Chapter 8|Living in the palace
Isla's P.O.V.
I was so overwhelmed by what Grandma told me but I couldn't do anything but weep bitterly. How could life treat me like this? How could I lose my grandma now? I need her and I need her spell. I don't want to be beautiful because beauty makes a person horrible.
It makes people seek being the best at all things. It isn't the best thing to wish for and I never wanted to be beautiful. I definitely didn't want to end up as vain as Adrianne or Rhiannon were. I grasped Logan's shirt and wept in his arms.
Suddenly I was wrenched away from his arms and I watched him being pushed roughly away from me as a man in a white coat held tightly unto my wrist while bowing at my feet and kissing it furiously.
"My darling, my darling..." He kept whispering.
I tried to push him away and he let go of my wrist but held tightly unto my legs while kissing my feet furiously. I was sure he would leave a bruise.
I was so disoriented and I didn't understand what was happening and suddenly a group of nurses came to hold onto the doctor dragging him away from me.
I watched them drag him away with a frown. What's wrong with him, I wanted to ask.
"Lets get out of here Isla. Take this jacket and put it over your head." Logan said.
"I don't understand...I can't just leave my grandmother here?" I said shoving him away.
Logan shook his head at me as if to say I disapprove of you disobeying me. "I have given the nurses permission to send your grandmother's body to the mortuary. She will be cremated tomorow and will be buried the day after tomorrow."
"Why are we rushing away? And whats wrong with that doctor? I saw him along the way when..." I was saying but Logan interupted me hurriedly.
"Isla what your grandmother didn't tell you about being half-monster and half-human is that you look human but have the appeal of a monster and anyone who sees you reacts to you the way they'll react to a monster animal." He explained.
He strode to the drawer by my grandmother's bed side and pulled out a mirror and instructed me to look into it.
When I did, I gasped as I looked at a very surprised stranger. She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my entire life. Her green eyes were similar to mine except they sparkled enchantingly even though there was a very noticeable trace of sadness in those eyes.
I felt like kneeling to console her immediately but as I looked closer, I realised she was me. And my face was without any burn scar with pearl white skin that seemed to glow.
"Wow she's beautiful." I murmured.
"Multiply your reaction ten times and you'll understand the way others see you so you have to cover your face and let me take you straight to the palace." Logan said.
"I don't want to go to the palace, I like the wood house. Strange and I will survive there." I replied obstinately. I was obviously ready for a fight, my eyes held his challengingly and my chins were lifted as high as they could get.
Logan took a deep breath and seemed to be struggling to hold his anger down. "Isla you are going to the palace with me. You can't survive in the woods looking like this. Half the boys in this vicinity will keep coming to the woods just to see you and some will...just wish to have you against your will"- I shuddered at that and was about to protest but his next words shut me up-"Besides it was your grandmother's last wish, don't you want to honor her last wish?"
How dare he use that guilt card against me? I wanted to ask but My mouth went shut by itself as I looked guiltily away from his eyes. My shoulders drooped as I agreed to the last thing I wanted. Then something occurred to me and a crazed blood lust filled me as I turned to Logan.
"I'm going to kill your brother." I concluded.
"Isla...no...I know he did something terrible to you but he's the prince and my father will have to kill you just to defend his honor." Logan replied with a sigh. It was his turn to look away guiltily as my eyes flashed with anger.
"Honor...what honor? That scumbag is supposed to have an honor to defend?" I asked angrily.
"Isla calm down...My parents are going to punish my brother for what he did to you and they might even give you a chance to choose part of his punishment but you can't kill the second heir to the throne and get away with it. I'm sorry..." He trailed off.
We walked dejectedly into the expensive automobile that was even more expensive than that of Adrianne's and we fell into an uneasy silence.
Neither of us said a word as the automobile drove down the road. I looked out through the tinted car windows and watched the other automobiles and houses pass by. Logan kept glancing at me repeatedly.
"Its alright Logan its not your fault...And I'm not going to kill your brother but please keep everyone except your parents and yourself away from my grandmother's burial. I don't want them to desecrate her burial." I said.
He nodded. "I can do that for you"-He murmured this part-"Its the least I can do for your grandma."
I don't know what happened next but Logan shook my shoulders and woke me up and I found myself sitting in a beautiful living room. The floor was tiled with beautiful exotic-patterned tiles that I liked.
There were some sofas in the living room designed with strips of monster animal skin and a large rectangular thing hung by the wall. The rectangular thing kept making sounds and the people in it were moving.
