Little Red

Chapter 3

I stare open eyed at Vince who stands before me, twirling the keys on his finger.

"Miss me?" He laughs, unlocking the cell. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him freely. He pushes away and takes my hand into his, moving his finger on the bony tips of my knuckles. "Hurry, he'll be back any second."

He leads me up stairs and we silently creep through the village unnoticed, that was until a guard saw my cloak. Running through the market, past many houses, and into the woods, he managed to catch up. For a very stubby man, he could run at a very fast pace. Finally, the guard blew his extremely loud whistle and more appeared. Each way we turned, there was a guard. Throwing his hands up, Vince surrendered, allowing the guards to roughly tie ropes around our wrists.

I rubbed the skin around the ropes and noticed the change in the color of my skin from the circulation being cut off. I felt bad. This had been all my fault.

They shoved us into some carts like the one the king sent me in when he warned me about the wolves.

"I'll find you." Vince mouthed, as our carts departed and went separate ways.

---

They took us to two separate rooms and tied us to a wooden chair. Walking around astoundingly, they asked us questions about one another. If we answered incorrectly, they beat us with a black, wooden cane. Occasionally, they'd throw in a threat just to fill our minds with negative nonsense about each other. The corruption didn't work on me, but Vince's mind is weaker than mine. His emotions mirror anger and revenge, so he is expected to attack me, just like how Emma killed that one guard in the woods.

We wouldn't budge because there was nothing to confess about. It was true about the wolves attacking the guards, however they had no connection between the wolves and human Vince. When the interrogators became weary of our rejections, they used their trick. They placed me in his room, luckily he was tied to his chair still.

"Vince?" I coddled, stepping closer to him with caution. His blank face was emotionless, but he pulled at the rope constantly till it broke. Now he and I stand, glancing at each other. Turning into a wolf, he lungs at me. I duck just in time. "You can kill me Vince. It's okay." I crouch down. "Come."

He steps slowly, growling like a lion. I jump up and kiss him on the forehead.

In surprise, he snaps at me, slinging me across the plain room violently. I was rejected for kissing him...an act of true love. Slamming my head on the floor, I decide to just lay there and let Vince complete his victory of defeating me. Slashing a claw at my face, I feel the little blood from my lip, but I don't expect to be worse.

Eventually, Vince converts back and kneels beside me, playing with my hair in his gentle fingers sentimentally. I turn to face him with hope, just as he punches me in the gut and the rush of air quickly leaves my lungs. Gasping for air, I kick him back and curl into the corner. I breathed rapidly, thinking of a way to kiss him directly. He crawls to me, and I can almost breath in his breaths. That's when I make our lips meet for sure, and he stops every movement. His muscles relax.

"Red." He smiles in the kiss, and I can help but laugh in excitement. I broke the corruption somehow.

"I saved you." I wrap my arms around his neck.

He presses the cut on my lip. "I did that?" His voice goes cold, nearly stern.

"No." I manage to lie, trying to make him feel less guilty.

"Liar. Logan will be here any second, so just pretend you're dead, okay? I promise you'll be okay." Her jerks back as if he heard something. He pressed his finger to his lips, making a silent shushing noise.

The metal door opens and Logan's short figure appears. I pretend to go unconscious, just like Vince said. He pushes me off of him. Logan helps Vince to his feet, until Vince smashes his head into the door. Taking me into his defensive arms, he leads us both out of the asylum and the village.

---

Vince puts me down as soon as we reach the forest. We begin walking, which should be weird considering that he's used to being on all four. I gradually look at his waist where the arrow pierced his skin the other day, but he makes no reaction to pain.

He grips onto my hand as if he's scared to loose me again and I let him. Finally, crossing the path to granny's old cottage, we see Emma's still body lay in the pure snow. An arrow rests in her skull and blood spills from the wound onto the ice.

Vince has to cover my mouth from the sobs so we don't blow our cover. Insisting that the weather is supposed to get worse, Vince demands I unlock granny's house, so I do, without further say.

--

I braid my hair off to the side as he begins making a fire in the fireplace. Black ash laid spread all about on the wooden boards, but that doesn't bother Vince nor I one bit. We sit in front of grandma's oak coffee table and stare at the warm flames. Leaning onto Vince, I fall asleep and don't even notices that he has left my side until the loud banging on the door of the cottage.