One week. It's been one whole week since Theo got his stitches. One whole week that no one has been attacked by the beast.
I know that it can't last, but I'm still here. Still with my family, with Aaron, with my humanity. The second I go with the beast all of my humanity will be gone. How could I be human while living with a beast?
Sitting outside below the shade tree, I was pondering giving myself to the beast. It would be a stupid decision and possibly a deadly one for me.
My thoughts kept running in circles. I would talk myself out of just giving in to the beast just for Theo to flash into my mind. I have no doubt that Theo was supposed to die. What if he goes after my siblings? What if he goes after another child, one even younger this time? I can't let anyone get hurt just to save myself.
Someone sat beside me turned slightly away, both of our backs pressed closely to the tree.
"It's been a whole week," the person finally spoke. I glanced over when he began talking.
"I know," I responded.
"He's going to attack soon," he continued.
"If you would just tell everyone who the Beast is, lives wouldn't be in danger, now would they? You have to tell someone. You can't just let him attack and kill people. He almost killed an eight year old, Owen. Theo could have died! You can't just let him do that!" My voice was filled with desperation.
Owen scrubbed a hand through his hair as he glared at me. "You know I can't do that."
"Why not?" I retorted. "The second he decides you aren't of use to him anymore, he'll kill you. You and I both know it's true! You are expendable."
"He won't kill me."
"Owen! Wake up and smell the truth tree! You are in denial. The Beast tried to kill an eight year old. What makes you think you are worth more to him then the life of a child?"
"He didn't try to kill Theo," Owen whispered, nearly so quiet I didn't hear him.
I drew back from Owen in shock. How could he defend what I knew to be true? "What do you mean he didn't try to kill Theo? I saw the cut, Theo is lucky to be alive."
"He has killed people, but he doesn't like to. He meant to just scratch Theo, just hard enough to be a warning. He went to deep though."
I paled. "You talk as if you know."
Owen snorted. "Of course I know."
I scrambled onto my feet and started backing away from him.
"Wait. Bella, that's not what I meant!"
"You're the Beast," I breathed out as I backed further away from him.
"Bella, listen to me. I'm not the Beast."
I turned and took off running for the safety of my home. I slammed the door behind me and looked out the window. Owen was sitting where I left him, his head buried in his hands.
"What are you doing?" Miss Larissa asked.
"Owen is the Beast," I told her, a frantic note taken up in my voice.
She raised an eyebrow and looked out the window at him.
"He looks very beastly," she said with a small laugh.
This isn't funny. At all. He almost killed Theo!"
"It isn't him, first of all. And second, Theo is still alive, isn't he?"
"Yes, but-"
"No buts!" She interrupted. "Owen isn't the Beast and Theo is alive. Everything is okay, understand?"
"Fine," I grumbled. "But don't you ever let Owen near me, okay?"
"Bella, you're being unreasonable. Owen was with you the night Theo was attacked. He can't be the Beast," Larissa reasoned.
"He wasn't with me in the beginning."
"Bella, stop being difficult."
I ignored Larissa and watched out the window until Owen stood and walked away. My ridged posture relaxed when he left, my body slumped against the wall.
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A/N: Okay. The chapter isn't over. It's chapter ten which is like a milestone to me so I'm doing something special. *wink wink* You'll find out who the Beast is! So on that note; please, please, please, please, please, tell me who you think the beast is! I really want to know who you think it is!
Owen, Aaron, Bennett, or Lee
Moving on now, the next part is in a different persons POV but I'm not telling you who. Now, sit back and enjoy the rest of the chapter! Don't forget to guess who the Beast is and read the ending A/N please! (Just the first part, Half of it is random rambling)
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"You need to stop this," he told me as soon as he walked into the room, his voice was laced with venom.
"Stop what?" I asked innocently.
"You know what! Bella thinks I'm the Beast. You nearly killed a child," he spat out.
I glared at Owen. "I didn't mean to," I spat. "You said he was okay. Please, tell me he is okay," I begged.
"He is."
My fists relaxed upon hearing those words, only to tense back up with the next two.
"For now."
