by Neo Edmund
“I’ll deal with you later.” The arachnid-woman shoved Wolfgang into a tree and fired her webs, binding him to the trunk.
“That thing is your mother?” Red’s eyes filled with furious rage. She let off the throttle and leaped off her motorcycle.
“That’s right, little Alpha. Your mother knew me as Eyona. You have her eyes. I will enjoy plucking them from your head.”
Red raised her sword. “If you want them, come and get them.”
“You have to run, Red.” Wolfgang said. “You can’t win this.”
“Silence, my precious boy.” Eyona fired her webs at Wolfgang’s mouth, sealing it shut. “Well, well, Alpha Huntress, you’ve seduced my son to your favor.”
“I have no idea how a freak like you could be Wolfgang’s mother, and I don’t care.” Red tightened her grip on her sword as Eyona advanced on her. “Your little boy is dead to me. I’ll deal with him just as soon as I’m done dealing with you.”
Eyona gave a wicked laugh. “You may be the Alpha, but you’re not yet strong enough to begin dealing with me.”
“We’ll just see about that.” Red swung her sword at one of Eyona’s six legs.
“Foolish child.” Eyona fired a web, catching Red’s blade before it connected. With a powerful yank, she pulled the sword out of Red’s hands and flipped it into her own. “This was the sword your mother used to defend you on the night of her death. How fitting that you would carry it on the night of yours.”
“I’m not finished yet.”
Red charged at Eyona, swinging her claws in a furious mêlée. Eyona blocked each strike with ease while delivering powerful counterstrikes. It wasn’t long before Red knew that Wolfgang was right when he had said there was no way she could win this fight.
“I do hope you are almost done dealing with me,” Eyona said. “I so eagerly look forward to dealing with you.”
As much as Red hated admitting defeat, her only hope was to turn tail and make a run for it. She dashed for the nearest tree and tried to make a quick climb to safety.
Eyona fired her webs, binding Red’s legs. With only the use of her arms, Red jammed her claws into the brittle bark and began to work her way up the side.
“Don’t give up now, Alpha. The higher you get, the more hopeful you will become that you can escape my grasp,” Eyona said.
Every inch Red climbed became more exhausting than the last as Eyona tried to pull her back down. When Red at last reached a limb strong enough to support her weight, she was able to slash her way free of the webbing.
For a moment she through that she was going to be okay. This changed in an instant when she saw that Eyona was climbing up the tree and would soon reach her.
“Don’t give up now,” Eyona said. “I want you to truly believe you can escape me.”
As far as Red could figure, her last chance to escape was to make a jump for a nearby tree. She locked eyes on a suitable branch over twenty feet away and struggled to get her balance as she stood up on the narrow branch. Using it to get a running start without falling would require agility she was unsure she had.
“You’d better hurry or I’m going to get you.” Eyona said.
Putting her fears aside, she dashed forward for about ten feet and lunged off the branch with all of her might. Red felt like the world was moving in slow motion as she soared through the air.
It overwhelmed her with a mix of excitement and outright terror. There was no doubt that she had enough forward momentum to make it all the way, but just as fast as hope came, it was stolen away. Eyona fired her webs and hooked Red around the waist.
The jolt that stopped Red in mid-flight was so hard it knocked the breath right out of her. The next thing she knew, she was dangling upside down from the tree she had jumped from. Eyona descended on a web and hung in front of her. It sickened Red to see the witch grinning with such malicious delight.
“Now, the real fun begins,” Eyona said.
Eyona’s hands moved at lightning speed as she weaved a cocoon around Red’s body. The webs squeezed so tightly that it was impossible to move even a muscle. Without hope of escape or rescue, Red could only await her unknown fate.
A tear came to her eye as she realized her journey could end in such a meaningless way. There were so many things she would never discover about her destiny in the mysterious world known as Wayward Woods.
Chapter 23
“Please let me wake up safe at home.”
