Rose, Wilted: Book 1

Chapter 7 - The Bloodstained Truth

It happened almost in a surreal, underwater trance. I heard my father shouting behind me, but my ears distorted the sound and I couldn't hear the words. My feet were frozen to the ground and I could hear my heartbeat thrumming in my ears too quickly. I couldn't blink, much less move. All I could do was hold my stare. What I saw in the Beast's expression was the anger and hatred, but in its eyes was the barest spark of something human. But I knew that had to be wrong. This was a monster, and I could expect no mercy.
I found myself watching his teeth. His jaws widened slightly and I got a heart stopping view of rows of dagger jaws, with fangs like bayonets. The sound that met my ears was a low, throaty growl, barely audible, almost questioning. I drew in a shaky breath. I was almost positive my chest was visibly moving with how fast and hard my heart was pumping.
Do it quick. Just do it quick.
But the Beast didn't come to me.
It stalked around me and back to Father instead.
I heard the Beast growl out a threat, but the words didn't make sense. My father, fearless now, shouted something back. The Beast snarled and the next thing I knew he had swept past me again, dragging my father with him.
My eyes widened but my lips weren't working. The words and the screams and tears were all tripping over each other in my brain and banging against the inside of my head with no way out. I saw my father's lips moving and my brain finally caught up with my distress.
"I love you."
Those were the words. The last words I knew would ever hear from him.
And then the Beast and my father vanished down the stairwell and I was left alone with the moon and stone and cold. And the execution block.
That was what broke the spell. Suddenly my feet could move and my legs and everything, but they were all moving downwards, collapsing to the stone floor. Tears blurred the darkness and smudged the moonlight. I viewed from a distance the sobbing and the violent tremors that overtook my body for what seemed like an eternity until they finally dulled and then halted. I couldn't feel the stone anymore. The cold must have made me numb. Even the moonlight was beginning to darken and my last thought before those stopped too was,
I must be dead.
* * *
I awoke probably an hour or two later to the sound of its claws clicking quietly against the stone. My first thought was,
I'm not dead.
My second:
I'm about to be.
I lay still, trying to breathe slowly as though I were still asleep. My heart beat faster and I was frightened that the Beast would hear it thumping like a drum.
I felt it's heavy breath next to my ear and shivered, then prayed it hadn't noticed. A second huff was hotter and stronger against my neck, stirring the small hairs there and sending chills across my body. I knew its bayonet teeth were only inches from my throat. I felt my skin blanch.
There was no one left to protect me now.
My gut writhed like snakes when it growled and then groaned. I didn't dare open my eyes to see what it was doing, but guessing was worse than not knowing at all. Just as I was about to take a quick peek, I felt something creep under my shoulders and the crooks of my knees. I realized it was the Beast's arms as I was lifted gently off the ground.
I fought the urge to panic as worst case scenarios instantly sprang to my mind. Most of them ended with me dead or eaten, but not always both. Then the sensible part of me sprang up and protested that the Beast didn't need to take me somewhere else to eat me. It could do that just fine in the execution tower.
We were moving now. I could feel the descension down the staircase and out into the halls and hear the clicking of its claws against the stone.
Apparently it could walk upright.
My head was cradled against its chest and I could hear its heart thumping. It was much louder than my own, which made sense since the Beast's heart was probably much bigger, but it was also...faster, like my own frightened heart. His fur was surprisingly warm and soft too, which really didn't go with his vicious nature. My heart was still beating fast, but for some reason I felt strangely comforted.
I wasn't dead yet and hopefully my father was safe. Apparently I was leaving the execution tower as well, so that had to be a plus. But it still left the question of where I was being taken. The dungeons perhaps? After all, I was a prisoner now. But what had it said? That I would suffer in Father's place? Of course that probably meant being eaten, but maybe not. Maybe I would be the Beast's servant, or a gardener of some sort? It obviously prized the roses.
