The Blood of Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time, there lived a young girl in a cottage with her mother and twin sister. They lived in a humble abode surrounded by trees and flowers, just the way they liked it, out of sight of civilization. They were as comfortable as a small family could hope to be out in the wilderness.

Their father was gone. He was gone before the twin girls were born. They asked about him once, when they were little “where is our father?”

“He went somewhere better” their mother answered. They never asked about him again. Better was good enough for them.

Over the years, the twin girls grew more and more beautiful: both of luscious black hair and eyes as green as the leaves that surrounded them. But, their minds were ever different.

Respectively, their names were Red and Snow. Snow befriended the wild life and dressed in a cloak of white. Sometimes, she would return home with trinkets, some more peculiar than the last: an acorn, a feather, a rabbit’s foot. Red never asked what the rabbit’s foot was for.

Red had her own strangeness. She wore a cloak the color of blood. Sometimes, you could find her dancing in a field of roses their mother was growing. Other times, she was licking blood off the thorns. One time Snow found her doing this, “did you get hurt?”

“No. I feel wonderful” was the reply of Red before she would get up and continue back to her frolicking. Snow never knew where the blood had come from and she never dared to ask. Red never asked questions, either.

Maybe, her sister was private about her wounds and this was her way of coping with injury. To see something beautiful in the macabre was who Red was. She always saw good in the bad. She always protected what hurt most.

Eventually, the day came for the girl’s to pursue their passions. Their mother was adamant these would become the girl’s professions. “Choose your paths carefully and don’t lose sight of the road” was their mom’s sage advise.

Snow wanted to learn hunting. Hunting had been their father’s trade. According to their mother, he had been the most handsome and skilled huntsman. His skills had been sought by King’s and Queen’s of distant lands.

Snow wanted his infamy. She dreamed of wearing a King’s crown with a bow in her hand. “I would hunt down their hearts” was her favorite thing to say.

Red wanted to learn gardening like her mother and her mother’s mother before her. She would seek an apprenticeship from her grandmother, but it would take much convincing to become her neophyte. Her grandmother was a recluse. She did not like or trust family any better than stranger’s.

“You do not want fame like your sister?” Her mother asked that morning as she prepared a basket of bread and vegetables. She carefully arranged a bed of potatoes, radishes and the like with callouses on her hands.

Her mother was worn away from always tending to things. She was always sewing or cooking. Always mending what was broken. Sometimes, it felt like it was Red’s heart she was knitting back together.

Her mother had a special magic known to few. It was felt in the warmth of her stew and meat pies. Or in the decadence of her chocolate tarts. What reputation she held was carefully sealed for the one’s she loved.

“I have a use for nobody. I have only use for myself. I am enough.” It was like Red to say such things and her mother smiled kindly, “We are very alike. Perhaps, more than anyone realizes.”

Red blushed at this appraisal. “I have never wanted to be noticed, but I hope if they do notice anything, they notice that.”

Her mother kissed her forehead, “always seek to be more of yourself, little cat.”

She set off for the woods to her grandmother’s cottage, while her sister navigated the bushes in the other direction. They did not speak to one another as they departed. They knew better than to wish each other luck. Luck had nothing to do with the futures they were about to forge.

Minutes to hours passed. Occasionally, Red would shelter herself in the nook of a cave when it decided to pour rain.

She wasn’t sure how her sister was fairing in this weather, but it was certainly making a mess of her cloak. It was laying in tatters at the train. It looked like some wild beast had gotten a hold of it. She tried not to flinch whenever she suspected the shadow of a wolf nearby.

Arriving to her grandmother’s went better than planned. She gave her grandmother the basket and sat for some tea. Her grandmother went to the outdoor garden to retrieve some fresh ginger and lemon’s for their drinks.

She wasn’t sure how long her grandmother was gone for before she grew impatient. She tapped her finger nails on the wood of the table.

Tapping once, twice, thrice before she gave into her nerves to walk outside.

She couldn’t find her grandmother. “Ma ma?” No answer. How peculiar.

Maybe, she had another entry she took back into the home? Her grandmother’s residence held a few secret passageways she did not yet know about.

She circled the garden before deciding to return her search to the front door she came out of. She nearly jumped when she found a large wolf lounging, blood on it’s maw, on the wooden table she had left. It looked at her with proud eyes. Red drew the small dagger she kept at her thigh. “You” she accused as if they knew one another.

The wolf snorted as if mocking her.

Big mistake. No one mocked Red with blood on them. She lunged for the wolf and stabbed it in the heart. She pulled it’s heart out and began to bite into it. It tasted bitter. She didn’t expect differently. It had screamed before collapsing, shifting out of it’s form onto the floor.

Red was looking down on the dying body of her sister Snow. “You were warned not to lose sight of the road. You chose the easy path to take people’s hearts, without knowledge, and now I have your heart without yours.

“We might look alike sister, but you know I was always the strongest killer. I didn’t need to make a show of it in souvenirs. You are angry grandmother accepted me to carry on the family business. The real work. I will live on where our father perished.

“You killed ma ma, because you couldn’t handle the competition. You robbed me of my glory of eating her, as is tradition to eat our elders when we carry on their legacy, and now I will eat you, wolf.

You are angry, because I am more myself unknown and unaccepted than you will ever be accepted by everyone who knows you.”

The wolf snorted, “Monster, we are nothing alike. My beauty is greater. I thought you didn’t want the fame? I will always be apart of this forest. You’re just the devil burning it down” before she slipped into unconsciousness.

Red chuckled, “I don’t want fame. I want the respect. That isn’t the same thing. Why not take what is owed? You take all the time what wasn’t earned. I think my retribution is fair. I will burn the forest with you. And you were never more beautiful. I’m the fairest of the land and I shall keep it that way.”

She took off her red cloak, before removing and placing on the white cloak of Snow White. “You couldn’t do what needed to be done. I will not get lost from the path like you and father. I know what I want. I know what I need. Your ghosts will bow before the proper Queen.

“I am Snow White and Rose Red. The White Queen of Hearts. Do not worry, you won’t be forgotten. The kingdom’s roses will be painted with your blood. When they ask who the witch is to blame for the land’s pain—they’ll only have my face to adore and your name to curse. Isn’t that special?” She spoke, bending down to kiss the corpse of her twin sister on the forehead.

“People will learn to not ask questions they don’t want answers to, just like you.”

And with that the evil queen disappeared into the shadows, ascending her form as the black wolf—a forging of the black cat she was before with the remnants of a white wolf that was no longer and never shall be again.