The rating is 12 due to some violence and sexual references.Little Red
Dusk was beginning to fall as Bridie walked through the small forest by her house. It wasn’t really a forest, just a small grove of trees, which provided a short cut to her grandma’s house. Her grandma lived by herself, so Bridie offered to help her out after school by bringing her groceries and keeping her company and in return her grandma would give her presents, such as clothes, jewellery and make-up.
Today, she carried with her a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread in a plastic bag, which she swung by her side as she walked, making her red hair shake on her head. It was a brisk evening and she clutched her red coat against her chest to keep herself warm. The coat was a gift from her grandma, and she adored it. It was a beautiful scarlet coat that matched her deep red hair; she always received compliments about the jacket, and as she was quite a conceited young girl, she wore the coat most days in the hopes of receiving compliments.
Bridie continued to walk through the trees, under the spindled branches and through the overwhelming mist of pine scent, until she noticed something a little way ahead of her. At first it looked to her like a dog standing on his hind legs leaning against the tree, but as she got closer she recognised the figure of a man. What she thought was fur was actually a shaggy mane of hair that cascaded down the sides of his face into a beard. The beard was long and reached down to the collar of his coat, which Bridie soon noticed was not dog hair at all, but a woollen coat.
“Hello, there,” the man spoke in a gruff voice.
Bridie was taken aback. She knew not to talk to people she didn’t know, but she also did not want to be rude.
“Hi,” she said.
“Where are you off to?”
“Umm… I’m not supposed to say. Sorry.”
“That’s okay, I understand you’re not meant to talk to strangers. I’m John,” he stretched out his hand to shake Bridie’s.
“I’m Bridie,” She shook his hand and thought to herself, ‘just because I know your name doesn’t mean you’re not a stranger.’
“Were you at school today?”
“Yes. I’m sorry; I really have to go now. My Grandma will get worried if I’m late and she’ll probably call the police to look for me,” she lied, hoping the man would leave if he knew people were expecting her.
“Your grandma? Wait, is your grandmother Mrs Rose?”
“You know her?” Bridie asked intriguingly.
“She lives in the house opposite me. Of course, I remember her telling me about you now, she is highly complimentary about you Bridie, and rightly so. You’re very pretty.”
After hearing a compliment Bridie forgot her urgency to get the man to leave and to not share information with him, replying, “Thank you, I’m just dropping off some food for her actually. I do this most days after school.”
“Well, isn’t that nice of you? I suppose I’d better let you get on your way, but please do tell your grandma I say hi. In fact, I may pop over to see her later myself,” John smiled.
“Cool, maybe I’ll see you later then?” She said, and continued to walk through the grove of trees towards her grandmother’s house.
“By the way, Bridie. That’s a lovely coat,” John shouted to her as she walked away, and he licked his lips at the sight of her red hair swinging behind her.
Mrs Rose had lived alone following her husband’s death a few years before, and Bridie’s visits always made her feel a little less lonely. She was never sure what day to expect her, but as others rarely came to visit her, whenever there was a knock on her door she always expected it to be Bridie.
On this day, her door was knocked a little earlier than usual. Mrs Rose pulled herself out of bed and wandered over to answer the knocks. She was glad she lived in a bungalow, as she was getting more tired as of late and spent more time in bed and didn’t think she would be able to handle walking up and down the stairs every time a guest came or she was hungry.
“I wasn’t expecting you this early, Bridie,” she muttered as she pulled open the door. “Oh, hello.”
“Hello there. I’m John, your neighbour. I thought we should get to know each other, may I come in?”
Mrs Rose tapped her frail fingers on the doorframe and looked him up and down. Her hesitancy prompted John to say, “I won’t stay for long, I promise. I couldn’t help but notice a girl sometimes stops by to visit, your niece perhaps? The girl in the red coat?”
“She’s not my niece, she’s my granddaughter.”
“You’re granddaughter? My, you don’t look old enough!”
“Oh, you tease,” Mrs Rose smiled bashfully.
“Honestly, I’m surprised! Well, I know where she got her looks from, that’s for sure. She’ll be over soon, won’t she? I’ll be gone before she arrives, I just wanted to pop by and see how you were doing, make sure you didn’t need anything. May I come in?”
