14. The Weight of Forever

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"What are you doing out here?" the Beast asked, his brown eyes watching her intently.

Bo shifted in discomfort at the sight of his slightly glowing blue skin amongst the glory of the rose bushes. Even more than usual, his kind looked completely out of place amongst the natural beauty of this world. His blueness, his bigness, the ragged stubble on his scalp, his otherworldliness-- all conspired to make him look like a wound on the red-bloom landscape behind him.

"I wasn't going to stand around all day waiting for someone to remember I existed," Bo snapped, surging to her feet.

The Beast's lip curled and he took a step forward. Bo immediately retreated, forced to push up against the briars behind her.

"When I gave you free time, I did not mean for you to trespass on private areas," he said. "The Service-Matons had to interrupt their work to let me know you were going places you shouldn't."

Bo snorted. "No one told me where I can and can't go, so what does it matter? Are you afraid I might try to escape?"

"Of course," the Beast replied. "You're about as trustworthy as a criminal, and I'm not going to trust a servant like that in somewhere as previous as here."

"Servant? You mean slave? Because it seems to me I'm being kept here against my will without any form of payment."

The Beat bared his teeth. "Your life and your father's are your payment."

"How is that payment! You don't own my life," Bo bit back.

The Beast stood silently, breathing through his nose, and then his gaze flickered away from her. The tension eased as he stepped back and relaxed his bunched muscles, hands hanging slack at his sides. "Your payment was already taken when you father tried to steal from me. You are working off a thieving debt."

The Beast's cooling mood only served to ignite Bo's own. This time she took a step forward, finger pointed at the Beast's chest and her eyes flashing. "Look, I don't know what goes on in that sick mind of yours, but my father isn't a thief. Whatever he took from you, I can guarantee it was because he needed it to survive. He has people relying on him to return home safe, so if he took a bandage or some food then it was for the benefit of many."

The Beast laughed sharply. "You have only to look around yourself to see what your father apparently deemed so important to his survival. I am sure he must have thought a rose imperative to keeping alive."

Bo froze, her face blanching.

A rose? They hadn't grown in the blast zones since before Bo could remember, and as such they were so incredibly rare that they literally had no price. No one would be able to afford a rose, and they certainly wouldn't want to spend hard earned money on something that would wilt and die within a few days when they could buy valuable rations for much less. Yet, obviously the Beast had been able to afford an entire plant, hundreds of plants, to fill this garden. And not only that, but the amount of water and whatever else he did to keep them looking so fresh. The filtration systems had to have cost a fortune. Her dad had gotten himself in deep by stealing a rose. It really was a debt that she and her dad could never possibly pay off with barter or money. It sickened her that her stupid request to her dad had blown up so badly.

The Beast, perhaps sensing her arrival at the truth of his accusations, crossed his arms over his chest with an air that bordered on smug. Bo drew her eyebrows together and decided to change the subject.

"Well, then how long do you plan on keeping me here? I'll prune the garden or sweep or whatever you wanted me to do, but I'd like to know what I'm working toward."

"Seeing as how your father's incursion was so grievous, I was not planning on you reaching the end of your life span before you paid off the debt you owe me."

"What." Bo's mouth went dry. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that your father agreed— and, consequently, you did as well-- to work for me indefinitely until such a time as I saw fit. That time is well beyond your or my life, and so I suppose you could come to think of this as a permanent position."

Bo nearly choked on her own tongue. "What?" She knew she was just repeating herself, but nothing else would surface in her addled mind.

"I said this is to last forever. Starting now."

Bile rose in Bo's mouth, acrid and harsh. The idea of spending the rest of her life here with this thing was unbearable. A crushing sense of suffocation set in, and Bo recoiled from it. This wasn't how she ever thought she'd die, as a slave for one of those creatures that had taken her and killed-- her mind stopped before she could think on those dark days. Instead, she channeled her despair into hatred, letting it pour into the pit in her stomach like burning lava.

Before he could react, Bo marched right up to the Beast, pulled back her arm and delivered a solid punch to his jaw. His head snapped to the side, but his face remained as stoic as ever. Bo heaved in a breath at his coldness, wanting him to feel the pain she did. She wound up for another punch, but he caught this one in his palm before it came anywhere near his face. Bo stared at his hand, large in comparison to hers, gripping her wrist. A tingle of electricity came off his skin, burning in her veins. She tried to snatch her arm away, but he held it firm, bringing her close to him.

His face was only a few inches from hers, and she held her breath as his eyes bore into hers. He still gripped her wrist, holding it in the air and her in place. When he spoke, his voice was quiet and calm. It was the voice of someone who knew they held all the power.

"You're one of my beautiful things now."


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