Little Red Riding Hood

The snow fell deceptively light at first, only to fall faster around her a minute later. Carrie Hood gasped and pulled the collar of her black woolen pea coat up her neck. The gnarled long branches of the tall black trees seem to reach out to her. It was as if she were inside a biosphere globe. Carrie turned her head to find fresh fallen snow covering the breadcrumbs she left as a path to follow back out of the forest. How was she going to get out of here now? Carrie sighed and hugged herself in the chill. The forest clearing brought up memories of a same clearing three years ago where she met the wolf. He was very handsome and charming in his human form, impossible to ignore. Carrie hugged herself as a sudden chill ran up her spine. Jack Wolf was just as deadly in human as he was in his wolf form. Suddenly, Carrie felt the hairs at the nape of her neck rise.
There was a presence behind her and she knew who it was. She turned to find a man standing with his fingerless mittens propped up against the trunk of a tree. He wore a long brown tanned leather duster coat and matching boots. His mop of sandy blond hair was swept over one blue green eye. It was Jack wolf in his human form. Carrie took two steps back and swallowed hard. Her hand was shaking not from the cold.
Jack's hazel eyes opened wide and then hooded into two deep-set blue green orbs.
'Hello, Red,'� he said.'� You've grown up.'� Carrie nodded.
'I knew you would come back to me.'� He said.
'I didn't,'� Carrie said. 'I'm lost. I'm trying to get out of here.'�
'That's what you say,'� he answered. 'You never did know your way around my woods.'� The corners of his thin lips curled up into a smile.
Carrie rolled her eyes her full lips stretched into a smile.
Jack wolf's eyes, roamed appreciatively along Carrie's thin shape inside her blue pea coat. His thin lips stretched into a smile when he remembered the last time he saw Carrie. It was ten years ago; it was summer. Carrie was thirteen years old. They danced all day and night under the lush green of the tall trees and singing birds. His smile grew larger at the memory.
Silence fell between them.
He took his hand from the tree and let his shoulder lean against the bark. He folded his arms across his chest. Her thin lips stretched into smile as she remembered that night too. He looked so handsome that day wearing the same leather duster and billowing white shirt he was wearing today. The forbidden spark of attraction hummed between the two except with a more intensity, as it did that summer day ten years ago.
'Admit it, you came back because of the unfinished business between us.'�
'Unfinished business?'� Carrie answered.
'There's always been an unspoken attraction between us,'� he answered. 'It was there the first time you were here.'� Jack Wolf winked.
'I just told you I am lost and need to find my way out of here,'� she answered. 'Anyway, why are you in human form you were killed by the woodsmen in your wolf form?'�
'Yes, but I changed back to my human form when you left.'�
'Oh.'� Carrie lifted her hand to swipe two strands of her reddish blond hair that fell over her eyes as the snow swirled down faster in front of her.
'Why are you here, now?'�
'I am here to help you.'� He answered.
'To get out of here?'� Her face lit up with a smile.
'Yes, after you forgive me.'� He answered.
'Forgive you?'�
'For killing your grandmother and trying to kill you,'� he answered. 'I can't go into heaven without your forgiveness.'�
'What? Why me?'�
'Because, you're the last person I wronged on Earth, before I was killed by that muscle brained woodsmen,'� He answered. 'Whatever his name was?'�
'Where were you all this time?'�
'I was stuck in purgatory,'� Jack Wolf sighed. 'So do you forgive me or what?'�
'What happens if I don't?'�
'I go to hell.'� He answered looking straight into her eyes.
Silence. Carrie folded her arms against her chest.
'How am I supposed to forgive you when you ate my grandmother!'�
'Hey, I didn't kill you, did I?'� Jack Wolf shouted and shrugged his shoulders.
'Yes, only because the woodsman shot you before you could.'�
'What do you want from me?'� he asked. 'I was a werewolf, killing people was my job.'� You don't know how long I debated whether to go through with it or not on my way to your grandmother's house.'� I made up my mind not to kill you when I arrived at your grandmother's.'�
Carrie flashed him a blank look.
'I'm serious.'�
'Believe what you want,'� he answered. 'All I know is that I haven't been able to get you out of my mind.'� I was different when I was with you.'�
A heavy silence fell between them.
Carrie's black leather boots crunched on the new fallen snow as she took slow and steady steps toward Jack. They stopped about an inch apart at the center of the clearing and stared into one another's eyes. Carrie took a step closer and laid her small hand on Jack Wolf's cheek. It was warm, where she thought it would be cold. Jack placed his hand atop hers and licked his full lips. She leaned toward him and placed a soft kiss upon his lips. He responded by pressing his lips harder upon hers pulling her closer against his chest. They pulled away and she stared into red eyes.
She saw an image of an angry wolf. Its red eyes stared back at her with his mouth opened and baring his sharp canine teeth salivating anticipating its next meal. Carrie pulled back, frightened. The truth was in his eyes. She was going to be his next meal if she didn't do anything, but what? What could she do? She then remembered the hunting knife the woodsman gave her as protection for her trip back in the forest. In one quick motion, Carrie reached inside the pocket, felt the handle of the knife and pulled it out.
'I'll never forgive you for killing my grandmother!'� She said. 'GO TO HELL!!!
Carrie plunged the knife into Jack Wolf's heart. Jack's eyes bulged with surprise. His sticky warm blood splashed on Carrie's hand and seeped through Jack's white shirt. He looked up to meet Carrie's dead eyes and collapsed at her feet. Carrie opened her hand and released the hunting knife. It dropped beside Jack in the snow. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She felt herself believing him again, but she found the truth this time in her consciousness and believed what it was telling her. Shimmering sparkling light appeared and slowly rained down on Jack wolf making him slowly disappear before her eyes. A wind blew lifting the snow up from the ground and swirl up to expose a clearing through the thick trees she can follow. It was over. The invisible pull that Jack Wolf had on Carrie for these ten years was over. Her past demon dead, Carrie walked toward the opening, feeling better about herself than when she first entered the forest.

The End. 2004
Joanna E. Lopez
1075wc

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