Revamped!
[I'm sorry but I love this chapter and got excited so I had to put it up.] [2020: I was about to take a revamping break but then I realized this chapter was next].
The Big Bad Wolf: Part Four
It's late at night and Scarlet sits on her couch with one lamp on, studying and doing the homework she missed while working. Well, she's not doing the work. It's more like she has a pencil in her hand and her eyes are reading the opened textbook that's on her lap, but she's not taking note of what she's reading. If her phone wasn't charging, she'd be using it.
She hears a noise coming from outside. It sounded like a twig snap from the backyard. Scarlet shrugs it off, thinking it's just some animal like a raccoon. Those often wound up in the backyard vegetable garden. Or it's one of the neighbour's barn cats. The same sound comes again and it's with heavy cursing. Animals don't curse, she knows that.
Scarlet turns off her lamp and throws her textbook and notebook on the floor. She runs on her toes through her dark house and opens the wine cellar in the basement. She slides all the bottles to the side and opens a small compartment in the back to pull out a gun.
Scarlet lives with her grandmother but is currently home alone. Her grandmother taught her how to shoot and reload and pistol for self-defence when she was old enough because to quote her, "des hommes étranges errent dans les terres agricoles." Strange men wander the farmlands. She's heard stories from her neighbours and believes them. And to her benefit, any jury would believe a young woman who's home alone and needed a weapon for her protection.
Scarlet walks through the basement and approaches the door that leads to the backyard. She peeks out the window and sees a man standing in her grandmother's tomato garden. Des hommes étranges errent dans les terres agricoles. That's when she bursts out with her gun held high.
"Squish one more tomato and I'll shoot!" She screams.
The man turns around to face her. Scarlet looks and sees Wolf tangled in the tomato vines. Un homme étrange. She walks closer and lowers her gun, wondering what in the stars is happening. Wolf sees her and is more surprised to see her than the gun. Scarlet holsters her weapon in the back of her jeans with her red hoodie pulled over the weapon as she approaches the border of the garden.
"Dude," Scarlet says to him, "not cool. If you wanted another tomato, you could've just asked."
Wolf looks stunned for a moment. "I didn't know you lived this far from town."
"I never thought you'd have to know."
She holds out a hand for him to take. Wolf accepts her gesture. When his hand is in hers, Scarlet's heart stops at how firm and calloused his hand is. She almost doesn't want to let go. With her free hand, she points at where to step without squishing any tomatoes. Once Wolf is out, he brushes himself off and sees Scarlet frowning at him with crossed arms.
"Is getting tangled in tomatoes a new routine of yours?" Scarlet asks. "A new calf workout? Using vines as resistance?"
"I'm late for work," Wolf replies seriously, not taking her exercise joke. "I thought this would've been a shortcut."
Scarlet scoffs. "You have a job?"
Wolf mocks her scoff. "You have a gun?"
Scarlet shifts her weight from one leg to the other. "Touché."
Silence. They stand there as night breeze passes over them, blowing them over their shoulders. Scarlet brushes her curls out of the way to give her something to do. Their eyes look to the ground, their shoes, the tomatoes, and eventually into each other's. Scarlet immediately takes a breath.
"Shouldn't you be getting you your 'job'?" She uses that last word in air quotes.
"Are you doubting my 'job'?" He asks, mimicking her air quotes.
"It's almost 11 at night. What job do you have this late and far from town?"
"One that I'll be late for." He looks at her for a bit longer.
Scarlet notices him idling. "Then why are you waiting? You want me to come?"
"No," he says too quickly.
"Oh, now I'm coming."
"No, you're not."
"The more you say no, the more tempted I am."
Wolf groans. "Fine."
Scarlet brushes a stray curl behind her ear, grinning a little in victory. She knows it's late and she still has loads homework to do for tomorrow. And there's also the fact that Wolf is a gang leader with a bad reputation who she found tangled in tomato vines and is now asking her to come to his mysterious job.
"Okay," Scarlet says boldly, "just let me put my gun away first."
