"I told you you'd have fun."

"Shut up Tommy, You didn't have to convince me I'd have fun, you had to convince me it was worth sneaking out for." Scarlett took a handful of her best friend's popcorn and popped a piece into her mouth. It had been about three weeks since the Ezekiel incident and while Grandma was still on edge every time Scarlett wanted to leave the house, the young girl was over it.

"I was right though, wasn't I?" Tommy asked, snatching back a couple pieces from her hand.

"Yeah, you were right." She admitted with a shrug. "But I mean, it's the fair, you don't have to be psychic to know it would be fun."

"Just let me enjoy being right."

"It does happen so rarely." Scarlett grinned. Tommy stuck his tongue out and the two friends headed towards the best part of the fair, the corn maze. They finished off their popcorn on the way, dumping the trash into a trash can, meeting up with some other friends.

"Alright, here are the rules," Jeanine was the only one of them who was actually thirteen, instead of just twelve, so she generally declared herself the boss, "I have six straws, whoever draws the short straw is It. You have to find the rest of us and as you find us, we're on your team and we help you find the others. Anyone that manages to get out without getting caught wins."

"And what does the winner get?" Joey asked

"Absolutely nothing." Scarlett answered for Jeanine. "What does it matter, we all know you won't win."

"Bite me, Scarlett." Joey muttered.

"Where are the straws?" Tommy asked. Jeanine took them from her pocket and they found an adult, asking them to hold them, so Jeanine could play without it being unfair. They each picked their straws, Tommy getting the short one.

"Sorry, Tommy." Lexi chirped, heading for the entrance.

"Okay, We get a thirty second head start, Then you come after us." Jeanine reminded him.

"Ready…" Tommy looked at his watch, waiting for it to tick over. "Go!" He shouted and the other five kids ran into the maze, splitting up as soon as it was possible.

Scarlett ran past a couple who was using the time to make out and stepped around Mary Tubbs and her three kids.

"You should be at home, Scarlett Edon." Mary called after her. Mary was a good friend of Grandma's and Scarlett knew she'd be in trouble in the morning but for tonight she just wanted to have fun. She slowed down when she felt she was far enough in that she was safe but kept moving. She found the trick was to just keep trying to find her way out, not to hide and wait to get caught.

She placed her right hand on the wall of corn stalks and walked, turning when the walls did, when she came across a dead end, she just kept going, not taking her hand off the wall. She made her way down another dead end, following along the walls, jumping when she nearly ran into another figure that hadn't been there a minute ago.

"Hello, Little Wolf. Have you been avoiding me?"

"Ezekiel."

"Call me Zeke, all my friends do." The man gave her a wicked grin.

"I'm not your friend." Scarlett replied, moving to go around him.

"No, but your mom is."

"Was."

"Is." Ezekiel repeated, turning as Scarlett walked past him. The young girl stopped and looked back to the man.

"My mom is dead."

"Your Grandma is a liar."

"She wouldn't lie to me about that. You, on the other hand-"

"I can take you to her." Ezekiel offered. "She's in town, she came with me."

"Where is she?"

"Why would I tell you that? Come on Little Wolf, you can trust me." He gave her another, bigger grin. Scarlett could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She heard Tommy calling her name and she looked back over her shoulder. After another minute of thought she nodded.

"This better not be a trick." She warned as Ezekiel moved past her.

"Of course not, what would I gain from tricking you?" He asked.

"Another dead body to add to your collection." Scarlett muttered under her breath. Ezekiel laughed, his laugh was deep and throaty.

"I don't care to add infants to my collection." It was on the tip of Scarlett's tongue to argue that she wasn't an infant then realized why that was a dumb argument to make. She swallowed the reply and followed the man through the maze, not questioning it when he didn't get lost once, he knew every turn to take to get out of there.

Ezekiel headed towards the woods once they broke out of the corn, his strides fast to the point where Scarlett was practically running to keep up.

"Scarlett." She turned and saw her friends all gathered by the exit. She shook her head and just kept after the man who was going to take her to see her mom. She paused as they got to the woods, looking into the darkness between the trees.

"Oh come on, Little Wolf. You're not afraid of the woods, are you?" He asked.

"Bad history." Scarlett replied.

"I can promise you, The Big Bad Wolf won't be messing with you tonight." He quirked an eyebrow. Scarlett looked up at him, she still didn't trust him.

"Bring her out here." She demanded.

"I can't do that. She won't come out this far, you have to go into her." Ezekiel insisted.

"Why?"

"She doesn't want your grandma to find out she's here. Rose left for a reason, Little Wolf." Scarlett thought about it the followed him into the cover of the trees.

It wasn't any easier to keep up with him in the woods, she was triping over sticks and roots but he seemed to glide effortlessly over it all. Finally the two of them came to a clearing, There was a tent set up on one side of it, along with a small fire pit.

"Rose." Ezekiel called. Scarlett's heart was pounding in her chest, her stomach twisting at the thought of meeting her mother, the woman who had left her behind when she was just a toddler. She held back a scream when instead of her mother a wolf stepped out of the tree line, She took a step back behind Ezekiel, her eyes wide.

The wolf bared it's teeth and growled at Ezekiel who didn't seem phased. Then the wolf turned and ran from the clearing leaving them two of them alone.

"You think this is funny?" Scarlett shouted, pushing the grown man. He whirled, looking down at her.

"No, not really."

"You promised- you made me think- I was hoping-" She couldn't seem to finish a sentence, everything in her brain seemed scrambled, mixed up with fear, disappointment and embarrassment that she let Ezekiel James trick her. She shoved him again and ran off into the trees.

"Little Wolf." Ezekiel called after her as she ran. "Scarlett!" She ignored him, not slowing down until she came across the creek. It was small enough that she could jump over it, and had many times before, But the wolf was there, it's head bowed down into the water, drinking. When it heard her, the wolf looked up to her and the girl froze, she could feel the tears running own her cheeks, her breathing labored as she waited for the wolf to make a move. It just stared at her, almost sadly, before turning and walking away. Scarlett stared after it before jumping the creek, heading back to her grandmother's house.

She knew tomorrow was going to bring her a world of trouble but tonight, she was going to wallow in self pity and cry herself to sleep.


Author's Note: I honestly wrote this in about half an hour, I was really feeling this chapter. So I'm doing a bit of a Retcon on Scarlett. Thus far I've been referring to her as a blonde, but I'm changing that. The more I think about her the more I see her as a brunette. I was going to change past chapters but since the documents aren't saved on this site anymore it's just a lot of work. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter.