Finding Beauty (Rewrite)

Chapter 29

~Beauty~

She woke up with a gun to her forehead.

Tyler Daniels had taken off his mask and the jacket of his suit. They were thrown to the ground of the room they were in. It had no windows and the floor and walls were made of cement.

Tyler's hand trembled ever so slightly but he broke out into a wicked smile when she pulled at the rope that bound her hands behind her back around the chair.

"Bethany Rodriguez . . ." He lowered the gun, backing away to look over her. "Nineteen year old college student from Brooklyn taken by the Beast."

Tyler didn't resemble his brother much. They both had the same hair color, similar frames but their facial features were worlds apart. Tyler's nose was bulbous and round, his eyes more wide set. Beth almost wished they were twins just so she wouldn't have to add another face to her nightmares - assuming she got out of the situation alive.

"Everyone thinks you're lying in a ditch somewhere," he said, scratching at his hair that had become greatly disheveled. "I've been watching you for days and I can't seem to figure out why you're playing house with him."

Bethany persisted on pulling at the rope. "Let me go! Help! Someone help!"

Her capter rolled his eyes. "We're in the lower level of the museum. Everyone is at the party on the top floor - the music is blaring. You'll scream your throat raw before someone hears you."

Her heart fell into her stomach, the rope becoming slippery over her sweat.

She refused to believe there was no one around to hear her. Teigan would be searching for her - Grayson too! He had to have been calling the police already. She could live if she kept Tyler busy for long enough.

"Who are you to the Beast? What's so special about you that he could kill my brother but leave you be?!" He shook the gun as he spoke, making her flinch.

"Your brother tried to kill us. He killed a bunch of people in the fires he started!" Beth bit her tongue as the man turned red, his veins popping out from his forehead.

"And he was supposed to get locked up!" Tyler shook his head while pacing the length of the basement. "I've always known Ryan to be a little off. I knew the consequences for his actions would catch up to him sometime but your monster of a friend ended him! The police aren't going to get justice for him. So this is what it comes to."

"What if . . ." Beth chose her words carefully. She had to buy the police or Teigan enough time. "What if I told you he wasn't dead?"

He chuckled, leaning in uncomfortably close to her. "I'd tell you that living with that freak has caused you to lose your mind."

"Why? You've seen him without his mask on! How do you think that's possible? If he can look like that then can't your brother still be alive?"

Tyler Daniels cocked the gun and shot a bullet into the ceiling. Bethany yelped.

"Shut up! I'm not playing these games with you! I don't give a rat's behind how he looks the way he does!" Tyler glanced back at the staircase leading up out of the basement. "I was going to wait for him to show up so I could kill you in front of him but he's a little late."

Tears of desperation fell down onto her cheeks. "Please! Don't do this!

Where was Teigan?

"I think I may have killed him with that elevator trick. I guess those healing powers ain't all they're cracked up to be."

She stilled. "What elevator trick?"

"I work here as an electrician. I let the elevator drop from the top floor - it was only meant to stun him. Guess he's not as strong as I thought."