Post by brodie on Nov 21, 2018 11:17:24 GMT -5
He ate her up in one big bite.
But Grandmamma was small and tough,
And Wolfie wailed, ``That's not enough!
I haven't yet begun to feel
That I have had a decent meal!''
He ran around the kitchen yelping,
``I've got to have a second helping!''
Then added with a frightful leer,
``I'm therefore going to wait right here
Till Little Miss Red Riding Hood
Comes home from walking in the wood.''
He quickly put on Grandma's clothes,
(Of course he hadn't eaten those).
He dressed himself in coat and hat.
He put on shoes, and after that
He even brushed and curled his hair,
Then sat himself in Grandma's chair.
In came the little girl in red.
She stopped. She stared. And then she said.
Do you know that pinch, the tight sting of ice cold air on bare skin? The rough brush of it across your cheeks when you walk against the wind, footfall after footfall trying to find your step as you battle against it; whipping about and picking up your hair, yanking gently as though the wind were a puppet master himself; the way it bites at your nose and turns it pink, some people would call it a glow; winter settling in on your face like an unwelcome guest…?
That’s the burn that hits her cheeks as she sits, legs dangling off the edge of the roof; some old building in the middle of the city, down a street nobody would remember, surrounded by businesses long forgotten. If the street lamps worked, you could likely look down at the crack addicts and late night whores making their rounds just off the man junction; this area was a favorite of those types;
Dirty old alley to take a trick and hand off the cash for your next hit. Her eyes trained on the lit end of a cigarette, hanging from the mouth of a dealer, or a pimp, which didn’t matter; she wasn’t here for them, or that, her own cigarette balanced precariously between her lips, as she kept one hand deep in her pocket, clutched around her phone. The other kept count of the taps against the side there;
1
2
3
4
5
A little rhythm against the cool stone not one person would notice or hear on a normal day; especially not here among the rats and piss stained walls of stinking side streets; she sat atop the roof as though it were a crumbling throne above a city of petulance and filth. Were you able to see her face under the sweeping hood that kept a shock of blue hair tucked away; you would note it was hard for her to hide her disdain - these were the kind of people that had been a part of her work.
When the world was still new and she believed a single member of this god forsaken planet to be worth saving…
“AYYY!”
Her thoughts ripped away from her, along with the cigarette that had been nestled between her lips; a shock of blonde hair, dressed like she’d never felt a shock of cold, a day in her life, dropped into place beside Brodie, giggling softly at the snarl on her companions lips, the blonde took a drag from the cigarette, her tone was sultry and soft, but still young, obvious tells she wasn’t near as old as she pretended to be.
“Ya know, if the wind changes and ya face stays like that, maybe nobody would even notice.”
Momentarily forgetting their place, Brodie had lifted a hand to swat at the girl, having to drop her phone to her pocket and yank her back from the edge with both hands, the blonde merely looked irritated at dropping the stolen cigarette.
“Where’s your sister?”
Brodie held a fresh cigarette out to the young blonde, pulling back the girls hood to get a proper look at her; Sunflower was the one living thing left she felt needed protecting. Too sweet for her sister and too dumb to survive alone, the still lingering sparkle in her blue eyes would, on occasion, leave Brodie wondering if there was indeed something worth salvaging after all.
She didn’t look beat up, no marks on her knees, no bright red lips. She wasn’t turning out on the street below; wasn’t taking hits for a living either - she knew Shadow ws likely with The Creator, he had taken a shining to the second coming, as he liked to call her, but that life wasn’t for Sunflower and Brodie’s only one concern had been the smarter of the two knowing she didn’t have to make payment for herself.
“I dunno.”
Chipped polish fingers plucked a cigarette as her drawl of an accent made the words sound all the more uneducated; she wriggled a little under Brodie’s gaze, she loved the older woman like a sister, but she was smart enough, at least, to know something was off about her and being alone with Brodie always made her uncomfortable.
“Said she hadda run out and do something, told me to come wait here for her; guess you were what she wanted me to wait for then?”
