by Neo Edmund
Chapter 24
“Red Riding, your clan is guilty of tyranny against my family. Justice will now be served.”
It was plain to see that something about Wolfgang wasn’t quite right. He stood by his mother’s side with a lifeless gaze in his eyes. Red figured that the spellcraft making his eyes glow had also bewitched his senses.
“What have you done to him, witch?” Red’s voice sounded weak and distant.
“Do you honestly care, considering he’s about to rip the Alpha Power right out of you?” Eyona asked.
“From the looks of it, he won’t be doing it by his own choice,” Red said.
Wolfgang looked Red in the eyes. “Red Riding, your clan is guilty of tyranny against my family. Justice will now be served.”
“That sure doesn’t sound like the Wolfgang I know. You still in there, Wolf Boy?”
A hint of confusion came over Wolfgang’s eyes. “Your clan is guilty of tyranny against my family.”
“Yeah, yeah. Justice will now be served. Stop repeating yourself. Do you hear me talking to you, Wolf Boy?”
Wolfgang’s face twitched. “Your clan is guilty of tyranny …”
“I got that part, Wolf Boy, tyranny against your family. Your freak show of a mother has got you under a major spellcraft, Wolf Boy.”
Eyona put a hand on Wolfgang’s shoulder. “Don’t fret, my darling boy. The bad girl is trying to trick you. We both know how devious these Ridings can be.”
“Don’t listen to her, Wolf Boy. Listen to me. Do you remember how you tried to save me from your demented mommy back in the woods?”
Eyona snickered. “Still trying to play your way out of this, I see. Your relentless will to survive so amuses me. Let’s see how you handle this twist in the game.”
Eyona put a dagger into Wolfgang’s hand. It had a glimmering silver blade and a hilt studded with illuminated moonstones of every color in the spectrum. Red was running out of time. She had to end this game sooner, rather than later, or Wolfgang was going to do something they would both regret.
“Wolfgang, listen to me,” Red said. “Remember your secret friend from when you were a little boy? Remember what you called her?”
Eyona whispered into Wolfgang’s ear. “We know what must be done here. Make mother proud. Become the Alpha Hunter.”
Wolfgang looked at the shimmering blade in his hand. “Red Riding, your clan is guilty of tyranny against my family. Justice will now be served.”
“Wolf Boy, I know you remember the little girl that you played with as a child. You had a special name for her. Say it to me right now.”
“My special friend?”
The glow in Wolfgang’s eyes flickered. Red was getting through, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the power of the spellcraft that had enchanted him.
Eyona let a screech. “What is this nonsense you’re going on about, Riding?”
“You’ll find out soon enough, you creepy old hag.”
Eyona gripped Red’s face. “You’re going to lose this game, and none of your pathetic little deceptions will change that.”
If there was a chance to survive the ordeal, Red had to keep this going for as long as possible. “You’re messing up your own twisted game, witch. I know you get off on the hope of your victims. If you keep telling me I’m going to lose no matter what, I might start buying it. Then you’ll just be left with a hopeless little victim. Sounds like an awfully boring game to me.”
Eyona let a dismissive laugh. “So you have figured me out. It makes no difference. We are well beyond that part of the game.”
“I say the game is just getting rolling, and now it’s my move.” Red looked Wolfgang in the eyes. “Wolf Boy, tell your mother about the little girl from your childhood. I know you remember her.”
Wolfgang’s head twitched in confusion. “The little girl. She was my friend.”
Eyona ground her teeth. “Enough. I will purge whatever lies you have bewitched his mind with after we’re done.”
Wolfgang raised the knife above his head. “Red Riding, your clan is guilty of tyranny against my family. Justice will now be served.”
“Wolf Boy, you don’t want to do this.”
Eyona slid the tip of her fingernail across Red’s throat. “Before you die, I must thank you for making this game so much fun.”
“It’s not over until I say so,” Red said.
“That is where you are wrong, Alpha. Finish this, Wolfgang. Mother demands it.”