Robbed of her external senses inside Eyona’s cocoon of webs, Red could do nothing but focus her efforts on getting air into her lungs. With her chest unable to expand, the tiny breaths she was able to take were just enough to stay alive. It was her inability to move even a finger that made the ordeal truly maddening. The webs sensed any bit of movement and responded by squeezing tighter.
As Red passed in and out of consciousness, it became difficult to know how much time had gone by. It felt like days, though she suspected that only hours had passed. She wasn’t having the sort of stomach cramps one gets from going for a long time without food, which was something she had experienced more than once in her life.
With nothing to do but await her fate, her mind drifted off to times long ago. The spellcraft that had hidden her memories was no longer affecting her. The images that filled her mind were vague because she had been so young when the events took place, but the feelings that came with them were quite real.
Red recalled festive family holidays—the smiling faces of her mother and father, the silly antics of her granny, and playing and laughing with Ash and Dote. She found comfort in knowing that if she was truly about to face death, it would come with a mind overflowing with fond memories and a heart full of love.
An oddly familiar image of a young boy with the face of a wolf entered Red’s mind. She recalled that before her departure from Wayward, he came to visit her every day. They played games and told each other their deepest secrets. The boy was her best friend in the world, and she loved him above all others.
What was truly odd is that only Red could see the boy. Grenda and her mother believed he was merely an imaginary friend. Ethan refused to accept the boy as a mere childhood fantasy, even though Grenda insisted that no dark forces were involved. A rush of panic hit Red when she heard the voice of her father speak in her memory, insisting she no longer play with the invisible child that she called Wolf Boy.
Red had no doubt that the invisible boy had to be Wolfgang. This sent her mind spinning into a flurry of confusion as she tried to figure out how he could have been around in such a peculiar way. She recalled how Wolfgang told her that they were born on the same day and the connection between them was complicated. This revelation awoke a renewed need to survive in Red’s heart. If she didn’t escape from the cocoon, the truth would never be discovered.
Red cleared her mind and focused her thoughts onto the Alpha Power dwelling within. She knew little of what the power could do, but if it was as great as everybody claimed, she should be able to break free from the cocoon.
Red pushed her arms and legs outward with every bit of strength she could conjure. The webs reacted by squeezing tighter and tighter, but this time she refused to give in. A surge of primal energy empowered Red’s mind and senses. The harder the webs fought against her efforts to escape, the stronger the energy inside her became. It was so intense that she soon felt as if she would explode if she didn’t break free.
Red called out to the Alphas who had held the power before her, asking them how to defeat the dark mystical forces that empowered the webs. In an instant the answer came, not in words, but in the purest form of understanding.
Pulsating mystical energy blasted from Red’s eyes. Every muscle in her body expanded with so much power that it caused the webs to weaken. She finally thrust her arms and legs outward and burst free of the cocoon prison.
“I AM THE ALPHA HUNTRESS!”
The nerves in Red’s body felt electrified with astonishing power as she jumped to her feet. She found herself standing
atop a stone altar that resided in the center of a dark cavern. Glowing moonstones tainted by vile spellcrafts lined the walls from floor to ceiling.
“Welcome back, Alpha Huntress,” Eyona said from behind Red. “I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to free yourself from my webs.”
Before Red could react, something sharp pierced right into the center of her back. A dizzying nausea hit her so fast that she went limp and dropped to her knees.
Eyona laughed wickedly. “I hope that didn’t hurt too much, my dear.”
“What did you do to me?”
Red’s vision became twisted and blurred. She could hear Eyona’s feet clicking around on the stone ground, but it was hard to tell where exactly the witch was.
“Not to worry,” Eyona said. “I just gave you a tiny shot of my venom to calm you down. Your little heart was beating away so fast, I was worried that it might give out before we finish our game.”
