A Not so Happy Ending?

The girl knew she should have not come alone to see her grandmother on the other side of the forest, nobody else was able or willing to come with her. Her red cloak blew out behind her as the wind was heavy and blew the hood off her head. Her hair was not bound today as she hated wearing it in that manner all the time, so it to blew back and fluttered about in the wind. She couldn’t pull the hood back on as both hands were full. Her right held a walking stick, the other a basket full of baked breads and cakes. Another problem she was having to deal with was the season. Fall had set in and dropped leaves and twigs were blowing about and hitting her as well. She pushed on though, she had promised to take the basket of baked goods to her grandmother a week earlier when the old woman had visited them.

She had seen shadows moving in the underbrush and could occasionally hear things moving just out of sight. All at once, she froze as one of the shadows opened and a wolf stepped onto the path in front of her. It growled at her and began to move towards her, body low, teeth bared. She dropped the basket and held the stick in front of her, hoping she might be able to drive the animal off.

The wolf, seeing this stopped and sat back on its haunches. This was not an ordinary wolf of the woods. It happened to be a very minor demon that had escaped from the hells. It was hiding, looking like a wild animal in this wood, feeding off any mortal it came across. “Well, well little girl, you think you can escape your fate with a little stick?”

Little Red looked at this seeming wolf, afraid and wondering how an animal could talk. “If you are a real wolf, you would not be able to talk.” She squinted and could just make out a fuzzy, faint shape behind the wolf. “No, the wolf is not there at all. Therefore I will ignore you and continue to my grandmother’s house beyond the wood.” She picked up her basket and walked around the wolf shape. It didn’t move to stop her.

The demon smiled, ‘So she goes to visit the old hag just beyond,’ he thought. ‘I will get there first and have a feast of old and young.’ The creature vanished and the forest was empty once more.

Red moved more quickly now, afraid the thing might be following her. She kept looking back, but the wolf and shadow were not to be seen. She came to the edge of the wood and could see the house in the distance that her grandmother lived in. She continued walking along the dirt road and soon arrived at the entrance to the property. She walked up to the house and knocked on the door, calling out to her grandmother. She heard a voice call for her to come in from a back room.

As she walked through the house, she could tell something was wrong. Plates had been knocked to the floor and broken. A lamp had been knocked over and the oil spilled across the front room. She went to the kitchen and saw it was a mess as well. The pans and pots were scattered around and a fire was burning high in the oven unattended. Another lamp had been broken in here as well, the oil slowing flowing toward the oven. Red grabbed a counter rag and blocked the oil so it couldn’t reach the fires.