Wolfgang looked Red in the eyes, ready to thrust the knife downward into her chest. “I will now take back what your family stole from mine.”
“Wolf Boy, that little girl was your greatest friend. You loved her with all of your heart.”
“She was my greatest friend.” Wolfgang’s head twitched as the glowing in his eyes flickered.
This time it was significant enough for Eyona to take notice. She held the tip of her nail over Red’s heart. “One more lie, I’ll finish you off myself.”
“Then do it. If you can.” Red closed her eyes and did all she could to remain calm. After a long moment Eyona removed her nail from Red’s throat.
Red opened her eyes and saw the witch was trembling in absolute rage. “What’s the matter, witch? Does Wolfgang have to do it himself?”
“Silence, Alpha. You will not win,” Eyona said.
“I already have. There’s no way Wolfgang is going to kill me because he loves me more than you. And I love him.” Red dug down and found the strength to pull up to a sitting position. She grabbed Wolfgang and kissed him with all the love she had in her heart. Seconds later she heard the clink of the knife dropping onto the altar next to her.
Wolfgang took Red into his arms and embraced her. “I called you Little Red Riding.” The glow in his eyes faded away. “You were my greatest friend.”
“Curse you, Alpha,” Eyona screeched. “You Ridings have crossed me for the last time. If my son is too weak to take the power, then you will both die.”
Wolfgang picked up the knife and placed it into Red’s hand. “I can’t do it. She’s still my mother.”
“Wolfgang, I’m so sorry.” Red concealed the knife behind her back.
“Mother is disappointed, Wolfgang. Your punishment will be to watch me strangle the life from your precious little girlfriend.”
Wolfgang turned to face his mother. She was holding out all ten of her fingernails and moving in for the kill.
“Please, mother. There has to be another way to restore the Helheim family name.”
“Foolish boy. Do you think I care about the tainted name of your vagrant father’s clan?”
“You told me we were doing this to restore our family’s honor to the people of Wayward.”
Red’s hand trembled as she tightened her grip on the knife. She could tell Wolfgang was drawing Eyona closer. There would only be one chance.
“The Alpha Power is all this was ever about,” Eyona said. “Our honor will be restored when Ragnarok comes back to enslave the people of Wayward. They will have no choice but to bow to us. It is not too late to do the right thing, my precious boy. Kill the Alpha, and all you ever wanted will be ours.”
“Not a chance, mother. What you want and what I want are two different things.”
“Then you will watch the girl die, and I will find another way.” Her words like daggers, Eyona shoved Wolfgang aside and raised her fingernails to stab Red. “Say hello to your mother for me, Alpha Huntress.”
“After you, witch.” Red buried her fears deep down inside and thrust the blade into Eyona’s chest.
Eyona let out a piercing scream. “Wolfgang, how could you betray your own mother?!” She frantically grabbed for the knife, but was in far too much shock to pull it out.
“You’re not my mother. You’re just another power-obsessed monster like my father.” Wolfgang took Red’s hand, and they turned away.
Eyona thrashed around as her life began to fade away. “You may have forsaken me for that wretched Ridi
ng girl, but you won’t get away with it. This will be our tomb.”
A sound of thunder blasted out. The ground began to quake. Red and Wolfgang looked back to Eyona. She had her arms raised high. Mystical energy blasted from her fingertips. The moonstones lining the cavern walls ignited with pulsating energy.
“That can’t be good,” Red said.
“She’s going to bury us alive. We have to get out of here,” Wolfgang said.
“Wait, I need my sword.” Red looked up to where she had seen her sword earlier. It was still bound to the ceiling by Eyona’s webs.
“I’ll get you another one. We gotta go before this whole place comes down.” Wolfgang tried to pull Red along.
“No, we might need it. Now come on, I don’t have all my strength back yet. You’ll have to get it down for me.”
Wolfgang flailed his arms in frustration. “Fine, but if we die in here, I’m going to be so mad at you.”
“You’ll be kindly rewarded later.”
