"Davion, can you come over here? I need you to do something."


    At the sound of his mother''s voice, Davion groaned. "Mom, I''m watching TV."


    "Davion." Her sharp tone caused him to clamp his mouth shut. "TV. Off."


    Davion obeyed, grumbling under his breath. His annoyed expression stared back at him in the blank TV screen. He didn''t stare for long as his mother called for him again, forcing him to walk to the kitchen.


    "Yes, Mom," he said as he looked at his mother''s back.


    She paused what she was doing and glanced back at him. "Davion, I need you to go to the store to buy a couple of things." Without waiting to hear what he had to say, she stuffed a piece of paper and some money into his hand. "I need you to hurry back. Your relatives will be here in an hour."


    "Why can''t Sharlene do it? She always does it."


    "Your sister went with your father to pick up your grandparents from the airport, which you should have known since you were there when they left."


    She did?


    He hadn''t paid much attention to what was happening since he had been glued to the TV. School had kept him so busy that he hadn''t had time to watch his favorite TV shows until now. Davion hadn''t wanted to waste a single minute to catch up on what he missed.


    As if reading his mind, his mother gave him an unimpressed look. "Hurry. I need you back before everyone gets here."


    Rather than argue or complain further, he reluctantly headed for the door. He passed by the coat rack by the stairs and doubled back after walking a few steps. His eyes lingered on the red cloak hanging from one of the racks.


    Davion recognized it as part of his twin sister''s costume for trick-or-treating tonight. He hadn''t expected to see it there.


    Why is it here and not in her bedroom?


    Well, whatever the reason, he took it off the rack and threw it over himself.


    Since they were identical in every way despite being different genders, the red cloak fit him perfectly. If he had gotten the same costume as her, then no one would be able to tell them apart. His twin would probably be angry that he stole her red cloak, but it was payback for leaving him to do the work while she got to relax in the car.


    He hurried out with the red cloak flapping around him, eager to get back to watching TV, but he wasn''t far from the store when he saw some familiar faces down the street. A group of boys was huddled together on the curb of the sidewalk chatting away.


    One of the boys spotted him and loudly said, "Hey, isn''t that Davion?"


    All the boys turned to look at Davion, and another said, "I think so."


    Davion jogged up to them as he gave a brief wave. "Hi guys, whatcha doing?"


    "We were just hanging out. We thought you wouldn''t be coming out because of your relatives," one of them said.


    At the mention of his relatives, Davion grimaced.


    Normally, his relatives didn''t visit on Halloween. Well, at least not all of them. Once in a while, one or two would stop by to do trick-or-treating with them, but not everyone. They normally only had family gatherings where everyone got together during the holidays or summer when they didn''t have to worry about school. His parents didn''t tell him or his twin why they were coming today. They had just sprung it on them suddenly.


    Did something special happen?


    He really couldn''t figure it out.


    "Yeah, my mom told me to do some shopping because she forgot some stuff," he said as he waved the piece of paper.


    One of the boys crinkled his face. "That sucks. Doesn''t your sister normally do that stuff?"


    "She''s with Dad. They''re picking up grandma and grandpa."


    A couple of the boys nodded in acknowledgment.


    "So does it mean you can hang out with us?" another boy asked.


    Davion opened his mouth and hesitated.


    On one hand, he really needed to buy the stuff and get home right away. His mother had made it clear that she needed it for what she was cooking. Without the ingredients, she couldn''t finish cooking lunch. On the other hand, it couldn''t hurt to spend some time with his friends. It wasn''t like he would hang out with them for hours.


    After thinking it over, he said, "Sure. I can stay for a little." He immediately took a seat on the curb at the end. "What were you guys talking about?"


    "We were just talking about one of the urban legends," one of them chimed in.


    "Which one?"The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "The dog one," a different boy said.


    "It''s a wolf, you idiot," another body said.


    "No, it isn''t."


    "It is."


    The two boys bickered as Davion recalled which one they were referring to.


    Apparently, there used to be a huge forest where they lived, and it was supposedly where the story of Red Riding Hood happened. Of course, a lot of people debated whether it was actually about Red Riding Hood or just another similar-sounding story. No one could settle on one or the other.


    "What brought it up?" Davion asked.


    "Because of this," one of the boys said as he shoved his phone in Davion''s face.


    With the screen so close to his face, he had a hard time reading what was written, but his eyes caught the word wolf. He pulled his head back so he could get a better look at the screen and skimmed the contents.


    "It''s been trending lately," the boy said as he pulled his phone back. "Everyone''s been talking about it."


    Everyone?


    He had a hard time believing that. If it was really trending like crazy, like his friend said, Davion would have seen it when scrolling his feed when he was on his phone. That hadn''t happened.


