Beast (6 page)

“This is not going to be easy,” Russel said, shaking his head.

“I cannot imagine how I would feel if this were happening to me,” Jeanluc announced. “I mean—”

“Remember how enchanted we were around those roses the day after he had that dream? And how they draw us in every time we go into his room?” Deleena interrupted.

“Yes!” Russel and Leala answered in unison.

“What if we have those roses with us when we tell him?” Deleena suggested.

“I am not sure if that will work,” Russel informed them. “We all lose our train of thought around those things. I do not know if we would even remember what we were trying to tell him.”

“Oh, good point,” Leala agreed.

“I guess we will just have to do it without them,” Jeanluc realized.

Tell me what? What is going on?

I shut the door quietly so that they did not know I was there. I made my way back up to the library; I was pretending to read a book when I heard my name being called. I opened the door of the library and walked to the top of the stairs.

“Yes?” I responded.

“Come on down; time for some breakfast,” I heard Deleena tell me.

When I walked down the hallway, the painting of Mother and Papa caught my attention. They looked so happy standing side by side on their wedding day. Mother had on a lovely white dress, and Papa had on a nice suit. Both of their faces were glowing with love. Oh, how I longed for them to come home or send word that they were all right.

When I walked into the dining room, breakfast was already on the table; it smelled so good. I had not really eaten much over the last few days; I just had not been hungry. I walked through the doorway and sat down in my chair.

After I finished eating—more like playing—Leala motioned for me to come over to the couch by the fireplace. I walked slowly over to her.

The mood in the air shifted. It had not been normal to begin with, but the air became heavy on my chest as I sat down. All four of them—Jeanluc, Russel, Deleena, and Leala—were by the fireplace, waiting for me.

Deleena put her hand on my knee and said, “There is something that we need to tell you.”

“Is it about my parents?” I asked excitedly.

They all looked at one another before Jeanluc answered. “Yes, it is about your parents.”

“They sent word that they left early for the business trip and are safe and sound! Did they not?” My excitement increased.

“Well, uh,” Leala began. “You see, um …”

“You know that gentleman in the uniform who was at the door earlier?” Jeanluc continued.

“Yes?” By the tone of his voice, I knew something was very wrong. My heart began to sink like a rock into my stomach.

“Well, he was an officer. He brought us this.” Russel started walking toward me with something in his hand.

Once he was close enough, he handed me a folded handkerchief. When I had seen it earlier, it had looked like a letter.

I slowly unfolded it. As I pulled away the last side of the handkerchief, I realized that it was Papa’s favorite blue handkerchief. He had it with him the night of the party, I recalled. Tears began to build in my eyes, and my body began to shake.

Between the folds of the handkerchief was something shiny. It was Mother’s brooch. The brooch was a multicolored rose that she had worn the night of the party. After staring at it for some time, I looked up. Russel and Jeanluc walked closer to where Leala, Deleena, and I were sitting.

The second I looked back down at the rose brooch, a lump immediately formed in my throat.
Something happened to them. I knew my dream felt real!
I screamed in my mind as tears rolled down my hot cheeks.

“They found your parents in the middle of the woods by their carriage, along with the carriage driver,” Leala said while rubbing my back.

That was enough to make me burst into tears.

“The officer said that it looked like they had been there a few days,” Russel informed me.

In the midst of crying, I was able to scream, “My dream!”

They all looked at one another in shock.

“The horses were missing, were they not?” I sniffled bitterly.

“Actually, yes, they were missing,” Jeanluc answered.

“I told you. That was not just a dream; it really happened to them! They were killed by that creature!” I sobbed.

Wailing, I wiggled my way off the couch and ran toward my room. My vision started to blur, and it became difficult to breathe. Never had I hurt so badly. It felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest.

At the bottom of the staircase, I dropped to the floor, crying harder when reality struck me. They were gone—forever. Never would I be able to see my parents ever again! My world was being ripped out from underneath my feet. My hope was fading quickly. I honestly did not want to live without them. Because I was crying so hard, I started gagging.

Once I had enough strength, I ran up the stairs. No matter how hard I tried to stop the tears, they just would not quit. I had to keep wiping my nose on my sleeves. While I made my way up the stairs, I kept tripping over my own feet on the steps.

At the top of the stairs, I tried my hardest to not look to my left, at the door of my parents’ room, but I could not help it. Still crying hysterically, I ran over to their door. I started banging my fists on it as hard as I could.

“Why? Why? Why?” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I hit the door.

I thought my banging would make Mother open the door, and it would all be a bad dream.

Then it occurred to me: my dream was real. I had realized it after they told me what happened, but I had not really understood it until now.

How did I see all of that?
It was just like my vision of the moon a few nights before. It had seemed so real at the time, and now I knew that it was indeed real.
How can this be?
I was so confused amidst of all my tears.

After I gave up banging on the door, I pressed myself against it and slowly fell to the floor. Once on the ground, I wrapped my arms around my knees and wept into them. While I did this, I heard footsteps running up the stairs. When I tried to see who it was, I could not see through my tears.

Whoever it was wrapped her arms around me and held me close. When she grabbed me, I let go of my legs to cling to her, placing my arms around her neck and holding on as tightly as I could.

She lifted me up and carried me off in the other direction. A hand was rubbing my back, trying to console me. My face was buried in her shoulder, tears still coming out as if I were a hose.

While being carried, I pressed my head against her chest. When I did this, I could hear her heart beating. I was able to calm down a little. I wiped my nose with my sleeve and then rubbed my eye.

