt so she did not burn herself before getting the pie out of the oven and carefully setting it down on the dining table. Angel and her nonna both get themselves a slice and start enjoying nonna's famous pie that could make any sickness go away. The only person Angels nonna had shared her pies secret ingredient with was Angel herself. As Angel took her first bite she exclaimed, "Yummy! You always make the best pies nonna! You made even father tasted good!" The child and her nonna shared an innocent and loving smile. "Why thank you for the compliment my dear! Now eat up before it gets cold, then we can take a slice to your mother to make her feel better!"

The End...
Let me know what type of twisted fairytale I should do next!