Charlie Bone and the Library of Fantasy

Chapter Seven: Split Up: Part Three - Charlie

Charlie groaned. He stood up groggily and grabbed onto a tree for balance.

He rubbed his eyes. He appeared to be in some sort of woods. None of his friends were around. This strangely reminded him of the night in the ruin – even if he was in a woods not in the ruin.

He called out, just to check he was alone. There was no reply, so he assumed so.

"I must be in the next book...what was the next book in the pile?" he said aloud, "Oh yeah! Now I remember…it was that book with all those classic fairytales in it!"

It was then he noticed that his previously blue cape was now a blood red.

"Hullo" a sinister voice greeted.

Charlie turned around quickly. A huge wolf was standing on his back legs.

"Err…hi…" Charlie responded, awkwardly.

"Aren't you going to say what shiny teeth I have? And what big eyes I have? And etcetera?"

Charlie went pale.

"Shizit! I'm in little Red Riding Hood, aren't I?"

"Well…you are wearing her cloak…"

"Wait…are you implying that I am little Red Riding Hood? I'm a guy! This is absolutely INSULTING!"

The wolf rolled his eyes.

"Of course you're not, Charlie!"

Charlie paused.

"Um…how did you know my name?"

"Dear boy, I know more than you think." The wolf snarled, "As a matter of fact, I have an IQ over 200! I'm a genius! I know about your world, the real world. I know how you got here and where your friends are. I know I'm only a fairytale character – and I hate you and your fellow human beings because of it!"

The wolf was walking towards him.

"I've seen you and your fellow human beings being so carefree and happy! How would you feel if you knew that your life meant nothing? How would you feel if you knew that you weren't even real? But did you humans ever care about me and every other book character out there? No! You all let the books we live in get tatty, stained and ruined."

The wolf was getting closer to Charlie. Charlie was walking backwards, away from the wolf and towards a tree.

"You and your fellow humanslaughed at – not with – fairytales, mocking them for their simplicity or thinking lowly of them. Of course, only I have seen and only I know about you human beings because I am the only character with a brain! All of those others are absolute dimwits! They think that those faces that appear in the sky are just 'clouds', as you and your people call them, when they are actually you humans reading our book(s)."

Charlie couldn't back away anymore because he was up against a tree. The wolf was right in front of him, only a few centimetres away. The wolf, which was a foot taller than Charlie when standing on his two back feet, leaned down so their faces were at the same level.

Charlie shuddered as he felt the wolf's smelly, warm breath on his face. The hairs on his neck stood up. The wolf smiled maliciously.

"I hate you human beings. I hate the factthat I'm not real and my existence means nothing.So, as revenge, I'm going to kill you."

Charlie's eyes widened. The wolf stood up straight and charged back down, mouth open.

Charlie ducked. The wolf's teeth sunk into the tree. He tried pulling his teeth out but to no avail. His teeth were stuck in it.He put his fore legs/arms against the tree and pushed, trying to push himself away from the tree and therefore get his teeth out.

Charlie saw his chance and ran.

The wolf quickly got his teeth out of the tree and howled before getting on all fours and running after his prey.

Charlie jumped over fallen trees anddodged othervarious obstacles. He was going so fast he felt like he was flying. He had no idea he could run this fast.

But the wolf was faster. He was getting closer to Charlie. The wolf leapt to jump on Charlie and tackle him. Fortunately, there was a natural rock arch that Charlie had to duck to go under. The wolf ended up flying head first into the rock arch.

The rock arch collapsed on the wolf. The wolf managed to get out of all the rubble to see Charlie just staring in shock. He hadn't expected any of that.

The wolf charged at Charlie. Charlie snapped out of his trance just in time. He turned and ran.

For another five minutes, the wolf was chasing Charlie around the woods. Suddenly, Charlie came to a dead end – a cliff.

"I've got you now!" The wolf grinned, now standing on his back legs again, walking towards Charlie.

Charlie couldn't go backwards because he'd fall off. It was a die-die situation.

The wolf opened his mouth to bite his prey when –

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The wolf snapped his mouth shut and looked at his left wrist, on which Charlie spotted a watch; the source of the beeping.

The wolf blinked and then turned around, walking away in the opposite direction of Charlie.

Charlie stood there, confused.

"Where are you going? Aren't you going to kill me or eat me or something like that?"

"I have a manicure appointment, dahling."

"Dahling?"

"Yeah." The wolf said, "Do you have a problem with me calling you that honey?"

The wolf winked at Charlie. Charlie stared at the wolf incredulously.

"Are you gay?"

The wolf growled.

"Just because I'm in touch with my feminine side doesn't mean I'm gay."

Suddenly, a mobile rang.

The wolf pulled a mobile out of nowhere.

"Hullo? Oh hi, Thomas, dahling. Yeah okay. Okay. Yeah, I can't wait for our date tonight either. Love you too. See you later, hottie. Buh bye." the wolf said.

"I thought you said you weren't gay" Charlie said.

"Huh?" The wolf looked at him, confused.

"Thomas is a guy's name and you called him 'hottie' and you said you loved him and that you couldn't wait for you twos date tonight."

The wolf rolled his eyes.

"I never said I wasn't gay, I was just making the point that you shouldn't go making assumptions."

The wolf turned and stomped away, swinging his hips. The wolf turned back around.

"By the way, even though you're a human and I hate humans…you're pretty hot!" The wolf turned around and walked away.

"Okay……that was….weird….and scary….."