Beast (28 page)

“They are for me to do whatever I want with them. Usually I create storms to scare them. Then I show myself; finally, I kill them. Your parents knew better than to break the rules. They got what was coming to them!” it shouted. Then it laughed again.

“There was a legend? I never knew about this legend,” I said.

“Maybe they wanted you to go into the forest after midnight because they did not love you,” it taunted.

“Be quiet, you fool! My parents loved me more than anything,” I scolded. “But why did you curse me? What did I ever do to you for you to make me this horrid thing? People shriek when they see and run at my appearance!
Why?
” I demanded for it to tell me.

“Why should I explain to you? Does it even matter now that you are …” It went quiet.

“Now that I am what? A horrid-looking creature like you? I will never be like you—ever!”

“No, but you are just as bad as I am. You guilt-tripped a daughter away from her family and forced her to live with you. You broke a family apart and kept them away from each other.”

“I am not like you at all! I let her go back to her family. I felt so guilty after what I said to her father. The difference between you and me is that you choose to be evil and never back down; your heart is just as horrid as your appearance. My outward appearance is a beast, but that is not my heart; I actually care about others. I do not ever want to hurt a family like that ever again,” I roared.

“Well, you are right about that last part.” It snickered.

“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice full of anger.

The creature looked around the room and then walked toward the roses.

The moment that its long, crooked finger touched one of the petals, it instantly turned black and fell off the rose. I became more frightened inside, but I did not let it show on my face. My heart was racing, and it became difficult to breathe.

It turned its giant head toward me; it had a spine-chilling smile on its face.

“Do you really want to know?” it said, its disturbing smile growing wider.

“Yes! First, tell me why you sent a curse upon me!”

“If you really want to know, fine. The reason why I cursed you and your castle was because you were not with your parents that night. I was not able to kill you that night because you were here. So the only thing that I could do was curse you. And here you are—cursed.” It laughed.

“And now that I am
what
?” I sat upright, looking the creature in its cold black eyes.

“Now that you are”—it touched another rose petal and watched it fall to the ground—“dying.”

“Dying! Why am I dying?” I shrieked.

“Well, it is not just you who is dying. The roses will die along with you. When they die, you will die.”

“Answer my question, you horrid creature.” I stood up, hovering four feet above it. “I am not afraid of you anymore! Tell me!”

I wrapped my paws around its neck and lifted it off the ground. When I did this, all it did was laugh.

“You are dying because she left—because you let her leave.”

“What does Mirabelle have to do with this?”

I began to squeeze its neck tighter.

“She has everything to do with this. Since you did an evil thing by breaking up a family, you lived longer. But the second you did something nice, you wrote your own death certificate.”

“So because I did the right thing, I am dying?”

“Yes, you beast.” It cackled.

I looked down to the ground with the creature still in my grasp. It did not matter how tightly I held on to its neck; it did not make a difference.

“But there is a way to keep on living,” it said quietly.

“How is that?” I looked at it with anger in my eyes.

“All you have to do is make that girl come back and live with you in the castle for the rest of her life. When I say ‘make,’ I mean give her no choice but to come back. Tell her that you will kill her family if she does not come home within a week, or something like that. Be creative. The choice to live is up to you,” it explained to me.

I looked away for only a second, but when I looked back, the creature had disappeared from my grasp. It snickered at me as it vanished.

I fell to the floor weeping. Not even the roses could cheer me up. Either I was going to die or I had to rip Mirabelle away from her family again. My heart began to ache as the creature’s words rang through my ears.

I looked at the roses and saw that one was already dying. There were seven roses in the vase. One rose would wither and die each day.

Chapter 18

A
s the day turned into night, I just sat in my bedroom. Buttons eventually came in to comfort me; he could tell that I was distraught. All I could do was stare at the roses, watching petals fall onto the nightstand. By the time the moon rose, the first rose was almost completely bare.

I could not stand the thought of staying in my room. I held Buttons in my left arm as he slept, and I grabbed the vase with my right hand, along with Mirabelle’s necklace, which hung on my right arm. I walked to the dining room and set the vase on the table and Buttons on the couch.

Then I quickly ran up to the library and grabbed a few books, along with the picture of the Rose House. As I walked back to the dining room, I stared at the picture, thinking of Mirabelle. I missed her so much.

By the time I reached the dining room, one rose was completely bare. After I placed the books and the painting on the chair near the fire, I walked to the vase, took out the stem, and placed it on the table.

While I did this, tears came to my eyes. It meant that I had one less day to choose to either die or make Mirabelle come back.

“Invisibles, I wish that I could see you all again. I am sorry that this happened to everyone,” I whispered into the air as I walked to the couch.

“I wish that we could tell him that it was not his fault that this happened to us,” I heard a female voice from the Invisibles say.

“Unfortunately, there is no way we can. It seems like he has no choice, from what the creature said,” another female voice said.

“That creature truly is evil. I hope that he knows that he is nothing like that evil thing!” said what sounded like a male voice.

From what I had heard, it sounded as if Deleena, Leala, and Russel were talking again. It was nice to hear their voices, even if I could not see them. I took whatever I was given at that point.

A few days passed, and the number of bare stems on the table increased. The rose bed that Mirabelle had worked so hard on was already completely dead.

