A week later the mysterious customer wasn't seen back at the bakery. The days were normal and fairly busy. People wanted to escape the winter cold by holing up in the bakery buying endless cups of cocoa and coffee.

Carmine and Maria sat at the counter before opening, filling sugar containers before opening the bakery.

"Carmine, your grandmother isn't feeling well," Ester called, pressing the END button on her phone and exiting the kitchen with a grave look on her face. "I think it would be good for her if I went to her house and stayed there to take care of her until she gets better. Luckily it's just the flu, nothing too serious."

"What about the small business convention in Boston?" Carmine asked, screwing on the top to the sugar container.

"I'll have to miss it," Ester said with a sigh, looking devastated.

"What if I went to grandma instead?" Carmine offered quickly, realizing it was an opportunity to travel through the forest alone.

Ester stared at Carmine for a moment, trying to decide if she should. "Are you sure?"

"You've been talking about this convention for months; of course I'm sure."

"Okay," Ester said with a bright smile. "I made a basket of goods for you to take to her, along with some wine and cheese. And I need for you to leave now, because I don't know how bad she's feeling. Just be careful, and stay on the road." Then she looked at her lovingly, "Thank you so much."

"Of course, mom," Carmine said with a smile before hopping off the stool and grabbing her red coat that hung on the coat rack. She walked over to her mother, kissed her on the cheek, hugged Maria, took the basket and was off on her way.

Of course she swung by her house to pick up a few things necessary, and made the drive towards to grandmother's house, who to her absolute happiness, lived deep into the woods that gave the town its name.

During the drive, as she entered the woods, a wooden sign held an eerie warning: BEWARE! FOR YOU MAY ENTER, BUT NEVER LIVE TO MAKE IT OUT.

She stared at the sign skeptically, but continued driving. Her grandmother lives a good way into the woods, because it was now afternoon, and she was only a little over halfway there.

Maybe about a mile away from her grandmother's house, her old unreliable Beetle sputtered to a sudden halt. "You've got to be kidding me." She pulled the hood of her coat over her head and pulled the hood lever for the car, then stepped out. She opened the hood, and out flooded clouds of smoke.

Carmine groaned when it cleared, shut the hood, and got back into the car. She took out her phone to call Maria since her mom was probably already on a plane towards Boston, but then she realized there wasn't a phone tower for miles and that she had no signal.

She moved her phone around in the air hoping for at least one bar. Finally, near the backseat, a little bar appeared and she quickly dialed Maria. But the call broke shortly after the third ring, and with a groan she felt hopeless.

How does Grandma get signals all the way out here, she wondered. She then grabbed her keys, her phone, and the basket of goods, and got out of the car. She gave a loving pat to her unfaithful car, and began to head off in the direction that her grandmother lived.

She began to hum in her angelic voice as she always did when she had nothing else to do. But it was interrupted by a loud howl of a wolf in the distance, cutting off her song, and adding a little pep in her step.

About an hour later, she was at the house. She walked up to the door and knocked.

"Grandma?" she called. "Grandma, it's Carmine." When no answer came back, she opened the door and poked her head inside. "Hello? Grandma?" She opened the large wooden door wider but she didn't see anyone. The lonely two rocking chairs Carmine and her grandmother used to sit in and talk were empty except for a knitted blanket in one. The fireplace was on and burning brightly. There was soup on the stove that was bubbling over, so Carmine turned it off.

"Grandma? Are you in here?" She walked off to the back rooms, calling her name until she came to the conclusion, her grandma obviously wasn't there. She sat the basket down on the counter and walked back outside.

She didn't notice before the paw prints in the snow that led over towards the back of the house. She went back in, grabbed the fire iron and headed back out. She slowly made her way to the back of the house where the paw-prints led.

Lying out in the middle of her grandmother's backyard was a hump of brown clothes and bright red blood that stained the pretty white snow. Carmine walked closer slowly and cautiously.

"Grandma?"

When she got close enough to see that it was indeed her grandmother, mauled and laying in a lifeless heap of flesh, clothes, and blood, she slowly began to hyperventilate in panic, until she finally let out a piercing scream at the horror that lay before her. Her scream echoed throughout the forest, ricocheting off the trees as she dropped the fire iron and crumbled into a heap of helplessness on the ground near it. Her tears seemed to be stuck behind the wall of shock and panic.