Beauty and A Beast (ON HOLD)

Chapter 9

Everything felt like a chore. Even breathing. It was like sucking in air through my lungs was too hard that giving up was just the easiest thing to do. My eyelids were heavy so that when I tried to open them, my eyes just moved underneath. My muscles were even worse. Getting them to even twitch was as hard as lifting a box of books. The weird thing was, even though I knew I wasn’t safe, I didn’t care. Everything was too hard. It was just easier to lie there and wait though for what I didn’t know. 

As though a bucket of ice water had been thrown over me, I sat up speedily, gasping for breath, making my lungs scream in protest. My eyes started to conjure black spots at the sudden intake of oxygen, making me want to fall back down and never get up.  

I shut my eyes for a few moments, trying to calm my breathing and stop the dizziness that was started to crawl up. After a few deep breaths, I slowly opened my eyes though wincing at the light coming from the candles around the room despite them being dim.  

I looked around with my brows furrowed. The room I was in seemed to be a private study; dark oak boards covering the parts of the walls that weren’t covered by floor to ceiling bookshelves. The smell of dust, old books and varnish filled my nose as my eyes glossed over the covers of the leather bound books. Aside from a desk and a floor to ceiling window behind it, there wasn’t much else in the room. Looking down, I noticed that I was on a burgundy chaise lounge, still in the clothes from the day before. 

 As though the sight of my clothes triggered an alarm bell, memories started pouring into my mind. Memories of a man named Daniel…and other men grabbing me and knocking me out.  

My survivals instincts kicked in causing me to jump from the chaise lounge and look frantically round the room in search of a door which I still hadn’t found. After a frenzied search round the room, I hurried behind the oak desk to the window, looking and feeling for a catch that would open it.  

‘Fuck!’ I swore, dragging my sweaty hands down my face and through my hair at my unsuccessful search. In curiosity and hope, I looked down through the window, wondering how far down it was. It looked as though I was at least 15 feet from the ground. Smiling to myself, I turned round and searched the shelves for the largest book I could find. Finally choosing ‘H.P. Lovecraft – His Greatest Works’, I went to stand in the middle of the room, readying myself and praying that the glass wasn’t thick.  

Just as I was about to let go, a quiet chuckle from behind made me drop the book and whip round. A tall, dark haired man in a well fitted suit was standing by an open door, one hand in his trouser pocket. He must have seen my frown for his small smile grew. ‘Obviously you prefer launching yourself from windows than using a door.’ I felt my cheeks burn as I lowered the book onto the desk. I didn’t want to admit to him that I didn’t know where the door was but, by the amused look he was giving me, he clearly knew. 

He took a step forward into the room before quietly shutting the door. ‘I see you have a personal vendetta against the Bard himself?’ 

I gave the book a quick glance, worried that if I took my eyes off the man for even a second I could end up dead. Or worse. When I looked back to the man, he had moved himself so that he was in the middle of the room. ‘Do forgive my manners. I am Elijah Mikaelson,’ he said. He held himself so well that if I didn’t recognize the surname, I would have guessed that he was a vamp. 

When I didn’t move or say anything, his smile grew. ‘I won’t bite,’ he said with a quick raise of his brows yet I still didn’t move. ‘It is right for you not to trust me,’ he said as he began to saunter round the room, looking at the numerous books but not paying attention to them. ‘After all, Klaus is my brother.’ He turned round to give me a tight smile before looking back to the books.