Red

Chapter One: Little Red Riding Hood

The girl shoved through the brush, the hem of her cloak entangling itself on a lower-hanging branch, causing her to stumble.

The girl picked herself up and cursed under her breath. Of all the dratted things Gran had to insist on, this idiotic hood was the worst. She didn't mind carrying around the twenty-pound fruitcake, or making the daily trips into the forest, but the cape? The floor-length scarlet-red cape that was neither innocuous nor fashionable? It was pure hell.

Still, she blundered on, crashing through the forest with all the grace of a wild boar, her picnic basket banging against her thigh so hard she was certain it'd leave a bruise.

A snap broke the eerie silence of the woods and the girl froze. She knew these parts were full of predators. She chided herself internally. See, Red, you should have been watching. You should have been listening.

Red glanced around before continuing on ahead. A looming shadow formed on the path ahead, causing Red to stop once more.

"Who's there?" She called, trying and failing to stop her voice from shaking.

A person appeared, in between a boy and a man, his amber eyes containing a hunger that contrasted his sweet, toothy grin. "just me, darlin'. What're you doin', all alone in these big, scary woods?" He advanced towards herself slowly, not unlike a wolf stalking his prey.

A wolf, Red thought. He's like a wolf. She knew about wolves. A small amount of fear seemed to melt. Her grip on the basket relaxed.

"If you must know," Red began in a voice haughty out of fear rather than arrogance, "I'm off to visit my Grandmother. She lives in the little blue cottage in the middle of the woods, just down the path."

The man licked his lips. "Well, darlin', your grandma sounds a little lonely, all by herself in these woods. Wouldn't she like some pretty flowers then?"

He waved his arm, showing her the abundance of flowers in a multitude of colours that lay just off the path.

"I suppose," Red mused. "Although generally you're not supposed to wander off the path."

"They ain't too far off the path, darlin'. I mean, you could stand on the path and still reach 'em."

"That is true," Red agreed slowly.

"Perhaps you'd like to share your food then, missy, since I gave you a nice tip?"

"Oh." Red's dark eyes flashed. She held the basket even closer to her chest. "I don't share."

She stepped off the path and knelt, rustling through the flowerbeds with one eye on the man. He bid her a hearty goodbye and began strolling down the path once more.

Once he was out of eyeshot, Red stood and jogged up the nearest hill, from which she could clearly see the path to the cottage. She could see the man running, faster than any natural human and she knew, in the deepest part of her soul, that he was the one.

She ran after him, circling around the cottage to the back, and peered through a window just in time to see him step inside.

"Hello, granny?" He called, in an eerily accurate impression of Red's voice.

"Come in, dear," a voice creaked from the bed. "I'm a little ill, do sit by me?"

His eyes widened until they were pools of amber, and he licked his lips once more. Red could see the fangs this time, glinting in the mid-afternoon light. "Oh," he said, his voice thick with hunger, "I'd love to."

Red riffled through her basket as she watched the scene unfold.

He slowly advanced to the bed, his steps like compressed coils.

"I hope you brought fruitcake," whispered Granny.

"Better." He stopped by the bed and his jaw unhinged, large enough to swallow a person whole. He ripped back the covers with a startling amount of grace, and with an impressive amount of speed, lowered his face to swallow Granny.

But a millisecond before teeth hit flesh he froze. Pillows. They were only pillows with a radio attached.

He ripped back sheet after sheet until his claws shred the mattress, finally letting out a howl of defeat.

"Surprise." There was a cold voice at the doorway.

The wolf-man turned.

It was Red, her hood thrown back, a silver dagger in her hand. "Arreus Clawman, you are charged with five counts of first-degree murder and murder with intent to eat." She kicked the wall and a large silver cage fell from the darkened roof.

The werewolf- Arreus- growled and slammed himself into the wall of the cage. The silver burned his flesh and he fell away, whimpering. "You ain't an innocent little girl, are you?" he muttered through clenched fangs.

"No, stupid. I'm a detective. And you're under arrest." She walked over to the bed briskly, knife still in hand. "Suspect apprehended," she spoke into the radio. "Pick 'em up, boys."