Short Story Collection

Red and the Wolf

Not long ago, in the beautiful  country of Norway, lived a young girl.

This young girl was given a red jacket by her grandmother and she found it beautiful and comfortable. She wore it so often, so much so that her friends and family called her Red.

Every day, after her classes were over, Red would cross the busy city to get to her grandmother's apartment. Red had a nasty habit of being late, since she was easily distracted.

One cold winter day, her classes finished later than they usually did.  Her last class usually finished with 37 minutes before she was expected to be at her grandmother's apartment, but today it finished with 15 minutes to spare, and since it took only 10 minutes to get there, Red thought she had plenty of time to spare.

And she was wrong. As usual.

Red put on her headphones and listened to music while she walked across the busy city.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a soup shop.

She could get a soup for her grandmother.

Red quickened her steps to get to the shop. She took her earbuds out and stuffed them into her coat pocket.

Red entered the shop, and did not feel at ease. She dismissed her uneasiness as the abrupt change of temperatures. There was only one other person in the shop, the cashier. Red read the cashier's name tag and it said Wolf. She thought it was odd, since she had never heard of anyone called Wolf.

She glanced at the menu, and there were many choices. Red contemplated her choices, when a creaky voice interrupted her thoughts.

"What kind of soup do you want?" Wolf questioned, eyeing Red.

"I'm not sure yet," she paused,
"Wolf. Could I just get the soup of the day?"

"Sure, my dear,"  Wolf said, pouring what Red assumed was the soup of the day. "Where are you heading in this frightful weather?"

"I'm heading to my grandmother's apartment, three blocks away from here," stated Red, "She is frail and needs my help."

"That's very sweet of you, my dear," Wolf said, handing her the bowl of soup, "That will be 9.89."

Red reached into her bag and pull and pulled out the money.

"Thank you, Wolf," she said, handing him the money and walking out of the shop.

Red glanced at her watch, and almost dropped her soup when she realized she was seven minutes late, and she was still five minutes away from her grandmother's apartment.

Red calculated that she would be 12 minutes late. Red groaned, her grandmother needed her help.

Red put her soup in her bag, and walked quickly towards her grandmother's apartment.

Red made it to her grandmother's apartment only 10 minutes late, which was quite a surprise. But hey miracles did happen.

Red quickly opened the door, which was strangely unlocked and took her soup out of her bag.

"Grandma? Are you here?" Red yelled, walking towards her grandmother's room, soup in her hand.

"Yes, my dear, I am," a creaky voice called out, "I'm just in my room, my dear."

Red walked into her grandmother's room, noticed that her grandmother was lying down, then offered her the soup. Red noticed that her grandmother was unusually pale that day.

"Grandma, are you feeling alright?" Red questioned, worried.

Red's grandmother tugged on Red's jacket.

"Come closer, my dear, I can not see you very well," her grandmother said.

Red obeyed, but she noticed something strange.

This was not her grandmother.

"Goodness, Grandma, your eyes are rather large today," Red said, backing away slowly, trying to reach the doorframe discretely.

"All the better to see you with, my dear," the imposter replied.

"What large hands you have today," Red whispered, trying to get out but to no avail.

"All the better to kidnap you with, my dear,"  imposter said, getting up from her grandmother's bed and gripping her wrists.

Red felt her phone slip out from her pocket, before she felt an impact on her head and everything went black.

Red woke up in a tiny, dark room. She stood up and searched for a door, because if she got in here in the first place, there had to be a way out. She found one, but to her dismay, it was locked. For once, her kidnappers were not stupid.

She remembered the last time she got kidnapped. It was almost the same situation, ironically. Someone had impersonated her grandma and knocked her out, THREE TIMES.

She sat down. There was no way to escape.

She was trapped.

Red lay helpless. But, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a pile of snow.  That was not there before.  She crawled over and formed a key with the snow. The key instantaneously froze.

Red always found a way to escape anything. It was a knack of hers. Her most extreme escape must of been when she escaped a bear's stomach.

Red rushed over to the door, and inserted the key. It turned and clicked, and she opened the door. She ran out the door before she heard a voice.

"I didn't kidnap her grandmother; it was pointless." A voice said. Red thought that voice sounded strangely like Wolf.

Red dismissed that thought.

But thank goodness, her  grandmother was safe.

"It wasn't my plan! It was your plan!" the voice yelled, slamming the phone onto the wall. Who still uses cable telephones?

Right. Her multiple kidnappers strangely always used wall telephones. Maybe they all worked for the same company.

Red ran down the hallway, down the stairs and out the building and into the city. She ran to her grandmother's apartment.

"Grandma?" Red yelled, looking around the apartment.

"Red! My goodness, I've been looking for you everywhere!" her grandmother exclaimed, hugging Red tightly, "You've been gone for three days. Everyone's been worried!"

"I'm glad I'm home," Red said.