Blood Red (24 page)

Vivi Anna

She closed her eyes and tears silently streamed down her face. She could feel the warm liquid on her skin. It brought her some comfort. She had not cried in a long time, it was a weakness she could ill afford.

She wondered if she would see her Grandma when death finally took her.

A voice sounded in her head.

“Do not be afraid. We will go together into the underworld. I will never leave you.”

Red shuddered as Wolf’s voice enveloped her.

Surprisingly, it soothed her. And she finally let the black, murky depths pull her under.

46

Blood Red

R
ed walked in a gorgeous green meadow. Wild
flowers grew in abundance. The breeze softly blew
her hair. It was long, like it had been when she
was a child.

Suddenly it became very cold. The grass turned brown
and the flowers wilted. The air grew cold. Red shivered
from the surrounding frost.

She came upon a tall old willow tree. It was gnarled and
rotten from age. It turned to her and smiled. A long branch
came down to her. On it was a shiny red apple.

“Hush, darling, eat this and you will feel better.”

Red took the apple and bit into it. Maggots spewed forth
from it, and it withered in her hand. She screamed.

Red bolted from her sleep and sat up. She put a shaky hand to her pounding head. Rubbing it over her face, she tried to erase the residual memory of her dream. It still lingered. There was a vile taste in her mouth. She could feel something stuck in her back tooth. Putting her fingers in her mouth, she pulled out the foreign substance. She looked down at her hand.

A small white maggot wriggled between her fingers.

Red gagged. She jumped off her bed and retched in 47

Vivi Anna

the corner of the room. She vomited violently. She leaned heavily against the cold stone wall, wiped her mouth and looked around at her surroundings.

She had been lying on a mattress on the cold rock floor. She was in a windowless room, seemingly carved out of stone. A makeshift toilet sat in the corner, a washbasin beside it, and metal bars, preventing any escape, lined up vertically at the room’s entrance. She was in a dungeon, a prison.

She stood and stumbled back to the mattress. She lay down on her side and curled her legs up to her stomach. It still cramped from her violent heaving.