Little Red

Ten years ago, Dani made the worst mistake of her life.

“Dani baby? Can you come here, please?”

A ten-year-old Dani ran into the kitchen at the sound of her name being called to see her mother with a basket in her hands.

She never meant for it to happen.

“Yes, Momma?” Dani asked.

“I made some soup for your grandma Neenie because she isn’t feeling too good today, and I want you to take it over to her,” her mother said. “Can you do that for me?”

Dani nodded with a grin, excitement bubbling in her chest at the thought of seeing her grandmother.

She was a naive little ten-year-old girl.

The cold autumn wind filled the air as Dani walked through the wooded area to her grandmother’s house, donned in a red cape that covered her from head to toe. At the sudden sound of a twig being snapped, Dani came to a stop and slowly turned her head.

He took advantage of that.

Dani stood still, shaking in her spot as the tall, gray wolf circled around her.

“Hello there, little girl,” he said. “What have you got there?”

“A...a basket of...of goodies,” Dani stammered.

The wolf raised an eyebrow. “Oh? A basket of goodies, you say? And just who might these goodies be for?”

“My grandma,” Dani said, her fingers rubbing at the basket handle. “She...she’s um...she’s sick.”

The wolf stopped his circling to stand in front of her, which made Dani’s body freeze as she stared up at him.

“Oh, is that so?” he asked with a mocking pout. “I am so incredibly sorry to hear that.”

Becoming nervous from the wolf’s intense stare, Dani moved her gaze away from him and to her basket as she said, “I have to get going now...My grandma really needs me.”

She should have listened to her mother. She should have taken the usual way she had always gone, but Dani wanted to give her grandmother a special gift of her own. So, she made a shortcut through the strawberry bushes deeper into the forest.

What a horrible mistake that had been.

The wolf nodded. There was a certain gleam in his blue eyes that sent the already frightened child on edge.

“And just where might that be?” he questioned with a smirk.

“Just across the bridge at Normy River. She lives in the little brown cottage,” Dani found herself saying.

The wolf raised his brows in slight shock that the child had given him a truthful answer, but he quickly covered it up with a seemingly friendly smile.

“Mm, I see,” he said. “Well, I suppose I should let you run along. Wouldn’t want to keep dear grandmother waiting, now would we?”

Dani’s eyes widened at the thought of making her sickly grandmother wait for her any longer, and she quickly shook her head as she said, “Oh, no, sir! Absolutely not!!”

The wolf nodded. “Well, it was very nice meeting you. I do hope to see you again sometime...Little Red.”

Dani furrowed her brows at the strange nickname and overall encounter as the wolf walked around her in the opposite direction. Still, she shook her head again as she continued on her journey to her grandmother’s house. In the shadows, the lurking gray wolf stood with a sly smirk across his features as he watched her walk away.

She had been so stupid. So unbelievably stupid.

Why Dani had given him the directions to her grandmother’s house was something she would never know, but it would haunt her for the rest of her life. It was her fault her grandmother was dead. No one but hers, and no matter how many times people had tried to convince her otherwise, Dani would never believe them. If she hadn’t gone through the strawberry bushes, she would have never met Henry Wolff.

If she had never met Henry Wolff, he would have never known the way to her grandmother’s house.

The day her grandmother was killed was a day that Dani would never forget for the rest of her life. For years, it replayed in her mind and kept her up at night. So much so that she was sure she hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in an entire decade.

Dani grew up in a small town called Storybrooke. Known for being a well-built community, Storybrooke was deemed so safe by civilians that children were allowed to walk the streets by themselves, as their parents knew nothing would harm them.

So how could Dani have known that some wolf would appear with a sinister plot to kill a little girl and her grandmother?

Yes, she had been taught never to talk to strangers, but she had also been taught that no harm would ever come to anyone in Storybrooke.

What a fool she had been to believe that.

“Dani?” a deep voice called out.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Dani looked over from her vanity mirror to her bedroom door to see her stepfather, David, as he stood in the doorway, dressed in his uniform.

She cleared her throat. “Yes?”

“You almost ready?” David asked. He studied her closely as he fixed up the last of his buttons on his jacket. “Your mom got done fixing breakfast a few minutes ago.”

Dani nodded. “Uh, yeah. I’ll be down in a second.”

And from the way he remained standing at the door, Dani could tell he knew something was bothering her.

“You alright?” David asked with a frown. “You looked like you were staring in space there.”

“Yeah...yeah, I’m fine,” Dani said, nodding again as she gave him a small smile. “Promise. I’ll be down in a second, okay?”

David examined her for a moment longer. Then he gave her a nod and disappeared down to the kitchen.

Dani looked back at her mirror and stared at her reflection. Her long, black hair had been pulled up into a ponytail by a yellow hair tie that matched her fitted long sleeve, which was another reason yellow was her favorite color, as it seemed to brighten her already glowing brown skin. She smiled slightly as her gaze caught the silver Janine necklace displayed around her neck that she had gotten a few days before her grandmother’s funeral. She hadn’t taken it off since, and she doubted that she ever would.

