Breakfast was a chaotic affair. The five girls that lived in the house would fix their various meals and sit at the large table, in the breakfast nook, or on the counter. Ellette snagged her piece of toast with apricot jelly and her cup of coffee before escaping to the stool in the far corner. She would much rather escape outside or back to her room, but Gloria was very specific about her rules. Morning announcements after breakfast were one of the daily routines you did not skip.
The girl Gloria ushered in was small, seemingly far too young for this home for older girls. She had a thick shock of blond hair, and much like Ellette was painfully thin. This girl, though was quite pretty in a traditional sense, with her large blue eyes, sandy blond hair, and fair freckled skin. Ellette watched her from her corner, stoically silent. She knew her, quite well, actually. The memories that she brought with her, though were among the many she'd fought to repress.
"Everyone, this is Danielle, Dani for short. She'll be staying with us. I expect you to show her the same respect you were given when you first arrived and to help her learn our routines..."
The girl caught Ellette's eye, flashing her a smile, and giving her a tentative wave as Gloria rambled on with the usual morning news and expectations for the day. Ellette glanced away, her face carefully disinterested, doing her best to not show any hint of recognition.
***
Finally, she came to a sleek black wolf caught in a hunter's trap. As she struggled to open the vice-like device, the wolf whispered of the hunter. He was after a princess, and a white wolf, the twin daughters of the moon. It was said that their blood could cure any ailments.
The blood of the twin daughters of the moon? "How could that be? How could blood heal?"
"That is simply the legend."
The girl nodded and helped the wolf to escape, heeding its warning. Every step she took through the night in the forest was wrought with anxiety. Was he here? The hunter? He must not be far off if he'd caught the black wolf.
***
Danielle caught up with her during the morning chores, a bubbly, chattering shadow. "So! how long you been here?" she asked. Ellette made no sound and simply went about raking the fallen leaves.
"Gloria said you don't talk. What happened?" she continued, persistently. Ellette only shrugged and continued raking.
"I knew things were bad, but I had no idea..." Danielle continued shuffling her feet, kicking the leaves. "I went home, but things didn't get better there, obviously. I'm here now."
Ellette paused, watching her cautiously. She wanted to ask, but the part of her she was protecting, the part that hadn't quite healed, didn't want to know.
***
Morning came, and she curled up her wolf form, to awaken as a girl. Normally she would collect food for herself and nap, waiting for the night, the moon to guide her. Not today, though. The hunter wasn't only after a wolf. He was after the princess.
She stared down at her beautiful white gown, still unmarred after all this time, all this travel. It would surely give her away, she thought nervously. Yet it had protected her over the course of her journey. And she had nothing else to wear.
There was a howl in the distance, and she smiled. Wolves held no fear for her. They were fellow children of the moon. Perhaps this one was her brother, the black wolf she'd helped earlier. A dark form, like a flitting shadow, came bounding from the woods, and she smiled to find her brother had indeed come to visit.
"Girl, you stand out like a beacon in that gown. You must remove it." It commanded with a growl. "The huntsman will surely find you."
***
The girl persistently followed her for days, filling the silence that Ellette had previously languished in. At first, it was an annoyance, and she pointedly ignored the girl's chatter. Despite all attempts to keep her distance, to stay safely self-contained, she was warming to her company.
She'd always liked Danielle, and she was finding it hard to not enjoy the companionship. No one besides Gloria had even tried. For the first time in months, a smile would crack her features. It was only for the briefest, hesitant moment at first. It wasn't long though until the girl had coaxed words and laughter from her old friend.
When they'd lived together at that home, some time ago, it had been a dark and frightening existence. Yet, they'd had each other. Ellette, being the older of the two, had taken Danielle under her wing. When things got bad, she would take the blame, be the distraction, the scapegoat.
It was as if now, when she needed rescuing, Danielle had come to return the favor of long ago. To draw Ellette out into the world of the living once more.
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***
"The moon goddess gave me this dress to wear, I cannot!" She exclaimed. "But perhaps... you are right." She considered after a moment. She slipped out of the gorgeous gown and shivered in her thin shift, her long white legs and slender arms exposed to the cold and elements. Gooseflesh rose up all over her, and she trembled slightly. "What now wolf? I will freeze."
"Fold the gown up, place it in a nook of a tree. Then come with me to my den. I will keep you warm." She nodded, and obeyed, following the wolf through the woods. He glanced back at her, and she realized she still held the gown clutched to her chest. "Leave it. you can retrieve it come night." He growled.
She nodded, finding a particularly memorable tree to slip the gown into. The wolf gave a nod and continued on for a short distance. Before them was a rather large cave entrance, and she hurried into the protection of its walls.
