Ein Schaf unter Wölfen

[servena]

Challenge: Ein Schaf unter Wölfen
Fandom: Handmaid's Tale
Charaktere: June
Sprache: Englisch
Wörter: 300
Kommentar: Ist das zu billig, so schnell seine eigene Challenge zu erfüllen? :D

Red, everything red. The coat, the dress, the damn scarf.

Red Riding Hood

It’s cold in Boston. The wind cuts through cape and dress right down to the bone. She burrows her nose deeper into her scarf, clenches her mitten-clad hands in her coat pockets.

Red, everything red. The coat, the dress, the damn scarf. Her cheeks are probably red from the biting wind. She feels red inside as well.

She didn’t used to mind the color. She didn’t wear it much back then, too bold for her, and it washes her out, her hair, her skin. Maybe a red lipstick every now and then. Maybe a red dress. She tries to remember if she ever used to own one and comes up empty. Maybe it was Moira’s.

There were different reds, before. Red for things and red for people. One as a warning and the other as an invitation. What are they warning from now, she wonders. Maybe they believe sin is contagious.

More Handmaids flow into the street in front of her and it’s like drops of blood dotting the snow. The clothes of the Marthas and Econowives look dull in comparison. They’re tagged, marked, like something you don’t want to lose. Impossible to disappear.

The snow fall increases and she pulls the hood deeper into her face. She can barely see the snow next to her feet. Little Red Riding Hood, on her way to slaughter. A sheep among wolves.

She finds the gate more by instinct than anything else. The cold metal bites into her skin as she pushes down the handle.

She looks up, briefly, to see if Nick is standing outside of his door to smoke, by some miracle, but all she gets is snow in her eyes.

Three days from now she will lay with the wolf and there won’t come a hunter to save her.

But he hasn’t eaten her yet.

Maybe it’s time Little Red Riding Hood saved herself.