“Today is a new day, Dani,” she whispered to herself. “You can do this.”

With a nod, the girl let out a deep breath and stood up to walk out the door.

David, otherwise known as the Lumberjack who saved her life that dreadful day, married Dani’s mother eight years ago. In Dani’s opinion, their entire relationship was based on that day alone since they would have never even met if it weren’t for her. Of course, Dani was very grateful to David for saving her life, but he wouldn’t have had to if she had followed her mother’s rules. Nevertheless, he made her mother happy, so that gave her a reason to tolerate him. Plus, he gave her-

“Ellie!!” a five-year-old voice exclaimed as Dani walked into the kitchen.

A bright smile took over Dani’s lips as her little brother wrapped his arms around her waist after running over to her. She laughed and picked him up to kiss his cheek.

“Good morning, Frankie!” she said. “Did you have a good night’s sleep?”

Frankie nodded rapidly. There was chocolate covering his entire mouth area, and Dani assumed it was because of the breakfast their mother had made.

“Uh-huh! Momma made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast!! Do you want chocolate chip pancakes, Ellie?” Frankie questioned, eyes wide with excitement.

Dani pretended to ponder the question as she tilted her head. She then smiled with a nod and said, “Yeah, I’ll have some pancakes. Are there any eggs?”

Frankie nodded again and pointed to the table, covered with an array of breakfast foods, including pancakes, hash browns, and eggs. Dani’s eyes slightly widened as she walked them over to the table of food.

“Whoa, what’s with the buffet? Are we a bed-and-breakfast now?” she asked her mother, Michelle, after kissing her on the cheek in greeting and sitting down in a chair.

Michelle laughed and shook her head. “Nope. I just felt like cooking up a storm this morning. How’d you sleep last night?”

Tensing up at the question, Dani shook it off as she poured herself a glass of orange juice while mumbling, “Alright, I guess.”

Michelle raised an eyebrow at the answer. “Daniella Janine...”

Dani sighed as she began eating her food. “Mom, you know I haven’t had the best night’s sleep since I was ten. Can we just let it go? I’m fine, I promise.”

They hadn’t always started their mornings off like that, but Dani couldn’t help but find her mother’s slight hovering a little annoying at times. She only meant well, but the constant questioning of a problem they were all aware of wasn’t exactly the right way to go about fixing it. Nor would there come a day when it would have magically gone away overnight, like Dani knew her mother had hoped it would.

Michelle sighed and looked at her daughter for a moment. She then shook her head sadly as she went back to her food.

Once upon a time, Dani had been able to tell her mother everything. Over the years, though, that seemed to change as Dani found herself shying away from everyone around her. The only person she felt she could really confide in was her best friend, Greta Fischer, and that was only because Greta had been in a similar situation as Dani had. She was slowly trying to change that around, though, as she found herself missing the close relationship she used to share with her mother.

“Ellie, can you bring booberry muffins home today?” Frankie asked.

Dani laughed at his mispronunciation of the word “blueberry.”

Before Frankie came along, Dani was an only child, so she had been used to the idea of being alone. Her mother had thought she would reject the idea of having a sibling when it was announced that she was pregnant, but to everyone’s surprise, Dani had been ecstatic. The birth of Frankie was the happiest she’d been since before her grandmother’s death.

“Sure I can, Bud,” Dani said and tilted her head. “Would you like me to tell Greta you said Hi?”

The look of embarrassment that had crossed her brother’s features caused her to laugh softly as he nodded quietly and took a sip from his cup. Frankie had grown a soft spot for Greta ever since he was two. Anytime Dani would watch after him, he’d always ask her if Greta was coming over too, so she liked to tease him about it from time to time.

“Speaking of Greta, could you please tell her that her dress is ready for pick up? And that I apologize for the long wait, business is always booming around the holidays,” Michelle said.

Dani nodded in response and looked down at her phone to check the time, her eyes widening in shock.

“I’m going to be late!!” she cried, quickly getting up from her seat and rushing to put on her coat.

“Wait!!” a small voice called out as she opened the front door.

Dani turned around to see Frankie running towards her. She smiled as she bent down just in time to catch him in her arms.

“Bye, Sissy. I’ll miss you,” he mumbled while hugging her.

Dani laughed at her brother’s dramatics and hugged him back anyway as she said, “Frankie, we do this every day, Bud. It’ll just be for a couple of hours. I’ll be back before you know it and I’ll have some of those booberry muffins you want so badly.”

Frankie’s features lit up with a big grin at his sister’s words, which made her do the same, and he nodded as he backed away.

“Yeah, Yeah!! Bring some booberry muffins home, sissy!! Momma!! Sissy’s bringing booberry muffins home today!!” he exclaimed as he ran over to their mother, who caught him in her arms.

“I heard it! Sounds yummy!! Now say bye-bye to sissy!” Michelle told him, and then they both gave Dani a wave and an air kiss.

Dani shook her head playfully at them but returned the gesture and headed out the door.

Sometimes, her family could be a bit animated.