by R. L. Weeks
‘No, Ruby, NO!’ he screamed, but she wasn’t listening as the wolf had taken over her body. ‘Wolves,’ he shouted. The wolves tried to come to help, but they couldn’t get out of the barricaded doors.
Ruby’s teeth sank into Crone’s neck. Grin and Jorim tried to pull her off of him to no avail. She was stronger than them both combined, well, the wolf’s soul was. She had his strength. Panicked as gurgled screams filled the room, Jorim hit Ruby over the head with a candlestick to try and stop her.
‘I don’t want to hurt you. I made her a promise, but I will if you do not stop.’
‘What?’ Jorim said, shaking. ‘Ruby, what the hell has gotten into you.’ He turned to Grin. ‘Grab your brother and put some ointment on the bites.’
‘No!’ Ruby ran at Crone and with one blow to the back of the head with the poker, his skull cracked, and he fell to his knees, then dropped to the ground with a dull thud.
Jorim ran at her. She turned and aimed it at his chest. He ran into it, gasped, then looked down at Ruby’s innocent blue eyes. In them, swirling patterns circled her pupils. On closer inspection, he could see that they were faces. One of them was Ruby’s, his other daughter who was killed.
‘Redell?’
‘I ate her, my parents killed her and gave her body to me so that I could build my strength,’ he admitted. ‘I have her soul.'
‘Please, let her soul free.’
‘I cannot. But, do not despair,’ Red said. ‘You will be joining her any moment now, and Crone.’ Crones face joined Ruby’s in her eyes. Jorim coughed, spitting blood that glistened on Ruby’ cloak.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘You killed them all. You KILLED them ALL!’ Ruby screamed until her words dried out. Her pleas for her father’s return echoed through the trees. Slowly, the branches changed from a glistening brown to a dark grey. The trees were dying. Murder and betrayal tainted the fairies magic that lived in the woods.
Her Grandma, on seeing the flowers wilt, the branches snap and dry out, ran from the cottage. The boundary spell placed there to protect her from killing her family had broken.
‘I don’t understand,’ Grandma said. ‘The spell was always to stay up for as long as my family is alive – oh.’
Grandma wept. Redell spotted Grandma crying and sneered. ‘Grandma, Grandma, Grandma,’ he said, circling the frail old woman. ‘Ruby never made me make any promises about you.’
‘Redell,’ she said, standing up. ‘Here to finish what you started?’
‘It was a part of the deal that I made with the witch.’
‘Ah,' she said, realising her fate. ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ she grabbed her walking cane and whacked him with it.
‘Ow,’ he shouted and ripped the cane from her hands. ‘You old co–.'
Ruby screamed as she approached. Grandma took in the terrible sight. Ruby was covered head to toe in blood. It soaked her hair, and bits of flesh were still trapped in Ruby’s teeth. ‘You killed them. I hate you. I hate you!’
‘You do not,’ he said simply and held her at arm's length. ‘I did what I had to do. I did not mean to kill your father, for that, I apologise. You wanted your brother’s dead, and now they are. You should be thanking me.’
‘My poor Father,’ she cried.
‘Ruby, you didn’t,’ Grandma said with disbelief.
‘They beat her,’ the Wolf said. ‘You can see her bruises if you want?’
‘Why are you attacking Grandma, what did she do to you?’ Ruby spat.
‘Deals were made with the witch. I cannot stay alive in my body for much longer. I must become one with you for good. She will make that happen providing I kill your grandma. If not, I die. And no offence old lady, but rather you die than I.’ With that; he snapped her neck. He turned to Ruby. ‘Quick and painless. I will not eat her either, for you.’
‘Like hell are you becoming a part of me,’ she screamed and ran fast. He tried to stop her, but the cloak, the thing he had given to protect her, them both, was his enemy. He could not harm her to stop her from leaving.
She got back to the shack and grabbed all of the herbs from the kitchen, rubbing them over her body. ‘Good luck trying to possess me now, demonic wolf.’
***
The witch stirred her cauldron until the bubbling black liquid turned into a cool shade of green. ‘Throw this on her. It will counteract the herbs, allowing you to enter her mind. Once there, I will make the spell permanent. Remember, once in there, you must kill Ruby’s spirit if you wish to take over her completely. If not, you will never truly be full.’
‘I know,’ he said and left with the potion. As he went through the woods, he noticed he was becoming more human-like by the day. As his parents were from a long line of shapeshifters, it would make sense for him to morph slowly into the thing he has been spending so much time with.
Twigs broke under his half feet, half paws. He noticed how eerily quiet the forest had become since the fairies left. Most of the wildlife had left with them, and a shadow of gloom overshadowed the once magical place.
He reached the shack, noting the herbs which were back, surrounding the cottage. ‘Ruby,’ he shouted. She appeared, cleaner, with no cloak. ‘Where is the cloak, it’s the only thing protecting you from harm.’
She went back inside and grabbed the cloak. ‘Hopefully, it will protect me from you.’
She stepped out, near the barrier. ‘I will not hurt you,’ he said. ‘You know this. I cannot go into your mind now, not with the herbs on you. I cannot do anything. I just miss you. I want to tell you that I think I can bring back your father.’
‘You’re lying,’ she mumbled.
‘I would not lie to you, my friend,’ he said. She realised as he stood before her, that he was young himself. Looking more human than ever before, he must have only been fifteen himself. A child, like her. Could he protect her from the woods?
