Finding Beauty (Rewrite)

Chapter 7

~Beauty~

Beth took this as her moment of opportunity. She was going to try and escape.

Sure Teigan had said he was going to let her go and sure he hadn't tried to hurt her yet but to wait like a sitting duck would be idiotic. She hadn't seen Carina in the last few hours and Teigan had just announced he was going to bed. Neither one of them would be watching her very closely.

During her trips around the house she discovered that the windows had alarms on them so those weren't an option. She also found that the front door had a lock on it. The only place the key could be was upstairs. It was probably why he didn't want her to go up there.

After a quick survey of the room, Beth tip-toed over to the staircase. She felt lucky the house was in good shape so she wouldn't have to worry about creaking floorboards. To further help herself out, she left the volume of the TV high to drown out any noises she might make. She hurried up the steps and peeked around the corner, hoping the Beast was asleep in bed already.

Beth's hand flew to her mouth. It was no wonder he wanted her to stay downstairs. The second floor was a wreck.

There had been gray wallpaper on the walls, with golden angular shapes. However, there were only bits of it remaining on the wall, the rest hung off in chunks or had giant shreds in them. A few framed paintings were hung up on the wall, some crooked, some cracked, and some no longer hanging on the walls. The carpet was tattered and bumpy against the filthy floorboards. There were three doors on the upper floor and all of them were hanging on their hinges. Perhaps he kept Beth downstairs because it was a safety hazard.

She ran into the room to her and shut the door behind her. By the structure of the room, she assumed it was meant to be another bedroom. However, Teigan wasn't using it for this function. Instead, it had taken on the role of a giant closet someone shoved a bunch of junk into. There was a huge stack of clothes in one corner and the rest were boxes of knick-knacks, books and other belongings. She couldn't help but notice that all the clothes were made for a woman. None of it seemed like something Carina would fit in.

Whose clothes are these?

Beth dropped the sunflower decorated blouse, afraid that she might be holding something once worn by someone long dead. She forced herself away from the diverse book collection, reminding herself that she might be running out of time.

The next door led to a bedroom. In the middle of the room was a king sized bed. There was a big closet on the left and desk littered with papers next to the door. She was shocked to find that the room was similar to Grayson's. A rock band poster hung crookedly above the bed and there was a stereo almost completely covered by CD cases. Despite the abundance of things to look at, one particular object in the room had caught her attention.

The rose her mother had stolen was kept in a vase at his bedside table. She knew it was the same rose because of it's shade and unearthly glow. Again, she was entranced by its beauty. Something about it didn't sit right with her. Much like Teigan's appearance it was . . . different. It wasn't natural. The word 'magic' lingered in her head.

Then she heard footsteps down the hall. The bed had ample room underneath it so she slid under just in time to see Teigan's set of feet walk inside. She cursed herself. Would she have to wait until he fell asleep to crawl back out?

She heard him shuffle things around the room, huffing every few seconds. "Where is that stupid key?!"

The sudden burst of noise caused her to jump. Her head banged up against the box spring and resulted in an echo. Teigan stopped moving. She held her breath.