"What do you mean, for now? What are you going to do to him? Don't you touch that little boy, Owen," I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him out of his chair with ease. "You won't live to see the sunrise if you lay a single finger on him," my voice held only the seriousness of my threat.
Owen pushed me away from him and glared. "I'm not like you. I wouldn't ever purposefully hurt a person, let alone a child."
I ignored his biting comment. "What did you mean?"
"Theo is a child. He's a normal little boy that likes to play in the dirt. His mother works so she is not around to clean his stitches like she should. They're going to get infected unless they get cleaned. Once they're infected, there is nothing you can do. That boy will die and it'll be your fault. You need to give this up. Just leave Bella alone. Forget about here. Right now, you are only causing her – and everyone else in this town – pain."
"You know why I can't do that. Without her, I am stuck like this forever." I slammed my clenched fist onto the desk, making everything on the table bounce into the air.
"You can't make her love you. Not after everything you've done. You threatened her with other villagers' lives, you can't expect her to just be okay with that!"
"I have to try, she was made to love me. If she doesn't do what she was made to do, I'll be stuck like this forever. I can't handle that," I turned and left my office walking without direction until I came across a familiar house. Knowing what I had to do, I knocked.
The door opened to reveal a confused Bella with a smug Larissa behind here. I rolled my eyes at Larissa and drug my eyes back to Bella's annoyed ones.
"What do you want Mr. Perfect Officer Ben? If you're here to annoy me, go away. I don't have time for your games today," she stepped back to shut the door but I grabbed her wrist before she could even make contact.
"Come on," I said as I turned, still holding her wrist. She stumbled over her feet before she caught her balance and followed me. Not that she had any other choice, there was no way I was letting go of her wrist.
"Bennett," she said as she pulled back.
"Bennett, slow down," she grumbled when she tripped over her feet.
"No time," I told her as I walked faster.
"Bennett you better slow down and tell me what's going on before I start screaming."
I came to a complete stop and turned to face her.
I spoke hurriedly, hoping that she wouldn't hear or understand most of it, but needing to say it. "Theo might be dieing. He is a kid and a boy and he is muddy and messy and his mom works and she can't clean his wounds and they could be infected and it's all my fault," I finished in a rush.
She looked at me for a second, confusion plain on her face as she tried to sort out what I said.
"Say that again," she demanded. I breathed out a sigh of relief that she didn't hear all of what I said.
"Theo's stitches might be infected," I told her, skipping all the unimportant parts. Well, most parts were unimportant.
Her eyes widened and she took off running, not stopping until she reached Theo's house. I followed close behind her, not stopping until she did.
She ran up the steps and knocked on the door repeatedly until it opened, revealing a frantic haggard woman.
"I need to see Theo," Bella told the woman as she pushed past her, calling for Theo.
The woman turned to me expectantly.
"I'm an officer," I told her briefly before following Bella. I ran through the house until I found her kneeling by a shirtless child. The child I nearly killed. I felt bile rise in the back of my throat when I caught sight of the long scratch running the length of his tiny body. The scratch was festered and red, clearly already infected.
I fell to my knees beside the boy, hating the fact that I caused this.
"We can fix this," Bella muttered. "We can fix this. We can fix this," with that she took of running.
I shakily got to my feet, following her back to Miss Larissa's clinic.
"Larissa! Theo's wound is infected. We have to go save him before it spreads," Bella explains frantically before sprinting back out the front door.
I watched her go, her brown hair flying wildly before turning and glaring at Larissa.
"How's life?" she teased, her voice sounded much younger, her body starting to change to her natural form.
"My life was going just fine," I told her bitterly. "Then I met this girl and fell for her. Turns out she was a witch and didn't feel the same for me. The rest should be familiar to you, isn't it, Magenta."
The girl that stood before him looked nothing like the one that stood before him seconds ago. The only feature they shared was the blonde hair, but even then Larissa's could never compare to the perfection of Magenta's.
"Oh, Ben!" Her high pitched voice exclaimed. "Don't be so formal! Please call me Maggie," she purred.
"I think I'll stick with the formality of Magenta." I glared at her. The same girl that once made me fall to my knees, worshiping her and confessing my undying love, I felt nothing for her now. Nothing but hate.
