And as she gathered herself up from the floor and made her way on again, the path to her grandma's house seeming to grow longer and longer. When would she get there? She wondered, suddenly hurrying to get out of the forest. She had this strange sense that something was following her, but that could not be. Could it? Nothing could follow her. They wouldn't dare. Not in this forest where she seemed to have control over everything and anything that lived here. No matter its species, human, animal, or paranormal. Yes paranormal.
'Don't be so ridiculous Red there's nothing there,' she told herself, tying up her hair, pulling her blood red cape closer to ward out the cold. God damn it why had she ever even agreed to go to that castle? She should have known from its name that it was not a place that she wanted to go to. Others had seen that same sense, why hadn't she been able to? Had she known about the horror inside and thought to save her friend from it? She could only wish. She was not as strong as that. If anything Belle had been the one to save her.
'God damn it, why do I always have to be so weak? I am good for nothing, but baking and being a good little granny's girl. That's my Little Red riding hood. Grandma's little girl, who has done nothing but continue to take cookies to the little house in the forest since she was old enough to go by herself.' Red stopped and laughed mirthlessly at herself. Great I sound just like the little girl from the fairy tale, she mused and with another laugh that lacked mirth, she continued on, following the woodland animals that wanted to make their way to grandmother's house too. Somehow they always did, never knowing the deaths that would await them in her stew pot.
'I'll get stronger,' she promised herself, hoping to pep talk her into becoming brave. She so wished it was that easy. If truth be told she had always been so disappointed in herself. She was the weak link in every friendship. There was her best friend Belle, and in the friendship Belle and Red, Belle had always been the strongest and the bravest, she had always saved Red from everything and anything that would hurt or scare the weaker girl. The weaker girl was her. She had no strength, no courage, not out of this forest, and she wished she had.
When a deer, running gaily stopped and blinked at her from huge, beautiful eyes she wondered what it wanted. The doe had never before tried to communicate with her, not even through body language and yet now it was blinking at her, and then it began moving its head, pointing at her and then in another direction. She continued this many times before running away again and Red suddenly found herself compelled to follow the doe.
'Hey wait up!' she called out, not that the deer could understand French, nor English, but it was a chance she had to take. Oddly enough it did stop. It waited until she was standing right beside her and then they made their way into the forest, off the beaten path, away from Grandmother's house.
'No matter, these cookies will stay fresh a little longer,' Red mused and the does looked up at her as though able to comprehend what she was saying. How odd! And then the doe continued through the forest, keeping just ahead of her. 'Hey where are we going anyways?' Red asked her new found friend, curiosity filling her mind.
And as per usual the doe did not respond. Well duh, it is an animal; Red told herself as she placed her hand on the new friend and took comfort from its strangely heated rump. How odd. It was cold here in the forest; surely the animals would be cold on the outside if not on the inside too.
Red decided not to ask the animal again where she was leading her and decided to stay quiet, and as the freezing cold attacked her ears she decided to pull the hood up over her head to keep her ears and brain from freezing. She wished that she didn't have to feel the cold. But hey what kind of choice did she have? None. Exactly. She'd never had a choice. She'd never had a choice to be weak or strong she just was weak. And that was possibly her destiny, as it was Belle's to be tied to a beast for all of eternity.
And as they journeyed further into the forest, it grew darker and darker and night fell. Already? Red wondered. It had only felt like an hour or so since it had been morning. Oh well, perhaps she had lost track of time in the forest. After all that did happen. When in the forest she felt like the Queen and was so excited about everything within it that she lost track of time. So what felt like a mere hour could in fact be five, or even ten. A day could pass in a matter of hours.
And yet she made no move to journey back to the path to her grandma's; she soon forgot about the old woman and the cookies within the basket she held. She too forgot about the creature she had sensed following behind her.
She definitely forgot everything, even breathing when she arrived at the spot where the doe had taken her. It was beautiful.
Standing right before Red was a beautiful waterfall, which fell into a beautiful lake, big enough to swim in and clean enough to possibly have a bath, or shower. Red didn't feel dirty, but she knew that she hadn't bathed last night in the beast's castle, out of dread. And now she fancied a dip or two in this beautiful swimming pool that nature had made. Just for her. Surely.
'Such luck!' she squealed to herself and as she did so, she slowly stripped of her cloak, and her normal clothes. She stripped of everything that she had been wearing, without so much of a care. There was nobody in this forest, nor this glorious spot right here, where she stood. There was nobody to spy on her, not like at the castle, where the walls seemed to have eyes.
Or so she thought…