A Little Crimson

Chapter 3: Elisa

We stopped at a little one storey brick house that looks like something from a fairytale in the middle of the woods. There were vines growing all along the walls and the roof. There was a stone path leading up to the front door of the house.

There wasn't a community in sight. "Where are the others?" I asked Oakley as he parked the truck.

"Oh, that way. Your grandmother loves to live on her own out here."

"Is it safe for her to be here alone?" I asked as I looked around.

Oakley laughed. "Is it safe to be here alone? Your grandmother is the scariest thing in these woods. So, to answer your question. Yes, she's safe, but we do patrol around here often during the day and nights." He waved his hands around the area and then looked at me and frowned. "The town is actually closer than you think. You can walk from here. It's about a ten-minute run."

I snorted, "does it look like I run?"

He stared at me curiously; he ignored my question, and he grabbed my bags from the back of the truck. Just as he took the last one off, the front door flung open. A lady that looked like she was in her fifties walked out and smiled at us.

"Thank you, Oakley. You can take everything to the spare bedroom." She instructed.

"Of course Mrs Adler." He said and then muttered something under his breath.

"Elisa! Dear child, how long have I been waiting to finally meet you!" She said as she came down the stone path towards me. "Don't be shy."

"Hello, um... Grandma?" I sounded so confused.

"Grandma will do just fine, child." She said and wrapped me into a big hug.

Something about her was comforting, and I melted into her embrace. It felt like I knew her all my life, yet I have only known her for a few seconds.

"You get a hug?" Oakley gaped. Grandma turned around and growled at him. Actually growled. Now I knew what he meant when he said she was scary. He held his hands up. "Just kidding, Mrs Adler."

"Tell Kai that we will miss the council meeting tonight. I want to spend some time with my granddaughter."

Oakley's brows shot up, and he stared at Grandma. "Fine, but be warned that he would not like this." He said and then waved at us. "See you around, Red."

"Bye!" I called as he got into his truck, then drove away. I turned to Grandma, unsure of what to do. But she looped her arm through mine and dragged me to her house.

"Are you hungry?"

"Starving." I chuckled.

"Good, because I was just about to start dinner." She said as we walked into the house. It was cozy as hell. There was a small living room area, the couches were placed in front of a hearth and it looked inviting. The kitchen was connected to the living room, everything was open plan.

Down the hallway was the bathroom at the end and then two bedrooms across from each other. The house was small, but that only made it more comfortable and cozy.

"Are you allergic to anything?" Grandma asked.

"Food wise? No, but silver irritates my skin." I said with a smile and showed her the gold necklace that I always wore that belonged to my mom. Grandma frowned at the necklace.

"Where did you get that?"

"It was mom's." I said, feeling weird talking about someone that I didn't know, yet my grandma gave birth to her. It was a weird revelation.

"Really?" She said mostly to herself. I just nodded at her.

"Are you fussy with food?"

I snorted, "not at all."

"Good, because you'll eat what I make and if you don't like it, tuff luck sister."

I couldn't help but laugh. I liked her a lot already. We got to know each other, and it turns out, she was actually really awesome. She had a great sense of humor, just like me. I asked her why I never got to meet her before.

"When you meet the pack, you'll understand that your father's different from us and your mother left before." She stopped and then laughed, "he just wouldn't fit in here."

I chewed on my lip. "How was she? As a person, I mean."

Grandma laughed, "a person?" She sounded amused by saying that. "She was a lot like you, strong willed. And yes, Anthony told me a lot about you." She winked at me and I felt uncomfortable just knowing what he could have said. "Stop that, Dear. I understand why you acted out. It's in your nature to be around people and get attention."

"What?" I didn't understand what she meant by that.

She sighed, "you're a strong... Person? And it's in your nature to be around people, to lead. Like you did with your best friend." She laughed. Yeah, okay. I was the one that started everything and dragged Kenzie down with me.

"It's not alway a good thing." I muttered.

She laughed, "here it is. I bet you could give Malakai a run for his territory if you ever feel the need to." She winked at me.

We had dinner - the best home cooked meal I have ever had - then I went to take a shower while grandma was busy making us some coffee and started a fire in the hearth. When I came back into the living room, Grandma went to take a shower. It wasn't cold, well I never got cold. It was always like I was overheating in the summer and in the winter I never got cold like others did. We went to the doctor, and he said I was healthy, but he prescribed iron pills as I had an iron deficiency. He also gave me vitamins and pain medication for the headaches I started getting just before my sixteenth birthday. It was always a terrible migraine that made me feel like my bones wanted to break whenever I moved and my skin felt like it was stretched too tight.

I drank my vitamins and iron pills every morning, but my eighteenth birthday was slowly approaching and the headaches started, normally around a month before my birthday. I was happy that dad got the doctor to send me a prescription for the next six months. I had enough medication for the rest of the month. I had enough time to figure out where to get them. I downed two headache pills in the kitchen.

Something big ran past the window, and I did not know why I ran outside.

But I needed to see who the hell was out there. I opened the front door and looked around at the tree line surrounding the house.

"Elisa?" Grandma called from inside the house.

"I'm outside!"

Just as she came towards the door, a massive wolf rounded the house and growled at us. My body locked up, and I took a fighting stance.

He's eyes were the color of whiskey, and his fur was black as night.

"Grandma, get back inside. But do it slowly, any sudden movements would alert it and it's instinct would kick in." I hissed.

"Elisa, he won't hurt us." Grandma sighed.

"You're damn fucking right about that." I snapped, "now get inside." Before I took a step backwards, the wolf growled at me.

Holy fuck! This was bad...