An over seven-foot-tall male stood a few feet away from Ilya. The teenager crawled back, struggling to breathe after the zombie chase, and now this.
Even though this man just saved him, Ilya was intimidated by his height and figure. Then after referring to him as 'meat,' an alarming pain twisted his guts.
"Wha..." Ilya tried to find his voice. "Who are you?"
His voice came out shaky and low. Ilya gulped when he heard the man chuckling and showing his white sharp teeth. The rest of his face was dark from blocking the light behind him.
The man held his head high, puffing up his chest with a proud posture.
"They call me Beast."
He growled his name with a snarl, spitting it out through four deadly-looking canines.
Beast! Ilya's eyes grew wide. He heard that name before; Anne and Maggie mentioned him. So, Charlie wasn't the beast? Ilya felt an agonizing fear when he remembered what Maggie said back then:
"Nobody meets the beast and lives to tell it."
The beast came closer, forcing Ilya to crawl further back until he was trapped against a wall. The towering man kneeled, enabling Ilya to trace the brown fur coat he was wearing around those broad shoulders.
"And you're—" Beast pointed his index finger "—in my property. Which makes you..." He tilted his head to examine the boy with hungry yellow eyes. "My property, too."
Beast's face was only inches away from Ilya's. He smelled the fear in the boy's hot short breaths, saw it in his dilated green pupils, and heard it in his fast-beating heart. It brought joy to Beast's heartless soul—excitement, even.
A yellow light reflected from the beast's eyes in the dark—The eyes of a monster.
With a short sudden gasp, Ilya drew his knees to his chest and hugged them; a helpless instinct that humans developed when facing danger. And Ilya knew he was in grave danger.
He closed his eyes and hid behind trembling knees when Beast peeked into his face. Ilya whimpered when he felt Beast sniffing around his head.
"Please," Ilya whined. "Don't eat me."
A deep resonating chuckle traveled from Beast's throat to Ilya's ear, causing the hair at the back of his neck to stand up.
Ilya muffled his scream and hugged himself tighter.
Soft fluffy hair tickled Beast's nose as he smelled him. He continued toying with the boy, running his fingers along his arms, touching his skin, and sniffing him.
That yummy salty flavor. Those delicate human limbs. All this tender juicy meat.
Beast parted his lips to stick his tongue out and roll it on his lips. He craved that little beating heart. However, he loved playing with his food even more.
"Look at me," Beast said.
Ilya was too scared to look. His defenseless body was shaking badly that his own breathing turned into an erratic mess. He couldn't even feel his legs anymore. Even though he had no idea what kind of monster Beast was. He knew deep inside him that Beast was the scariest monster he'd face in this damned town.
"I said LOOK AT ME!"
The beast's roar was accompanied by a fist on the wall behind Ilya. A fist so powerful that cracked and dropped a few flakes from the concrete above.
Ilya flinched and quickly opened his eyes.
Up close, Ilya was able to see Beast clearly; he had a long scar on his left eye that split his eyebrow in half. His irises were actually yellow and they sometimes glowed. Then Ilya noticed that Beast was shirtless with only a big fur coat covering his upper body. On his lower body, he wore black cargo pants with large pockets on the sides.
Beast's face became blurry. Ilya had been holding back his tears until they welled up in his eyes.
A rough hand lifted the boy's chin up. With trembling lips, Ilya whimpered and closed his eyes, letting those tears flow down his cheeks.
"Open them."
Beast gritted his teeth and threatened, squeezing the boy's cheeks.
Ilya complied, opening his eyes to an evil grin full of sharp teeth.
"Run."
Ilya furrowed his brows and said, "Huh?"
In mere seconds, the grin on Beast's stubble face was gone. His whole human head was gone. And an animal's head replaced it—a wolf's head, with a gaping maw and razor-sharp teeth.
Beast roared in Ilya's face:
"RUUUUNNN!"
Damn. I would have shit myself, ngl 😅
What about you? What would you do if you were in Ilya's place?
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