~Little Red Riding Hood Collab AU~
Once upon a time, there was a cabin in the woods. It quaintly faced the shoreline of the curved bay that nestled into the curves of Lacuna and inside its rosewood planks and misty windows sat a teenage girl. She was still, sitting atop her bead and watching the waves of the bay through the window of her bedroom when a bouncing, brilliant voice broke her resolute silence.
“Suri!”
She flinched, reflexively tucking a lock of pink hair behind her assaulted ears as she turned towards the opening bedroom door. A flashy smile prefaced the woman stepping into the plain room.
Though she was a short woman, her heavy steps emphasized her quick walk, and the bed curved beneath her as she sat on the edge. She tapped her bottom lip as she observed the teen slouch.
“Still moping?”
Suri frowned. “I’m not moping.”
“Right, right,” the woman cooed with a giggle before perking up like she had forgotten something. “Hey, I need teensy little a favor. Nothing big, I promise.”
Suri shied away from her intensity, curling her fingers into thequilt beneath her and glancing back at the window.
“Do I have to? Where’s Dante?”
“Nope. I ain’t getting involved,” the man in question responded from the next room over. Suri sent a questioning look at him through the open door as he sipped from the coffee mug in his hand. He shrugged when he noticed her watching him, his nonchalance not exactly helpful in this particular moment.
“Fae, I don’t—”
“Great, so you’ll do it then?”
“Uh, do what?”
“Glad you asked.”
Fae grabbed her hand and tugged her from the bed with more forcethan expected, making Suri stumble behind as the pair entered the living space of the cabin.
The woman circled around the carved furnishings. Once they were stopped besides the small couch, she released Suri to retrieve a frayed, gray bookbag from the other side of the room. With hardly any warning, she shoved the bag into the teen’s arms, nearly winding Suri.
“Um,” Suri said, her eyes widening at the weight of the contents, “What is this?”
“A bag, silly.”
She frowned as Fae dismissed her, now turning to rummage through the closet. Before she could unzip the bag and look inside, Fae had grabbed a hoodie and tossed it towards her. Floundering to catch it without dropping the heavy bookbag in her hands, Suri blinked at the bright red fabric in surprise.
“Is this even mine?”
“Really, Hun. Focus.” Fae gave her a pseudo-serious expression. “You have to take that bag over to Trenton.”
“Why?”
“He needs what’s in there. For his stay. He forgot it, and it’s uh, very, very important.”
Trenton? Forgetting something? That didn’t sound right. Besides, Trenton was staying in a separate cabin; he had left Suri with Dante and Fae for the weekend on purpose. So why should she be the one to take him anything? He probably wanted a well-deserved break from her.
Fae smiled forcefully—probably an attempt to actively counter the way Suri’s expression had soured.
“It’s icky adult stuff, so no peeking, ‘kay?” the woman said, her singsong voice contrasting the way she abruptly shoved Suri in the direction of the front door. She opened it with one hand and pushed Suri through the entry with the other as the teen protested.
“H-Hey, wait—”
“His cabin is the one with the green roof. Go straight there. Oh, and watch out for wolves.”
“Wolves!? But Fae, I—”
Suri felt the heat rise in her cheeks as she watched the door being slammed shut behind her.
For a moment, she stood there dumbfounded and in disbelief. Was this seriously happening? When the blinds to the cabin windows were abruptly pulled shut Suri conceded that Fae was, in fact, being serious.
She frowned, hesitantly glancing at the vast forest and stretch of beach sprawled out before her. Her quiet hesitations voiced themselves against the brisk fall air.
“I don’t even know where I’m going.”
Her shoulders slumped as she let out a deep sigh. With a grey bookbag in one arm and a red hoodie in the other, she looked over her surroundings again. There was only one trail leading from the beach to the woods, so she decided that was as good a place to start as any.
She slipped on the surprisingly well fitted hoodie, put her arms through the loops of the ridiculously heavy bag, and started to hesitantly move forward. She had halfheartedly hoped that Fae would reconsider, or that Dante would chase after her, but she had no such luck, the path quiet and lonely as she pressed on.
The forest was more expansive than she had initially thought. The deeper she moved into it the more the trail narrowed, and bush gave rise to dense trees and thick shrubbery as the sand swept ashore morphed into dirt and gravel. Suri’s head tilted up towards the canopy of tree branches hiding the late afternoon sun in a mocking version of peek-a-boo and the shadows from the trees swayed over her as a sharp breeze passed through the rustling leaves.
“I guess this isn’t so bad.”
Her eyes followed the dance of an orange leaf twisting as it fell. Its bright color punctuated the darkening shadows around her, and it’s twirling led her to look further down the path. Her heart sunk at the sight of the fork in the pathway that, until now, had been a straight, single trail.
“Crap.”
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