Red by A. D. Knight (best way to read an ebook TXT) 📕

I sat staring at the clock in front of me. I had places to be and things to do. It had been three years since Grandma had died and ten since the wolf had been tried and sentenced to life in prison. Life in the woods wasn't the same without mom's goodies and when Grandma died, mom gave up.
The clock struck three and I was outta there. I raced home on my skateboard. Work sure was a bitch with so many mysterious deaths. Of course since the wolf incident everyone had classified me as a private detective. When people started disappearing and I didn't have the answers, people gave up on me.
I walked in the wide door to my house. My little sister was no where in sight. Worry coursed through me as I looked left and right for little Marie. Marie was six, so she didn't go anywhere. I froze as I heard a soft crying in the bathroom down the hall. Dropping my coat and the groceries I'd picked up off the porch, I raced into the bathroom.
My mother kneeled there on the bathmat, holding a headless Marie. I staggered back, trying to catch my breath as I tried to make sense of what happened. The lock on the bathroom was broken in, the high window was smashed, and blood covered the floor. A shiny object caught my eye as it moved down.
I barely had a chance to scream before my mother had plunged a knife in her own body. I sank to my knees, silently crying as my mother died before my eyes. I don't know how long I kneeled like that, or who called the ambulance but suddenly I was surrounded by officials who were asking me to speak. All I could do though was stare at the red liquid that still poured from my mother's chest.
My breathing was shallow, but I didn't care. Everything I loved was gone. Marie would never go to school, would never go on a date, never to fall in love, never to make friends; her life cut short by some psychopathic maniac who I should've looked for. Everything that gave my life meaning was now gone.
"Red, Red, can you hear me," a familiar voice broke through my haze.
My best friend, Eric, kneeled before me. I barely registered that they had moved me as the events of what had happened crashed on me all at once. A sudden siren wail, filled with pain filled the room. I was wondering where it came from before I realized it was me making the noise.
"Red, Red, it's all right. You're safe," Eric begged as I whimpered.
Eric waved a paramedic over frantically. The paramedic injected the sedative in my arm quickly, but I didn't feel it all I felt was pain. My thoughts slowly became groggy as I clung to Eric for dear life. I wanted to scream at him that I would never be all right. Before consciousness could claim me, I saw a masked man walk by with Marie's head.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My sleep was fitful and unsuccessful at settling me. If anything it made me even more scared, and hungry for revenge. The man with my sister's head was the person behind it, and he was taunting me. Why else wear the mask? I'd make him pay, some how some way, I'd make him pay. I slowly awoke to find myself in a hospital. Eric was gone, but I could tell he was here at some point.
I pulled out the IVs and the monitors. A beeping went off to alert the nurses, but by the time any of them had gotten to the room I was gone. I leapt out the second story window like it was a small feat, too numb to register it was a crazy idea. I raced through the woods to my house. It was roped off, but my shed wasn't.
In my shed there were weapons upon weapons that I had mastered. Everything from a sword to a spear was there. I clipped the sword to my belt and changed into my black suit. I slid the black belt around my waist easily and stuffed miscellaneous daggers in the pockets on the belt. I strapped on my boots and was ready to get revenge.
"I thought I'd find you here," Eric's voice sounded from behind me.
"I'm going to catch and kill the person who killed my family," I swore to him as I tied my hair back. "Even if it kills me. And you will not stop me."
"Stop you? I want to help you. Marie was like a sister to me too," he whispered.
"No, I have nothing left to lose. You have your family," I whispered back.
"No I don't. They're all gone. Left town because of the disappearences. I wouldn't leave you so they left me," he admitted.
Shock coarsed through me. I was at a loss for words, so to cover that up I threw a cross bow to him and a quivver of arrows. I had no idea where to start, but I would kill him. As Eric strapped the quivver to his back, I set out in the direction I saw the masked man run. Eric caught up to me easily as we walked in silence.
I knew he was worried about my hunger for vengence, but I wouldn't rest until the masked man was dead. We walked in silence for a few hours, never slowing and never stopping. Storybook land rolled out in front of us, like it were still just a book. Since the Evil Queen broke the spell that kept us in a loop, we've been in the "real" world. In the "real" time.
Yeah, so the Evil Queen, is no longer evil. Snow White divorced the Prince for the Dwarves. I hear the eight of them have an interesting time in bed. Anyways, Prince Charming is wishing he never found Cinderella because of the children. The wolf was sentenced to jail for life since I could fight back. Hantzel and Grettle still get lost, but hey not everything changes.
The three blind mice had operations and now they are just the three mice. Goldilocks is doing community service. The three little pigs all have condos. Ali Baba is back to stealing. The Forty thieves are now the forty book sales men. Beauty is pregnant again and Beast is out hunting for a new sitter. Ariel fled back to the sea, her father was made a meal. Tinkerbell is now a waitress. Peter pan and Wendy had their own kids. That's not even the half of it.
Anyways now we have to find Prince. Only he will know what to do. Who knows, maybe we can recruit his services. Eric was unusually quiet, but frankly I didn't care.

Publication Date: 10-19-2011

All Rights Reserved