My feet carried me down the stairs faster than my brain could talk sense into me. Dalton is alive! I saw him! Sure it was dark outside but the moonlight hit perfectly on his face. It was him. I am sure of it!
The grass tickled the bottom of my bare feet and the chill of the night nipped at my nearly bare body but I ignored it. He is in the forest! He's alive! My friend is alive!
I didn't hesitate when I reached the forest line, instead, parting the leaves and rushing in. Branches cracked under my weight and twigs stung my skin as they dug into my flesh. But once again, I ignored it.
"Dalton! Dalton!" I shouted into the open air but crickets and woodland animals are the only thing that answered me. I called his name again. Where had he gone?
My heart began to race at a remarkable speeds. The forest swirled around me as I twisted this way and that, looking for him. The undeniable feeling of someone watching me burned into my back like an arrow aiming at its target the further I entered the woods.
The crickets stopped chirping and the forest became eerily silent. The only noise hitting the air was my breathing for a stiff moment. That's when a large force tackled me to the ground.
My scream lodged in my throat and I pinched my eyes closed, afraid to look up. A stenchy wetness dripped onto my exposed chest and a hot air blew roughly into my face. There was a brief moment where there was no sound at all. That was until I willed my eyes to open.
A large silver wolf bared his large jowls at me, it's glowing off white eyes set on my face. Drool dripped from his fangs and onto my camisole, leaving me shaking with absolute terror. That's when the scream came.
Scream after scream ripped through my throat. Fear like I've never felt before gripped at my body in a hold that made me see complete darkness. I was dreaming. There was no way this was actually happening.
This creature was something that appeared in nightmares.
All the oxygen seemed to leave my body the more that I screamed until the darkness became infinite.
☽✧･ﾟ: *✧☾
I woke up to the feeling of soft fur between my fingers. I flexed them more, the velvety material slinking under my touch as if it was awakening my senses.
The fur reminded me of the wolf that loomed over me in my dream. That horrible, terrible, nightmare of a dream. One brought on by too many legends and wolf heads hanging on walls. I hadn't really seen Dalton Andrews. It was all in my head.
I groaned and leaned up, not even bothering to open my eyes right away. My throat felt sore and my body ached from what felt like laying on a tree stump. I've never had a dream before where my body felt as bad as what the dream was.
When I opened my eyes, my heart began to race. Where was I? Furs lined the room as rugs, blankets, and curtains. The lighting was dimmed as if I was possibly underground. My eyes adjusted rather quickly and they narrowed in on a figure in the corner. My eyes connected with a man sitting in a leather chair.
"Who are you?" I blantily asked, fear gripping my chest like a fist.
The man remained silent. His eyes, eyes that appeared to have an eerie glow to them, watched me haughtily. After a moment of both of us glaring at each other, the man braced his hands on his knees and willed himself up.
I scooted up until my back hit something hard, trying to get as far away from the stranger as possible. In a last minute decision, I frantically looked around the room to see that I was in a bed.
"Don't come any closer," I warned, my voice smaller than I liked it. "I mean it, I'll--"
"You hit your head pretty hard."
Wait. What?
"Out in the woods," the man continued, "you fell and hit your head."
"Well that would explain a lot," I muttered under my breath. I rubbed my eyes wishing that the lighting was brighter wherever I was at. "I hit my head and you let me sleep?"
The man gave me a look like he wasn't comprehending. Who was this man? A cave man? "What if I have a concussion?..."
Pure amusement shone on the stranger's face the longer I gave him a look of ridicule. "Well, you're up and chattering away so, I'd say you're fine."
I bit my tongue and tried to remain calm. "Where am I?"
The man decided at that moment to go silent and this made my head hurt more. I sighed and measured the distance between me and where the man decided to stop in the center of the room.
If I could just lean to the right I could grab the lamp and smash it over his head... Or maybe use the comb next to the lamp to cut his throat. In the worst scenario. I pinched my arm to wake myself up but when nothing happened, and I remained in the dark room, the conclusion that I was living a nightmare hit me harder than that wolf.
"Where is Dalton?" Is the first question to leave my mouth.
