Little Red

Chapter 5

I laid, curled up in Vince's fur coat, but didn't manage to get a wince of sleep. I kept thinking about how we were so desperately looking for a plan to kill the king.

The king who held me at the throat on several occasions, was about to die in either mine or Vince's hands.

Vince helped me put on my red cloak, and I assisted him with his. As we walked out of Granny's home, I tried so hard to remember how she ended up dying, and why everyone found me the way I was. But it was pointless, so I kept my pace with Vince's inhumanly speed.

"Are you okay?" He turned to me; His blue eyes searching in mine.

"Yeah." I smiled, just as we made it to the outer line of the forest where the gates met the land. He took my hand into his and covered my braids with my hood. He looked at me with his weary expression.

"Be safe." He warned, allowing me to push closer into his hard chest. "Go when you see the signal." His nose touched mine, and we both went in for a final kiss.

This was worse than suicide.

Finally, he broke away, putting his hood on.

"Be safe." I mocked bossily, allowing him to run off into the distance.

Like I said before, this is no fairy tale. This is my cruel, begging to be heard story.

---

It was about dawn when flames broke out in main plaza, and loud shouts of an argument broke out. It was time...

I grabbed my arrow, adjusted my knife, then began walking slowly. Scanning each direction for a threat, I took off in a immediate sprint down past the gates.

A hay cart on my left was attracting flames, and smelt diverse to the other scents around me. I began walking, cautiously to the castle.

My hands were sweating out a river. I took a deep breathe in, and pushed my way threw the hollow wooden doors that lead inside the castle. Knowing that the kingdom was under attack, the king would be hiding demists the darkness of the prison cells, so I escorted myself down in that direction carefully, watching my placement of each step.

It was entirely silent, the only sound was that of my inhales and exhales. Suddenly, the floor began to shake as I stepped onto the bottom stair. Groans echoed the room at the time that a massive hand snatched me up like a rag doll.

The creature, an ogre, had only one eye, so I guess I should call him Polyphemus to lighten up the disturbance of the room.

"Bad Human!" The ogre bellowed, cramming me more in his hand. "I eat human. Yum!" I began distressing.

The more he squeezed, the tighter my eyes closed. That was until I heard Vince, and my eyes shot open.

He held out his sword passionately, like a true prince. He swung rashly at the creature, then rushed off.

"Vince!" I cried out, but he never came back for me.

-----

The ogre ripped threw the castle and fled into town. His hand was cutting the circulation from my body, so of course I couldn't fight back...this time. Townspeople of all sorts began smacking him with brooms, axes, etc....but he wouldn't let go.

Finally, guards appeared...everywhere, like ants when you step on their pile. In fact, they actually did end up prying me from his grip, and I fell onto Vince's back. We ran back to the castle, and secured the doors. The chains fell with a loud crash.

I took a seat on the ground, trying to catch my breath. Vince sat beside me, embracing me in his arms.

"I thought you left me." I spoke truthfully.

He snickered, and it was pretty sexy for a wolf. He helped me to my feet. We headed upstairs, since downstairs was a dead end. In the well decorated room sat the king on his throne. No one else was in the room, until someone took me by the neck with a blade. Vince spun around, snarling at the guard holding me back.

The king stood up wisely and bitterly laughed. "I won. You killed my son, so why should I not kill this young lady and make life between us...fair?" He tilted his head, and the guard's brace grew tighter.

In a instant, Vince stood before us all in human form. "Because none of this was intended to effect her. We- The wolves- never meant to take her in as our own blood. We were going to leave her here...at the palace." His words stunned me. I watched him look at me directly, then down at his feet. "We killed her grandmother." Tears shed down out of my eyes, and I fell to my knees. The guard yanked me by my hair, but I continued to cough out sobs.

"You monster." I finally managed to croak out. This wasn't a 'Hey! You just killed my Ex for me, thank you.' No, this was actual passion.

"Take her away." The king directed, and they drug me away into a peachy looking room, with silk sheets. They left me to die metaphorically, knowing the truth.

-----

Loud grunts stirred me from my daze and I continued to lay peacefully on the carpeted floor. Vince burst threw the doors, focusing on me. My body, not controlled by my mind, took his hand as he led me out of the room.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I snapped away and he sighed.

"The alpha of our pack, selfishly pretended to be your grandma by eating her and wearing her clothing until you arrived. That day, your mother died giving birth to you, so your father had to drop you off at your grandma's because he, himself was a guard and had no time to spend caring for an infant." He began explaining.

"So he could be here...? Alive?" I checked, eyeing the hallways in suspicion.

"No. He died in one of the groups that went out searching for whatever was killing the guards." I didn't want to cry. My memories were restored, not in a pleasurable way, but it had to do. I took Vince's hand into mine and he looked happy.

"I still love you Red." He kissed my forehead as we reached the borderline of the forest. "Please know that, okay?" His hand was still connected to mine.

"I know Vince, but why are you telling me this?" I teased. He took a step back, breaking away the link from our hands, so I stepped forward, until a heavy shock flung me back. I looked at Vince, and he was a wolf again.

"Vince?" I asked, quietly. He began walking away, and a cold hand touched my shoulder.

"He made me create a shield, blocking them from coming in, and us from going out." The king's harsh voice broke. "C'mon." He waved to his carriage.

---

He cared for me as his own queen, and told me to never look back.

But sometimes you just need your best friend to save your life.