A Beastly Sin

Belle

4 days.

4 incredibly long days that seemed to stretch into years since he was due to return home. It wasn't all that strange for him to return a day or two late, but he always sent word if that was the case. Always. The snow blew against the window panes, swirling daintily in the air before blanketing the ground. Lost in watching the outside world, I didn't notice my reflection
staring back at me, the worry etched into my face that stole the grin from my plump red lips and the life from my sparkling eyes, replacing them with a slight frow and dark circles. With a sigh, I looked away, knowing I couldn't continue like this any longer. At dawn, I would set off to find my father.

After a night of tossing and turning, succumbing to sleep only to endure nightmares, I arose with the first crack of sunlight streaming into my bedroom. Opening up the chest at the end of my bed, I dressed in my Dark Hunter gear, black form-fitting trousers and a black long sleeve shirt. After lacing up my knee length boots, I shoved a dagger in each boot, sliding them in with a satisfying click. Grabbing a three metre long pure silver chain, I wrapped it around my waist as a belt, ready to use it to strap down a supernatural creature if the need arose, as silver was the only thing that could hold them. Throwing on my long leather jacket that swirled around my calves, it got bulked up slightly by the fur undercoat I wore beneath, and I picked up my twin blades, sheathing them in my backstrap that held them crossed on my back. Hurriedly fixing my wavy hair into a high ponytail, I stuffed a saddle bag with food and other essentials, picking up fathers reading glasses as I went, before finally going outside to the barn where Katrina was kept.

As I stepped into her warm stable, she greeted me with a whinny and nudged me affectionately, pining away for a treat. Standing at 16.2 hands high, and a gleaming mass of ebony, she was the most stunning horse that I had ever seen in my entire life. After giving her a quick brush, I saddled and bridled her up, strapping on the saddle bag separately. Leading her out onto the cobblestones outside the barn, I mounted her quickly, walking her around to the dirt track that led away from our home in the direction of Broadham, the town in which the demon he had left to hunt had dwelled.

After a while, the snow stopped falling, but it had changed the scenery completely. Having come of the track completely, I didn't even know which direction was home, the heavy snow having covered our earlier tracks. Frustration bubbled up in me, and I let out an angry growl, Katrina's ear swivelling in only slight interest. Having no other choice, we rode on, deeper and deeper into the woods. Time seemed to just blend into an endless slur, and coming to a small stream I hopped off, wanting to allow Katrina some rest and needing to refill my water bottle. Katrina pawed at the ground slightly, revealing tufts of grass that she gently nibbled at whilst I held the bottle under the water. Suddenly, a loud noise pierced the air, and I whirled around, one of my twin blades already drawn only to see my fathers horse Philippe galloping towards me, great hooves thundering against the ground. Quickly sheathing my blade, I held my hand up in a stop sign, making gentle calming noises and stuffing the now full bottle in my bag. Finally skidding to a stop, I grabbed his reins, mumbling nonsense to calm him. Studying him, I made note of the freckle of what seemed to be blood on his flank, but after checking him over I couldn't find a wound on him at all, and with a ball of dread sitting in my stomach, I knew that it must be my fathers. Allowing Philippe a chance drink before getting on Katrina, we rode on, following Philippe's tracks. He looked too healthy to have been out here for longer than a day, so where ever he came from father couldn't have been that far behind.

As the sky darkened, Philippe began to get skittish, dancing around and around. The further we walked the more agitated he seemed to get, until it was almost impossible to hold him. Katrina skittered around as well, put on edge by Philippe's actions, and it was all I could do to control them both. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye a shadow seemed to move, and my head swivelled with blinding speed to follow. With a finally rear, wrenching the reins out of my hand, Philippe turned tail and ran, galloping into the darkness. Alone now, I heard a branch snap to my left, just as something leapt at me . Without a single thought, my blade was out of it's sheath and had sliced the ugly demon neatly in half before it could reach me, black blood staining the snow, grotesque body similar to that of a dog sized centipede twitching slightly. Uneasy, I looked around to see a clear path of destruction through the wood, and keeping my blade drawn, I urged Katrina into a canter, having no choice but to follow it, knowing in my gut that my father was close.

Finally, I emerged from the thicket, only to see a large castle looming above me, fog clinging to it like a cloak. Slipping off Katrina and looping the reins over the huge wrought iron gates that looked to have been blasted open, I fed her an apple, before walking on into the courtyard. Holding a blade in each hand now, I looked around, tension seemed to coil in the air, and I was tensed like a coiled spring, ready to fight. Listening in the now faded light of early evening, something was off. Not a sound was to be heard, not the whisper of the wind or the rustle of an animal. Absolute silence. Almost at the castle wall by this point, I notice what seemed to be an outhouse of sorts, crudely built and like a scar on the otherwise stunning castle grounds. I was drawn to it, almost as if there was a voice whispering for me to go forward to, to open the rough wooden door to it. With a sharp tug, I opened it, blade held in a fighting stance just in case. Noticing a stone staircase leading underground, I followed them, intrigued. Once I got to the bottom after what seemed like an endless descent, I gasped. It was a circular room, vast and wide, a large stone table sat in the middle. Doors of barred metal lined the walls, leading into little cells, simply rough holes cut into the stone that left a person only enough room to sit or stand, laying down was out of the question. But the wasn't what made me gasp however. It was the single pair of large brown eyes so like mine that stared back at me from the only occupied cell.

"Dad?"

Rushing across the room, I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt. "Dad! Thank God I found you! Why are you in a cell? Are you in trouble?" I spoke a mile a minute, I was so relieved to find him, alive and not dead in the belly of a demon. He did not return my smile though, his eyes seemed to fill with terror and he shook his head wildly, his short salt and pepper curls swinging.
"Belle! Oh God, you need to leave! Go!" He was shaking slightly, and I thought I had never seen him so scared. The pool of dread that had left at the sight of him began making itself known again.
"What- dad no I'm going to get you out of here- whatever trouble you're in we can fi-"
"No! Demons are everywhere! I'm not in here for wronging someone! This is where they keep their food!" Dead silence met his rushed statement, and slowly I turned, looking around. Glowing eyes stared at me from the shadows, and my heart pounded a mile a minute. I'd never seen so many demons in one place. Quicker than a snakes strike, I whirled around, bringing my blade slashing down on the lock to my fathers cell. Breaking easily, the metal door swung open, and I gave him both my daggers from my boots, understanding in our gaze as we locked eyes. We were going to have to fight our way out.