As the days went on, I started to grow weak.

Buttons was always by my side—so much so that I had to ask the Invisibles to bring his food bowl and water dish down to the dining room. The only time he ever left was when he needed to use the litter box. But even then, he would come running back to me, making sure that I was still there. He seemed to know that something horrible was going on.

One night, as we snuggled on the couch while I read a book, I glanced at the Rose House, which was sitting on the armrest of the couch. After I looked away, another vision came into my mind’s eye.

This time, I was in a part of a forest that I was unfamiliar with; it was the middle of the night. Suddenly I saw a single rider on a horse walking toward me. I tried to figure out what time it was. As I looked up to the moon, from what I could tell, it was about midnight. I grew worried about this rider.

The rider was coughing and wheezing. It seemed as if he or she was very sick. As the person came closer, I could see Lanelin’s face.

In that moment, I became frightened for him, remembering what the creature had said. I did not want what happed to my parents to happen to him too. Mirabelle did not deserve to go through more pain and heartbreak.

Lanelin softly talked to the horse.

“Come on, girl. Just through this forest until we arrive in the town,” he said, patting the horse’s neck.

She let out a neigh as if she were responding to his encouragement.

“It has been so long since I have seen my beautiful bride and my wonderful family. I cannot wait till this journey is over.”

He perked up a little, looking directly at me. But I knew that he could not see me, as it was just a vision. He looked confused and a little frightened.

I turned around, attempting to see what he saw. My heart began to race as I saw the fog rolling in. It was one of the signs that the creature was coming. I quickly spun around looking for it, but I was unable to find anything.

I turned back to Lanelin and saw that the horse had stopped in her tracks. Thunder began to rumble, and lightning lit up the sky. Clouds were moving in from the east, covering up the moon.

I had never been so frightened and worried in my life.
Am I about to watch the brother of the one my heart loves be killed? And if he is killed by the creature, does that mean that Mirabelle and her family will be cursed like me?
I could not bear the thought it.

My palms began to sweat, and my heart raced. My anxiety was out of control; I could not think. I kept turning my head to the right and left, looking for the creature. I had not seen it yet, which only heightened the suspense.

Poor Lanelin had no idea what was about to happen to him. How I wished that there was something I could do to prevent it. Lanelin kept staring in my direction, so I looked over my shoulder every once in a while.

I walked around the area where Lanelin was, trying to see if I recognized any parts of the forest. If I could figure out where he was, I hoped I might be able to run there to save him. But there was nothing.

“It is okay, girl; keep going,” Lanelin whispered into the horse’s ear.

When he said this, I turned in their direction. I saw the horse become startled.

“Come on, girl, only a little bit more. Look, there is nothing over there. It was just a shadow.” He began to panic.

While I was not sure what she had seen, whether it was a tree’s shadow, the creature, nothing, or even me, I could tell that both of them were uncomfortable.

I circled around them a few times; the weather was changing. My breaths were becoming shallow and rapid. I was trying to find ways to protect them, though I did not think I would be able to find them in time.

All of a sudden, the fog became denser; it grew denser by the minute. I walked closer to Lanelin to make sure that I could see him at all times. My heart began to beat faster and faster.

The fog became so dense that even though I was within a few inches of Lanelin and the horse, I could not see them anymore. I recalled that this had happened to my parents right before the creature appeared. The next step was for the fog to dissipate.

No matter how hard I shook my head, this vision would not disappear. I shut my eyes, hoping that would wake me from it. But, again, nothing!

Lanelin was helpless, and there was nothing I could do. Since I did not know where he was, I could not have found him even if I were able to get out of this nightmare of a vision. It was almost worse than the dream about my parents.

When I finally opened my eyes, the fog started to disappear. I heard the sound of twigs breaking to the left of where I had been standing earlier. I quickly turned my eyes in that direction. Tears came to my eyes when I saw the shadow of the creature.

The closer it walked to them, the more anxious I became. The creature’s chant rang through the trees. All the animals dispersed, and Lanelin’s horse reared, knocking him off the saddle. He landed flat on his back, and the horse galloped off in the direction of the town where Mirabelle’s family lived.

“Oh, now she runs,” Lanelin said, trying to sit up.

He glanced over to the left, where the creature was.

“What in the world is that?” he shouted with a raspy voice.

He wrapped the blanket around himself as he squinted, trying to figure out what was walking toward him.

“What is that light?” he screamed.

The creature’s hands began to glow. It was fewer than one hundred feet away from him. I knew that I could not just sit by, even if it was only a vision.

“No!” I roared, jumping in front of Lanelin.

I could hear Lanelin gasping behind me, which made me realize that I was actually there.

“You?” the creature shrieked.

“Yes, me!” I roared.

“Why are you standing in my way, you beast? You now know that whoever is in the forest after midnight is mine!”

“No, not this one! He is not yours. You will not kill him!”

Lanelin just stood behind me without moving. He seemed to be in shock.

“He is mine! Beast, do not stand in my way. Remember, you only have a few days left.”

“I am nothing like you! I would rather die one thousand times than make Mirabelle do something she does not want to do. I love her; if I threatened her to come back, she would never love me.”

“Then that is your fate! You will die in a few days! I hope that she is worth it.” He cackled.

“I will do anything to protect her and her family,” I scolded.