Day 89 Ruminating And Writing

Eyes

Those empty, sad eyes followed me everywhere. I tried not to let them haunt me, but they lingered there with every thought, every interaction, every movement. I wanted them gone. I should have stopped. I should have asked if she needed my help. That should haunt me. That unknown torments me. I walked away.

Red Riding Hood

The Red Riding Hood took her gun out. She had been waiting for the wolf all morning at the rendezvous point. She heard the roar of a motorbike engine. This was it. She peered over the roof edge and saw the wolf. He was wearing a leather jacket and trousers. The emblem on his jacket had an enormous wolf on it.

The wolf cocked his head towards her. She saw her red clothes and face reflected on his motorbike visor. They had been doing this for centuries. He, at some point, had stopped being an actual wolf, and she would forever be the little girl, making her immortal life shit. Once in a while, he killed her, and she would get a few blinks of rest, but then she would exist again, and he was there, and they had to have this battle.

The wolf snapped his visor open. She could see his silver eyes gleaming, waiting for her to shoot.

She didn’t feel like it. She hadn’t felt like it for the last two times.

He drew his helmet off. The new wolf had dark, long hair and sharp features. He was dangerously handsome. He always was.

“How about we change things around?” The wolf shook his hair loose.

The Red Riding Hood was sure that it worked on women. It had to.

She narrowed her eyes.

“It’s okay if you step out from the shadows. I won’t eat you,” he laughed.

She stood up, letting her red show.

“There you are,” he said. “Now, I’m sick and tired of this perpetual feud between us. I would think you are, too.” He waited for confirmation.

She just stood there on the roof, her hand on the pistol, ready to shoot.

“I take that as a yes,” he said. “I have a proposal. How about we find the sick fuck who is doing this to us?”

She tilted her head.

“You have thought it too,” he said. “I know you have. This feels like a joke or a punishment, not something that would occur naturally.”

She jumped off the roof, landing next to the wolf with one knee and hand on the ground, watching him closely. The silver eyes narrowed, and he looked ready to launch, but he stopped himself from acting on his instincts.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked and faced him, standing.

He lifted his hands and got off his motorbike, pushing with one swift movement the kickstand down without ever lowering his arms or looking away from her. “We team up, and not kill each other this time around. If you get bored or scared…” He flashed a smile. “…I let you kill me. It’s not like I or you have anything to lose if we try.”

“You want me to trust you?” she asked.

“No, just work with me. When and if we find who the fuck they ever are, then you can decide what you want to do. Fair?”

She bit her lip and tilted her head. She could reach for the Katana on her back and slice him open, and she would be free to do what she wanted for the next eighty years.

“Why would I need you to do that?” she asked.

“Because we haven’t managed it on our own. You have had more time than I have, and here you are still, and here I am. If you had found them, then this wouldn’t be happening.” This time, he wasn’t smiling. He almost looked sad and tired.

“Okay, but I will kill you, if—”

“Feel free to,” he said. “Yours or mine?” he asked, nodding towards his bike.

“I took the bus,” she said, barely audibly.

There was that grin of his, but then he wiped it off. “Mine it is then.”

The Same person

I can’t phantom this prompt. Not after Red Riding Hood. It feels bland.

The Prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

This is one of those slow, slow, slow days. I struggled to write. Partly because my right wrist is in searing pain. Something broke a few weeks ago. It almost went away as I visited my sister up north, but when I got back and climbed too hard, the pain came back. Especially with a route I projected last weekend. I took the beginning of this week off, but as I went back climbing Thursday, it was moderately okay. However, yesterday’s climbing made it ache again, and this morning I woke up to find it worse than it had been in days. I massaged it a moment ago with a ball, and something snapped there, causing a massive pain, but now it is slightly better. But writing still hurts.

I can feel the Red Riding Hood story evolving and living inside me. I know how it goes. It has something that needs to be told.

Thank you for reading my blog! I hope you have a good day without pain and full of adventures ❤