Little Red

Red pulled the phone out of her pocket, she had just gotten dressed and was getting a call from a private number. “Hello?” she picked up.

“Hey Red, when will you be by Grandma’s House? We really need that dough” a deep male voice spoke through the phone

“I’m headed there right now, just need to finish getting ready”

“You better hurry up, or I’m docking your pay this month”

“Don’t worry Wolf, you’ll get your stuff”

Red hung the phone up and slipped it back into her pocket, she grabbed the covered basket sitting on the desk next to her. She went out the door and locked it as she came out, her car unlocked as she got close to it. “That **** wolf better not dock my pay,” she said to no one in particular while getting into her brand new red Audi A6. she pulled out onto the road and began driving. “Call Ella” she spoke to her car, the dial tone sounded and soon enough Ella picked up.

“Hey Ella, it’s Red, how have you been?”

“Oh, Red! It’s been so long since we’ve talked! I’ve been doing pretty good, the business is going well, I’m getting lots of new boys in, they just absolutely love me!”

“That’s no surprise to me, Ella, you always have someone going after you, but listen I need a favor, I’m on a run for Grandma’s House and I need a bit of a lookout, The Huntsmen have been all around here lately looking for pixie dust”

“Oh god Red, don’t tell me you’re a dust runner now?”

“Jesus no, have a little faith, i’m just carrying some cookie dough, I’m taking my normal route, call me if you hear anything over the scanner.”

Red hung the phone up and sighed, Ella was her best friend but they didn’t really talk much. Red had been in the game for a long time. She worked with quite a few shops, gangs, and dealers, but by far the best in her area was Grandma’s House, a little bakery that specialized in non-traditional baked goods. The only bad part about doing jobs for Grandma’s house was dealing with the Wolf. The Wolf was the local drug lord, he ran Grandma’s house and a few other shops, and he had no tolerance for failure or disobedience.

Red started getting a call over the car stereo, it was Ella.

Red picked up the phone “hey El-”

“Hi! I just wanted to tell you to be careful on the way to get groceries, there are lots of bad drivers out there, you don’t want to get in trouble”

Red’s heart dropped, bad drivers was their code for Huntsmen. They must out looking for someone, but there’s no way it was Red, their focus was on Pixie Dust, not Cookie dough.

“I will be, don’t worry about me, love you!” Red replied, hiding the fear in her voice.

The Huntsmen were an elite special police force, tasked with getting drugs off the street, and ever since Pixie Dust grew in popularity they’ve been raiding dens left and right. They were vicious, rarely leaving any survivors. The dust game was a profitable one, but it was extremely dangerous. Of course, the more dangerous something is, the more desirable it is, which meant cookies were down in price, which meant Red didn’t make as much from dough runs.

Three white, tinted SUV’s Trailed Red’s car, driving a straight line behind her, she barely looked in the rearview mirror in fear of looking scared. She made a few turns away from Grandma’s house but couldn’t lose them. The two behind the front switched lanes to pass Red, they were cornering her. One pulled in front of red while the other stayed to her side, they began to slow down in unison. She thought about accelerating to push through them but knew that while her engine was better than theirs, they had the weight and traction advantage.

Red began to panic, she pulled a handgun out of her purse, a Springfield Armory 1911 chambered in .45 ACP, she wasn’t one for flair but when it came to protection, she took no risks. She tucked the sidearm into her waistband and pulled over with the huntsmen, these situations weren’t known for being peaceful. They all came to a stop in a nearby parking lot, two huntsmen dressed in black suits with black tyes brandishing semi-automatic rifles got out of the back of each car. They took point behind the doors, aiming right for her head, waiting for a twitch in the wrong direction. 

The huntsmen in the passenger seat were different than the rest, they dressed in beige suits with khakis, they were special in some way. Red looked in her rearview mirror beginning to panic, there was no way out of this for her. The huntsmen in beige suits got out of the cars and pulled out wands, Red noticed the glowing sticks in their hands and gasped, did the huntsmen really have casters working for them?

They gathered around in a circle, and out of seemingly nowhere a summoning circle appeared behind them. After a few seconds a suped-up BMW drove out of thin air and pulled in behind one of the SUVs. A small man dressed in a three-piece suit got out of the car and began walking towards Red’s window. She took the safety off and cocked the hammer of her pistol, readying it pointing just up from the ridge of the window, she wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Well, what do we have here, an amateur dough runner looking to take out a huntsman even if it means her own bloody demise?” said the overly dressed man.

She pulled the trigger aiming for the head, a .45 would easily end anyone unprotected, the crack was deafening as the round left the chamber, and before the casing could even leave the breach the man was left standing there, a bullet floating half an inch from his forehead. He simply pushed the floating bullet to the side and leaned down to the window.

“Did you really think that someone as powerful as me could be killed by conventional ballistics? Well, mother always did say that redheads were reckless.” he smirked “do you know who I am, miss Ridinghood?”

Red’s jaw dropped along with her stomach. “Did you hear me? Or did that shot destroy your eardrums?” He questioned impatiently.

 “N-no I… Who the hell are you?” she asked with fear prevalent in her voice.

“You may call me Mr. Stiltskin, we will be doing business in the very near future… well as long as you value your life that is” there was a glint of something evil in his eyes as he summoned a flame in the palm of his hand and snuffed it out just as quick as he summoned it. He revealed a devilish smirk and put his hands behind his back. Red knew that she wasn’t getting out of this one.