Little Girl in the Red Hood (edited)

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there was a village surrounded by woods, and in it lived a little a girl called Myrna, but her name is not really important since everyone in the village knew her only by Red, due to the red velvet hood she always wore. Her grandmother made her first hood as a present when she turned seven, and through out the years the gift tended to repeat itself as soon as the piece got too small for Red to wear. It was the end of the summer, the nights started to grow chill in the village and the garment was ready to be put to use again.

Red lived in a small house with her parents near the center of the village, and at that particular day her mother had baked some apple pies. The sweet smell of the pies greeted her when she entered the kitchen. “I’m so glad you’re here Red, I need you to take this to your grandmother before it gets dark. I don’t want you walking through the woods at night”. The girl rolled her eyes at her mother’s repetitive speech about walking in the woods at night, and taking her basket and her hood, went out without so much as a word. Red rarely fought with her parents, being known throughout the village as a good beautiful girl, with her straight blond hair always tied in a knot on the back of her neck, startling blue eyes, and full lips that seemed to be in a constant pout. Walking through the village, Red end up meeting a friend and both of them started to trade the newest gossips of the village with such enthusiasm that neither of them saw the time pass. The sun was going down when Red finally realized it was growing late, and saying good bye to her friend started to run towards the end of the village, in the direction of the woods where years prior, her father and his friend, the woodcutter, build a small cottage for Red’s grandmother.

The woods were dense but being a full moon’s night some of the light filtered through the tree branches illuminating the trail so she wouldn’t get lost, which was the last thing she wanted. Red was immersed in her thoughts, thinking of what she could say to her grandmother so she wouldn’t tell her mother she was crossing the woods at night, if she should tell the truth to her about running into a friend or lie and tell she was delayed because she got distracted and didn’t realized she got off the trail in the woods. The girl was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t realized that six feet behind her, there was a large black wolf quietly following her. Now this wasn’t a regular wolf, it was too big, with a broad torso and long legs, with a fur so black that it blended with the dark forest surrounding it, and big green eyes fixed hungrily on the distracted girl in front of it.

‘I’m going to have a feast tonight,’ thought the wolf following the red hooded girl smiling inward. ‘I’m going to make her scream so loud that the whole forest is going to hear,’ it thought, licking it’s lips in anticipation and leaving the trail to run in the direction of the cottage that belonged to the girl’s grandmother.

Red finally reached her grandmother’s cottage after a long walk and gathering all the courage she had, opened the door, ready to face the scold she would receive from the old woman. Of course, not all the courage she had would be enough to face the big bad wolf that waited for her inside the house.

‘Grandmother, is me, Red. I brought you a pie,’ said the girl entering and depositing her basket on the kitchen table and her red hood on a chair.

The cottage was building without walls in the center, having an open space in the shape an L with a small kitchen with a table and two chairs on the left of the door, on the right a big fireplace and a comfortable sofa facing it and further back, it was the bedroom, with a large four poster bed surrounded by white cotton curtains. The fire burned in the big fireplace throwing a red light on the otherwise dark cottage. The candles weren’t lit and the moon had probably been covered by clouds since there wasn’t much light coming from the windows.

‘Leave it on the table my dear and come join me,’ said a croak voice coming from the bed. Red started to walk towards the bedroom, not knowing that laying on the bed was the wolf not her grandmother. Earlier that day, her grandmother had decided to visit her daughter in the village, and got to Red’s house a little before the sunset, when her granddaughter was still in town gossiping with her friend.

The wolf didn’t want to alert the girl of its presence until she was laying on the bed, so it covered its whole body with the bed covers leaving nothing for the girl to see. Red stopped beside the bed and opened the curtains looking at the form on the bed, wondering why her grandmother was acting strange.

‘Take off your clothes and lay with me my dear,’ said the wolf, almost shaking with excitement.

‘Your voice sounds so strange grandmother, are you feeling well?’ asked the girl starting to worry.