Sentence construction, another thing the girl lacked. Brodie flicked open her lighter, taking care of the blonde first and lighting another for herself. Drawing her gaze to the flame against the black night she sighed audibly; there was something beautiful about the flame…
Have you ever set something alight to watch it burn? The feeling of release as you press the lick of the fire against your target and watch it expand, engulfing the target with an unmatched hunger until it burns everything to ash, black and soot. Dead.
“Bro?”
The blonde bumped shoulders and Brodie flicked the lighter closed, not wanting it to go the way of the earlier cigarette, she plunged it into her pocket before looking back to the young blonde; her hood pulled back up to hide herself among the shadows once more, the pair sat side by side on the roof.
“I need to speak to her, Sunny. To both of you, it’s not safe, no good… Mother is looking for you, I don’t know what you did…”
She lifted a hand to silence the interjection; the truth was she cared nothing for what they had done; Mother was evil incarnate and any refusal to do as you were told was an infraction of the highest order.
“Thought I told you both to stay away; did you not see? What happened? I can’t let things go now, do you two want to go and get all caught up in this? For what? A few extra bills - I send you money, you don’t need to be in the city…”
She grit her teeth, the expression on the young girl made it obvious Brodie was talking into the cold night air; the twins were like her, they would do as they pleased and to hell with anyone who didn’t like it. But worse, Sunflower knew that the request didn’t come to protect her and her sister.
Brodie wanted them out so she could have him all to herself; the one who she wouldn’t ever talk about and now… She had found another, so much like him. Sunflower knew the signs, the look in her eyes. Brodie was going to get hurt, she was going to torment and scream and bleed and she would love every second of it - there was no place for the twins in that world - not so long as Brodie wanted it all for herself.
“Is this bout…”
Sunflower slowly start to move her hands through the air, overlapping them on themselves as she hummed softly to herself.
“Incy...Wincy…. Spider…”
Brodie’s head snapped around to look at her, a tightness in her chest turning her nails to claws as she grabbed the blonde by both shoulders and wrenched her close to the edge of the building, nose pressed to nose, she could barely growl out the words, rumbling through her chest and inconceivably filled with a rage that could not be stopped.
Her nails dug into the flesh beneath that shitty torn up old hoodie, Brodie could feel her panic, feel the sweat building across the body of this stupid little girl; she could rid herself of so many problems if she just did it, if she just let go - one less to look for, one less to watch out for - she could just let it slip… Lose her grip….
“DO IT!”
The squeal of delight was so startling, she damn well nearly did. Only at the last second was Brodie able to toss her to the side and back onto the safety of the roof; she felt the sound of Sunflower hitting the concrete, her frail, weak form almost crunching against the cool, hard roof. She didn’t look back, as you would like her to, I have no doubt.
But there will be no imagery of her lying at the feet of her sister, sobbing and scared; weaker than the others, the one that they had often considered leaving behind, cradling a now bent and sore arm; she knew how he felt, just a little now, maybe? Her arm useless and aching at her side, all because she couldn’t watch her fucking mouth… Because he was a liar.
Liar.
Coward.
So she would see it hang limp there at his side, just as all his promises had hung limp when it mattered, another lie, another web. Deceivers everywhere, taking over her every facet of life; it wasn’t supposed to be like this, but she could feel the snap when she heard it.
SNAP
Back to reality.
“I said, why didn’t ya let her fall? Would have made a big fat mess too…”
The dominant twin stepped up from her hiding place; Shadow in the Shadows. As soon as you laid eyes upon her, you could see the differences; they were maybe not so obvious to people who didn’t know the girls - but Shadow had a hardness about her, she was the instigator and she wore that proudly in her features.
Dropping down to the place once taken up by her sister, she helped herself to a cigarette, biting it between her teeth and striking a match; do you know that smell a match leaves? The faint scent of burning that it almost wooden and smoky? It’s a rather delicious scent and it sat well here, on the edge of the roof, in the cold night air.
“Shadow…”
Her tone was reproachful as she tried to hide the smirk from her lips; the young girl with a far stormier demeanour than her sister; painted violet lips, plump and dark, matched the woman’s smirk.
Unlike her sister, Shadow was not intimidated by Brodie, quite the opposite, she sought to follow in her footsteps and on more than once occasion, had been called an upgrade, version 2.0; of course she was far smarter than to buy into the pandering, but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t use the terms to needle at her companion - only tonight didn’t seem the right time. She couldn’t recall the last time Brodie had edged into this side of the city, which meant one of two things.
