Finding Beauty (Rewrite)

Chapter 25

~The Beast~

The fire wasn't real but thankfully the heat was. 

Bethany was still shivering against the fake chimney's stone, the clanking of her teeth chattering filling the air between them. He was no longer cold - a luxury the curse gave him. He hated how unfair it was. If anyone deserved to feel frozen it was him. 

Teigan had recovered from almost drowning with the magic of the curse a lot slower than usual. It used to be almost instantaneous when he was first cursed. The burns from his encounter with Ryan Daniels was the first time he took note of the hours he spent with welts on his body. The curse made sure it wasn't lethal but he wasn't fully healed until the next morning. In the woods, when he fell into the lake, he had expected to get himself out of the situation easily. Instead, he lacked so much strength that Bethany herself had to help him. She basically saved him.

She did save him. 

He would have to ask the witch about it. He expected to see her soon if she caught wind of this incident. She had been adamant on Bethany’s safety . . . He was surprised she hadn’t come back to lecture him about releasing her already. Either way, he was grateful for the curse for the first time in a while. He had no idea what he would have done had Bethany died on the forest ground . . . He didn't even want to think about it. 

He picked Bethany off the ground and helped her walk back to the house with his heart pounding in his chest all the while. Her face was pale, her legs gave out from underneath her several times. He stopped and asked her if she wanted to be carried but she insisted she had to keep moving or she’d lose all feeling. After the fourth occasion, he lifted her up and strided across the forest. 
Carina was flabbergasted at the scene they caused when they came through the door - especially when she heard it was all for a Christmas tree. She had driven to a local market that very morning and bought one to surprise them with.  

Bethany brought the sweatshirt’s sleeves down over her hands and buried her face in it. “I would take a shower right now except the thought of being in water after drowning is terrifying. I’ll never bathe again. I’m going to be smelly forever!” 
He couldn’t believe she was cracking jokes when she was almost a corpse a few hours prior. 

“You should have left me there.” He hadn’t meant to say this out loud. It just erupted from his mouth. There was no taking it back and he didn’t know how to make it sound less harsh. 

She peeked up from the sweater’s sleeves, eyebrows drawn together.

“Under the lake?” 

“Yes.” There was no use in backtracking. "I would have lived. You know how the curse works.” 

“You would have been stuck there almost dying over and over again until the spring! That’s what you wanted?” He didn’t fail to notice how aggressive her own words were coming out. If he was being snappy, she was taking it to the next level. 

“The better for you to escape! I deserve it for all I’ve done!” 

She leaned back. “So I’m supposed to sentence you to death? Repeatedly? Where is this coming from?” 

"When I let that guy go the other day, it worked so flawlessly. He was stopped and all of those students along with their parents are going to sleep better at night knowing he's behind bars." He turned towards the fire. "That's what it should have been from the beginning." 

"I agree." 

"I have a whole garden full of roses in the city. I can’t undo what I’ve done.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I’ve messed up so bad. And forget about what I did before I was cursed!" He expected talking about his feelings to lift the weight off his chest but it did the exact opposite. It was getting hard for him to breathe.