Leaving for Grandma’s

Mike looked up a little too quickly as he heard Red coming down the stairs. For several long moments his eyes roamed her lithe body – her taut midriff, those perky breasts, the toned slender thighs, and back to her gorgeous face – before he looked back to the frying pan.

“Scrambled eggs for breakfast okay for you?” he asked cheerfully, trying to suppress the dirty thoughts that had entered his head. Why does she always have to wear such a revealing outfit?

“That sounds amazing,” Red replied gratefully. Mike quickly served the eggs onto toast for both of them, and sat down opposite his old crush. They both tucked in to the hot food, neither saying anything as they both became absorbed in thought once again. Mike looked up from his plate a couple of times to find Red’s eyes already on him, before she quickly looked away. He gazed at her dark eyes, and wondered if he should tell her how he felt about her. How she had captured his heart when they were just kids, but now she was all grown up... it hurt him to see her look so lonely. So... broken. He wanted to hug her tight, to kiss her deep, to tell her that he would make everything all right. But he hadn’t seen her for almost a decade. Would it be fair to place all of his feelings on her shoulders, when she was already holding so much?

Even when they had both cleaned their plates, they still sat in silence. Looking at one another without looking.

After what felt like hours, Red cleared her throat. “I’d – I’d better be going. Thanks for the food, and the bed, Mike. It... means a lot to me.”

“My pleasure,” said Mike quietly, as Red put on her cape and backpack, and raised her hood. She opened the front door, but hesitated on the threshold.

“It was nice to see you, Mike,” she said, meeting his eyes, an unreadable expression on her face. Then she turned and started walking.

“Red!” She stopped to look back as he shouted after her. For an instant the lumberjack was ready to tell her – but his nerve broke. “Be safe, out there.”

Her jaw tightened imperceptibly, as she dipped her head in acknowledgement. Then she turned and walked away from the woodcutter’s yard.

Red was relieved when she started to recognise the forest again. She had walked and cycled and played in this wood every day when she was younger. It was funny how little it had changed, even in so much time. Like a living time capsule.

It had been several hours since she left Mike’s, and the heroin cravings were getting strong. The thought of wrapping that tourniquet tight around her arm and slipping a shining needle into her vein was so tempting – but she denied it, determined to have at least one day of happiness with her Grandma. She followed the familiar paths, and the trees around her soon turned into the outskirts of a rural village. It had existed centuries before the laws protecting the forest, which wasn’t hard to believe. The village felt like it was stuck in the 1930s: the roads were quiet, the houses were quaint – even the clothes of the elderly couple she passed matched the aesthetic. Just how she remembered it.

Red pushed open the waist-high gate and walked up to the white painted door. Its scent was overwhelmingly nostalgic – so many good, happy memories. Good, happy feelings. Red breathed out, and knocked on the door.

She heard footsteps on the carpet inside, approaching the door – but something about them was off. They didn’t sound like her grandmother’s – they were too fast. Too heavy. Too confident.

The door opened, and Red froze, petrified. Xavier Wolf stood before her, shirtless. She couldn’t move a muscle – only her eyes wildly swung from his hairy chest to his chiselled jaw to his powerful arms to his washboard abs to his dangerous eyes. It’s not possible, her mind kept repeating. It’s not possible.