“I’ll show you how I calm down.” Red’s legs wobbled as she stepped down from the altar. A sniff of the stale air revealed that Eyona was just a few feet away. As much as Red wanted to squash her like a bug, there wasn’t a chance of her doing that in such a weakened state.
“Careful now, I wouldn’t want you to fall down and break your pretty little crown,” Eyona said.
“Why did you keep me alive when you could have easily killed me?”
“Who says I’m not killing you right now?”
“I can feel your venom inside me. It’s not enough to end my life. So what’s the real story?”
“You’re becoming more connected with the Alpha Power with each passing moment.”
“Yeah, and I’m getting real attached to the power, so don’t go getting any ideas about ripping it out of me like you tried to do when I was a child.” Red continued to stumble and fumble around the chamber. Her hope of finding something that could be used as a weapon was coming up empty.
Eyona snickered. “Keep searching. You might even find your little sword if you try hard enough.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Can’t you see I’m a helpless little girl? I can’t see a thing. Just how you want me to be.”
“Holding on to a glimmer of hope that you might be able to escape is just how I want you to be.”
“Lady, what is your story anyway? How can a freak show like you be Wolfgang’s mother?”
Red’s vision was beginning to clear up. As much as she wanted to rush Eyona, she knew it was best to keep pretending to be helpless. If the witch wanted to see her bumbling around, Red was going to put on the best show possible.
“That is a story far too long to tell, considering how little time you have left to live,” Eyona said.
“Oh, please. Just think of it as my last request.”
“I don’t do last requests.”
“Well then, unless you’re going to get to some kind of point here, I sure wish you’d shut that squawking hole you call a mouth.”
“Spoken like a true Riding. I know you take pride in hearing me say so.”
“You got that right, lady.” Red faked a trip to keep up the image that it was a struggle to stay on her feet. “So are you going to let me in on the reason for all of this? Or does it just amuse you to see me stumbling around like a helpless fool?”
“I do find a certain pleasure in seeing you in such a pathetic state. I’m merely waiting for you to run out of fight. It shouldn’t be long now.”
“Then what will you do to me?” Red asked.
“My son will take back what is rightfully ours. And I’m going to make sure that whatever little feelings he thinks he has for you won’t stand in the way.”
“That won’t be so easy. He’s in love with me,” Red said.
“You silly girls are all alike. A boy smiles just right, and you think he’s in love with you.”
Red glanced up and saw her sword bound to the ceiling by a mesh of Eyona’s webs. It was well out of her reach. “If he doesn’t love me, why did he try to help me escape from you in the forest?”
“Don’t be foolish. Wolfgang would never betray his beloved mother for a pathetic Riding.”
“I swear on the grave of my own mother it’s true. He loves me more than he will ever love you,” Red said.
“Liar. Say that again, I’ll kill you where you stand.”
“Ask him yourself.”
“You can ask him when he arrives to take the Alpha Power from you.”
Red heard the clicking of Eyona’s feet approaching her from behind. “I hear you there.” She aimlessly flailed her arms around. “Stay away from me, you stinking witch.”
“Strange that your eyesight has completely left you, considering how little venom I used. I like my prey to see what I am about to do to them.”
“You must have used more than you thought. Maybe you’re getting clumsy in your old age,” Red said.
“There’s only one way to know for sure.”
Eyona held her long, pointy fingernail near Red’s face. Red fought the urge to flinch as it got closer and closer to piercing her eye. A half-inch before it made contact, she lost control and grabbed Eyona’s wrist.
“Pity.” Eyona said. “You almost had me convinced.” She stabbed her nail into the side of Red’s neck.
“It was just a game.” Red’s vision blurred out of focus as she felt the sting of venom pumping into her veins. “You knew I was faking it all along.”
“Of course I did, little huntress. I gave you just enough slack to believe you could get away. I do hope you enjoyed my little theater of death. I call it killing with hope.”
“I’m not dead just yet, witch,” Red mumbled.