Once my eyes were able to focus, I saw golden hair; I thought it might have been Mother, so I stroked the hair with my hand. But there was no way that it was her. When I looked up at the face, I saw that Leala was carrying me. She looked down at me and smiled. Leala reminded me a lot of my mother. Not only were they similar in appearance, but their personalities were both nurturing and loving.

After I stopped sobbing, she set me down on the ground and held on to my hands.

“How are you doing, sweetheart?” she asked as she brought one of her hands to my cheek.

“I do not know, Leala. Why did this have to happen?”

“I wish I knew.”

I looked down at the floor and then turned my head to look up the stairs.

“I need to get something from my room.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

As I walked up the stairs, I did not hold on to the railing this time. My eyes were still filled with tears, which caused me to I sway as I walked. At the top of the stairs, I was not paying attention, so I tripped and fell onto the floor. I lay there for a little bit, not wanting to move. Finally, I stood up so that I could make my way into my room.

I opened the door, breathing in the roses’ aroma. At that moment, all the feelings of anger, frustration, and sadness went away. As I passed my desk, I grabbed the chair and brought it over to my nightstand. I slowly sat on the chair.

When I shut my eyes, I was in a forest again. This time, it was daytime, about three o’clock. Birds were chirping, and there was a nice breeze. I heard the crackling of twigs behind me. I turned around to face the sound. I saw shadows but could not make out what they were. From what I could see, though, there was more than just one shadow; there were about eight that I could make out.

A while later, after I tried to move closer to the shadows in my vision, the chair fell backward and hit the floor with me still on it. I opened my eyes and lifted my chin; I was looking at the bathroom, but upside down. I began to laugh. The thought of being hurt from the fall did not even occur to me. Finally, I rolled off of the chair onto to the wood flooring in my room.

After rolling, I stood up but left the chair the way it was, on its back. I slowly moved to my bed. I placed my hands on the bed, and then I jumped and spun myself to be able to sit on it, the way I used to when climbing onto Mother and Papa’s bed. Then I proceeded to crawl on all fours to the top of my bed, closest to the roses. Hoping to go back to the place in the forest I had seen before I fell, I shut my eyes again, really tightly. This time, all I saw was the black of my eyelids.

After I spent some time just staring at the backs of my eyelids, I started to hear a voice. At first it was extremely quiet, almost inaudible. The voice sounded familiar.

“No matter what happens, it is for a reason!” it whispered.

“Keep your faith! Never give up hope!” I heard it say a little more loudly.

“You are where you are for a reason! Do not be afraid or discouraged!” it shouted.

I realized it was Mother’s voice. Tears fell from my eyes as my heart began to ache. But despite all the pain and agony, it was encouraging not only to hear her voice, but also to be reminded of what she had always told me.

My bed shook, which caused my eyes to spring open. I looked toward the end of my bed; there was Buttons, sharpening his claws on the end of the bed.

“Wait a minute!” I yelled as he jumped onto my bed. “I shut my door when I came in here. Buttons, where did you come from?”

I looked to my door, which was indeed closed. I could not remember if I had seen Buttons in here when I walked in.

Maybe he snuck in when I walked in,
I thought.

Hopping off the bed, I decided to leave my bedroom to go back downstairs; I needed to not be cooped up in my room for the rest of the day. I looked at the roses before I left and thought about trying to help the roses outside.

Because of the roses, I lingered and left my room slowly. It seemed that I had done this a lot since the roses had started giving out their intense perfume.

This time, I made sure that Buttons came out of my room before I shut the door. He followed me down the stairs and stayed with me until we were in the foyer, where we parted. I went out the front door; Buttons stopped to clean himself.

The sun was high in the sky, but there were clusters of clouds that sometimes covered the sun. As I watched the sky, I skipped over to the toolshed that was over by the barn. I grabbed a watering can, which I proceeded to fill with water. As I walked around the castle to the rose bed, I looked out into to the forest. My heart began to sink. I was sure that I was going to start crying again if I did not turn away.

When the rose bed was about ten feet in front of me, I saw that the roses looked horrid, as if no one had taken care of them in months. In the bed of about one hundred roses, only eight had petals on them; however, the petals were so brown that they were almost black. The petals from all the other roses were all over the bed, covering the soil.

Before I could water the roses, I needed to remove the dead petals. It was difficult to avoid the thorns; I did not even really know what I was doing, to be honest. After getting poked several times by the thorns, I finally cleared enough of the petals to water the roses.

Russel must have seen me from the dining-room window.

“What are you doing out there?” he asked.

“I am trying to help the roses grow!” I insisted, putting my hands on my hips.

“You are bleeding! Come inside; we need to clean you up!”

I sighed, poured the rest of the water out of the jug, and attempted to dust off the mud on my knees and hands.

As I walked in through the front door, Leala and Deleena started laughing at my appearance. My nice pants had been ruined by the mud.

“What in the world made you so muddy?” Deleena giggled.

“I was out trying to make the roses grow. They are almost all dead!” I whined.

Leala grabbed my hand to take me to the nearest bathroom, which was in the hallway between the kitchen and the dining room, to clean up. Deleena ran to grab clean clothes out of my room. In the bathroom, Leala wiped off my face with a wet towel. A few minutes later, Deleena came in with clean clothes.

After they helped me change, we walked back into the dining room. Once there, I walked over to the couch to lie down. Then I shut my eyes—only for a moment, however, because Russel came over and told me it was time to eat lunch.