Tears dripped down Annelie's face as she hurried down the hallways, uncaring that they all seemed to look the same to her. The maze surrounding her was enough to hide her away from the Beast, from Vardan. When she felt like she had wandered enough, she pressed her back against the rock wall and began to let her tears out more freely.
There was a tight ball in her chest that she couldn't explain to herself. Is love supposed so be so painful? Is it supposed to be so confusing and make you feel like you are so utterly helpless? If I feel this way, then is there a possibility that he may endure the same? No, impossible, she thought with a shake of her head. He will not love me. Why can't I just come to accept this? Why must I continue to search for signs that do not exist, that will never exist?
Annelie swallowed back more tears, tilted her head upwards to stare at the ceiling through a blurred vision. Somehow, she found herself tracing back to the Beast every single time. Whenever she thought about love, she thought of the man she had come to honestly care for more than she knew she ever should.
Yet, there was no way she would say that she regretted coming to Rose Castle. The Beast, Vardan, he needed her. That much she knew. He had been so lost, but at least she could give him something else to think about other than the impossibilities of his own reality.
He was locked in his castle, unable to leave unless he wished to face possible death. The man was immortal, unable to produce children due to the curse that hung heavily over him. Death would become his only escape, and it surprised her to realize how dark his mind had to have turned over the centuries had was made to live through.
There had to have been one point in time where all hope seemed to have left him. Yet, he never wrote about it, as if the idea had never come into his mind. Somehow, she knew it probably had somewhere along the line.
Annelie blew out a breath, her head tilting downward. A scream left her at what she saw.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Navini exclaimed, hurriedly trying to reassure Annelie.
The servant girl had seen the mademoiselle crying and thought that perhaps she could comfort her. When she had approached her, the next thing she knew Annelie was screaming in fright, having not expected anyone to be around her, let alone right in front of her.
Navini's hands fluttered around Annelie and tried to keep the girl calm. "Oh, I am so terribly sorry," she exclaimed again, unable to keep from apologizing to Annelie.
Eventually, after a bit more hysterics, Annelie calmed and she was able to walk alongside her friend, down the hall, and towards her room. "Honestly I-" Navini started once more and Annelie held up her hands, waving them in the air back and forth with the quick shake of her head. Blonde curls swung with the movement, adding to the gesture with some degree of hilarity.
"No, please don't apologize again, Navini! Let's just forget that had happened and focus on something else entirely. How about- how about we talk about if there is any man here in this castle that you would honestly like to romantically be with!" Annelie suddenly exclaimed, a dazzling smile lighting on her face.
It was nice to be able to distract herself from the thoughts that were inevitably filled with the Beast and how she felt about the man.
"Oh, there is no one," she started. When Annelie gave her a dumbstruck look, the girl shrugged her shoulders. "I don't have any interest in marrying, Annelie. Honestly, I don't even know what love is like," the servant confided, causing Annelie to flush slightly.
Navini, luckily, didn't notice the flare of pink on Annelie's pale cheeks. Instead, her dark eyes stared down at her chocolate-colored still with slight embarrassment. "Surely, I should have sought someone out a long time ago," the maid explained slowly. "I've lived here, in this castle, for as long as there was a curse to be had. I knew the master's mother, his father. They were good parents and somehow better rulers."
"After their passing, and the curse was set in place, I didn't leave this castle. Instead, I found myself working for the master for years. Surely, you must think me crazy. Yet, I cannot explain it. He is- he is a good man. He means well, and that much I know you have seen. It is just that his temper and his scars make it harder for him to express himself in a healthy fashion," Navini continued, finally giving into the urge to truly confined in Annelie.
"I didn't want to leave, and the men around here are like distant family to me. Sure, there are some ongoing flirtatious romances going on. Liyor continues to try and hunt down Esmeralda, and she continues to easily tease the man to near insanity. Though, if you pay close attention, you would know that they are head over heels with one another, falling harder with every day that passes. Marriage is a bit tricky, as we servants cannot enter Rose Castle without someone letting us back in, let alone get married."
"To get to a church is hard, especially since Vell has no churches. Besides, we wouldn't want to leave master's side for too long. He is a good man and we cannot abandon him," Navini finished with a soft nod.
Annelie swallowed, trying to process everything she learned. It was true that she had learned that the Beast meant well, especially from what he had written about her and what he had done for her in the past. Memories of that day floated back into her mind, however, they were always fuzzy. Yet, she knew that the Beast wrote the truth in his leather-bound book. Somehow, she knew he had written nothing but the truth, the human side of him, into the book over the years.