***
"It's good to see you coming out of your shell," Gloria commented. It was their weekly session.
Ellette found herself smiling. She'd not felt comfortable in her own skin for so long. It was nice, a welcome change. The waking world had been nothing but a dream to her up until lately. Working through the motions of the daily routines, it was all a blur, she barely registered or acknowledged her surroundings. It had been a dull, gray reality.
Dreams, they had been more real to her than the waking world. When the moon was full and strong in the sky, she'd be called into the most vivid, engaging dreams. Always the rescuer, the vigilante of the night. In these dreams, she felt as if she was making a difference. It was the only time in her life in which she seemed to have control. That her actions mattered.
Now, though, with little Danielle as her constant companion, life held appeal once more. She let the smile stay in place. "It's nice here," she replied, her voice soft from disuse.
"It's lovely to have you here," Gloria replied, a smile blooming across her plump, weathered features. "Keep writing in your journal, and enjoy your time with Danielle. That's all I ask." She added, "you are such a joy to have here, Ellette, I hope you know. You never make a fuss, you always do your chores, and..." she gave her a knowing smile, "you're quiet as a mouse."
Ellette rolled her eyes, but the faint smile still softened her expression.
***
She stood in the dark entrance of the cave, only to realize a small fire was burning there. The wolf was at her back and the huntsman at her front. She spun, ready to escape, but the wolf leaped up at her, snapping and gnashing its teeth.
She felt the firm grip of a hand on her arm. The huntsman had her. Shivering and terrified, he held her still. "Don't worry, little princess," he whispered in her ear.
"What do you want from me?" she asked, terrified.
"Why, your blood," he answered, simply. "Didn't the wolf tell you?"
She nodded, grimly silent as he pulled her back into the cave and bound her hands. He sat her beside the fire, warming her goose-pimpled skin, yet her heart was cold with fear. She watched him, fearfully, ready to see a knife, a blade of some kind. Yet none appeared. Instead, he pushed her back against the straw mattress.
"You are pure and white as the snow, little moon princess," he whispered, admiring her slender white limbs, barely kissed by the slightest hints of color.
She bled, and though he used no knife. He broke her in a way she'd not known possible. She became a sliver of the moon girl she'd once been.
***
"You remember what we used to say?" Danielle bounced along Ellette's side. The older girl only shook her head. The little blonde grinned and stood on tiptoes to whisper in Ellette's ear. "Satan's ghost."
Ellette shuddered and gave the younger girl a hard look. "Don't say that," she snapped.
"Why not?" Danielle whimpered, cowering in the wake of her Ellette's reproach. "It was only a game."
Ellette sighed, turning to the younger girl. "It was not a game." Her words were faint, pained. 'Satan's ghost,' that had been their code-word. She'd taught little Dani that when Satan's ghost crept into their room at night he would possess them.
Ellette was an archangel, Dani's savior and protector. When she whispered 'Satan's ghost,' the little girl was to slip into the closet, into the secret little crawlspace they'd discovered. It had worked, she had sheltered the younger girl from the abuse, from the torment.
But for her, it was not a child's game. Satan's ghost was all too real.
***
Night fell, and she changed to her wolf form, bolting from the huntsman's cave. She rushed to the tree with the gown, her last possession in all the world. As she stared up at the nook where a silvery-white cloth should have just barely peeked out, she saw only red. Deep red.
She reached up, shifting to her girl form once more, and unfolded the gown. The silver gown was tarnished and dull, wrapped in a red mantle. She slipped the clothes on and glanced up at the moon. It was full, heavy, and red. She hurried on her way, a ghostly shadow wolf, flitting through the woods.
She reached the moon goddess' home as the dawn broke. There she lived, with the goddess, her doting grandmother, and her five sisters. There she was loved, there she was cared for, though she was no longer innocent, no longer pure.
***
Ellette sat up late, pouring over her journal, the story which was written there. She put the finishing lines to the tale and sat chewing on her pencil. After a moment's consideration, she decided to add a footnote to give it closure, as the story had done for her.
It read as follows:
As a child, I escaped into fantasy, as do all children. After a steady diet of fairy tales fed to me by doting social workers trying to be motherly, I couldn't help it. The Disney versions, though, were too contrived, too happy, too... unreal. I much preferred the dark, old folk tales.
I don't know where I got this particular story from, but it's still so utterly vivid in my mind. It's in some, vague way, little red riding hood. Twisted and distorted to fit the needs and whims of my equally distorted and twisted psyche. I felt the need to write it down now, to give it life in its own way. Maybe now that it's down on paper it will stop haunting the dim corners of my mind.