"Don't," Wolf says. Her hands hover over the weapon hidden on her back. "Bring that with you."
"Why?" She should've taken that as an indicator to go back in the house.
"You'll need that. It'll make you look tough."
Scarlet narrows her eyes at him. Forget all the skeptical thoughts she had earlier about going with him with the addition of him saying to bring her gun. The fact that he said that the gun will make her look tough is ridiculous.
"Come on," Scarlet says boldly, "I'll look tough holding a teddy bear."
-o-
After about a mile of walking, Wolf and Scarlet finally arrive at an abandoned barn just on the outskirts of Commonwealth's farming sector. She's passed it enough times to know it's abandoned ... or so she thought it was. He takes her inside, standing in front of her protectively. Scarlet walks on their tiptoes as she looks over his broad shoulders to see the place better. Apparently, the so-called abandoned barn has become a bar with a caged wrestling arena set right in the middle. Scarlet knew this barn wasn't used for farming but she never cared enough to find out what happens here.
The people in here are just like Wolf and his Pack - big and muscular and not wanting to be messed with because they will seriously mess you up. They eye Scarlet suspiciously and with bad intentions to which Wolf returns with a scowling glare that tells them to back off.
"Are you a bartender?" Scarlet asks him.
"Not exactly," Wolf replies.
"What other-?"
"Wolf! There you are!" Someone else says. "I was wondering if you were even going to show up."
Wolf puts his hands in the pockets of his tattered jeans. According to the current time, he was forty-five minutes late and this someone - his boss - wasn't pleased although the chipper attitude towards Wolf's presence causes them to believe differently.
"I got distracted," Wolf tells him.
The boss looks over Wolf's shoulder and his eyes perk up at the sight of Scarlet. He looks back at Wolf for a moment before taking a step closer to Scarlet to see her better. Scarlet tenses, about to reach for her gun but Wolf puts an arm up to block his boss from getting closer to Scarlet.
"I can see why," the boss says, sparing Scarlet another glance which angers Wolf for reasons he can't explain. "I gave your fight to someone else since I thought you weren't coming but seeing your reason, you can take the next one."
Wolf nods and the boss walks off, looking at Scarlet again. Scarlet gags at all that creepy flirting that makes Wolf smirk from the corner of his mouth.
"Am I expected to stay for your shift?" Scarlet asks him. "You did invite me."
"It won't be long," Wolf replies. He doesn't bother arguing how Scarlet invited herself. "Don't move. I don't like the idea of you being alone in here."
"I do have a gun."
He grins a little from the corner of his mouth. "Touché."
Scarlet gives him a look as someone stands in the middle of the wrestling ring. She's a young and toned girl with tattoos everywhere, wearing extremely revealing clothing. She turns on the megaphone in her hands and holds it up to her mouth.
"Alright!" She exclaims. "Now we'll have our next match between our resident champion, Wolf Kesley, against Brock Harris."
Instead of chanting, everyone in the room raises their glasses or bottles and makes a noise that almost sounds like a howl. Scarlet looks around with wide eyes and as she turns back around, she sees Wolf climbing up to the wrestling ring and standing parallel from Brock.
Scarlet steps closer to the chained border fence, looking at Wolf and his opponent. Everyone here is exceptionally built but Brock was like a skyscraper decorated in tattoos. Wolf keeps his white t-shirt on. He takes a breath as he wraps gauze around his knuckles and puts a mouth guard in. Wolf ties his hair back and shaking his arms to loosen them up. A part of Scarlet believes him being a caged fighter makes sense given his reputation but she's still surprised to see all this. She watches him with a fixed gaze, refusing to think of seeing him like this as attractive because it is.
"Fight!"
Wolf makes the first move, checking Brock with a few starter punches. Brock catches Wolf's fist and twists. Wolf screams in a way that sounds like a howl as he twists his wrist back to its normal position and grits his teeth as he decks Brock across his face. Wolf keeps his head low as he attacks, sending a heavy storm of landed punches. His sneakers scrape against the floor as he jeers from side-to-side. Suddenly, Brock swings out and lands a punch squarely in Wolf's face.