‘Okay,’ she breathed and stepped over the barrier.
‘Not wearing that cloak,’ he said. ‘Would have prevented me from doing this…’ he admitted and entered her mind, after throwing the potion on her.
Once in her head, he saw her, her soul. She had a beautiful soul, just with ragged edges. ‘I trusted you,’ her soul said to his.
‘I must destroy your soul,’ he said slowly. Could he? He couldn’t. Not his friend. ‘But I cannot. Help me find a new host. I will not hurt you.’
‘Like hell will I help you find a new host,’ she said and then made her body drink a drink she made with herbs earlier, just in case this had happened. It forced his soul to the bottom reaches of her mind, suppressing the wolf half of her. She just hoped she’d be able to continue drinking it for long enough to keep him at bay until she could find a more permanent solution.
CHAPTER SIX
Fifteen years had passed. Red had noticed that she had aged slower and slower each year. Once aged sixteen, she had stopped ageing completely. Her eyes, once a beautiful blue were replaced by a glistening violet once the wolf had tried to take over her body. In them, as it had done the wolfs, were the souls of her victims, swimming in the purple sea. Taking Red’s souls, meant that she had become immortal in a sense. The wolfs souls were enough to give her a life expectancy of a thousand years.
‘One thousand years too many,' Red muttered. With every person she’d kill, the longer she’d live, and she did not want to stay forever sixteen.
Unloved, dangerous, and alone.
If she had known that the ‘promised friendship’ made in blood between her and the wolf meant they would be one, she would never have agreed. She’d have rather lived with her brothers, forever. At least Grandma and Jorim would still be alive.
Two years ago, she went back to the town where she was born and went to the palace. There, she fell in love, but it wasn’t meant to be. They were taken from her, and Ruby was sent back to the enchanted woods. One of the wolves who had stayed behind stayed with Ruby, who now called herself Red. She protected Ruby from harm after she was
left with nothing.
She looked around. The primroses, the pretty leaves, and glistening branches were gone and replaced by dead trees, well, dead everything. The magic that the woods held had disappeared from all of the death.
Red decided to stay in the dead woods, where she was safe, and more importantly, where she couldn’t harm anyone else. Hopefully, no-one would ever come into the woods. All except the witch who had cursed her grandma, who sadly, was untouchable. Red had tried, but the witch, Gertrude, was conniving, powerful, and had the power of foresight which meant she couldn’t even come close to the cottage where the witch lived without Gertrude knowing about it.
She looked around the desolate area and tried to make the best out of a bad situation. She redecorated the shack, made a lovely shelter for Jarsa, her pet wolf, and did her best to keep visitors away from the woods.
After finding out that Gertrude was behind her Grandma’s death, the wolf entering her mind, to begin with, she vowed to make sure that if she couldn’t kill her, she’d at least make sure that no-one else would come to the woods and make deals with the hag.
Red settled down and ate some rabbit. She loved Rabbit. ‘Delicious,’ she said and gave some to Jarsa to eat.
The red cloak, which soaked the blood of her father and brothers, stayed hung up on the hook. Red never put it on again.
Books in the Haunting Fairytales Collection
Haunting Fairytales Collection: The Enchanted Kingdoms
Haunting Fairytales Collection: Journey to Neverland
Other books by R. l. Weeks
Once Upon a Cursed Time Anthology
The Unforgiven Anthology
Into the Myth
One Way Out
See No Evil
#You’re Next
Struck Three
About the Author
Award-winning author R. l. Weeks lives in Bradworthy, a charming village in North Devon, UK, and write fairytales and horror.
Her love of her fairytales, fantasy, and horror, pushed her to write her
own stories. Always described as 'being off with the fairies' she put it to
good use and incorporates her love of history into her tales, too.
Books one and two in the award winning Haunting Fairytales series are available on Amazon, along with her three bestselling horror stories and latest dark
fairytale anthology, Once Upon a Cursed Time.
The Unforgiven horror anthology was released on Halloween along with R. l.
Weeks' latest horror, Struck Three.
December 15th, R. l. Weeks and six other twisted authors turn Christmas into a nightmare, in the Christmas Nightmares Anthology.
Craving Fairytales? R. l. Weeks has a novella out on January 8th, 2017, which re-imagines one her favourite fairytales, Snow White.
Book Three in the Haunting Fairytales Series and a paranormal mystery, Fantasy vs Reality, are out in February
2017.
authorrlweeks.com
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Table of Contents
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
AS COLD AS SNOW
MIRROR ON THE WALL
THE SNOW QUEEN
SWORD OF SOULS
THROWN TO THE WOLVES
MAKE A WISH
LET DOWN YOUR HAIR
LOST LOVE
CANTATA
FREE AT LAST
BATTLE OF MAGIC
ANYTHING FOR LOVE
JOURNEY TO NEVERLAND
(Untitled)
SHIPWRECKED
WELCOME TO NEVERLAND
FOREST PARTY
THE PIED PIPER
TRAPPED IN A NIGHTMARE
THE WOLF WITHIN
THE TRUTH
PIPER’S LOVE
CURSED GIFT
GONE
THE SWAMP
(Untitled)
CAPTURED
GIANT
MERPEOPLE
ALMOST KISSED
(Untitled)
DEATH TO NEVERLAND
(Untitled)
To my readers
(Untitled)
Want to learn more about Red’s childhood? Below is her story from Once Upon a Cursed Time by R. l. Weeks.
HOODED RED