"Do you like it?" Logan queried.
I ignored his question, and asked a question far more important to me. "Where am I?"
"You're in the palace...I brought you in because you fell asleep in the car and you looked so tired and I didn't want to wake you up." Logan replied. He seemed nervous and I didn't understand why.
"Why are you nervous?" I questioned.
"Because...Well because you're meeting my parents for the first time and I'm just kind of nervous because I would like for them to like you." Logan replied.
"Why would you want them to like me?" I asked while raising one eyebrow.
"Because...your grandma made me promise to take care of you and if they don't like you well...They won't let you stay in their house." Logan said.
"And?..." I said knowing he had another reason.
"And nothing..."-He sighed and admitted the real truth-"Well I would like them to like you so they can accept you as my girlfriend when you finally agree to be my girlfriend."
"Whoever told you that I would agree to be your girlfriend?" I questioned with a smile.
"My charm and ego told me..." He teased and we both laughed.
"Alright then I'll go call my parents and if you see my brother-even though thats highly unlikely-just ignore him politely." He said then gave me a peck on the cheeks.
He hugged me and whispered in my ears, "Everything will be alright...I promise." His peculiar scent surrounded me and made me feel so safe and loved.
I nodded and watched him leave the room while trying to calm my skipping heart.
A sombre feeling passed over me after he left and I remembered that my grandma had just died. A tear escaped from the building dam of tears that I had locked up and made its way down my now beautiful and unscarred face.
I couldn't stop the next tear and soon the dam broke and I felt like breaking something, killing someone, anything at all that would stop the pain in my heart.
I knew Strange would be okay because I would know if he died. He had a strange print in my mind that would fade away if he died, just as grandma's own had faded when she died.
I wiped my tears away furiously because I knew grandma wouldn't be happy to see me crying. After closing down the dam, I just sat quietly and closed my eyes and let sleep take me away from my pain.
*
Third person's P.O.V.
Derek came into the third living room in the house to take one of Logan's 3D racing video game cds which he wanted. He knew that Logan would stay all day at that ugly scarred girl's place and return late at night and he planned to have returned his brother's cd back where it was supposed to be when he came back.
He was very ready for the showdown that would definitely commence when his brother returned from Miss Ugly's house in the woods.
He sauntered into the living room and was walking to the secret cupboard under the flat screen tv in the living room where his brother kept his cds when he noticed that he wasn't alone in the room.
He looked straight to the direction from where he could hear feather light breathing and gasped as his eyes fell on the most beautiful thing earth had ever seen.
He was speechless for a minute and he just stood there watching the beautiful girl whose whole body seemed to have an unearthly glow.
She was his goddess and he would gladly serve her, He thought as he walked slowly to where she sat obviously fast asleep and sat at her feet.
He began to trail soft kisses on her feet lovingly with a tenderness that no one had ever associated with him. He looked up just as his goddess' eyes opened to reveal green eyes that were slightly familiar to him. He didn't expect what she did next at all.
*
(Still in third person point of view)
"Mom, Dad what I'm about to say might shock you but its better if I tell you that I won't let you hurt Isla." Logan said.
"Who is Isla?" Logan's mother, Katherine asked.
"She's Philip Cougan's half monster daughter." Logan dropped the bombshell.
His parents gasped collectively and he took advantage of their shock and told them Isla's story.
"You mean to say she can read minds?" Logan's father, King Kaegan asked.
He nodded. "Will you guys take her in?"
"Of course honey that poor girl has really suffered. Where is she? I hope you didn't leave her at that hospital?" My mom queried immediately switching to her 'mother hen' mode.
"That boy...Derek is really gonna get it from me this time." Logan's father said with a scowl.
"Take us to her." Queen Katherine said.
Logan immediately stood up and was opening the door when they heard someone shriek, "You Killed my grandmother you this pervert and you have the nerve to kiss my body?"
Logan shook my head. What had his brother done again. It seemed to him like his little brother couldn't stay away from trouble. Logan ran like as though demons were chasing him and came to the living room to meet his brother lying on Isla on the floor and kissing Isla aggressively and possessively while she trashed underneath him.
Fury overtook Logan as he pulled his brother away from Isla and punched him squarely in the face. Someone held his arms and refused to let him finish his brother up.
"Let me at him." Logan yelled struggling against the person holding him so he could charge at his little brother and tear him to pieces for forcing his girl to kiss him.
Derek was oblivious to his presence and even the presence of his mother who held him away from Isla and as blood trailed down his nose he watched Isla longingly until suddenly a bucket of water was thrown in his face.
