We found this short snippet tucked into an old family Bible that was stored in a battered trunk in the attic. It has been updated to reflect current technology and culture.

One winter’s night, Rose Red drove to a nearby town for pizza at one of her favorite restaurants. She parked on a side street, locked her car, and pulled on a heavy wool coat as she walked toward the pizzeria.

The streets were nearly deserted. Her breath misted in the air and a chill wind slid down her neck beneath the collar of her coat. She shivered and pulled it closer, and quickened her steps along the sidewalk.

She was half a block away from the pizzeria when she spotted a man sitting on the sidewalk with half his body tucked into a square of shrubs planted in a huge gap in the sidewalk. He was dressed in thin pants and ragged boots, one with duct tape holding the sole on, and a threadbare jacket so old, she couldn’t discern the color.

A young couple hurried by him, their heads down to the wind, and he held out a hand and said, “Help a feller out?”

They ignored him, but Rose Red couldn’t. The air was too bitter, the shrubs not enough protection from the piercing wind. She wouldn’t give money to a stranger and she had no blanket or extra coats in her car. That didn’t mean she couldn’t help him.

She backtracked down the sidewalk to a coffee shop located below street level, ordered a large hot chocolate and a bowl of that day’s soup off the chalkboard menu. Ten minutes later, she carried the warm food up the street, knelt in front of the beggar, and held out her offering.

“No one should be out in this weather without hot chocolate,” she said, smiling.

He grinned at her, showing gaps where teeth had gone missing. “Thankee, missy. Ye’ve a good soul.”

Rose Red stood, thinking that if that’s all it took to possess a good soul, then everyone should have one. “Do you have someplace warm to sleep tonight?”

He gestured down the street with the hot chocolate. “Shelter’s open. They got room.”

“Go on, then, when you’ve eaten,” she said, not unkindly.

“I will indeedy.”

She turned to go, and stopped when he hollered, “Hey, missy! You want I should dance for you?”

She smiled at him over her shoulder. “That’s not necessary. Enjoy the meal.”

“But this is a special dance, one that’ll bring God’s hand down to protect ye.”

That stopped her good. One corner of her mouth turned down in a puzzled frown. “I’m not much for religion.”

“But religion is much for ye,” he said, cackling. “Bad times ahead, missy, bad times indeed. There’s a war comin’, a war between what’s good and right and them what’s got mischief on their minds, and ye’re caught up in it, whether ye like it or not. God’s watchin’ out for ye, now that ye’ve been demon marked.”

As he spoke, Rose Red’s heart jumped into her throat, and memories flooded her, filling her with an unsettling mixture of fear and relief and regret. Jax and his tattoos and those beasts that had attacked them. But how had this man known?

The beggar laughed again and his dark eyes twinkled under the rough hem of his knitted cap. He tapped the side of his nose with the tip of one finger. “I got my ways about me, missy, ways of knowing what’s going on, and they start with Jesus, our lord and savior. He filled my ears full of ye the last time He was here, filled ’em right full. Said to keep and eye out for ye and warn ye good. You watch the air, ye hear? Watch the air and the wind, for it knows ye’re coming and Jesus aims to keep ye from harm.”

Rose Red staggered away from him, too shocked to answer. Behind her, he called, “You ever want that dance, you know where I be. God’s watching, missy. He’s watching and He loves ye.”

Her appetite gone, Rose Red hurried back to her car and slipped inside just as the wind gusted around the corner of the building, carrying the beggar’s mad laughter. “Weren’t yer fault,” the wind said in the beggar’s voice, then, “Keep yer eyes on the road ahead.”

She closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her pattering heart, and cursed her too-soft heart for pushing her to be kind to an old man on a cold winter’s night.