Red Roses - (FCRAs 2016 Winner)

Devils in The Woods

Lorelie and Jean stared at the wreckage that had been, mere hours before, the beautiful fairy tale kitchen of their grandmother.

It was now destroyed.

The chairs lay shattered in the corners, the table was upended, the cupboard doors were pulled off their hinges and the content across the floor.

And the blood.

There was a shocking amount of blood, splashed across the floors, walls and ceilings.

But the worst was what wasn't there and what lay in the centre of the kitchen.

Their grandmother wasn't there. As Michael had said, she was gone. The cottage was a mess and she was gone.

And Dover lay in a pool of his own blood that pumped from his stomach.

"Dover!" Lorelie cried as Bramble bounded over, licking at Dover's face, whimpering. "He's still alive, we have to help him!"

"Stop, Lorelie," Jean snapped, catching her arm and pulling her back.

"Let go!"

"He won't make it," Jean said, tightening his grip, "He's not going to make it! Stop!"

"But he's Nana friend!"

"And Nana is gone! She's our priority. We need to find out who did this and what's happened," he said looking around before straightening, noticing something in the blood by the chairs. Walking over, he crouched down, pulled on his gloves and pulled something out of the blood, holding it up for her to see. "Wolf hair," he said simply. "Black."

Lorelie froze, her hands reaching for Dover and she slowly looked back at her brother as he looked at her.

"Don't," she muttered.

"Lorelie."

"Don't! I know the wolves in these woods, they would not hurt someone!"

"They hurt Beldon."

Lorelie's breath caught in her throat as Jean looked away, standing up and moving to more hair trapped under one of the cupboard doors.

"They almost killed him; if Luka hadn't intervened he would probably not be here today. And when you were a child—"

"Enough!"

Jean looked at her in surprise and Lorelie quickly knelt down beside Dover, settling her hand against his cheek.

"I don't know what happened – what really happened – between Beldon and the wolves. I don't know why they attacked him, they never told me, but I know they wouldn't have hurt Nana.... They couldn't." She looked at him. "If they wanted to, they could have done it a long time ago. This is something else."

"Lorelie."

"It has to be," she said and reached to the tablecloth that was flung over the table edge. She dragged it off and placed it over Dover's body, settling a hand on his head again. "Sorry, Dover," she whispered before pushing to her feet, running to the door, Bramble racing after her.

"Lorelie!" Jean shouted, stumbling to his feet and running to the door but by the time he was at the end of the path, his hand clamping down on the gate, Lorelie was gone, the blazing autumn leaves merging with her cape as she ran, Bramble bounding ahead of her.

She wasn't sure who was leading whom or where they were even going. She didn't know what to do. She hated that she had to admit that but she had no idea what to do.