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she was certain.
     
    Red tried to keep her speed, but the pain was excruciating and each breath came harder to push through her pursed lips. The sweat was seeping into her eyes, blurring her vision and making it impossible to spot the small crooks in the road. She could feel herself slowing, tiring, and ready to give in to the unyielding pain that had overtaken her.
     
    Her foot became lodged in an overturned root and Red came crashing down against the road dirt pathway. With her leg twisted and in searing agony, she cried out in pain and cursed the gods for their cruelty.
     
    She’d never been a bad person, never done a bad deed, and always made sure the ones closest to her were well accounted for—even when it meant traveling through a haunted forest in the middle of the night. That’s the kind of person she was, and now it’d be the death of her.
     
    Suddenly, the rustling of the trees ceased and she was left alone, in a complete and eerie silence. Red knew all too well that the creature was still out there, waiting to make its pounce, and she searched through the tree line with hopes of spotting the creature.
     
    A guttural roar from the beast ended the stillness of the night and shook all the foliage from the fury of a two ton beast. Red looked up and saw an enormous grizzly bear, reared on its hind legs and frothing at the mouth.
     
    This was it, she thought, the moment her life was going to come to an end.
     
    “No regrets,” she told herself with wavering lower lips. “I enter the next life with the strength I left this one. You’ll not rob me of that, foul creature.”
     

Chapter Two
     
    Little Red Hood
     
    Angela Black
     

     
    A Night She’ll Never Forget
     

     
    Red stared up at the creature’s jagged teeth and saw a reflection of what her life had amounted to. It wasn’t much, but she could feel confident she’d left this world a small fraction better than entered it. In the end, it was all she ever could’ve wished for.
     
    Those thoughts were short lived, however, and her attention was drawn back towards the snarling beast in front of her. The ground shook under the weight of its imposing frame and locked Red to the trembling ground.
     
    Too tired to move, too winded to breathe, and too discouraged to think straight. Red was in no position to mount any form of defense against the enraged beast and knew her time on this world would be ending soon.
     
    She closed her eyes and shrunk in fear, something she’d never believe herself capable of. Red was a strong, proud woman who’d never shied from a fight. These were inimitable circumstances, however, and she found herself unable to cope with her impending demise.
     
      Just when she’d finally given up on any hope of salvation, a thunderous cracking noise could be heard in the distance and within seconds, a gust of wind brought Red’s awareness back towards the rampaging bear.
     
    Another monster stood in between the grizzly bear and her, snarling back with claws extended and braced for battle. It stood like a man, yet was covered from head to toe in matted fur with an elongated face and jagged canine teeth. It was half wolf, half man; and completely enthralling to the sheltered young woman—stories of lycanthropy, coming alive in her mind. Red had never seen anything like it before, and while she should’ve feared for her life, a sense of longing and desire had crept into her subconscious and refused to extricate itself.
     
    She watched in awe-inspired horror as the two monsters battled over her right to life. Afraid to move in the slightest, Red watched, curled up in a ball and recoiling from the action.
     
    The werewolf raised his hands against the much larger animal and dug its nails deep into its chest. The wild animal screeched in pain and reared backwards before taking a swipe across the wolf’s stomach.
     
    Blackened blood splashed against the trail, inches from Red’s body and seeping into the ground below. She