Tea With a Wolf
Walking down the street, two sizes too big red raincoat worn overtop her school uniform, little Angie runs in the rain on her way back home, sopping white hair plastered to her face as she attempts to run even faster.
'This's what I get for staying back to help'. After volunteering to help organise the library books when no one else seemed eager to.
This ended with the weather getting worse by the time she left the library.
Now she just had to accept it, not like the rain could get any worse, could it?
As if on cue, lightning screams through the air, this scares Angie so much so that she loses balance and slips on the side walk paving, falling abruptly forwards and on to the ground.
"Hey, are you okay"?! A voice floats into her ears, the tone worried.
Angie cranes her neck, absentmindedly noticing she could taste blood in her mouth, to see a rather handsome man in a business suit with an angular face framed by longish midnight black hair and implanted with two rust brown eyes.
It took a second for her to notice the hand stretched out to help her up, she grabs it and tenderly stands up, feeling where the skin had been damaged and was now burning.
She hears the man let out a silent hiss, as if to emphasize the severity of it.
"Come with me, I can get you out of the rain and then patch you up". Not really having time to think, she nods and they begin walking.
Drawing her hood low, Angie looks at the man in a daze.
After all, she was at the age where boys are becoming a topic for discussion between her friends.
And this was of those subjects, having a fateful meeting with a dreamy guy.
Stopping at a closed store, mystery man pulls out a key and unlocks it, leading Angie in behind.
Looking around, she finds herself surrounded by shelves of toys, tin soldiers, building blocks, dolls, stuffed animals and children's books.
Half-focused as she was sat down in an armchair, she watches as the man says he'll go fetch some towels and tea to warm up.
Now left alone, she finds a point of focus in the coffee table next to her.
Painted onto the wood was green forest with a girl, a wolf and a man with a gun, chasing each other around the table, the girl being followed by the wolf, the wolf being pursued by the gunman and the girl following the beaten path.
"Little Red Riding Hood…" Her lips quirk up in a smile, this was one of her favourite Fairy Tales.
"Are you a lover of folklore"?
Her head whips around to the man to see him holding a tray with two steaming cups.
"Yeah, I love Tales like this especially". She calms down when he places down the tray and sits in a chair opposite her.
"I see". He takes a sip from his cup, prompting Angie to do the same.
"Do you know how the story goes"?
Without hesitation.
"Once upon a time, a girl called Red Riding Hood, because of her red shawl she wore, was taking food to her sick grandmother". She takes a sip from the tea.
"On the way, she was greeted by a wolf, who hid his intent of devouring the girl and deceived her with kind words and pretty flowers". Her next sip is a little slower.
"After finding out where the grandma lived, the wolf went on ahead and once he got into the grandmothers house, he preceded to devour her". She feels a fog come over her, making her next words spaced out and slow.
"When Red Riding Hood… arrived at her grandmothers… she was none the… wiser, as the wolf had… disguised himself as the gran…" She didn't understand what was going on, why her eyes were sliding closed,
Then she slipped into darkness.
The man sighs as he didn't get to hear the end.
"Oh well, I've heard it many times already". He proceeds to lift the girl from the armchair, hood falling away as he pulled the limp form to his chest.
"Who needs a fairy tale, when I've got you now" He walks out the door of the building and vanishes, where he had taken her…
"Let's find out then, shall we"? Says a disembodied voice.
Reflection
Why did I choose to change the story?
I wanted to move it from a Middle Ages theme to somewhere more present time.
While the characters had been changed, I kept to the original concept which was about a young girl being blinded by ones outward appearance and attitude, before it suddenly is revealed that the 'good' man is actually holding sick intent towards her.
Because this is present day, I decided to instead make the protagonist a middle schooler for the purpose that no one in their right mind would let a ten year old walk home by herself.
It still stands that the man is the wolf and he mislead her with kindness.
Also, this short story is at the lowest K+ (12+), because of implied drugging and minor injury.
I also kept the mood relatively melancholy because I wanted the more mature side of Red Riding Hood to show some.
The disembodied voice was the Fairy Tale narrator (I) breaking the fourth wall.
It is also to be said that I will continue writing this even after the submission.