Red Hood (Book One)

Chapter Two

As soon as I walked into Piggly Wiggly, everyone stared at me. The cold air in here grazed my midriff. I went to the granola section. Two brown skinned women were nearby, but they weren't looking for anything. 

 "Is that Rose Crimson's daughter?" One woman asked. 

 The other one crossed her arms. "Yeah, girl. And she looks like trouble too." 

 "You clearly want trouble, 'cause you clearly never learned to fucking whisper!" I retorted. 

 They stared at me all wide eyed, and ran out of the aisle. There was nothing wrong with my red crop top and matching pants. She was just stuck up. I picked up a box of cashew bars and walked to the dairy aisle. Finally, I had a few minutes of peace and quiet. Until a dark skinned man laughed. 

 I've never seen a man with my complexion in green flannel before. Anyway, I just grabbed some vanilla yogurt without even glancing in his direction. The loud footsteps behind me were annoying as hell. It's no use in pretending he wasn't there. So, I stopped in my tracks and turned around.

 The man smiled charmingly. "It took you long enough to acknowledge me, girl. You just like your mama." 

 "Who the hell are you?" I asked. 

 "My name's Axel Woods. It's nice to meet you." 

 "I'm Candy." 

 "I could tell. You do look good enough to eat." 

 Was this dude serious? If he thought he could follow me and flirt with me, he had it twisted. I checked the time on my phone. It was 1:30. There was still time. 

 When I looked up, Axel handed me a business card. The first name on it wasn't his, though. But it did look familiar. 

 "Who's Hatchet?" I asked. 

 He chuckled. "That's my brother. You can come to the Woodsmen Shop if you need to protect yourself." 

 Then, he just walked away. Who am I supposed to protect myself from? The woman who talked shit about me came over here. She looked me up and down. 

 I frowned. "You got a problem?" 

 "No, sis. Did you hear about the B.A.S.W?" She said, in a hushed tone.

"What's that?"

 "Big Ass Super Wolf. He lives in the forest right by Miss Ruby's house." 

 I shook my head. The howling I heard last night came from a wolf. But a 'super wolf'? I didn't think so. I walked to the line for the second register. This woman followed me. 

 When I glanced behind me, she was on her pink iPhone. Suddenly, she was holding it in front of my face. The photo on there was just a sketch of a huge gray werewolf with yellow eyes. I know I've seen it on twitter. 

 "This is a drawing." I said. 

 She sucked her teeth. "The artist drew this after he got attacked by the B.A.S.W."

 "Yeah, whatever." 

 I bought my stuff and left the store. This time no one followed me. When I got into my red Honda, the silence surrounded me. The werewolf drawing made me shudder. But then, I remembered it wasn't real.