“I’m going to remind you that you said that.”
The ceiling was beginning to crumble. Wolfgang took a deep breath and ran flat-out toward the cavern wall. He planted a foot on a rock and jumped upward with all of his might.
Red cheered as he just managed to get a grip on her sword. As he dropped back down, the webs binding the sword to the ceiling rebounded, springing him back upward. It took a moment of struggling before the webs finally broke and he dropped to the rocky floor.
Wolfgang wiped the sweat from his brow. “That went well.”
“It was impressive.” Red took the sword from Wolfgang and slipped it into the sheath over her back. “Now let’s get out of here.”
“Thought you’d never ask.”
As they dashed toward the cavern exit, Wolfgang looked back at Eyona, lying face down on the ground and seemingly dead.
“Wolfgang, I’m so sorry,” Red said.
Wolfgang wiped a tear from his eye. “It had to be done. I couldn’t let her kill you.”
Hand-in-hand, Red and Wolfgang ran out of Eyona’s chamber and entered a dark tunnel with a low hanging ceiling. Rocks were cracking and crashing down all around them. The ground quaked so hard that it was difficult for them to keep their balance.
“So which way, Wolf Boy?”
“Just follow me, Little Red.”
Wolfgang took Red’s hand, and together they raced off down a long tunnel. Time and time again, they had to dive and leap clear to evade falling debris. A huge boulder crashed down in their path, missing them by mere inches. They turned to head in the opposite direction, but another huge rock crashed down, trapping them in the middle.
“So what now, fearless leader?” Red asked.
“You tell me, Alpha Huntress.” Wolfgang said.
Red took a closer look at the massive bolder blocking their escape. There was only one choice. “We bust through it.”
Wolfgang shook his head in outright disagreement. “There’s no way we could even put a crack in that rock. Let’s try to push it.”
“We have no time. You can punch or kick. We go on my call.” Red stepped back, her eyes locked on the boulder.
Wolfgang was going to protest. Red gave him a stern look, telling him that they were not going to debate it.
“Fine, I guess I’m kicking,” Wolfgang said.
“Then that means I’m punching.”
Red had to focus to keep herself stable on the trembling ground. She could only hope the power of the Alpha would allow her to break through such a massive object.
“Ready—1 … 2 … 3!”
A burst of energy radiated around Red’s fist. It was so intense that Wolfgang took a nervous step back. When Red’s fist made contact, the boulder exploded into a shower of shattering debris. For the half-minute it took for the air to clear, she stood trembling in shock and awe.
Wolfgang looked at Red with an astonished gaze. “That was insanely cool.”
A sudden shudder of fear shot through Red’s body. Something evil was coming their way, though she had no idea what it was. “Wolfgang, we have to get out of here.”
Through the cloud of dust, Eyona emerged. Her eyes were as black as death, and she was trembling with rage. She darted at Wolfgang, jamming all ten of her fingernails into his chest. He didn’t make even a whimper as his mother pumped her deadly venom into his veins.
With one last twitch, Wolfgang collapsed to the floor.
Eyona shrilled out a vindictive laugh. “I told you this place would be our tomb, Alpha.”
“It will be yours before ours.” Red drew her sword and let loose a malevolent roar. She unleashed a fury of lightning quick attacks, hacking off all six of Eyona’s arachnid limbs. “That was for my mother, Jenna Riding.”
Eyona fell to the ground. She looked up at Red with hate-filled eyes. “You may have defeated me, Riding, but you will never have my Wolfgang.”
A single swipe of Red’s sword is all it took to take Eyona’s head clean off.
“You mean my Wolfgang.”
The cave stopped quaking as the black energy faded from Eyona’s eyes. Red shoved her sword into the sheath over her back as she dashed to Wolfgang. He was barely conscious and twitching in shock.
“Wolfgang, look at me. I’m getting you out of here.”
“I always loved you.” Wolfgang’s eyes flickered shut.