    <hr>


    "When he says it''s been trending, he means early this morning," a different boy said.


    "Isn''t that what I said?" the boy with the phone said.


    While the two argued, another boy whispered, "Actually, the post has been around for a while, but it didn''t gain traction until recently."


    "Really?" Davion asked.


    "Yeah. Don''t know why it''s suddenly popular. There have always been posts about the topic since you know."


    Davion did know. Since it was an urban legend, there were always people bringing it up all the time. It would be weirder if no one ever talked about it.


    "I didn''t get to finish reading the post. I saw something about wolf sightings," Davion said.


    "People have been claiming to have seen the wolf from the urban legend showing up recently. Someone uploaded a video that went viral," the boy said.


    "Are they really sure it was a wolf? Couldn''t it be just a big dog?"


    "It''s hard to tell from the video. All you can see is something huge on four legs with glowing yellow eyes."


    "That could be anything."


    The boy just shrugged. Wanting to know more about the topic, Davion pulled out his phone and searched up the video.


    The video itself wasn''t long. It was only a couple of minutes. The quality wasn''t good either. Barely anything could be seen. For all he could know, it could have been filmed anywhere. In the end, he couldn''t even tell if it had even been an animal that had been caught on camera. Even the comment section was complaining about how terrible the footage was.


    "This is what is trending," Davion said in disbelief.


    He was sure he could make a better video with his phone.


    A boy glimpsed over Davion''s shoulder to take a look and said, "That''s the wrong video. The one we saw definitely had better quality. It might be a copycat. I have the right video on my phone."


    Davion stashed his phone away and glanced at the boy''s phone.


    The video quality was loads better than the one he had just watched. He could actually tell what was happening instead of trying to make guesses on what was supposed to be on the screen.


    Whoever was recording the video was jogging down the street when there was a growl. The person stopped in their tracks and scanned the surroundings. After several moments, they hesitantly returned back to jogging. They didn''t get far when there was another growl, causing the video to shake violently. The video blurred as the person frantically searched the area for the source of the growl.


    That''s when something popped into view.


    He jerked back, nearly falling off the curb from the jump scare. Placing a hand on his beating heart, he looked back at the paused video to get a better look at what scared him.


    This time it was clearly an animal in the video and a big one at that. The animal looked massive.


    It might even be bigger than me.


    Well, it wasn''t that hard to accomplish. Davion wasn''t exactly the tallest person in the class. He wasn''t even the average. Compared to his friends, he was the shortest in the group, but no one made fun of him for that.


    After studying the image for a bit, Davion said, "It really does look like one of those big dogs."


    "You mean like a golden retriever?" the boy asked as he glanced at the video.


    "No. Why would you think that? Golden retrievers aren''t black."


    "That''s the only big dog I can think of."


    "All the black dogs I''ve seen are the small ones," a boy chimed in.


    "I don''t think I''ve ever seen a completely black dog before," another said.


    When Davion thought about it, he realized that they were right. He couldn''t think of any dogs that were big and completely black. No wonder a lot of people thought it was a wolf instead of a dog.


    "Anyway, what happened to the person in the video?" Davion asked, pointing at the phone.


    "Oh, the person said they were chased all the way back home. When they got inside, the animal disappeared," the boy said, playing the video again.


    Once the video ended, Davion shuddered.


    He wouldn''t want to be in that person''s place. Being chased by a normal animal was scary enough. Being chased by a giant animal was so much worse. Davion wasn''t sure he would be able to outrun whatever had been chasing them if he were in their place.


    "Why did he get chased anyway?" Davion asked.


    "They said it''s because he wore something red like in the legends," a boy said.


    "They got chased because they wore red? I thought that was for bulls."


    The boy shrugged. "That''s what people are saying. So, if you don''t want to be chased by it, don''t wear red."


    As soon as the boy said that, everyone stared at Davion, who looked down at himself.


    It was obvious what everyone was thinking, and Davion seriously regretted stealing his twin''s red cloak. It''s not that he believed the story was true because it wasn''t. That was just a story someone made up to get attention, but in the case it actually was true, he really shouldn''t be wearing red.


    "So what''s with the getup? Is that your costume or something?" a boy dared to ask.


    "It''s my sister''s," Davion admitted.


    This got him a bunch of curious and confused looks.


    "Why are you wearing your sister''s clothes?" someone asked.


    Davion opened his mouth only to close it right after.


    He didn''t really have a good answer for them. Originally, he did it to get back at his sister for not being there to go shopping for their mom, but in hindsight, it wasn''t much of a revenge.


    After several moments, he finally said, "I just felt like it." This earned him several odd looks, but he didn''t care. Instead, he continued, "I better get going. It''s getting late, and I have to head back before Mom gets angry."