Mother really was looking for them.
Or this Z dude really had her some manner of fucked up.
Then again, if you paid attention to the five series tapping on that wall, the same tapping she had been doing before; if you took note of the fact this was her third cigarette since they had arrived; if you had decided to notice, that she slunk back beneath that giant hood like it was some kind of safeguard… You could likely assume it was, in fact, both.
“I ain’t even been to see him, swear down Bro; I stayed away like you told me. Go on and ask him if you don’t believe me and he’ll tell you the same…”
A soft whimper from behind them as Sunflower slinked to sit beside her sister, shaking out her arm, not wanting either to see her as weak, she stole the cigarette from her sisters lips; taking a long drag before nodding in agreement.
“She ain’t been there; we been running-“
An elbow clean from one to the other, a jolt of the ribs and a squeak; they were up to something, but it would wait for another day. She had more stops to make; more contingencies to put into place; eying the sisters carefully she clicked her tongue in a decisive motion.
“Go home; key is where it always is. Nobody will think to look there..”
Shifting up to her feet, she left the half crumpled packet of cigarettes on the ledge for the girls, knowing all too well they would only hunt through her things looking for a stash if she didn’t, turning her heels crunched on the concrete and the sound drew her back into that place…
The place that made the rest of the world a little fuzzy around the edges; the girls offered something in the form of a farewell, but she couldn’t quite make out the words inside the sound, instead she nodded, wanting to follow the vibration she felt beneath her feet…
He sat there watching her and smiled.
He thought, I'm going to eat this child.
Compared with her old Grandmamma
She's going to taste like caviar.
Then Little Red Riding Hood said, ``But Grandma,
what a lovely great big furry coat you have on.''
``That's wrong!'' cried Wolf. ``Have you forgot
To tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?
Ah well, no matter what you say,
I'm going to eat you anyway.''
The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
A few weeks later, in the wood,
I came across Miss Riding Hood.
But what a change! No cloak of red,
No silly hood upon her head.
She said, ``Hello, and do please note
My lovely furry wolfskin coat.''
But Grandmamma was small and tough,
And Wolfie wailed, ``That's not enough!
I haven't yet begun to feel
That I have had a decent meal!''
He ran around the kitchen yelping,
``I've got to have a second helping!''
Then added with a frightful leer,
``I'm therefore going to wait right here
Till Little Miss Red Riding Hood
Comes home from walking in the wood.''
He quickly put on Grandma's clothes,
(Of course he hadn't eaten those).
He dressed himself in coat and hat.
He put on shoes, and after that
He even brushed and curled his hair,
Then sat himself in Grandma's chair.
In came the little girl in red.
She stopped. She stared. And then she said.
Do you know that pinch, the tight sting of ice cold air on bare skin? The rough brush of it across your cheeks when you walk against the wind, footfall after footfall trying to find your step as you battle against it; whipping about and picking up your hair, yanking gently as though the wind were a puppet master himself; the way it bites at your nose and turns it pink, some people would call it a glow; winter settling in on your face like an unwelcome guest…?
That’s the burn that hits her cheeks as she sits, legs dangling off the edge of the roof; some old building in the middle of the city, down a street nobody would remember, surrounded by businesses long forgotten. If the street lamps worked, you could likely look down at the crack addicts and late night whores making their rounds just off the man junction; this area was a favorite of those types;
Dirty old alley to take a trick and hand off the cash for your next hit. Her eyes trained on the lit end of a cigarette, hanging from the mouth of a dealer, or a pimp, which didn’t matter; she wasn’t here for them, or that, her own cigarette balanced precariously between her lips, as she kept one hand deep in her pocket, clutched around her phone. The other kept count of the taps against the side there;
1
2
3
4
5
A little rhythm against the cool stone not one person would notice or hear on a normal day; especially not here among the rats and piss stained walls of stinking side streets; she sat atop the roof as though it were a crumbling throne above a city of petulance and filth. Were you able to see her face under the sweeping hood that kept a shock of blue hair tucked away; you would note it was hard for her to hide her disdain - these were the kind of people that had been a part of her work.
