The Beast of Rose Castle

-= 25 =-

Her heart pounded terribly quickly and her breathing was erratic as she tried to thrash in the bed. Forest green eyes popped open, unseeing and panicked. She tried to sit up, tried to escape something, she didn't know what. A pair of hands grabbed onto her shoulders, the touch light and somehow comforting. The green-eyed gaze swung rapidly through the whole room, not noticing a single thing about it. 

"Shh. You need your sleep, dear. If you don't then you just won't ever get better now, will you?" a welcomed feminine voice encouraged her. Then, Annelie laid her head back down on comfortable pillows with a sigh escaping her pale lips. 

"Where?" she asked, her voice weak, barely even making a sound. A rag was placed neatly on her forehead and a sigh sounded somewhere around her. Yet, she couldn't place where she was, or what she was experiencing. Her brain was far too tasked on fending off whatever she had contracted from the arrow shot. 

That was the moment when she remembered what exactly had happened. There had been an arrow that had shot into her side, making her cry out. Warm hands and a voice she knew before had quickly comforted her. In a single, even motion, she had been picked up and held in muscular arms. Yet, they were not the arms of the Beast, of Vardan, but someone else. She couldn't place the face or remember very clearly anything that had gone on after that.

It was only when the sweet, feminine voice spoke once more that she focused in on what was going on. "Well, you see here, darling, you are at my orphanage. It is a fine place, trust me. You got here goin' on, hmm, well I've got to say at least two days now. It may be going on to three. I've been taking good care of you as soon as my boy brought you home. Shame about what happened in the forest, though I don't understand why a pretty little girl like you would be walking about those dangerous woods at such a peculiar hour," the woman began, her voice making Annelie tired, comfortable. 

Her pale lips trembled as they formed into a slight smile, finding the words the woman was speaking entertaining. "Really?" she whispered, her voice not able to be any louder than that. 

"Well, of course! Don't you remember, you silly girl, you? Don't you remember how you got into those woods in the first place, and why you decided that the night was the best time to go?" the woman asked her, voice filled with shock. 

"No," Annelie gasped, licking her lips, but finding her tongue felt dry and was hardly moving to the motion she wanted it to. The woman brushed her fingers gently against Annelie's cheek as she hummed out in thought. She felt the warmth fade and panic began to pound through her, but it was shortlived as she heard the movement somewhere. 

"Cassius!" she heard exclaimed faintly. 

"Who is that?" curious voices echoed from somewhere far away. Her hearing seemed to grow weaker as she tried to stay awake. Yet, the darkness was calling to her and it was so tempting. 

Annelie felt herself sinking into it before she heard a dark voice that she had grown to love. Her body jerked as she fought off the urge to sleep and her heart began to pound not in fear, but in excitement. My Beast, my forsaken Prince, my love, she thought. He has come for me. Relief pooled in her chest and a weak smile curved her lips upward. 

I wish to see him. I wish to see his handsome, dark features once more. Please, she thought. At least let me see him again. With that, she forced her eyes to focus. The door to the room slammed open and a heavily breathed, pained Vardan stood in the doorway, a towering figure there. His eyes met hers. "Beauty," he rasped. Then, her vision faded and she was lost within the depths of feverish dreams once more. 

---

Though every breath pained him more than he would ever let on, the sight of the woman he had been crazed over losing was there, lying on the bed. She looked so weak, but the way her eyes had glowed before they had shut themselves once more had been enough to make him realize that she had been waiting for him.