Rose, Wilted: Book 1

Chapter 20 - Run, Run, Run, as Fast as You Can

Four days passed where the Beast and I were together. We spent the majority of it by the fountain. Our friendship deepened during those days, slowly but surely. The animal seemed to have vanished and I liked what was left in its place. I think the Beast did too.

But more often I could literally see the time slipping away before I could catch it. There were only a few rose bushes left alive and I still couldn't think of anything to stop them dying, no matter how many spellbooks and fairy stories I searched. I had worn a loop in my thoughts, running through a million possibilities, but none of them worked, even when I learned a small enchantment of my own to try to buy the Beast time. It was a growing spell, meant to make the wilting roses stay alive, but I'd almost collapsed afterward and wasn't even sure I'd done it right. The leaves looked a little more green at best.

There were times that the only world that existed was the castle and its grounds. But more often were the times that my yearning for home was almost more than I could bear. My thoughts were often of my father. He was never far from them anymore, especially when the world outside the gates had begun to look like springtime again. The snow was nearly gone. It reminded me of the work to be done in the garden - the buying of seeds and listening to the soft trickle of the stream again instead of its icy winter silence. When I had expressed my thoughts to the Beast, a stream was added to the garden. A garden appeared in a private, secluded spot behind the castle. I didn't know how, but I knew why.

But as I looked out over the garden from the window seat in my room, I sighed. Nothing could be done to make this place feel like my own home. Luxurious or not, no matter how many whims the Beast catered to, wasn't it still a prison? I pressed my cheek to the cool glass pane and stared out past the castle grounds and the tops of the budding trees. There were faint lines of smoke rising in the distance, rising from familiar chimney flues. One of them belonged to the Twist home. There were also the DeLoncre and Javert houses, the McFae cottage - a large family of enchanters, the Dauphins, the Bruins, the Carolins, the Lyebell family, the Louise house... I trailed off the list in my mind, forgetting what I had even been doing in the first place.

There was no trail of smoke in the sky where my father's cottage should have been. Why not? He always insisted on a fire during the winter. Maybe he was just in town. But his fire had been out all day and he never stayed out of the house for long in the cold. Maybe they had moved back to the city without me. But somehow I doubted it. Maybe Ilsa and Blair had left, but Father would never leave Mother's grave. Was he sick? He was getting on in years. What if- what if he died and I never knew it? I had to be able to say goodbye at least. I couldn't just sit here in my enchanted prison and never see him again! Just the thought was making my insides twist and squirm like snakes. I couldn't stay like this. The Beast was wonderful, but he couldn't replace what I'd had, nor what I had yet to lose.

Rowena made a quiet entrance. In one hand she held a tray of food which she expertly switched out with the still full tray from my last meal, right next to my stack of untouched books.

As Rowena began to walk out I realized that I could see the door through her. She was barely a wisp now. All of the servants were growing more and more transparent by the day. I shuddered. It was as though the castle itself was dying. My only human company might be gone in a matter of weeks. Would I ever see another human again after that happened? A wave of panic washed over me.

"Wait." It came out as a whisper, but Rowena turned nonetheless. She looked at me kindly, well aware that I had spoken little, if at all, since I'd confined myself to my room - what was it now, three days counting today? - and requested that the Beast leave me be. Sometimes I heard him outside the door, respecting my wishes but unable to stay away. It had only made things worse.