When the world was still new and she believed a single member of this god forsaken planet to be worth saving…
“AYYY!”
Her thoughts ripped away from her, along with the cigarette that had been nestled between her lips; a shock of blonde hair, dressed like she’d never felt a shock of cold, a day in her life, dropped into place beside Brodie, giggling softly at the snarl on her companions lips, the blonde took a drag from the cigarette, her tone was sultry and soft, but still young, obvious tells she wasn’t near as old as she pretended to be.
“Ya know, if the wind changes and ya face stays like that, maybe nobody would even notice.”
Momentarily forgetting their place, Brodie had lifted a hand to swat at the girl, having to drop her phone to her pocket and yank her back from the edge with both hands, the blonde merely looked irritated at dropping the stolen cigarette.
“Where’s your sister?”
Brodie held a fresh cigarette out to the young blonde, pulling back the girls hood to get a proper look at her; Sunflower was the one living thing left she felt needed protecting. Too sweet for her sister and too dumb to survive alone, the still lingering sparkle in her blue eyes would, on occasion, leave Brodie wondering if there was indeed something worth salvaging after all.
She didn’t look beat up, no marks on her knees, no bright red lips. She wasn’t turning out on the street below; wasn’t taking hits for a living either - she knew Shadow ws likely with The Creator, he had taken a shining to the second coming, as he liked to call her, but that life wasn’t for Sunflower and Brodie’s only one concern had been the smarter of the two knowing she didn’t have to make payment for herself.
“I dunno.”
Chipped polish fingers plucked a cigarette as her drawl of an accent made the words sound all the more uneducated; she wriggled a little under Brodie’s gaze, she loved the older woman like a sister, but she was smart enough, at least, to know something was off about her and being alone with Brodie always made her uncomfortable.
“Said she hadda run out and do something, told me to come wait here for her; guess you were what she wanted me to wait for then?”
Sentence construction, another thing the girl lacked. Brodie flicked open her lighter, taking care of the blonde first and lighting another for herself. Drawing her gaze to the flame against the black night she sighed audibly; there was something beautiful about the flame…
Have you ever set something alight to watch it burn? The feeling of release as you press the lick of the fire against your target and watch it expand, engulfing the target with an unmatched hunger until it burns everything to ash, black and soot. Dead.
“Bro?”
The blonde bumped shoulders and Brodie flicked the lighter closed, not wanting it to go the way of the earlier cigarette, she plunged it into her pocket before looking back to the young blonde; her hood pulled back up to hide herself among the shadows once more, the pair sat side by side on the roof.
“I need to speak to her, Sunny. To both of you, it’s not safe, no good… Mother is looking for you, I don’t know what you did…”
She lifted a hand to silence the interjection; the truth was she cared nothing for what they had done; Mother was evil incarnate and any refusal to do as you were told was an infraction of the highest order.
“Thought I told you both to stay away; did you not see? What happened? I can’t let things go now, do you two want to go and get all caught up in this? For what? A few extra bills - I send you money, you don’t need to be in the city…”
She grit her teeth, the expression on the young girl made it obvious Brodie was talking into the cold night air; the twins were like her, they would do as they pleased and to hell with anyone who didn’t like it. But worse, Sunflower knew that the request didn’t come to protect her and her sister.
Brodie wanted them out so she could have him all to herself; the one who she wouldn’t ever talk about and now… She had found another, so much like him. Sunflower knew the signs, the look in her eyes. Brodie was going to get hurt, she was going to torment and scream and bleed and she would love every second of it - there was no place for the twins in that world - not so long as Brodie wanted it all for herself.
“Is this bout…”
Sunflower slowly start to move her hands through the air, overlapping them on themselves as she hummed softly to herself.
“Incy...Wincy…. Spider…”
Brodie’s head snapped around to look at her, a tightness in her chest turning her nails to claws as she grabbed the blonde by both shoulders and wrenched her close to the edge of the building, nose pressed to nose, she could barely growl out the words, rumbling through her chest and inconceivably filled with a rage that could not be stopped.
Her nails dug into the flesh beneath that shitty torn up old hoodie, Brodie could feel her panic, feel the sweat building across the body of this stupid little girl; she could rid herself of so many problems if she just did it, if she just let go - one less to look for, one less to watch out for - she could just let it slip… Lose her grip….
