"Kneel down, Isabella, and listen," my father said. "Put your ear near the grating in the floor." I got onto my hands and knees on the cold, stone floor, leaning in close to a rusty metal grate in the middle of the room.
"What do you hear?" He asked. I strained my ears, until I heard something besides the slow dripping of water falling down the long tunnel beneath the opening.
"I hear... I hear a man. He's crying and screaming... He sounds really upset, daddy," I said, moving away a little.
"He is upset," my father breathed, easing himself down onto the floor next to me. "They killed his lover." "Why?" I quizzed. "Did she do something wrong?"
"No," he said, shaking his head, and closing his blue eyes for a moment. "They killed her because they hate him. They want to make him suffer. She was everything to him, and they took away his everything."
"That's so mean!" I whimpered. My father rested a calloused hand on my head, smiling a little as he ruffled my short blonde hair. "You have a good heart, Isabella. Not many would pity him," he sighed.
"How could anyone not feel sad for him? And why does everyone hate him so much?" I asked.
"Because he's not human. He's a monster."
YOU ARE READING
The Monster
FantasyIsabella Janssens is a young woman who lives in an alternate version of our earth, in the Kingdom of Northland. After her father's death, she decides to take his place at his job, which is being caretaker to a monster that is held captive under her...
