Red

RED - 1

I didn't mean to put my grandmother in danger the way that I had.

It just sort of... happened.

I didn't know that he wouldn't leave me alone after that day either.

I was being hunted.

I cut through the brush around my feet and slid in my side, tumbling down the hill slightly and ending up back on my feet, all in the span of 10 seconds.

Flipping my long red cape so that it was fully behind me, I took off again, knowing that I couldn't waste losing a single second.

He was fast.

But I could be faster.

As I hopped over a boulder, I heard the distinct sound of snapping twigs, the rustle of upturned fallen leaves becoming more apparent.

My grandmother, right. That's what I was thinking about.

She was old, obviously, and my mother didn't know how much time she might have left. Thus, she sent me off with a basket of goodies and pastries, coated me in a long red hood, and sent me off to visit her.

The only problem being that she lived on the other side of the woods.

But I was somewhat fearless. A naive 16 year old girl who just wanted to see her grandmother. Listen to her stories on love and loss and loneliness. I looked up to her.

But I was being followed throughout every second of my journey to her.

Followed by him.

Will.

At the time, I didn't know that he could change--crossover, if you will. He was just a cute as fuck 17 year old guy who happened to show up at every corner in my path.

The sharp howl of an angry wolf cut off the memory, and I rounded a corner in the forest, finding the path that would lead me out.

He was closing in, and I knew it.

My thoughts drifted back again as I heard him howl out once more.

When I reached granny's house that day, he wasn't anywhere in sight. I could feel him there, but I didn't think anything of it. He seemed nice enough, and I found my childish, girly self to be fangirling over the fact that I had met such a boy in the depths of the woods. What he was doing there in the first place remained a mystery to me at the time, and I brushed off thoughts of him  as I entered my grandmother's house.

I left the door unlocked.

"Shit!" I cursed under my breath as a sharp branch cut across my cheek. I knew that it had drawn blood, which only worsened my position. He could smell any trace of blood.

And he knew mine better than anyone else's.

I pushed away the memory of that awful day.

I was a different girl now. 18, but still running for my life. Forever stained with the blood of my grandmother on my hands.

I would never forgive myself.

Up ahead, a small clearing. So narrow that I almost passed it and took it for the shadow of a boulder on another. I rushed towards it, pulling up my red hood and wrapping the sides around my body, bringing it close around me as if I were cocooning myself.

I easily slipped between the small opening between the two rock walls, bringing myself into a type of cave. The dingy smell was strong enough to most likely over power the scent of my blood. He would hopefully lose me now.

"Red"

His growl made my body still, and I pressed myself against the side of the rock wall. I steeled my breathing, slowing it down as much as I could so that I wasn't panting too loudly.

He was roaming around the area outside the cave I was in. With a painless sounding grunt, after a few seconds, I heard the sound of two footsteps on the ground instead of four. He had crossed over to his human form.

He knew that I was near.

I found myself trapped in this dilemma more than once, actually.

I had stilled myself to such an extent that it seemed as if I was paralyzed. After hiding like this in my grandmothers house as he led his pack to ravage on her body, more times like this had followed as I tried to get back to my mother.

I left my grandmothers remains, and her house, in a bloody mess, too overwhelmed to even look at what he had done. What I had let him do.

Will had played me, and had been trying to hunt me down ever since.

"Red," his voice rang out in a taunt, his steps circling back closer to the opening of the cave, "Come out to play, sweetheart"

Fuck off, I almost swore aloud, wanting him to hear it. But I knew that that was exactly what he wanted from me. For me to give myself away to him.

I wasn't an idiot.

"Bleeding hearts, vanilla and fresh blood," he murmured to himself, "You're here"

I willed my fast paced heart beat to slow down, convinced that he could hear it beating.

A twig snapped closer to my hiding place, and I closed my eyes, stilling my body as best I could.

Snapping my eyes open, I knew that if he found me, I would have to make a mad dash to escape. He caught me once before. But I was different now. I wouldn't let him catch me again.

Surveying the inside of the cave, it looked to be a dead end to the left. In front of me was the little sliver of light from where I had slipped inside, and to the right of me, the cave grew darker. There was no way of telling if there was a dead end down there or a bend in the cave which could lead to a possible exit. But that was the only option that I had left.

I took a small, quiet step to the right, and a twig snapped.

And then I ran.