Red Guilt

• Bailey Breen, Grade 6, The Peninsula School
• Short Story
• 2011

Excellence Award in the 'Step Write Up 2011' competition

A beam of light flooded the cell with an eerie presence. Musty air filled the old wolfs lungs, coughing and wheezing, wolf had been sentenced to life without parole for the murder of a lumberjack.
Passionate and caring, the wolf was a loving man. He would never murder anyone, it was said that he was under the influence of alcohol. Painful flashbacks reminded the wolf of the misunderstanding at the court. The body.
Red flashes always entered his dreams. Red, she was the culprit but she was protected by a fake wall of innocence. Being a loathsome looking wolf the magistrate had no doubt who the murderer was. The mangled body, Red standing over the body with bloodlust in her eyes, he remembered it as clearly as if it were yesterday. Everybody thought the wolf was mad when he told them what happened. What was he to do?
Solemnly, the wolf lay alone in the dirty cell like a cat perched on its favourite windowsill. Faintly he could hear the birds chirping in the wonderful midsummer’s sun.
Bright rays of sunshine pound the canopy as Red walked briskly along the windy mountain path. Guilty thoughts flooded her evil mind like a stream. Like everyone she did not want to go to jail but in her mind she knew who the culprit was.
Keys jangled as the door opened; slowly the wolf woke from his trance. Puzzled, the wolf didn’t oppose to his release but was disturbed when he saw Red in bright jail orange.
By Bailey Breen