Finding Beauty (Rewrite)

Chapter 51

There was no thought of the possible danger he could be getting himself into. The stakes didn't matter anymore. It was to kill the Beast or nothing.

~The Beast~

She came back for him.

He couldn't believe his eyes. There he stood, about to make a decision that would end his life, when he heard the sound of her voice.

"Teigan!"

She stood outside of the house calling to him. It was a desperate plea for him to not give up - to fight back.

Never had a voice sounded so crisp and sweet. Never had a voice been able to pull him from the darkness at the edge of a cliff back into the stream of sunlight.

She came back for him.

The simple notion had reinvigorated him. The strings and pulleys that had been working his heart were oiled. They were functioning at max capacity. He didn't care if seeing her again had given him a momentary high that would fade away once she was kept from him once more. He would live that high while it lasted.

He placed his hands above his head slowly, taking a tentative step back from the surrounding officers. There was no possible solution to this predicament that could end with them all winning. If he fought back, he'd be reverting back to the man he had chosen not to be anymore. If he didn't, he'd be taken into custody and then all chance of freeing the roses would be lost. He was both figuratively and literally backed into a corner.

Defense. His only option was to play defense.

An officer had boldly decided he would be the one to chain the Beast. He took the handcuff from his belt and approached him, the number of guns pointed at Teigan providing an air of comfort for him.

Teigan may have been down bad, but he was still him. The two years of fighting were not lost.

He dropped into a crouch, sweeping his leg underneath the cop. He fell to the ground and Teigan didn't waste a second in pulling the man up to use as a shield. He hoped that as long as the officer was blocking him, they wouldn't shoot - both for his and the officers sake.

"Stand down! Do not approach or shoot!" He could not believe the words coming from the officers radios. He eyed them suspiciously, waiting for following orders that would make the previous command make sense. "We have new information. Officers, stand down. Let him go."

Confused but obedient, the officers kept their guns aimed at him as they cleared the area.

Teigan loosened his grip on the officer he was holding. The man scurried off, a hand on his gun holster.

Once they were around the corner, Teigan heard their steps going down the stairs, leaving him alone in the room. He let out a strangled breath. Beth and the radio command couldn't have come a second later.

Teigan looked out the window to find where Beth had gone. To his surprise, she was no longer on the sidewalk.

She was climbing the scaffolding.

He had no clue how she had gotten through the cops but he followed her lead and headed towards the rood.

He waited for her at the top. When she was safely on the roof, she ran to him. He didn't hesitate in picking her up in his arms. They held each other for a quick moment that filled him with pure glee. One hug from her was worth everything.

She pulled away, looking at him through his mask.

"Are you okay?"

He couldn't stop staring at her. For nights he had thought about the millions of different scenarios that would lead to them meeting again. He thought of how he would see her, how she would look, how she would change. It was frightening to him that his memories of her had already become distorted in the few weeks they had spent apart. Her image had been fading in his mind and nothing terrified him more than losing her in all senses of the word.