The dose of venom was far more potent this time, making Red feel as helpless as she had been inside the cocoon. She was now certain that Eyona had complete control of the situation. There was no chance Red could physically fight her way out of this trap. To survive the ordeal she would have to come up with a different tactic, though she had no idea what that could be.
“Don’t give up now, Alpha. If you think real hard, just maybe you can think up a clever plot to escape.” Eyona slammed Red down on the altar and dangled a strange black stone over her eyes. “I know your vision is a bit blurred, but I’m sure you can see this well enough.”
Red gazed into the stone as it began to swirl with dark mystical energy. Its hypnotic power filled her mind with terrible images of dread and horror. She felt like snakes were slithering all around, and heard the groans of hideous creatures lurking in the shadows.
“Now, Alpha Huntress, go back in time to the night of your own birth. See the faces of those around you.”
Red’s thoughts drifted back through time. Her life rapidly flashed before her eyes in reverse order. She soon heard the cries of her newborn self. When the world came into focus, she saw her mother and father smiling down on her. Her perspective shifted back and forth between her newborn self and watching as an outside observer.
“We will call her Red,” Jenna Riding said. “Just like the one that came before her.”
They were in the forest clearing where Red had spoken to the first Red Riding. Her newborn self was lying atop the stone pedestal that had held the Omega Gem in her previous vision. A group of witches and warlocks surrounded her. They wore long red cloaks and chanted a strange incantation in a language Red couldn’t understand.
Grenda looked down on Red through glowing white eyes. “Tonight the power of the Alpha will be yours. You will rise to be our high protector.”
Red looked to the sky and saw the moon was engulfed in a blazing inferno. A burst of red energy exploded from the surface and soared across the night sky like a shooting star. It was the Alpha Power in its purest form. The lunar deities had chosen the one who was to receive it. Red heard them proclaim the name, and it was not her own.
“The time is upon us.” Grenda said.
The witches and wizards chanted louder and faster. They raised moonstone-studded wands and staff
s to the sky. The Alpha Power hovered above the forest in the distance. A spark of white light shot off into the night sky. The Seether clan had just tried to steal the power for Ice, but the lunar deities rejected her.
“We’re not the only ones trying to do this tonight,” Grenda said. “Our time is running short.”
Grenda chanted a tongue-twisting incantation in a strange language. The Alpha Power turned from its distant course and headed their way.
Through the eyes of her newborn self, Red saw a blazing light descend down onto her. The lunar deities peered into the deepest depths of her heart to decide if she was worthy to receive the power. It was a moment of terror far greater than any Red could have imagined. When the power finally entered her body, it felt like the fire of a thousand suns burning in her soul.
“We’ve done it, loyal servants of the Riding Clan,” Grenda said. “The daughter of Ethan and Jenna, bloodline descendant of Red Riding, will rise to become the new Alpha Huntress. She will save us from the coming evil of Ragnarok.”
Ethan and Jenna looked down at Red, smiling with great pride.
“We will always be with you,” Jenna said.
Red blinked and was back in the cave, looking up at Eyona. Her vision was still blurred, and she couldn’t move a muscle.
Eyona squeezed Red’s face. “I see from the look in your eyes that you did not know of the dark deeds of your clan. It’s a pity that they used you in such a treacherous way.”
“It can’t be true,” Red said.
Eyona raised her arms in victory. “The power intended for my son will restore the glory of the Helheim Clan. For fifteen years we’ve waited for the chance to reclaim what you Ridings stole from us. Finally, on this glorious night, my son will rise as the true Alpha Hunter. He will use his power to bring our lord Ragnarok back into this world.”
“I don’t believe you. It’s a trick to get me to give up the power. It won’t work,” Red mumbled.
“It’s no trick, Red of the Riding Clan.” In his werewolf form, Wolfgang entered the dark chamber. He wore a black hooded cloak, and his eyes were glowing red with pure evil. “We have the power to take it from you, just as your grandmother took it from me.”