“Okay, but only for a little while,” Mrs Rose answered and opened the door fully to let him in.
John entered the house. He looked around the room at the mauve wallpaper adorned with red Gerberas that matched the cherry-coloured drapes and ruby carpet and admired the spacious living room that led on to another room, and through an open door he could see a large, double bed covered with a scarlet duvet.
“You like red, I see.”
“I do, indeed. Have you seen the red coat my granddaughter Bridie wears? I made that for her.”
“You made it? It’s exquisite! A woman with beauty and talent,” John gushed.
Mrs Rose laughed. “Oh, John. You do know how to make an old woman feel good about herself. Would you like a cup of tea?"
"I'd love one.” John followed Mrs Rose into her kitchen, but not with the intention of making tea. He watched her as she walked into the kitchen, then when she had her back turned he reached for the nearest blunt object, a frying pan, and beat her over the head with it. When she was dead, John searched the drawers in the kitchen until he found a steak knife and promptly began to chop Mrs Rose into little pieces.
He mopped all the blood with a cloth and put the meat into the fridge. John crumpled up her teeth and bones and hid them under the bed with Mrs Rose’s bloody clothes. Then he left the house and walked to the woods to meet Bridie on her way.
John’s words echoed in Bridie’s mind as she walked away. She felt the man’s eyes burning into the back of her head, but she didn’t mind, she was used to men admiring her, she relished it. Bridie carried on down the needle-strewn path to her grandma’s. When she arrived she knocked on the door, but there was no answer.
“Grandma?” Bridie called, as she pushed open the door, which she knew her grandma always kept on the latch. She entered the house and tip-toeing on the ruby carpet, she looked around. She walked through the living room and peeked into the bedroom, but was unable to find her. Then she wandered into the kitchen with trepidation, unsure of what she would find, when suddenly she heard the front door creak open. “Grandma? Is that you?”
“Bridie?” a man’s voice replied.
Bridie left the kitchen and looked into the living room to see John, “John? What are you doing here?”
“Well after I left you in the woods, I happened to see your grandmother going for a walk. She was on her way back here, but said that she couldn’t bare going back inside out of the sunlight and wanted to walk some more, so I offered to come here and keep you company until she returned.”
“Oh, that’s fine. I was going to make some dinner for grandma and I, would you like to join us?”
“Certainly, in fact she said that she’d left some steaks in the fridge for us to have,” John said and ushered Bridie into the kitchen where they began to prepare the food.
After the steaks had been cooked, Mrs Rose had still not returned. John suggested they eat whilst they waited, so they did.
After eating, John looked at Bridie and smirked.
“You’re a slut,” John said.
Bridie was taken aback and replied, “I- I’m not.”
“You are. I see the way you walk around here, swinging your hair, wearing that sultry red coat. You know the way people look at you, so why do it?”
“I don’t know...”
“It’s because you want men to look at you, you want them to want you and you’ve succeeded. I look at you, Bridie. I look at you whenever you come to visit your grandma. I watch and I wait and I want you. I want you now, Bridie. You can’t deny me, you must want it too or you wouldn’t act this way.”
“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Please. Where’s my grandma?”
“You don’t remember? You ate her, Bridie.”
“What?”
“You ate her. The meat. You ate her.”
Bridie’s stomach clenched and bile crept up her throat as she thought about the tough meat they had eaten. She looked at John’s wide-eyes and knew he was telling the truth. How could she have done this? She felt sick and John began to reach over and pat her back.
“There, there. See how easy it was to eat your grandma? Now there’s something else that needs to be done. Come to bed with me, Bridie.”
“What?”
“Take your clothes off and get into to bed with me,” he repeated.
Bridie was so dazed and confused after learning that she had just eaten her grandmother, so she did as he said. She lay there, quiet and sickened as he lay next to her. John’s naked body was just as hairy as his face. She looked at his hairy legs, large torso and bearded face. She was surprised to see up-close as he lay on her how large his ears were, and his wide-eyes that looked ready to eat her up. Then she saw his teeth. His large, pointed, yellowed teeth and she cried and felt as though she was being eaten alive by John, the wolfish man.
