Unexpected Fairytale – Flashfiction

So, I decided to give this one a whirl, leaving it, in my usual style, until a few hours before close of submissions.

Thanks to the Yearning For Wonderland blog and to Susi Holliday for the nudge for #ouatwriting

It might not be what fits the bill for their competition, but I enjoyed knocking out these 350 words all the same:

No damn fairy tale.

‘This ain’t no damn fairy tale’.

She felt the hand tighten around her throat as his rancid breath met her nostrils, her back drawn up sharp against the rough bark of the tree as he shoved her harder.

‘So, you can drop the bag – you’re not gonna make it to Grandma’s house tonight, Snow White!’

Charlotte resisted the urge to tell her assailant that he was getting his stories mixed up, clutched her bag ever tighter, knowing the contents might just save her life. Her feet paddled to seek purchase on the forest floor as she was hoisted higher.

It may have been a human killer that she faced, but his power seemed evermore supernatural.

There was movement in the surrounding darkness, she sensed and then she saw it – figures moving amongst the trees, eyes focused on her. Charlotte didn’t fear them, she only feared the man whose hands held her tight, knowing of the trail of corpses he had left in his wake in previous weeks. He’d been hiding right there, in the dense woodland, for nearly a month, his tattered grubby clothing, his growing facial hair more than enough to secure the moniker of ‘The Wolfman’ which had been anointed to him by the local press.

She waited until she felt the moment was right, stared him right into his bloodshot eyes and spoke for the first time since he’d snatched her from the trail.

‘You are nothing.’ She raged. ‘A nobody – just a killer, plain and simple. Nobody special – for all your huff and puff!’

She kicked hard into both his shins, his hands releasing their grip enough for her to slip loose.

Her hand released the bag, dropping it to the floor. The hardened casing of the police radio inside ensured it wouldn’t break.

From the surrounding trees they ran, fourteen officers, most dressed in black and with weapons drawn on their target.

DI Charlotte Grimm stepped back quickly as the figure before her raised his hands and placed them behind his head, smiling as he did so.

Charlotte had finally got her happily ever after.

Keith