Scarlet jumps back a little. Her hand almost hovers to her gun but she can't keep her eyes off of him.
That punch was bone-crushing and solid. Wolf staggers back and smacks against the metal chains. Scarlet looks up at him and sees the sweat and blood dripping from his face, unsure of which accidentally dripped onto her face. As she wipes it away with her sleeve, she looks up at Wolf and sees that he's grinning at her with glowing eyes.
Scarlet's heart unexpectedly stops. She finds him beautiful, in a way, seeing him like this: so powerful and agile and surprisingly quick - especially when he looks like he's losing but knows he'll win. He's the resident champion for a reason after all.
As Brock approaches Wolf from behind, Wolf turns around and immediately hits Brock with an uppercut. While Brock is winded from the sudden attack, Wolf punches his chest which pounds him to the ground. As Brock lies crumpled on the ground, Wolf looks at him, waiting for him to rise back and keep fighting as the crowd counts up to ten.
At the ten second mark, Wolf is declared the victor. Scarlet's body relaxes as the bell rings. If something happened to him up there, she isn't sure she'd make it home alive. He spits on Brock before walking right out of the cage. Spectators give him friendly nudges and punches as praise but Wolf walks past them all to go straight to the bar where the bartender already has a few shots of vodka ready for him.
He takes the first shot and receives his paycheck for the night. On any other night, he isn't sure if he would've won that fight but he had to. Not only for his life but for his mom and Scarlet. He isn't sure where they'd go from this point but, even if dead, he'd feel like spades if he left here, especially after watching him get beat to a pulp. He doesn't spare his boss another look as he places the check in his back pocket. Wolf holds the second shot but stops himself from drinking it for a second.
"Move!" He hears a familiar voice yell.
Scarlet pushes past the half-drunk people and approaches Wolf at the bar. She takes a seat on the bar stool as he remains leaning against it, both still at the same height. She drags the third shot across the counter for herself and picks up the small glass. She eyes Wolf as the rim of the glass touches her lips.
"To you," she says, holding the glass up towards him.
"To me," Wolf mutters, holding his glass up.
They clink their glasses together before taking the shot together.
-o-
The walk home for the two of them was silent. They left the barn right after that celebratory shot and haven't said a word to each other. There was just nothing to say that wouldn't end after a simple one-worded response or just drift into awkwardness eventually. It was quiet a mile of the night sky, a light breeze, shoes shuffling, and the occasional car passing. It wasn't until they returned to Scarlet's backyard that the conversation lasted longer.
"I'd better be on my way," Wolf says.
"No, you won't," Scarlet responds.
"Excuse me?"
Scarlet points to the side of Wolf's shirt that's stained with blood. She steps over and her hands hover over the spot before she pulls them back to herself. Wolf rolls up his shirt and shows a gashing wound that he probably got from hitting the chained cage and grazing against it. Wolf shrugs it off and rolls down his shirt. He didn't even notice it until now and now he feels that spot searing.
"Come inside, I'll get some bandages for you," Scarlet says.
"No, no," Wolf replies. "It's nothing. I've been through worse. This'll heal."
"It will get infected by the time you get home. That's not nothing. Get inside my house now."
"Goodnight, Scarlet. I'll see you tomorrow."
Wolf starts walking away. Scarlet can't let him go. She doesn't care about him nor does she want to help him, but she doesn't want him to drop dead in the middle of the road due to an excessive amount of blood loss and get accused of his murder. She knows she has to do something to get him to accept her help.
Scarlet pulls out the gun from underneath her hoodie and cocks it before pointing it at him. Wolf freezes on the spot and turns around to see her with her finger on the trigger ready to shoot.
"House. Now." She orders.
He has no choice but to accept her help. He only goes with it since Scarlet is the type who would shoot. She did threaten him once and believes her now.