Twisted red riding hood.

A twist on an old tale. The idea for this story came to me in a dream, I try to take advantage of the insperation my dreams give me.

“Oh Maxine! Can you come down here please!” max’s mom called up to her “Maxine?! Maxine!!!” Danni yelled but still no response.  “What could that girl be doing up there..” she said to herself as she walked up the steps. With each step max’s mom made a big loud squeak echoed. She opened the door to find her daughter laying on her bed, on the computer, headphones in, and music up loud, so loud she could hear it from the door way “Maxine!!”

“WHA!?!” max yelled as she took out a ear bud 

“Turn that down and come down stairs I need you to do me a favor!”

“But mom it’s like…five O’clock! And really cold out!” max said as she sat up

“Oh it won’t take you but 30 minutes to an hour, I need you to run to your grandma’s and drop of these photos of us from a last vacation, I promised them for her”

“Then why can’t you do it!?” she said as she slipped on her boots and favorite red coat.

“Because I have to start dinner, if you just hurry up it won’t take long”

“Fine!” she said as she grabbed the envelope with the pictures, her i-pod, cellphone, and car keys.

“Man, mom owes me one” max said as she was driving home on the dark highway. “I didn’t think grandma would talk my ear off that much, and then when she came in with the cookies, ugh! Two. Whole. Hours!” as max drove the music played pain by threes days grace. The clock flashed 7:30pm and max’s stomach was shouting at the top of its lungs to feed it. She was so hungry and tired she hadn’t realized that she missed the turn off of the highway. 

As max drove she looked around “hmm…this doesn’t seem familiar…man I must have missed my turn, oh well im sure there is one up here somewhere, I wish they would just turn the street lights on” as she kept driving it seemed as though it started to get lighter out “finally!” but what she noticed was that none of the street lights were on, and the light was coming from above her, only in her spot. The feeling of sleepiness took over and she soon fell asleep.

When Max awoke she had a major headache, she squinted up at the sun that look further away and slowly setting. Max rose to her feet and stretched “how long have I been out?” she wondered out loud. She looked around and saw that she was in some sort of forest terrain, “wait forest?! Wasn’t I in my car on the highway!?” max started to freak, she got out her cell phone…no signal. “Great just effin great” with nothing else to do she walked, and walked, and walked. 

About two hours later she found herself resting on top of a rock, it was dark and cold, max shivered as she held on to her coat, so close to a dream land she’s been waiting for until the ground shook, she fell off the rock and she saw the shadow of a giant foot “AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” max screamed to the top of her lungs and ran for it. Her scream seemed to have startled the thing with the big foot, because he had fallen over. “what!? Who goes there!?” the loud booming voice nearly broke max’s ear drums. But before she could do anything else a pair of blood red eyes spotted her. “Come back here you little runt!!!” the giant soon got up and ran after her. Max screamed again and ran. Every step the giant took caused her to lose her balance. He had almost gotten her a few times. Until she dove under a log and was able to fit into a small hole. As the giant picked up the log max flinched, the giant looked everywhere but alas she had escaped him. “damn! There goes my dinner!” the giant yelled out and threw the log across the way. Max curled up as she watched the giant walk away, quietly she cried, she cried out of fear and frustration. She hadn’t cried since her father passed when she was 7. Slowly she drifted off, but not before hearing the cry of a wolf.

I awoke about an hour and a half later, still cold, still scared. Slowly I inched my way out of the hole. I lay up against a tree. “I knew this place felt different…” I said to myself. And there it was again, the cry of the wolf but this time it sounded closer, I was scared, scared that I was about to be eaten by a giant wolf this time, and it happened again water from my eyes. It felt so strange. Closer the sound came when suddenly a rustling from no more than about 10 feet in front of me. And then I saw them, the coldest eyes I have ever seen, they were of a brown and copper color, the pupil was a slit, and they were focused on me and me alone. More water from my eyes, dripped onto the ground. I tried to inch away but there was nowhere to go. Two silver, not gray, silver ears with black tips came out from above the bush. Every time I whimpered they flickered. When I expected a giant wolf to charge out and eat me, I saw the ears fold back and a wolf like human appeared no longer did the eyes I was looking at looked cold, but sad. The wolf man stood up to his full height that had to be 6 or 7 feet tall, he had mid-back black and silver tipped hair, copper brown eyes, long black claws where his finger nails and toe nails should be, I suspected he had long sharp canine teeth, but its not like im gonna ask him just to see if he does. He had tattered jeans that cut off at the knees, and no shirt, there were a few scars on his body, and he had a fluffy black tail that had a silver tip.

