The cold winter air cuts through me as I watch my father throw knives at a target he carved into the tree he was supposed to cut down for firewood. Taking deep breaths he throws another knife, and just like all of its friends it hits the center.
I clap my hands ecstatically. Seizing the opportunity he turns toward me and takes a bow thanking me and the invisible audience around me.
"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen," he says in the most playful tone he can muster.
"Bravo bravo," I cheer him on clapping harder and faster than before.
With a warm smile still on his face he walks over to the tree and one by one pulls the knives out so that he can set them back up on his table.
"Would you like to try, my little warrior?"
Eagerly I nod. I jump off the stump I was using as a stool and run toward him as fast as my little legs can carry me.
"Okay, little one, stand here," he points to the spot where I need to stand and I waste no time in rushing there, "Perfect now you're going to hold the knife like so..." I watch carefully as he demonstrates how I'm supposed to hold and throw the knife.
"Can I do it already," I whine my impatience growing as he adds yet another safety tip to the seemingly endless list.
He sighs and rolls his eyes. "Yes, but please remember what I've—"
"I will. I will."
Pure excitement surges through my veins as I pick up one of the knives holding it the same way he showed me. I take my time perfecting my stance and making sure the knife is aimed directly at the center of the target.
"You got this, my little warrior," he whispers from the sidelines.
I pull my arm back getting ready to throw the knife. Just as I start to bring my arm forward I hear a twig snap next to me swiftly followed by my mother's voice cutting through the air.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!"
Startled by my mother's sudden appearance, I scream and throw the knife but instead of keeping my stance, I turn my body so that instead of going toward the target it flies toward my mother. Screaming she jumps out of the way just as the knife zips past her burying itself into the stump behind her.
"Valerie Bernard!" my father yells.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to," I cry tears flowing down my cheeks and staining the hard ground beneath me.
The leaves crackle and crunch as he storms over to me. He drops to his knees so that he's at eye level with me.
"I have told you countless times never point or throw a knife at anybody you don't intend on harming."
"I'm sorry, Papa. I got scared."
"You can't just forget about all those safety tips I have you just because you got scared. There are going to be lots of moments where you get scared but you have to rise above it and keep a level head before you end up doing something you'll regret for the rest of your life. Do you understand me?"
Wiping my tears with the back of my hand I nod. "Yes, Papa."
Ringing fills my ears pushing the screams from Maurie and the others into the background. My grip on the handle of the knife tightens to the point that the pain is almost unbearable but despite this discomfort, I don't dare let go of it. I can hear the air rush past me as he lunges into the air hurling himself right at me. My brain is screaming at me to run constantly repeating the mantra 'Move, Valerie! Move!'. But, while my brain continues to scream at me my feet remain firmly planted where they are, and my hand remains raised in the air. This was the moment my father talked about. The one where I needed to rise above my fear.
"Valerie, please don't!" Amelie calls out to me her voice breaking mid-sentence.
I try my best to push my fear away using all my power to move my hand but fear is my master and in this moment I'm powerless to resist him.
Squeezing my eyes shut I wait for the moment that my knife slices through his flesh, but it doesn't come. Right before Beast can reach me I feel a weight hit me from the side and I'm flung through the air landing hard on the cold ground below.
A roar of frustration echoes all around me and I look to my left where the Beast is laying in a heap on the floor growling in frustration and pounding his fists against the floor. My gaze quickly shifts to the other person laying in front of me.
"Mon Cher!" Fabienne frantically calls out to Maurie as she rushes toward him.
"I'm fine," he mumbles gently refusing her attempts to help him.
Breathing frantically he sits up and looks between the two of us pure disappointment shining in his eyes.
Eventually, he speaks up, "What were you two thinking? You could have killed each other!"
I try to speak up first but before I can even get a word out a deep voice cuts across me, "That was the whole point."
My head snaps in his direction. Pure anger surges through me. I may have pointed a knife at him but I only did it because I was scared. I didn't want to hurt him. He clearly had other plans for me. "You seriously would have killed me? Just like that."
"What about you? You had a bloody knife pointed at me!"
"You lunged at me I was scared for my life! I didn't... I wasn't trying to hurt you I just wanted to scare you so that you'd back off."
"Back off? While I was in mid-air!"
"Don't patronize me," I snap.
"I'll do whatever the hell I want because you just tried to kill me... again!"
"And you tried to kill me again!"
"Will you both please shut up!"
We all turn to Maurie shocked by his sudden outburst. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks between us like a disappointed parent getting ready to scold his two children.
"He—"
"She—"
"I said shut up!" he yells, and we both close our mouths and look down at the floor in shame.
An uncomfortable silence makes itself at home all around us eating away at us like a predator eating its prey. I eventually muster up the courage to look up at Maurie but the daggers glaring back down at me immediately have me dropping my gaze back to the floor.
A defeated sigh fills the air.
"While I understand that the two of you are not excited to see each other again but the stunt you both just pulled was beyond inappropriate."
Beast scoffs and shakes his head. "I wouldn't say it was..." One look from Maurie shuts down his excuse and I have to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing.
"Henry, I brought Valerie here because whether you want to admit it or not you are struggling. Don't you even try and argue with me," he snaps, and I watch from the corner of my eye as Beast lowers his head back down. Maurie turns to look at me, "And, Valerie, you said it yourself that you want to be here to help but we," he points to himself and the rest of the group, "are not the only ones you need to help. You need to help him as well and you can't do that if you two are going to attack each other. I'm not saying you have to be best friends but the least the two of you can do is try to get along. It was my fault for not taking both of your tempers into consideration but it was also clearly my fault for thinking that the two of you were adults. But, if you want to act like two little kids then I am going to treat you like kids."
