Little red riding hood, Charis version

When Red was five, she only knew her granny. In her mind, even her parents couldn’t compete with Granny. When they came to take her to another home in the other city, she would scream and beg Granny to let her stay. However, her parents ignored her quest and Granny’s watery eyes.

After her seventh birthday, her parents decided to take her home for education. Seeing Granny’s face seemed nearly. She couldn’t help but feeling worried and angered. She wanted to make friends with other kids, since there were not many in the countryside, but she was angered at not being respected.

Her Granny understood her, so she gave her a riding hood.

“Sweetheart, it’s going to be cold. You need this to keep warm.”, said she, while stroking her cheeks.

“I wanna stay with you…”, murmured Red.

“You need to be with your daddy and mommy. They let you stay with me because they needed to work. Now, they could find you a kindergarten.”

Wearing the hood Granny gave her, Red embarked on a new journey.

However, everything went wrong.

After two years, she didn’t see Granny again because her parents thought it would drive her away from them.

And her parents decided to have a new baby.

“Now, you will have a sister or brother to be your company.”, said Mommy in a gentle voice, while her eyes were looking at her swollen belly and her hand was stroking it.

Daddy sat beside Mommy and they smiled to each other.

Red couldn’t feel lonelier. She made up her mind to see her granny.

This time, her parents couldn’t even bother to raise their eyebrows.

Maybe they would be happier without me, thought Red, bitterly, if they were thinking about this, why didn’t they let me stay with Granny at the first place?

She tucked herself in the warm and comfortable hood her granny knitted her.

Taking the train to the station, she couldn’t conceal her excitement. She ran and ran and ran and finally, Granny’s house was in sight.

However, there were some slight differences.

As soon as she approached the door, she noticed that there was a big, muddy paw on it and it’s opened.

Then, she took a few steps back. She saw the window was sealed and the curtains were down, which meant her granny was not home.

Granny never made such a silly mistake, going out without locking the door, thought Red with confusion.

Slowly, she pushed the door.

What she saw was breaking her heart.

On the floor, Granny’s clothes were sucked in blood. And the whole house was a mess.

She broke into tears and fell to the floor.

The person who truly loved her was gone.

Then, something caught her notice. A big shadow was standing by the stairs. It’s far away from her but her breath was taken.

She knew she needed to get out of this house as soon as possible.

Within a minute, she took Granny’s clothes and rushed out of the door. She was too afraid to cry.

When she found the police station, she immediately told the police everything. His face turned pale when he saw the bloody clothes in her hand.

“Child, tell me where your granny’s house is. I will bring our best huntsman to chase this beast.”

“How did you know there is one?”

“The wolf here is very wild. It comes from a different forest. Sometimes, it would kill the citizens.”

“Why don’t you kill it?”, shouted Red.

Although her attitude was rude, the police shook his head and said, “We couldn’t. The wolf is endangered. If we killed it, the government would send us to the prison.”

After five minutes, the police brought a muscular guy. He didn’t show any empathy while listening to her story, but he gave her a candy. Somehow, it really lowered down her shield to them. Red started to weep.

“It’s okay. Your granny might not survive, but we wouldn’t let this thing happen again.”, said the huntsman.

His words consoled her well. She took a tissue from him and wiped her face wildly.

Red led them to Granny’s house. She rubbed her eyes, trying to convince herself that everything she saw beforehand was just a dream. Her granny would stand by the door, holding a bottle of honey, welcoming her with the warmest smile.

However, it wasn’t. The door stayed the way she had pushed out. What astonished her was the curtain. Granny always loved light yellow curtain and now, it’s full of dark stains. She didn’t want to know what they were from.

The police asked her to climb up to the tree and gave a signal to the huntsman. They ran to the door and strike it open. Red covered her ears with hands while gunshots came out.

After a while, they left the house with a wolf’s head. The police tossed it aside.

The huntsman gave a note. Red knew it was from Granny. There was a rose on the corner, which was the way they expressed their love without attracting her daddy and mommy’s attention.

“Child, you can’t come inside. It’s not pretty. We would deal with it.”, the police forced a smile.

She tucked herself in the warm and comfortable hood without answering a word. Even her parents didn’t let her speak. They just took her home and offered her a meal.

“Sweetheart, it’s bed time, maybe you should…”

“I know.”, murmured she.

When she lied on the bed, she took out the note and read it under the moonlight.

“My dear, there is a bottle full of honey in the refrigerator. Go and taste it. I will be home in a minute.”

She felt tears falling down, through her cheeks to the pillow. She closed her eyes for a while and then folded and tucked the note under the pillow.

Red’s heart was settled.