The Color Red

Do you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood? Well I was “Little Red Riding Hood”, though not in the way you might think, in the forest with an evil wolf, no, that wasn’t the case. I was a normal girl, with a home just like yours. But our world is a violent one and sometimes there isn’t a happy ending… My name is Alice, everyone knows me as Little Red Riding Hood and this is my story.  

It was on a Monday, I was in winter vacation and I remember it was raining. I lived in a small city and I had woken up early to visit my grandmother that day. I was having breakfast when someone knocked on the door. I opened the door and found myself with a serious woman that just by seeing her you knew she was a professional, though I didn’t know of what.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“Alice Gonzalez?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I’m Detective Garcia.”—She showed me her badge—“Have you noticed something odd with your life in these last few days?”

“No” I answered, confused.

“Have you, by any chance, heard of someone that calls himself Wolf?”

“No. Why are you asking me all these questions? Who is he?”

“He’s a murderer that has a reputation for relating his killings with classic fairy tales. His last murders were three brothers he related with ‘The Three Little Pigs’. I am aware that you are known as Little Red Riding Hood, due to your red hoodie and your grandmother that lives nearby. I came here to warn you that you might be his next victim. I have no proof that he might be targeting you, though there is a high probability. Try to be more careful from now on.”—She pulled out a card from her jacket—“Here’s my number, in case something out of the ordinary happens, call me” she turned towards the street.

“Wait!”—She turned to look at me—“You tell me all this and than just leave telling me to ‘be more careful’?” I asked, surprised.

“Forgive me, Miss Gonzalez, but I have a killer to catch. Surely you can understand?” And with that she left in her car, leaving me speechless.

I closed and locked the door. I walked through the whole house making sure to lock every door and window. I’m sure I don’t have anything to worry about, after all, she said that there was no proof that he’ll come after me. I decided to just continue with my regular routine and turned on my computer.

Maybe something in Facebook can distract me… I thought to myself.

As I opened my account, I saw that I had a message from an unknown Facebook user.

How odd.

I opened the message. It said:

Hello Little Red Riding Hood. What’s in the basket? And in case you don’t know what I meant by that, I meant: What’s new? I specifically want to know why there was a detective at your door. Don’t even think about calling her about this, there will be consequences.

The color red is beautiful, don’t you think?

He was watching me this whole time. It was him, the murderer. I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my skull. I looked down at the red hoodie I had on and quickly got it off me.

I didn’t visit my grandmother that day.

Three days passed. And in those three days I didn’t go out, I didn’t visit my grandmother, I didn’t have another message and I most definitely didn’t tell anyone about this. I couldn’t risk getting anyone in danger.