"How exactly are you planning on doing that?" I boldly ask.
"By putting you both in time out."
"What!"
"Excuse me!"
"You heard me. Starting now the two of you are in time out. Until you sort out your problems neither of you can come back into the castle."
"That's ridiculous," we say at the same time.
"You can't leave us out here!" I call out to him, but it doesn't matter and Maurie as well as the rest of the group slowly head back into the castle and close the door behind them. Beast and I sit in silence as we listen to the lock click and our time out officially starts.
For the longest time, we stay seated on the floor with our gazes firmly locked on the floor neither of us muttering a single word. Eventually, I look over at him and he reluctantly looks back at me. There might not be a murderous rage shining back at me but I still can't deny the anger that's surging through him.
"Your eyes are still blue," I mumble not knowing what else I could possibly say. I certainly wasn't going to apologize.
"I'm surprised you care," he snaps as he pushes himself up and starts to walk toward the door.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He doesn't answer me he doesn't even look at me as he reaches out and tries to open the door. The door rattles and shakes as he continues to pull on the handle and the more it doesn't budge the more frustrated he becomes.
"Come on you stupid thing!" he roars banging his fists against the wood.
"It's not going to open."
"I'm not interested in your opinion," he hisses as he continues to knock on the door and turn the handle that still won't budge.
"At this point, it's more of a fact than an opinion."
"Do I look like I care?"
"You look like an idiot."
He stops knocking on the door and I fully expect him to lunge for me, instead, he storms off the porch and heads into the part of the garden that goes along the sides of the castle.
Curious to know where he's going I quickly get up and head off in the same direction trailing a safe distance behind him. He quickly notices that I'm following him and he quickens his pace most likely in the hopes of losing me. When he sees that this isn't working he stops dead in his tracks and spins around to face me.
"Why are you following me?" he growls towering over me like a monster.
"Listen I want to get back in that castle, and Maurie said the only way he'll let us in is if we sort out our problem."
"Well, that's never going to happen so if you'll excuse me I'm going to go inside."
"How are you going to do that?" I call out after him as he walks away.
"A castle never only has one door!"
Desperate enough to get out of the cold night air I hurry after him watching carefully as he slowly traces the side of the castle with his eyes. Finally, he stops and with a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips he pushes past a large bush revealing a hidden door.
"Is it open?" I ask.
He shrugs. "We'll see."
He reaches out for the handle and slowly turns it. I hold my breath waiting anxiously to see if the handle will turn ending this dreaded time out. Finally get gets to the last stretch of the turn and it's at this moment we hear a click.
We sigh and mutter strings of curses under our breaths. The door is locked.
"You've got to be kidding me!" he yells kicking up a pike of sticks and leaves before he starts punching the door.
"That's not going to do anything."
He doesn't respond. No snarky response muttered back, no small glance my way, not even a snort or a scoff. I shake my head as he continues to punch the door. Each hit is harder than the last. Splinters of wood fly into the air along with droplets of blood from the cuts forming on his knuckles.
"Beast, you need to stop you're hurting yourself." No response. "Beast!" No response. The cuts on his knuckles grow larger and larger with each hit and the blood is now soaking the fur staining it. "Please stop... Henry!"
The sound of me calling his name shocks us both. An uncomfortable silence fills the air as we gaze into each other's eyes. Fear courses through me as I watch the shock of my action leave his eyes only to be replaced by blinding rage.
With his hands still curled in bloody fists and his teeth bared like a snarling dog he quickly closes the gap between us.
"You have no right to call me that!" he screams.
Spit flies onto my face but I don't dare try to wipe it away. I refuse to let him see my hands shake. I refuse to show him how much he is scaring me.
"I—"
"No, don't say a word. You lost the right to call me that when you lied to me."
"I didn't lie to you," I snap.
"Yes, you did! You lied to me, you used me and for what... a stupid bracelet? Money?"
I shake my head and despite all my best efforts to keep them down tears start to coat the rims of my eyes.
"You... I trusted you, Valerie. I thought you were my friend I thought you were coming here to help me to help all of us and when... when I saw that bracelet in your pocket everything I believed in came crashing down." Taking deep breaths he shakes his head doing his best to keep his tears from trickling down but much like me he loses that battle and through my blurry vision I watch as tears stream down his cheeks. "I'll never forgive you for what you did," he sighs, "But, if you want to keep coming back to help Maurie and the others then I'll respect your choice and give you permission to keep coming over on the condition that you remain supervised at all times, is that clear?"
Staring deep into his eyes filled with so much pain I try my best to sift through the range of emotions surging within me. Pain at seeing him so upset and broken, anger that he still thinks I stole from them but relief that I'll be able to come back here and not have to worry about him pouncing at me from the darkness. I don't think we'll things will ever be the same between us, this kind of anger and pain isn't something that could be fixed in a single night maybe not even in a single lifetime.
He might never believe me and that's fine, but I won't let that get in the way of my mission.
"Valerie," I look back at him, "Did I make myself clear?"
"Crystal."
High up in the castle standing by a half-broken window a woman breaks a glass sphere into a thousand pieces. A month. Her plan had worked for a whole month and in the end, it was all for nothing. She tried to get rid of Valerie the easy way, but it was becoming increasingly clear that the little huntress wasn't going to go easily. She needed to get rid of her and this time she wasn't going to be gentle about it.