Beastly Desires

Chapter Five

Sébastien found it surprising how fast autumn was thundering away. The gardens were coated in a thick layer of frost and he grazed his paw across the frozen flowers, their beauty and aroma captured in an icy embrace.

He squinted up at the sun, feeling a little light headed at the piercing light that bore through the wispy clouds.

How long had it been since he stepped outside? At least three weeks, possibly even a month he pondered. He felt that cold dread clinging to his shoulders, the weight of that invisible chain shackled to his spine as he drifted closer to the front gates of the castle.

He stared at the spot beyond the gates, reliving that horrid moment in time when his life had completely stopped- died.

How long had it been since that hideous day? Ten or twelve years now? It felt like an eternity within this beast of a body.

He walked along the iron fence, his eyes distant in thought. How long had it been since their last visitor- since that poor soul came running through, the monsters of the forest beyond trailing at their feet. Sébastien had sensed the urgency, smelled the blood and ran as fast as his hind legs could take him through the garden and to the gates. When he threw open the gates, that chain that bound him to the castle coiled around his soul, blistering fire licked up his back and it took all his strength not to recoil as he urged the stranger into the safety of the castle grounds. He had slammed the gates closed, practically falling to his knees as death released its hold on him.

If he could go back that day and had let the forest consume the stranger, it would have been a better death- a worthwhile of a death than what begot the stranger soon after.

He was never the same afterwards. His heart had turned to coal and not even the living fire within him scorched its black surface.

He spent most of his days inside his study, reading over inventory parchments and writing away payments and trade deals. Even though he was stuck within the confines of his castle, he never broke his business ties to the outside world. Regardless of his blackened future, he assured his servants and castle workers their lives would not be without. It was his curse that was placed upon them, his doing and not their own.

The connection he had to the outside was a young boy in his late teens who came by every other day to deliver and receive messages and parcels from Sébastien's business merchants. He received his pay in a small bag of coin left outside the gates. Neil would be the one to receive what he brought and bid him good day. Neil was the only one the boy ever saw. Sébastien would look down through his window from his study at the young boy and watch as the young boys eyes would rove over the castle. He knew he was searching for any other sign of life, another living soul that filled the castles large intestines. Neil would shoo him away eventually before his gaze found his own through the stained glass windows. Sébastien sometime hoped they would.