To Grandmother's House

Into the Woods

Red looked down at the flash drive clutched in her crimson glove, noticing the metallic edges and symmetric lines carved across the body. She closed her fist and took a deep breath; this was a dangerous mission, but it was an important one. She couldn't afford to fail. She pocketed the drive and pulled the hood of her crimson cloak over her dark hair, shielding herself from the powdery snow that fell all around her and settled on her shoulders like silver beads. Fixing her sight on the white trail before her, she walked into the woods.

The trees rose high like nightmarish structures scaling the starlit sky, and the wind danced about like a black swan performing the aria of an ambitious orchestral piece. The frigid atmosphere threatened to chill Red to her bones, but the heating fibres layered across her cloak kept her warm. Crunching the freshly fallen snow under her crimson combat boots, Red walked on till she reached a fork.

"Turn left," a voice said into Red's earpiece, and she marched on following its directions.

"How much further?"

"About— for —" the voice started to cut away.

Red tapped her earpiece. "Baker?"

More static washed over the connection, and then it died out.

"Dammit!" Red swore as she balled her fists in frustration. She had known that the oncoming snowstorm would've eventually blocked her connection, but she'd hoped to have reached her target before that happened. Now, she was all alone. She took a deep breath, calming her nerves and marched on with a single-minded intensity in her gaze that fueled each step.

A rustle pulled her attention off her path. Red wheeled around, her amber gaze searching, and she unsheathed her dagger from her belt. Through the darkness, she spotted a figure behind a nearby tree and charged. Reaching her mark, Red swung her dagger and a loud clang resonated through the air as the figure blocked her strike with a blade of its own.

Red stepped back and prepared to attack as she studied her target, who was a man dressed in a charcoal grey combat suit. Half his face was covered with a black mask revealing only his storm grey eyes.

"Who are you?" Red demanded, her breath fogging before her in little puffs. "Why are you following me?"

The man pulled down his mask, revealing a short dark beard that covered his broad jawline. "I'm Agent Wolf, and I'm here to save you."

"What?" Red asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"You are walking into a suicide mission. Grandmother's house is a bomb, and the flash drive in your hand is the trigger. If you walk into that house, you're not walking out."

"You can't expect me just to trust you," Red shot back.

The man pulled out a small metallic slab from his jacket pocket and pressed the button in the center. A recorded conversation filled the air.

"Are you sure Red is the right agent for the mission?" one of the voices asked. Red recognized him as Baker.

"She is a liability. Do you have a better way to deal with her?" a woman's voice replied. Mother, Red realized.

"She is too good an agent to lose," Baker said.

"She knows too much. The agency is more important than one agent," Mother said, her voice sounding cold. "This must be done."

The voice recording stopped, and Wolf pocketed the metallic slab. "Still don't believe me?" he arched an eyebrow.

"Why would they do that?" Red wondered out loud, her gaze shifting to the floor. "And why are you helping me?"