Finding Beauty

Chapter 1

~The Beast~

I killed him because it was the right thing to do. 

It was the right thing to do. 

I killed him. 

I didn't kill him. 

It was the right thing to do. 

The city was lit up in varying degrees in varying places. The looming buildings that claimed Manhattan some miles in the distance were the brightest. Each window, floor vacant or not, was twinkling with yellow light, like stars competing for attention. Looking over Brooklyn, the window stars were fewer. They were spaced out mirroring the actual stars in the sky. A window dim, its apartment occupants to be out all night, a window lit as a couple argues despite their neighbors complaints.

If I looked up into the actual sky I would see nothing. There were no stars in New York City. The lights blocked them from view leaving us, its residents, to invision stars of our own.

My view was fixed on the ground. My story was closer to the ground, than the stars.

It has been a whole year of taking the law into my own hands. I was fighting crime, much like my father had once wanted. It was an accomplishment that almost made me smile. The only accomplishment I had achieved.

Melvin Cruz was wanted for murdering his wife and three kids.

He got what he deserved tonight.

He had been lucky. He had a family, people to love him, to spend time with him. The reports said no one saw it coming. And he killed them. Criminal psychologist says it was a power move. I wonder how powerful he feels now.

Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I was lonely. Knowing that Melvin had something I wanted and threw it all away made his case more personal. It felt good taking him out.

What chance did I have at companionship anyhow? I was known as The Beast. New York City gave me a name describing how I should be treated. No one could befriend a beast. No one could love a beast. I had to come to terms with my fate. I would be alone and that would have to be okay. It would have to.

People couldn't see to understand that I what I was doing was heroic. I was taking criminals off the streets. They were hurting people and now, because of me, they would never hurt anyone ever again. How could they look past that?

Of course, I did have Carina. She was at least neutral about what I was doing which was great compared to other people's opinions. However, she could hardly count as company. I wasn't sure she understood me and even if she did she was hardly around. Her visits pertained to checking to see if I was alive every once and awhile.

It was her who informed me I had special company today. Instead of texting or calling like a normal person she sent a letter.

The witch was coming.

I hadn't seen her in a long time and I wanted to keep it that way. Every fiber in my body hated her. It was that hate that powered me through the days most times. My head pulsed at the thought of her.

I stood on the balcony of the apartment overlooking a descant alley and waited.

"Hey handsome." Her voice mocked me. I was anything but handsome.

"Very funny." I turned around, arms crossed to see she had appeared beside me. She was wearing a giant and theatrical ball gown with a golden crown on her head. Her blond stands were long and curled. She looked like royalty. "Playing dress up?"

"No," she said calmly resting her palms on the railing. She took a breath of the musty city air. "I was a princess once . . . a long time ago."

I rolled me eyes. She clearly didn't get the hint that I didn't give a care. "Why are you here?"

Her lips tugged up at my impatience. Then she ran her hand against the railings catching a layer of dust. "This balcony needs cleaning."

"Listen witch," I hissed venomously, "just tell me what you need to tell me and leave."

My heart was pounding against my chest. I could almost hear it.

She ruined my life and now she was here? Poking fun at me? She is out of her mind-!

"Temper, temper. I am not a witch but an enchantress."

I slammed my hands down with an inhumane growl.

"Okay, okay. Sorry, Beasty. Believe it or not it gets lonely for me too and I miss having someone to tease." She sighed and continued. "I see you've taken up a new hobby; playing super hero, fighting crime . . ."

"Yes." Now my heart was pounding for a different reason. Was she going to reverse the curse? Had my service been enough to get her to change her mind?

"You need to stop it."

My jaw dropped. "What? Why?"

"Because the way you are doing it is wrong," she stated as if it was a well known fact.

I stared out her with anger and confusion, itching to knock the nerve right out of her. "How am I supposed to handle it? Bring those criminals to jail? Looking like this?!" I wildly gestured to my gruesome self.

It was her fault. She made me like this! I was the cruel one?  

"There are other ways you can go about this and you know it but if you can't figure out then you should stop entirely."

I shook my head. "I've finally found something that makes me feel somewhat better - somewhat human- and you want to take that away from me?!"

"Do you know what you're known as out there? A merciless killer."

I had seen the headlines and reports. It wasn't new information.

"I don't care what they think about me!" I roared like the animal I was.

"Little do they know that you are bringing those criminals to a worse fate than death!"

I ignored her and stared at the rose in my hand. I hadn't let go of it all night.

She ripped the flower out of my hands, broke it by its stem, and tossed it over the side of the balcony. I watched it fall, my fist clenching at the loss of won of my treasures.

"It has to stop."

"You can't tell me what to do! Leave! Now!" I was screaming in her face with no fear of the consequences. It didn't matter anymore what happened to me. Without this, it didn't matter.

"You know what you need to do. You need to stop playing hero. What you're doing is sick." I didn't even think about what she was saying. None of her words were fully processed. I refused to really listen.

"I won't. It's the only thing I have." My voice had gone soft and though I hated the sound of it, I didn't have the energy to change it. "If I stop, I will mean nothing to the world. I don't want to feel like nothing."

I gave my back to her and started to walk inside.

She came to take even more away from me. She really was a witch.

"Fine. I see you will not agree to my terms." I wasn't looking at her but I knew she was staring at me with the same intensity she did the day I met her, shooting daggers into my spine. With a gaze that intense you could turn someone into stone or in my case a beast.

"Something big is coming."

Shutting the doors to the balcony I could barely hear her final words.

"Your second chance."

*edited* (Edited chapters tend to be in past tense while unedited are still in present tense. Sorry for the inconvenience.)