"Ben! Don't be like that! Remember how much you loved me?" She called out again.
"Remember how you trampled on my heart? Remember how you made me into this? Stuck in this beastly state until I found the girl made for me, the girl that would love me through it all. You're the one that did that. Why would I ever forgive you? Why would I make the mistake of loving you twice?"
"Aw, Benney! What's wrong with loving me? What if I am the one person made for you?"
"Someone made for me would never have put me in this state," I replied bitterly. "Now put back on your Larissa face and let's go save a life."
Magenta let out a soft tinkling laugh. "Why would I save someone you tried to kill. This is your fate. You will never find someone to love you and without your precious Bella, you are nothing."
I let out a growl from the back of my throat, my eyes no doubt glowing unnaturally. "You forget that as of now, I am stronger then you."
"You forget that I made you strong. I can take it away just as easily as I made it happen."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," I retorted with a snort.
Magenta stuck out her bottom lip in a pout, a pout that a younger version of me wouldn't of been able to resist. "It would be a bad thing Ben," she replied seriously.
"I will not just sit here and let Theo die. Please do something Maggie," I made my voice crack while I begged. Huh, I guess Bella is right. I do beg.
I nearly smiled when I saw Magenta turn back into the form everyone in this town knew her as. Begging always works on Magenta.
"This doesn't change anything," she snapped.
I followed behind her in silence as we made our way to Theo's house.
We found Bella by Theo, her hand clamped tightly on his child sized one. I silently watched Bella as she gazed at the small child, her eyes were filled with love and worry.
Bella finally realized that Larissa and I were watching her and she looked up at is, not moving from her crouch by the child. "What took you so long?"
"Doesn't matter. Now move," Larissa spoke.
Shock and hurt registered on Bella's face at the new way Larissa spoke to her but she quickly backed off, leaving Larissa to heal the child.
I always thought I hated Magenta after what she did for me, but I have never wanted to hurt her more then when I saw the hurt on Bella's face.
Larissa hovered her hand above the long scratch and spoke in a strange tongue. The same language she used when she cursed me to the life I live.
"He'll live," Larissa spat as she fled the room.
A/N: It's over now! Was it good? I'm writing this Author's Note before I even finished writing the chapter. Haha I'm dumb.
(Update: so this is after I wrote it and I seriously had no idea that was all going to happen. Holy crap this is a packed chapter.)
I didn't want to forget to tell you guys that I'm going to be changing a lot with this book. For now, it's going to stay the same. When it is completely finished it's going to go through a mass editing. I have completely lost the medieval vibe so I'm changing this story so that it is uniform. It'll probably end up being a dystopian type thing. I'll keep major things the same but I am going to do normal editing –grammar and plot fixes, thugs like that. My autocorrect likes to changes things into thugs but I'm leaving it there because it's just too funny. I am absolutely tired right now. Ignore my tired sense of humor please.
On the less important side of things, along with this complete revamp, you guys can change your name! Right now it is Ghosties because y'all are ghosts for the most part. The new name is going to stay with you for all of eternity so ya better like it. (I just went all southern on you, sorry... Like I said, tired person. I should probably not be allowed to write when I'm tired, geez)
So, back on track, comment your group/fandom/whatever-it's-called ideas here.
I have another question also, are some chapters missing? Some randomly have more reads and then it skips to a middle chapter or something. Are they missing or are people just skipping chapters?
On another unimportant note, I'm contemplating making a chapter private just so I know who my dedicated readers are. But I read offline a lot so I know how bad it sucks when you don't have Internet and the author does that. So I think I'll keep them public and then the chapter that you guys will be voting for your name will be private.
I'm done talking now. Oh, wait, never mind. I need to apologize for slacking of in my chapters lately and I know the beginnings have been ducky recently but I'll fix that with the revamp. I promise! I just realized that autocorrect changed sucky to ducky... Wow. Autocorrect is not my friend today.
Thank you all so much for voting! I got on here today and had quite a few new votes! I absolutely love that! Thank you so much!
Bye Bye Ghosties! Hope you enjoyed this special chapter!