“DO IT!”
The squeal of delight was so startling, she damn well nearly did. Only at the last second was Brodie able to toss her to the side and back onto the safety of the roof; she felt the sound of Sunflower hitting the concrete, her frail, weak form almost crunching against the cool, hard roof. She didn’t look back, as you would like her to, I have no doubt.
But there will be no imagery of her lying at the feet of her sister, sobbing and scared; weaker than the others, the one that they had often considered leaving behind, cradling a now bent and sore arm; she knew how he felt, just a little now, maybe? Her arm useless and aching at her side, all because she couldn’t watch her fucking mouth… Because he was a liar.
Liar.
Coward.
So she would see it hang limp there at his side, just as all his promises had hung limp when it mattered, another lie, another web. Deceivers everywhere, taking over her every facet of life; it wasn’t supposed to be like this, but she could feel the snap when she heard it.
SNAP
Back to reality.
“I said, why didn’t ya let her fall? Would have made a big fat mess too…”
The dominant twin stepped up from her hiding place; Shadow in the Shadows. As soon as you laid eyes upon her, you could see the differences; they were maybe not so obvious to people who didn’t know the girls - but Shadow had a hardness about her, she was the instigator and she wore that proudly in her features.
Dropping down to the place once taken up by her sister, she helped herself to a cigarette, biting it between her teeth and striking a match; do you know that smell a match leaves? The faint scent of burning that it almost wooden and smoky? It’s a rather delicious scent and it sat well here, on the edge of the roof, in the cold night air.
“Shadow…”
Her tone was reproachful as she tried to hide the smirk from her lips; the young girl with a far stormier demeanour than her sister; painted violet lips, plump and dark, matched the woman’s smirk.
Unlike her sister, Shadow was not intimidated by Brodie, quite the opposite, she sought to follow in her footsteps and on more than once occasion, had been called an upgrade, version 2.0; of course she was far smarter than to buy into the pandering, but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t use the terms to needle at her companion - only tonight didn’t seem the right time. She couldn’t recall the last time Brodie had edged into this side of the city, which meant one of two things.
Mother really was looking for them.
Or this Z dude really had her some manner of fucked up.
Then again, if you paid attention to the five series tapping on that wall, the same tapping she had been doing before; if you took note of the fact this was her third cigarette since they had arrived; if you had decided to notice, that she slunk back beneath that giant hood like it was some kind of safeguard… You could likely assume it was, in fact, both.
“I ain’t even been to see him, swear down Bro; I stayed away like you told me. Go on and ask him if you don’t believe me and he’ll tell you the same…”
A soft whimper from behind them as Sunflower slinked to sit beside her sister, shaking out her arm, not wanting either to see her as weak, she stole the cigarette from her sisters lips; taking a long drag before nodding in agreement.
“She ain’t been there; we been running-“
An elbow clean from one to the other, a jolt of the ribs and a squeak; they were up to something, but it would wait for another day. She had more stops to make; more contingencies to put into place; eying the sisters carefully she clicked her tongue in a decisive motion.
“Go home; key is where it always is. Nobody will think to look there..”
Shifting up to her feet, she left the half crumpled packet of cigarettes on the ledge for the girls, knowing all too well they would only hunt through her things looking for a stash if she didn’t, turning her heels crunched on the concrete and the sound drew her back into that place…
The place that made the rest of the world a little fuzzy around the edges; the girls offered something in the form of a farewell, but she couldn’t quite make out the words inside the sound, instead she nodded, wanting to follow the vibration she felt beneath her feet…
He sat there watching her and smiled.
He thought, I'm going to eat this child.
Compared with her old Grandmamma
She's going to taste like caviar.
Then Little Red Riding Hood said, ``But Grandma,
what a lovely great big furry coat you have on.''
``That's wrong!'' cried Wolf. ``Have you forgot
To tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?
Ah well, no matter what you say,
I'm going to eat you anyway.''
The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
A few weeks later, in the wood,
I came across Miss Riding Hood.
But what a change! No cloak of red,
No silly hood upon her head.
She said, ``Hello, and do please note
My lovely furry wolfskin coat.''