Love Is Never Ugly

Chapter 18

When it was a little ways past midnight Charlotte quietly crept out of her bedroom with a lit candle in one hand and a knife she had swiped from dinner in the other. She wasn't entirely certain that she wanted to kill Alastor but she just had to see what he looked like. She couldn't go another day without knowing his face.

The entire palace was pitch black at this hour and she could feel an eerie draft all around which made her little anxious but not too much. When she reached the end of the hall she found a stairway leading upward just as the woman from her dreams had said. Upon approaching the first step she began to have second thoughts about her plan, fearing what it was she may see up there. However curiosity quickly overcame fear and she found herself almost unconsciously going up the stairs.

The stairway seemed to be endless and she felt as if she had been walking forever, that the room was so high up that she would never reach it but in the end she did. Having come to the door, she made a stop for some time, thinking about Alastor's orders, and considering what unhappiness might attend her if she was disobedient. But the temptation was so strong that she could not resist it a moment longer. She opened the door so slowly and quietly that it did not even make a creaking noise then stepped inside the room.

There was very little she could see due to it being night but what the candlelight allowed her to see was a room with shredded curtains, mirrors that were either cracked or shattered, and a painting that was halfway ruined. It was of three women although two of them had their faces scratched out while the third one had her face still in tact. She recognized the third woman, she was the lovely violet eyed brunette from the art gallery that Charlotte had loved to admire so much. Walking a little further she found another painting of that woman but in this one she was with a man. A man who looked very much like the handsome stranger from her dreams. Same eyes, same facial structure and body type however the hair and skin complexion was completely different. Whereas the man from her dreams had brown hair and a darker skin tone the one in the painting had auburn colored hair and much paler skin.

Her examination of the painting was soon interrupted by a very disturbing and unpleasant sound. It was a snarling and growling noise, one that resembled the sound of wolves devouring their latest kill. It frightened her but not so much that she would refuse to continue further into the room and when she did she discovered that the floor was covered in clotted blood. Her eyes followed the trail of fresh blood that mixed with it and at the end of the trail she saw a horrifying sight.

There he was. His desiccated skin, his mangled red fur, his blood stained claws and antlers, his gaunt face, and his haunting smile that held fangs dripping with carmine. He plunged his teeth deep into the throat of a human corpse which caused more blood to flow on to the floor. Charlotte had never been more terrified in her entire life and the sight was just so awful that she let out an involuntary scream which alerted the beast of her presence. He turned to look at her with his sunken, crimson red eyes and saw her staring back at him with nothing but horror and disgust.

Overcome with terror, she dropped both her candle and knife then bolted from the chamber and down the stairway as quick as she could. She could hear his footsteps chase after her but she dare not look back. She only focused on getting back to her room and when she was halfway there she felt a hairy clawed hand latch on to her arm and pulled her back to look at the monster's face.

"Are you satisfied now?!" He asked, his twisted smile still ever present. "You wanted to see my face so badly? Well look at it! Don't turn away! Look at it! See how ugly it is?"

"Let me go!" She pleaded as she tried to pull away. "Please!"

"Oh no, no, no! You had your chance to avoid having to feast your eyes on my wretched ugliness! I told you that it was too horrible for you to bear! But would you listen?! No you wouldn't! Now suffer the consequences of your disobedience!"

In desperation Charlotte smacked the side his face and as soon as her arm was free she escaped into her bedroom. Slamming the door and locking it tight.  Her heart was pounding, her body shaking, her breathing out of control. She was so afraid. She didn't know what she would do if he somehow got into her room. However he did not come in nor did he make any attempt to enter. But that still did not ease her fears and they soon began to rise up even higher when she heard that dreadful sound again. That howling and screeching noise she had heard on the first night she had slept here. The one that had her so petrified that she could barely sleep.

She wrapped her arms around herself and collapsed to her knees as tears began to stream down her cheeks. She wept bitterly over how scared she was. Scared of Alastor. Scared of what he would do to her. Scared that she would become his next meal. But what made it all the more scary was the fact that she felt so alone in this dark world ruled by a monstrous figure.

"Oh Mother!" She sobbed to Lilith's spirit. "I'm afraid!"

...

For the rest of the night the servants tried to calm down Alastor but his fit was so great that eventually they had no choice but to let him alone until he was finished. They didn't want to leave him to do this vile thing but they were scared that if they interfered then he would tear them limb from limb or worse. So he was left alone with only his thoughts.

"Oh why did she want to see me?" He thought.

"It was inevitable. You didn't really think that she could live here and never see your face. Also she is young and naive so it was only natural that she would give in to her curiosity."

"She screamed at me. She struck me. She scorned me. Her eyes held so much fear and contempt for me. Just like all the others."

"Since when has frightening and repulsing others bothered you? You got passed that years ago."

"It's different now."

"How so?"

"I can't explain it. It just is. I never wanted her to see me. I never wanted her to look at me that way with her eyes. Those beautiful and innocent eyes. Eyes like hers should never have to behold a face like mine."

"Listen to yourself. Feeling ashamed. You have not felt shame for thirteen years. This woman will be the death of you. She's already taken your pride."

"What will she think of me now? She will no doubt hate me as all humans do. Even as a harmless child, they hated me at first glance because of how hideous I was!"

He started to drag his claws down his arms as hard as he could.

"A sniveling and timid boy you were back then. You never sought to harm another and because of that you suffered harm by the hands of others. But as a man you learned to retaliate by devouring them. You grew stronger. Do not allow yourself to become weak again."

"Why did she have to look at me that way?"

"Because she is evil. She judges you even though you are only following your natural instinct. It matters not to her what pain you've suffered or that you are only behaving as you are meant to. Her kind only cares for what they see and nothing else. You made a mistake letting her live. Kill her now before she adds to your misery!"

Alastor believed the words of the voice yet at the same time he couldn't. He could believe that Charlotte would only care about what she saw and would never understand the kind of torment he had been through however he could not believe that she was evil. No one with eyes like hers could be evil. Eyes that were so full of innocence, selflessness, and compassion. He had only known one other pair of eyes like that and it was from the only person in all the world that had ever treated him with any goodness. Charlotte was just too pure and too good to kill. As much as he despised her at the moment for disobeying him and then scorning him, he now knew in that moment that he could never harm her for any reason and if he were to then he would hate himself forever. His inner voice advised him to reconsider but he would not. After all how could he harm any creature so truly beautiful?

Key word: Truly beautiful.