 

 I curled up and closed my eyes hoping this was some sort of dream. The next thing I know I feel the shaking of his footsteps getting closer to me then I felt it, his breath…it was warm and soothing…then he sniffed me, that made me let out a slight whimper, then I heard him whimper a bit, slowly I opened my eyes and saw he was right in front of me, I looked up at his eyes, they were sad, the next thing I know he nudged me with the side of his head, “h-hey…please don’t be scared…” I heard him say in a deep sweet voice. “im not gonna hurt you…” he kept nudging me. That made me whimper more because even though he said not to be scared I was still terrified. “You’re the one I heard screaming earlier huh?” so that was him that howled just before I fell asleep. Slowly I nodded. “You…you got caught by the giant huh?” I nodded again. “you poor thing, you’re scared out of your mind, cold, lost, hungry, and confused I bet” I nodded harder, I slowly uncurled myself, and looked him in the eyes “w-where am i…?” I asked softly, not sure if he heard me.

“you’re in the woods little red” little red? Oh my jacket…

“I-I can see that but how did I, just a while ago I was…th-this is’t making any sense…”

“Little red im not sure whats going through your head right now but if you don’t get some warmth, food and shelter you’re not gonna survive out here on your own, now if you’re not too scared…I wouldn’t mind bringing you back home with me…if you trust me..” slowly I thought it through…he does seem nice, more than that giant…slowly I extended my hand…and petted the top of his head “I-I trust you…” a smile grew on his face and I saw his long sharp teeth, just as I thought, but he instantly hid them “oh sorry..” slowly he lifted me up, and threw me onto his back like a backpack “There, rest up, we’ll be home soon” he said and started to run, and run he did, very fast. And the warmth grew more and more and soon I was out again.

I awake in front of a fire, a blanket over me, and a pillow under my head. I sit up to find myself inside a cabin, I suspected it was the wolf man’s cabin, because everything was a lot bigger. Standing, I tried to find any signs on where he could be, couldn’t find any. I walked over to what I guessed was the couch and climbed up it, I’ve had a lot of experience with climbing thanks to my older brothers, I perched myself on the window ceil. I stared out into the vast sea of wilderness…wow I thought. I was knocked out of my day dream by the sound of a door opening, I looked behind me to see the wolf man in the door way, he had what seemed to be a shocked look on his face, but then he smiled, and walked over to the couch and kneeled on it, and looked out the window with me, “pretty isn’t it?” he said, I nodded “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were up, if I did I would have gotten breakfast ready”

“that’s ok, im not really that hungry” my stomach protested

He laughed, and I blushed. 

“Come on” he said as he motioned to the kitchen. He told me his name was zeek, and I told him he could call me max. He sat me down on the table and looked through the cupboards.

“oh, um I don’t know if I have anything you might like, I just eat meat all the time” he looks embarrassed. I don’t know why but it made me smile. 

“do you have any fruit?” I asked, he looked around and found an apple

“will this be ok for you?” I nodded “good” he smiled and sat in the chair in front of me, he took one of his claws and made a slice in the apple and handed it to me “there ya go”. As I ate he just kept looking at me. So then I asked “what’s the matter?” he shrugged,

“well I’m just curious about you is all..” I tilted my head

“you’re curious about me?”

“well yeah, I mean you only go up to my waist… and I haven’t seen another one like you around here…” he said kind of uneasy.

“well…im human…if that helps at all” when I said that his ears perked up.

“like full human??”

“is there any other kind?”.

He explained that the world that I was brought to is a world for human hybrid’s, and well….that only time anyone ever arrives here is when there non human half is about to emerge. When he said that I started to feel dizzy, he put one of his hands at my side so I wouldn’t fall over.

“s-so…y-your saying that…i-im not human…”

“well no, you are for now…until your other half comes out…and that could be whenever…”. I didn’t know what to say.

“don’t worry…I’ll keep you safe…” he looked at me with strong eyes.

“zeek…is this how it happened to you?” he nodded and explained that he had nowhere to go on earth, and one day he ended up here and had to survive in this giant world till he emerged and when he did he told me it was so painful. That scared me.

"What's going to happen to me?"

“I don’t know little red..” He said with empathy in his voice.

Author's Note

Let me know what ya guys think, I'm trying to pick up writing again and finishing up some old stories is really helping.