Little Red

Little Red chapter one

The village burned around Lucinda, or Lucy as she preferred to be called. She had to do it, she had to light the fire. I mean they would have done it to her when they found out, found out what she was. She looked back one last time before raising her hood and leaving all she's ever known behind.

It was Lucy's seventh birthday when she stopped aging, nobody noticed for a while but now she was  thirteen and still had they body of a seven year old people were starting to ask questions. You would too if your neighbour hadn't changed at all in the past six years well, apart from one thing, her eyes.

Lucy always had the most amazing blue eyes, the color of the sky on a pleasant spring day but over night they changed from their bright blue shade to a shocking purple colour. Of course, Lucy never told anyone about or showed them her body 'development', no need for them to think she was any weirder than they already did.

It was because of her new eyes that Lucy started to wear her red cape with the hood up all the time, everywhere she went, no matter what season it was, whether she was indoors or out. Her mother tried to get her to take her hood down but Lucy would always violently protest, kicking and screaming until eventually her mum gave up.

Over time the villagers started to not only refer to the strange girl as 'Little Red' but tease her constantly. Lucy felt completely alone and unwanted, no one not even her family wanted anything to do with her anymore. Everyday on her way through the market the local children would run after her calling her names and trying to pull down her hood, the stall owners and other adults around would just ignore them, some even laughed. No one ever saw the silent tears that fell from her eyes.

One day a group of little boys were being particularly persistent and followed her to the meadow where she went to paint the flowers sometimes. The little boy snuck up behind Lucy who was bending down to smell a bright yellow daffodil and yanked down her hood swiftly, Lucy was so shocked she forgot to re apply her covering before swiveling around to confront the child. 

When Lucy looked up at the little boy he screamed out  in pain attracting the attention of his three  friends who were hiding behind an old oak tree, blood spilled from his lips nose and eyes, the other boys were paralysed in fear. The boy then fell to the ground in the puddle of his own blood, spasmed a few time and splashed the red substance all over himself before finally coughing up the last of his blood supply.

Lucy was shocked she looked at the other three boys to see if any had gone to get help, when her eyes landed on them they had a similar reaction. It was then with horror that it dawned on Lucy that it was her and her mystical purple eyes who caused the boys blood to drain from their bodies.

Lucy looked around frantically, what could she do? She murdered three boys by just looking at them! "The villagers will hang you when they find out" a menacing voice whispered in her head

"They already think you're strange" the voice hissed again,

"They'll murder you and your family" the bloodcurdling voice said again

"What can I do?" Lucy sobbed, to distraught to realise she was talking to a voice in her head...

"Walk through the village and look everyone in the eye, show them how beautiful your violet eyes are."

"No way! God, no! I'd kill them all!"

"Exactly!" the voice screeched.

Lucy felt herself being lifted off the ground, where she had been kneeling while she sobbed, she felt her legs begin to walk toward the market, she tried to stop them but it was like her body wasn't being controlled by her anymore, she desperately tried to pull her hood up as she neared the village, she willed her hands to move but the remained bunched at her sides. Lucy was panicking now, what was happening? why isn't her body responding? what was making her legs move? 

As she neared the market an idea struck Lucy, she could shout out to the people, warn them

"Go run! save yourselves!" she thought she screamed at the top of her lungs but nothing came out

"Leave, run! Go now, there is a monster who'll kill you all! Run!" she tried again, but like the last time nothing came out.

"Ha ha" the voice cackled again. "This body is mine now"   

The sights Lucy saw as she walked down the market square would give even the most hardened, detached-from-the-suffering-of-others, mass murder nightmares. Innocent me women and children convulsed on the side of the street. Everything was covered in a thick coating of the red sticky liquid, staining the people, stalls and pavement making it look like the sky had been shedding red tears..

Lucy was dumbfounded by the sights she saw but over time she felt herself being less and less aware of what was going on around her, at first she thought this was just her brains way of coping with the traumatic scene. She took comfort in this, it made it seem like the whole ordeal was just an unpleasant dream which at this moment in time seemed like a likely possibility...I mean like who can murder people with their eyes? It was only when she noticed the noise in her head which sounded like laboured breathing and had been present since she revealed her eyes getting louder and her own voice in her head fading away that she made the connection.