Girl In Red Wolf - Tumblr Posts
Chapters: 3/? Fandom: The Path (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Robin (The Path), Rose (The Path), Ginger (The Path), Ruby (The Path), Carmen (The Path), Scarlet (The Path) Additional Tags: Anthology, Non-Linear Narrative, The Joys and Horrors of Growing Up, Fairy Tale Elements, Psychological Horror, Content Warnings for Individual Chapters, Queer Themes, Writing About An Obscure Art Game That Came Out in 2009 Because Why Not Summary:
A collection of short stories chronicling the lives of the Red siblings before, during, and after the events of the game.
Chapters: 5/? Fandom: The Path (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Robin (The Path), Rose (The Path), Ginger (The Path), Ruby (The Path), Carmen (The Path), Scarlet (The Path), The Girl in White (The Path), Girl in Red Wolf (The Path) Additional Tags: Anthology, Non-Linear Narrative, The Joys and Horrors of Growing Up, Fairy Tale Elements, Psychological Horror, Content Warnings for Individual Chapters, Queer Themes, Writing About An Obscure Art Game That Came Out in 2009 Because Why Not Summary:
A collection of short stories chronicling the lives of the Red siblings before, during, and after the events of the game.
Day Five: Wolf Swap
The Girl in Red cannot for the life of her figure out this strange little creature.
She can hardly believe that this absent-minded little fool shares genetic material with her sorrow-marked siblings, each of them utterly and irreparably bound to the earth.
And then there’s this walking balloon.
She drifts across the field the Girl in Red calls home, delicate fingers tracing the thin veins of wildflower petals. A faint smile on her pale face, like she’s in on some secret.
She doesn’t like when this girl looks at her. Like she understands something about her without either of them saying a word to each other. It reminds her all too much of her sister in white, wise beyond wisdom and distant from this world and every other.
“Hello,” the strange girl says. Her voice is soft, weak. “Are you exploring too?”
The Girl in Red turns up her nose.
“You’re not the fun one.”
“Ginger?” the strange girl asks with another little smile. “Sorry. It’s my turn to go to Grandmother’s house. But I had some time, so I thought I’d check on the flowers.”
Check on the flowers. The Girl in Red fights the urge to feed this little cretin to the Werewolf. She sighs, then cocks her head to one side. Considers. She’s not supposed to see this one. The thing in the lake has already marked this girl. So why is she here? And why can this child, who’s not yet started to truly grow, see her now?
“There’s another girl in the forest,” the strange girl adds after a moment of silence. “She looks a bit like you. Are you sisters?”
She’s all the good parts of me, running away and away and away and I can never catch her hand.
“Yeah. She’s my sister.”
The strange girl smiles even wider. A breeze catches in her hair, causing it to gently sway like weeds in water.
“That’s great! She’s really nice. Does your family have a cottage out here? Our grandmother lives just down the path, at the edge of the woods.”
“We’re here and there,” the Girl in Red replies. “Where we need to be.”
The strange girl frowns.
“I suppose that’s where everyone is,” she says. “Where they need to be. Even when they feel lost.” She looks at the Girl in Red curiously. “Do you ever feel lost?”
Yes.
“No.”
“Oh,” the strange girl says, then smiles sheepishly. “Because I feel pretty lost right now. Know how to get back to the path?”
Follow the light ‘till you find the lake. There’s someone very important there, waiting for you. They’ve been waiting for you for a long, long time.
“Find my sister. She’s got a good sense of direction.”
“I wish I knew this forest better,” the strange girl admits. “This place, it seems like it doesn’t want to be known. Maybe I should respect that.”
You aspire to know so much. That hunger, it’s almost as great as ours.
“It’s a big forest. People who don’t live out here find trouble more than they find anything else. It’s only when you belong here that you start to know everywhere interesting.”
The strange girl’s expression softens.
“If I go to find your sister,” she says, “will you come with me? Maybe we can all play together, or just spend some time. It would be nice.”
I can’t leave this place. None of us can. We just pace and fester and hunger and wait.
“No. I’m not done playing. Have fun with my sister. She likes gentle games.”
The strange girl looks somber for a moment. Then she nods, taking a moment to look up at the patch of sky above them, one of the only ones visible from the forest. Here the light is golden, the sky a deep, lonesome blue. The last of the light is being swallowed up by the long night to come.
“Oh, goodness, it’s almost dark! I need to hurry!” the strange girl says. “Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself?”
The Girl in Red nods.
“Like I said. I know this place. Even in the dark I know every turn.” She picks a flower and pulls off the petals one by one. “Run along. I’m not yours anyway.”
The strange girl looks confused at her words, but finally relents, and walks away. She turns as the fading light catches in her hair, weaving gold into the black.
“I hope I see you again.”
You’ll be swallowed whole before you’ll ever get that chance, little thing.
The Girl in Red just waves.