It was only a few minutes before the Beast began ascending another staircase. Probably the one in the entry hall. From then on it was a while before I felt anything else. I couldn't tell if we had changed direction and there was only the slightest jostle in the Beast's step. Somehow, despite everything that had gone on that night, I found myself slipping back into a sleepy haze. I let my head nestle a little deeper into its furry chest and felt the Beast's heart jolt. It got a little wilder than before, and suddenly my mind was a little more awake. Why would its heartbeat get faster? It couldn't possibly be frightened, and excitement didn't make sense. Was it nervous? But that didn't seem to make sense either. If I hadn't been pretending to be asleep I would have shaken my head. I dropped the subject. There was too much else fighting for room in my mind.
The Beast ascended another staircase and after another minute or so I felt my legs dip downward and the Beast's paw twist. A door creaked as it opened in front of us. The Beast walked inside and lowered me onto something soft that I guessed was a bed. I tried my best to look peaceful. I listened as the door closed, but didn't hear any footsteps. Maybe the door muffled them. At any rate, I waited a few moments before I opened my eyes. My blue irises peeked through my eyelids, scanning what little was in front of them. Nothing. I opened my eyes completely. Still nothing. I rolled over. The Beast was standing there.
My heart gave an enormous jolt. I nearly screamed. I thought I would have heard its breathing, but then I realized that any idiot could hold their breath for ten seconds. It must have suspected I was awake! My heart began to pound again. Every muscle in the Beast's body told me that it was straining against the urge to lash out. Its face was twisted in rage.
"Stay out of the dungeons and the tower," it growled coldly. I stayed still and silent, fearful that anything from me would provoke it. I slowly and carefully nodded my head, never taking my wide, blue eyes off the Beast.
It stormed out, slamming the door behind him with a bang that shook the ceiling. I could hear the Beast's roars of rage as its full fury was released on the castle. Sounds of furniture being ripped apart and thrown at the walls echoed throughout the marble halls. I broke down crying. It was all too much. I curled myself up into a ball and fell asleep, still racked with sobs of fear.
* * *
The Beast tore through the castle, unleashing a furious, animal, rage on any object he came in contact with. Portraits were torn from the walls and shredded until the faces were no longer recognizable as human. He wrenched a chair from one room and mutilated that too, then hurled it down two flights of stairs where it shattered, oozing stuffing. The Beast crashed his body into the marble railings and pillars, causing cracks to split their surface. He roared in anger and frustration as if that alone would drain the scalding rage from his blood. To his right was a tall, female angel entombed in white stone. He glared at her perfect face. The Beast lunged for the statue, toppling it over and crushing her features with a single blow. The angel's neck crumbled under his stranglehold and he tossed the remains aside, looking for something new to take his rage out on.
A flash of movement caught his emerald eyes. He whirled to face it and saw a monster. A monster with green eyes and a lion's mane, with dagger jaws and already twisted features contorted by rage.
A mirror.
His eyes widened and for a moment there was a flash of horror reflected back at him. But then it was gone and an anguished roar split his throat. He hurled his paw against its surface and the glass shattered. Shards fell to the floor as he clawed at the glass that still remained in the frame. He gouged out the wall behind it, heedless of the drops of scarlet blood dripping from his paws.
The Beast dropped back to all fours, standing among the remains of the shattered mirror speckled with crimson. He flexed his claws in and out, tearing gouges in the solid marble floor. His head hung low between his shoulders and his chest heaved from the left over rage that was quickly souring into realization, then thinly masked despair. He gazed down at his paws where the mirror shards still reflected the bloodstained truth. His emerald eyes squeezed shut and he turned his head away.
Her. Hungry. Kill.
No.
The Beast growled in frustration.
Kill.
No. No more death.
Kill!
Stop!
He clawed at his head with a groan, trying to tear away the torture of the two voices. All it took was one girl and one curse to cause him this pain. One curse to twist his body and divide his mind and one girl to remind him of it. And she wasn't even that pretty. Just a plain village girl. She couldn't break the curse. No one could. No one...
The Beast snarled. It was easier to let the monster rule his mind. It wasn't so painful. Not nearly as painful.
The Beast stepped away from the shattered mirror and broken angel. The scalding rage in his blood had cooled to weariness, and he padded slowly away down the hall to look for a distraction called sleep.

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So I'm curious, how do you guys feel about the Beast now? Any predications?
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