A Deceptive Beauty

Chapter Six

"Call me Kai," the male voice said. He was puzzled. Kai? But wasn't he the one talking? If it wasn't him then who was it? It definitely sounded like his own voice...

"Isn't...name Kaiden?" Annabelle, he presumed, asked. That verified that it really was him in the conversation. By why on earth would he command someone to call him Kai? He tuned back into listening.

"I'm...alternate personality," he said in the memory. Kaiden froze. Many questions ransacked his head. Was this the Beast talking? Was that why he wanted to be called Kai? Did he tell the Annabelle woman about the curse?

"...snap your neck...dead," he heard the Beast - Kai - threaten. Kaiden panicked. His heart stopped. Did he kill the woman?

"...death...punishment...banishment...castle." The voices grew louder, but it was still hard to hear. The voices were jumbled up and they interrupted each other, making it hard to understand. The fragmented sentences didn't make it any better, but Kaiden managed to piece most of it together.

All except for the reason why Kai appeared to have banished Annabelle from the castle as punishment. What happened that deserved banishment?

"...find you...castle grounds...midday tomorrow." The conversation ended for the last time. He wished that he could hear it one more time but he didn't need to. He got the main parts if the conversation.

Kaiden figured that the woman was still alive, due to the fact that both voices were still there at the end. The other realization was that she was still supposed to be on castle grounds, therefore he should be able to find her. Whether or not this was from yesterday or from weeks ago. If it was the latter, he might not end up finding her alive. Hopefully it was the first so that he had more of a chance of finding her close by.

But who was the woman? It had to be one of the six girls that were staying in the castle because none of the servants' names were Annabelle and the Beast - Kai - couldn't leave castle grounds to kidnap any other girls. The spell the witch casted made sure of that.

He decided to take a trip to the girls' hallway, to see who was missing. Since it was only early morning, it wasn't early enough for the girls to do their job. When he got to their hallway, he went to the closest room.

He knocked on the door. "Hello?" He waited as he heard shuffling noises on the other side of the door. The door opened and a sleepy girl answered back. She had a long, lavender nightgown on, so she must've been Purple. When her eyes look upon his face, she turned bright red and curtsied quickly.

"Good morning, Your Grace," she stuttered. She must have been taken surprise by seeing him. Especially with her nightgown on.

But he needed to check if the other woman was in there with her. "Is your roommate here?" Kaiden asked.

"Yes! Valencia, er, Red! It's the duke," Purple called back, not-so-subtlety hiding behind the door. Kaiden realized he never clarified whether or not the other girls should call one another by their colors. He decided to deal with that later.

Red showed up, wearing a very short and revealing nightgown. Kaiden had never seen one that showed that much of a woman's legs. After staring for a few more seconds, he realized what he was doing and pried his eyes off of her legs to look at her face. Her loose hair tumbled over her shoulders, making him want to curl his fingers in them.

Kaiden forced himself to stay focused and remain on task. He'll just charm her later.

"I just wanted to say good morning to you both," he said, bowing his head for a brief moment.

"Good morning to you too, Your Grace," Red smiled back. After that, he quickly excused himself and went to check the next room.

"Hello?" he asked as he knocked on the door. He leaned against the door to see if he could hear any movements on the other side. Unfortunately, he didn't pull back quick enough, so when the door opened, he fell with it. Luckily, he caught himself in time.