Derek gasped as his father blocked his view of his goddess and he tried to see well after that icy water had blurred his view.
His father's next words brought him back to consciousness. "What is wrong with you Derek? Your mother and I didn't raise you like this...after all you've done to this poor girl, you have the guts to force yourself on her again? I'm sending you to the dungeon for two days and that should fix you." His father said.
Two days? Two days away from his goddess? No way! He wasn't going to allow that. He struggled against the guards who dragged him down the hallway but they wouldn't let him be.
*
Isla's P.O.V.
"I'm so sorry for that Isla." Logan said hugging me tightly.
I was silent for a moment and though I wanted to yell in rage, I remembered that the king had just sent his son to the dungeon because of what he'd done.
"Its...Okay." I sighed as we hugged each other tightly.
A man cleared his throat subtly and Logan immediately released me from his embrace and turned me to face a very beautiful woman and a man whose blue eyes was very identical to Logan and Derek's blue eyes.
"Isla this is my mom and dad." He said.
The woman hugged me immediately. "You can call me Katherine and I'll be so happy to be your foster mother." She said.
And That settled it, I guess as her husband shook my hand and welcomed me to their home. Katherine gave me a tour around the very large palace and gave me a room far away from Derek and Logan's room. I think she didn't want Logan and I to get intimate and she was trying to protect me from Derek and I appreciated the gesture.
I immediately warmed up to her as her little gestures towards me made me realise how much she wanted me to fit into the post of the daughter she always wanted.
Logan accompanied me to pack my few belongings from the woodhouse and I was allowed to bring Strange to the palace though he was to be confined to my room.
That night after dinner, as I sat watching the rectangular thing on the wall that Logan told me was a television, Derek walked into the living room with some guards.
I immediately stood up ready to defend myself but Derek gave me a defeated look. He knelt down in front of me a few feets away from me.
"I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to ask for your forgiveness for everything I did to you while you were scarred"- He paused as I let out a very bitter chuckle and interupted him.
"Do you think I will ever forgive you...Well no I won't...I will always hate you." I said with a silent sob.
"What can I do to stop you from hating me?" He asked earnestly.
"You can bring my grandmother back to life...if not, get out of my sight." I replied.
He struggled against the guards who held him away from me. "I can't, I can't...I love you Isla."
"And I hate you." I told him curtly just as the guards dragged him out.
*
The next day was a sunday and I was told by Katherine to sleep in but at 11am, I couldn't stay asleep anymore because I kept having nightmares of grandma crying for me to save her as a very large snake squeezed her body till it was paralyzed and then bit her.
That evening, Logan and his parents followed me to where my grandmother was being cremated and Katherine had borrowed me some of her black gowns for my mourning. She promised to have a taylor sent for to sew me clothes and when I protested, she reminded me of my promise to take the place of the daughter she never had.
I agreed under the condition that monster animals skin material should not be used for any of the clothes. She then chuckled and gave me a pat on the head after saying, "You wouldn't need it dear...you're already beautiful."
I watched them burn my grandma's body and empty the ashes into a jar which was given to Logan. As custom demands, I would have to sleep with the ashes to honor my grandmother.
That night, I saw my grandmother in my dream.
"Isla." She said.
"I want you to know that I love you. Its midnight thats why I'm able to speak to you. After my burial, my spirit will pass away and I won't be able to ever see you so let me warn you about the people who will want to use you against the king..." She spoke hurriedly and I watched her from afar because we were separated with a kind of slightly invisible yet transparent barrier.
Her image began to be blurry and her voice was becoming barely audible as she said her last words. "Be careful and don't go anywhere alone...The order..."-Her voice drained out for two seconds-"will want you" and I lost her just as I woke up.
I tried to remember what she'd told me but most of it was groggy...All I remembered was her telling me she loved me.
I reached for the beautiful vase containing her ashes and hugged it to my chest as I went to bed again.
*
Third person P.O.V.
A group of people, men and women are sitting around a table in a very dim room. They are all dressed formally in expensive suits and evening gowns.
"The half-monster girl has surfaced and we must get her quickly. She would be good for our cause. Brian tell the master about her, I'm sure he'll be delighted that we have found him a female counterpart that is powerful enough to rule Dell city by his side when we takeover that city." A man said.
Another man stood up and bowed to the man talking before going down the balcony where he raises his hands upward to the moonlit sky and two bat-like wings sprout from his shoulders and he takes to flight.
~Written in 2013~