She let out a sigh as they reached her room once more, wondering if she would ever be able to understand the layout of the huge castle. "Thank you for guiding me to my room once more, Navini," she murmured. The maid only nodded, as if she had used her allotted words for the day. With a wave, Annelie entered her bedchambers once more.
Much time had passed, enough that it was late in the evening. Somehow, she felt a wave of tiredness crash into her, and she allowed herself to be sucked towards the bed. Without any issues, she fell asleep curled into the fur pelt blankets.
---
Something woke Annelie up in a sudden pitch-black room. The fire had been blown out by the whispers in the wind. A voice moved to Annelie's ear and her eyes widened before growing unfocused.
The sound was like a siren's call, bringing her forth from her bed to stare at the wall with confusion clouding her eyes. Annelie could only stare at the wall as she wondered why she had woken up so easily. Yet, then the call started once more and her green eyes grew cloudy, murky.
She had no clue where she was going as she slipped her feet off of the side of the bed and onto the warm stone ground. It was slowly growing cold, urging her feet to move forward if she wanted to escape the cold. Her hands were limp at her sides, only moving to open the door once she had reached it.
Annelie walked down the hall, no servants to be found and no one to stop her. The sound only grew the farther she withdrew from her room, and her mind was lost in a black abyss. There were no thoughts swimming through her mind. No, all that was left was a body moving forward, being pulled forward, like a puppet hanging off of strings.
Someone was pulling her forward to the sound of beautiful music. She heard her name called through the long stone halls. It echoed with a force that was undeniable. Slowly, it grew to a crescendo when Annelie was on the stone steps to Rose Castle, walking through a thin layer of melting snow.
It did not chill her feet, rather she felt nothing. Not even the biting wind registered in her mind as she was dragged onward towards an unknown destination.
At once, she was in the forest, not really recalling how she had arrived there or why she felt so sick. Her mind was drifting back to her, and she spun around in the barely lit darkness. Like a crashing wave, the cold hit her, sinking into her bones and making her teeth chatter violently. Her green eyes focused on the bare trees around her, crowding her in like long skinny arms. The rough bark scratched at her skin when she tried to move forward through them, drawing blood.
As she looked around, she spotted the figure of a beautiful woman with her back turned towards Annelie. She was floating off of the ground by a few inches, her feet not making a single print in the snow below her.
The woman turned to look at Annelie, the saddest look entering her eyes. Annelie opened her mouth to call out to the woman when a screech filled her mind. Her head jerked to the side, and she grabbed at her ears. Her eyes had squinted closed at the sound, unable to take the high frequency of it.
When her eyes opened, watery and even more confused, there was nothing in the forest except for a cold, harsh wind that ripped through her. A shiver traveled down Annelie's spin and she wondered about the woman she had seen. There had been such a haunted look in her eyes and the way she seemed to pity Annelie made a worried tremble rush through her with another gust of the wind.
Annelie stood still, wondering why she was there and why the voice had brought her to the woods. Her mind turned to contemplate whether or not the woman had been the one to bring her to the forest, her mind churning eagerly. A shuddering gasp left her as pain consumed her mind and her thoughts emptied from her mind.
An arrow shot through the air, the tip sharp and deadly. It screamed as it slammed into her side, or rather, she did. The metal was buried in her gut, barely missing her lungs or any other important organ. Pain radiated from the suddenly burning spot, making her whimper and fall to her knees.
She listened as a voice called out, male and weak from perhaps the stunning turn of events. Annelie turned her head, blonde hair flowing past her face, and found her eyes on the legs of a man.
He cursed and knelt down by her side, immediately seeing the spot where the snow was turning red and the way her plain cotton nightdress was staining with the same shade of scarlet. "Annelie?" he murmured questioningly. His worn hand brushed forward and landed against her cheek as his eyes grew wide and fear entered them for the first time in years. "What are you doing out here?" he exclaimed, suddenly needing her to rise up from the ground, needing to help her.
In a startling whirlwind, she was up in his arms, a single cry of pain having left her lips. The color had been drained from her face and she could only feel a strange mix of heat and a frightening cold.
They were moving. What... what is happening, she thought with her eyes going unfocused once more. Thoughts eluded her, but not because of the voice. This time it was because of her body going into shock as more and more blood painted the forest's white, snowy floor, droplets painting the snow a shocking red.
Annelie felt her vision blur, black mixing with her suddenly shadowy surroundings. Then, everything faded, like it was all an awful nightmare.