_{(1,063 words)}

Rian was almost home. Through her tears, she saw the lights of her village just past those trees. In the pitch black darkness, she sprinted to those lights. Holding her ripped dress on with both hands, she glanced back.
"Shit! Is he still following me?"
She tripped over a rock and fell; her chin hit the hard earth. In the dark, lights floated in her vision from the pain.
Bleeding profusely from her lower lip where her front teeth had bitten down, Rian got up dizzily.
The clouds parted and the full moon illuminated the area around her. She saw the huge form step into the light. Rian’s eyes widened; with a fearful moan, she turned to run.
---

The previous morning
"Rian, sweetie? Are you up yet? It's almost noon." Rian's mother called to Rian in the small shack that the two shared.
"Yes, mother." Rian peeked her head out of her room and yawned.
"Will you do me a favor? Take these to your grandmother, please." She lifted a basket with bread and honey in it.
"Uh... I don't really want to go there." Rian wrinkled her forehead.
"Honey, you haven't visited your grandmother in almost a month. She misses you. She's all alone in that cottage, I'm sure she would love to see you."
"She's not alone..." Rian flashed back to the memory of her last visit. The house smelled like rotten wood and ointment. The door was unlocked, so she walked in and saw that Oscar, the old woodsman was there; he and her grandmother were on the couch, naked. Rian shuddered.
"Lauren Rian Rosette Hwang, wash your face and take these to Grandma this very instant."
"But..." Rian stopped, when her mother used her full name, it was an argument she wouldn't win. "Fine. But this will cause a lot of mental scarring, you know."

Rian's grandmother lived in the next village over, but if Rian cut through the forest, it was not so far and Rian didn't mind the walk.
"Good afternoon!" She called out to the baker.
"Hiii Toma." She winked and blew a kiss at the delivery boy as he rode by. He lost control of his bicycle and promptly crashed into a cart of chickens.
"Good day, Miss Hwang." The voice made her jump. She was giggling at Toma trying to untangle himself from a mob of wings and beaks and didn’t notice the man approach from behind her. She turned around.
"Oh, hello Oscar... sir", she didn't know the old man's last name. He smelled faintly of ointment and she had to stifle a dry heave.
"What are you up to?" The woodsman asked gently.
She lifted the basket quickly, "I'm taking these to my grandmother."
"Ah, I see. What a nice girl you are, I was there the other day and she seemed a little tired" Oscar smiled a toothless grin.
"I bet..." Rian thought as she nodded. "Well, I should go. Goodbye Mister..."
"Lupine." Oscar had noticed her discomfort earlier and finished her sentence. "Please give your grandmother my regards."
"Mister Lupine, thank you, I will." She sighed inwardly, "good, he's not going to be there".

She didn't meet any people going through the woods. She stopped to eat her lunch and pick flowers for her grandmother. By the time she arrived at her grandmother's cottage, the sun was setting. She could see that the lights were on and she could smell the delicious odor of stew wafting from that direction.
She knocked on the door, loudly, for her own sake. No one answered. She tried the knob, and it opened.
"Geez, doesn't she know the meaning of 'personal safety'?" Rian walked in. "Hello? Grandma! It's me, Rian." She put the basket on the kitchen table and walked toward her grandmother's bedroom.
A sharp acrid odor hit her. It was dark inside and her grandmother’s bedroom door looked like it had been chopped inward.
"Grandma? Are you well?" Rian grabbed a lamp and shone it inwards. The sight of blood everywhere made her reel.
"Oh my God." She dropped the lamp and stumbled out of the room. "Okay, holy shit, um..."
She picked up the phone, but there was no dial tone.
"Okay, I'll get help, yeah." She ran out the cottage. "Mom, mom will know what to do."
She ran into the woods, away from the village. Fumbling in the dark, she made her way through the dark forest. Suddenly, she felt someone tug on her dress. With a scream, she stumbled away from her attacker and the dress tore. However, no one followed her. Squinting, she saw that the hem of her dress had caught on a bush. She chuckled nervously as she brushed the dirt off herself. She screamed again as she turned and collided into Oscar.
"Miss Hwang? What's wrong? You're shaking." Oscar put down his ax. Noticing that her clothes were tattered and dirty, he wrapped his red cloak around her.
"Mr. Lupine? Grandma... and blood everywhere and... grandma."
"Calm down, what happened?" Oscar grabbed her by the shoulders and looked into her frightened eyes.
"Grandma is... dead." Rian’s vision suddenly focused on Oscar’s woodsman ax. "What did you do?" She tore away from his grasp.
"Girl, you're not making sense, I’m taking you back home."
"Get away!" She spat "Don't touch me."
Oscar was stunned. He grabbed her wrist as she started to run past him. The grip made her stumble and she fell.
"I'll scream! Don't think I won't!" Rian was hysterical. Suddenly, her blood ran cold again as she saw steam rising from behind Oscar.
She opened her mouth but only soft wordless gasps came out as Oscar was driven into the ground by a wild dog.
No, not a dog. It was too large for a dog, it looked like a large human but with too much hair all over. She watched, frozen in horror, as it bit through the back of Oscar's neck and tore off his head. Oscar’s decapitated body hit the ground and a stream of blood sailed through the air landing on Rian’s left hand. The heat of the man’s blood caused Rian to regain her wits; she spun and ran to the safety of her village, of her home, back to her mother.
"Mom! Toma! Anyone!" She saw the lights of her village, just past those trees...