“Listen to me, Wolf Boy, you wake up right this instant.” Red slapped his face hard enough to make him stir a little. “Fine, if you can’t walk, then I’ll carry you.”
Red strained to pull Wolfgang up off the ground. He felt a lot heavier than she had expected. For the next several minutes, she dashed through the dark caverns, stumbling over fallen debris and maneuvering under low hanging rocks. When she finally saw moonlight illuminating the cavern walls, she knew the exit couldn’t be far away.
Fatigue and exhaustion were already setting in as she lurched out of the cave into the dark of the night. The rocky terrain outside was nothing like any place she had ever seen. With little hope of finding her motorcycle, her only chance to save Wolfgang would be to run all the way back to Granny’s house.
Without a clue which direction to go, Red cleared her mind and let the spirits of the forest tell her the way. She ran over rocky paths—stumbled down steep embankments—waded across a waist deep river—and leaped over a treacherous ravine. It didn’t matter how exhausted she became, or how treacherous the obstacles were that blocked her way, she outright refused to stop running.
Red thought about the dark truth Eyona had revealed to her in the cave. A deep sense of resentment began to swell inside. She believed the tragic events that destroyed her family took place because of their choice to steal the Alpha Power. It made her wonder how things would have turned out if Wolfgang had received the power. There was no way to know if he would’ve become a terrible tyrant because of his parents’ influence, or if he would have risen to become a heroic leader.
What Red did know for certain is that there must be good in his heart if the lunar deities had chosen him over all others to become the Alpha.
After what felt like hours of running, Red found the path that led to Granny’s house. Her heart pounded like it was going to explode. Emerging from the forest, she couldn’t see a bit of light coming from the windows of the house. The front door was a mere twenty feet away when her body gave out and she collapsed to her knees. No matter how hard she tried, her gasping was too rapid and labored to call out for help.
“It’s okay, Red. I know you tried,” Wolfgang said weakly, not opening his eyes.
Red refused to fail after having come so far. She forced aside her pain and found the last bit of energy left inside. The incoherent scream that came from her was so loud all the creatures in the land could have heard it. The front door of the house soon swung open. Grenda emerged with a look of terrible dread in her eyes.
“Granny, you have to save him.”
Red began to fade in and out of consciousness. The next thi
ng she knew, Ethan was picking her up in his arms and carrying her into the house. He was speaking to her, but she couldn’t hear a word he was saying over the sound of her heart pounding in her chest. The last thing she saw was Grenda kneeling down next to Wolfgang, right before the door slammed shut and the world faded to black.
Chapter 25
In the moment before she woke, Red thought she was still in the city, living in an orphanage. The events of the last few days seemed far too surreal to have happened. It made more sense to believe she had conjured it all up in her overactive imagination.
As her eyes opened and came into focus, she was astonished to be looking up at the ceiling of her bedroom in Granny’s house. She was still in Wayward, far, far away from the life of loneliness she had left behind. Her name was Red Riding, a super-powered Alpha Huntress with an epic battle against evil awaiting her in the Moon Temple.
Her body ached as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. The pain brought back the memories of what had happened in Eyona’s cave. The fear she felt during her battle would haunt her for a long time to come. She would not soon forget the many lessons learned along the way. There would be little chance of surviving in this treacherous world if she continued to blindly leap into action.
She let out a long sigh of discontent upon glimpsing her reflection in the mirror. The ratty and ripped clothes that hung on her body were bad enough. Seeing her face caked in so much dirt that she couldn’t recognize herself was far worse. The frazzled state of her hair was a matter beyond words she would ever mutter out loud.
Her true concern was for Wolfgang. From what she recalled he had died in her arms the night before. She could only hope that Grenda had managed to pull off a miracle. The idea of having to face his death was more than she could endure. There was far too much unfinished business between them.
“Granny, are you here?”
Red stepped out of her bedroom and into the hallway. The savory aroma of Grenda’s blueberry muffins scented the air. The house stood so still and quiet that one could have heard the tapping of an ant’s feet crawling across the floor.
