Guardians Series What Lurks Within The Shadows: Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest.  Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood.

One morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if she could go to visit her grandmother as it had been awhile since they'd seen each other.

"That's a good idea," her mother said.  So they packed a nice basket for Little Red Riding Hood to take to her grandmother.

When the basket was ready, the little girl put on her red cloak and kissed her mother goodbye.

"Remember, go straight to Grandma's house," her mother cautioned.  "Don't dawdle along the way and please don't talk to strangers!  The woods are dangerous."

"Don't worry, mommy," said Little Red Riding Hood, "I'll be careful."

But when Little Red Riding Hood noticed some lovely flowers in the woods, she forgot her promise to her mother.  She picked a few, watched the butterflies flit about for awhile, listened to the frogs croaking and then picked a few more. 

Little Red Riding Hood was enjoying the warm summer day so much, that she didn't notice a dark shadow approaching out of the forest behind her...

Suddenly, the wolf appeared beside her.

"What are you doing out here, little girl?" the wolf asked in a voice as friendly as he could muster.

"I'm on my way to see my Grandma who lives through the forest, near the brook,"  Little Red Riding Hood replied.

Then she realized how late she was and quickly excused herself, rushing down the path to her Grandma's house. 

The wolf, in the meantime, took a shortcut...

The wolf, a little out of breath from running, arrived at Grandma's and knocked lightly at the door.

"Oh thank goodness dear!  Come in, come in!  I was worried sick that something had happened to you in the forest," said Grandma thinking that the knock was her granddaughter.

The wolf let himself in.  Poor Granny did not have time to say another word, before the wolf gobbled her up!

The wolf let out a satisfied burp, and then poked through Granny's wardrobe to find a nightgown that he liked.  He added a frilly sleeping cap, and for good measure, dabbed some of Granny's perfume behind his pointy ears.

A few minutes later, Red Riding Hood knocked on the door.  The wolf jumped into bed and pulled the covers over his nose.  "Who is it?" he called in a cackly voice.

"It's me, Little Red Riding Hood."

"Oh how lovely!  Do come in, my dear," croaked the wolf.

When Little Red Riding Hood entered the little cottage, she could scarcely recognize her Grandmother.

"Grandmother!  Your voice sounds so odd.  Is something the matter?" she asked.

"Oh, I just have touch of a cold," squeaked the wolf adding a cough at the end to prove the point.

"But Grandmother!  What big ears you have," said Little Red Riding Hood as she edged closer to the bed.

"The better to hear you with, my dear," replied the wolf.

"But Grandmother!  What big eyes you have," said Little Red Riding Hood.

"The better to see you with, my dear," replied the wolf.

"But Grandmother!  What big teeth you have," said Little Red Riding Hood her voice quivering slightly.

"The better to eat you with, my dear," roared the wolf and he leapt out of the bed and began to chase the little girl.

Almost too late, Little Red Riding Hood realized that the person in the bed was not her Grandmother, but a hungry wolf.

This wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.

__________________________________________________________________________________

That is the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It is not a happy story.

The reality in this universe is even worse.

The woodsman couldn't save them. The big bad wolf tore him apart.

Her parents couldn't save her. The big bad wolf tore them apart.

The town couldn't save her. The big bad wolf trampled the town.


Little Red Riding Hood did not escape. The wolf tore her apart and ate her.

But her screams were not screams of terror or pleading for mercy.

As she met the towering wolf that had destroyed her life and killed her family with but a mere stick, her only screams were of blind rage.

Her sanity lost to the horrors around her she bellowed in a mad rage as she swung the stick at the wolf.

She screamed in rage and defiance as the wolf struck her down.

Even as the wolf was picking her up in its mighty jaws, she scratched and clawed and punched it its face, she howled in anger.

Then the wolf bit her in half and proceeded to eat the rest of her.


That should have been the end of it. For everyone else, it was.

But not Little Red Riding Hood. Her rage did not die with her flesh.

It lingered on in that town, refusing to move on. Even as the town rebuilt itself over the decades, they heard her screams of rage at night. It could not be quelled no matter what methods were tried until the day The Devil himself came to the town.

He gave her flesh once more and granted her strength, oh such strength, and the tools she would need to exact her revenge.

In exchange, The Devil gave her an impossible task: Kill every werewolf that walks the Earth and he will reunite her with her loved ones.

Lost in her rage and having the emotional maturity of a young child, Little Red accepted.

What was subsequently born was not human but an entity of pure rage that took the guise of a human being. A hooded woman that is the manifestation of her rage.

Being an undead spirit manifesting itself through an avatar, pain and wounds mean nothing to Little Red anymore and while the avatar can be physically destroyed if enough damage is dealt to it, this is merely a delaying tactic since she can manifest herself right back.

Little Red's avatar is strong enough to contend with lycans and even overpower most lycans human forms.

Perhaps her most devastating power, against lycans at least, is the ability to manifest silver weapons. This is extremely dangerous to lycans as it not only burns their skin but can suppress and weaken their abilities the longer they are in contact with it.

Over the centuries she has manifested a variety of edged weapons when hunting werewolves. But it was when the chainsaw was invented that she finally seemed to find a favorite method of killing them.

Despite being a creature of rage, Red Riding Hood is not always out to kill. She has been occasionally reported by random passerbys as either sitting alone on wood trails quietly sobbing to herself or trying to play with animals only for them to always run away from her. If she happens to be nearby when a child wanders off of a wood path, she will carry them back to the path and plop them back down before disappearing.

Red also has an odd tendency to abduct older women who remind her of her grandmother and bring them to a cottage-esque pocket dimension. While inside here, she takes the form of an innocent little girl and plays house with them for random amounts of time before returning them to their home. Forever trying to relive that day the way it should have gone

Other than this, Red Riding Hood tends to avoid interacting with other supernatural beings or humans unless they get between her and the werewolves.

But that's the tragedy of it all isn't it? Innocent or guilty, a werewolf is a werewolf to her.