"You have always asked so many questions." The man moved closer to me and I found myself inching even further up the wooden headboard. He moved in a graceful manner as if he was stalking his prey, that prey being me. His sharp cheekbones shadowed most of his face as his eyes stayed narrowed in on me. His tall frame seemed to shrink the room.
"Where is he?" I demanded, ignoring the catch in my voice that was evidence of my fear. "I know you took him. You and that dog of yours."
The man laughed, a deep, throaty sound that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up to attention. My stomach twisted at the dark sound.
"Dog." The man scoffed to himself, his face turning sharper in the moonlight.
"Yes, dog--or whatever that was out there. You should probably hide that thing considering there are people out there hunting wolves. How did you find me? Why am I here?" I stood up and reached for the lamp, positioning it like a baseball bat. "Just tell me where Dalton is and I will be on my way. I want no trouble."
The man took another step closer to me and my hands clenched tighter around the base of the lamp. "Come any closer and I will knock your head off."
"Feisty." The man smiled, showing off bright white teeth that glinted underneath the hint of light. "I always liked that about you. Kept me on my toes."
I couldn't ignore how he kept making comments like he knew me. Trying to keep the lamp positioned above my head, I tried to calm my breathing. "Who are you? Answer me this time."
"Not your friend, Dalton." The man reached forward at an inhuman speed and snatched the lamp from me. His face, now fully in the light, was carnal, inhumanly beautiful to the point that I was sure I was truly dreaming. Nothing that beautiful lived in the world I knew. "But I am the dog."
He started to laugh when my mouth fell open. Again, my body went into panic mode at the sound. It was feral and wild. Just like him.
"You've got to be kidding me."
The moment the words left my mouth, the man arched an eyebrow and stepped back. A growl cut through the spacious room and his body contoured in a painful manner, the sound of cracking bones ringing through the air. I screamed again but this time, no sound came out. Or maybe it did. I don't know. All the sound seemed have been sucked out of the world like a vacuum cleaner.
I bent down and picked up the lamp he had dropped, clinging to it for dear life as the dog--no, wolf-- larger than a small car, just as the Andrews had described, snorted fiery at me. My eyes felt like they were bugging out of my skull, threatening to pop out and roll across the room only to be stomped on by the big paws of the giant, gray furred, monster standing in front of me.
Just as fast as the man transformed into the creature in front of me, he bent forward and changed back into a man. A very naked man. My eyes bulged more then snapped shut at the sight.
"Oh my God!" I shrieked and dropped the lamp to covered my eyes. "What is wrong with you? You're a total pervert! A weirdo, stalker, monster of a perv!"
I peeked through a finger to check and see if he was covered and when I did so his bare bottom was on full display as he turned around and reached for something. When he turned back around, a bright red blanket covered his waist. It was about the color of my face, I am sure.
"Wouldn't be the first time you called me that. Won't be the last, either." He smirked down at me when he caught me looking. I made a sound that resembled the mice he probably eats and diverted my eyes from his broad, bare chest.
"You're not real," I repeatedly chanting to myself. I landed harshly on the bed and at the same time my bottom hit the maroon, silk, sheets, tears began to flow steadily. I was going crazy. "That was not real."
The man chuckled as if enjoying my torment. "Oh, I am very real, love."
I ignored his endearment because though my eyes just witness mad chaos, there was one important question on my mind. "So you haven't seen the boy that I was looking for in the woods?"
The man-- do I even call him that?--shook his head without keeping eye contact and disappeared behind a burnt orange screen. Even when he took off the blanket, the silhouette of him was crystal clear. My face heated more.
My arms fell limply at my side and more tears streamed down my face. "But I saw him." I whimpered.
The man watched me closely when he reemerged from behind the changing screen while I willed myself to wipe at my cheeks. Here I was, in the middle of God knows where, arguing with a stranger about a dead man.
"I just showed you what I am and all you have to bring up is this boy?" His words came out in a sneer as if he was spitting them through sharp teeth. When I didn't answer, he growled—literally growled— deep in his chest. "Do you fancy this Dalton?"
My head snapped up in his direction. His voice was so deep it demanded immediate attention. The stranger's eyes have only darkened more with the questions and for a solid second, more fear clenched at my heart. He looked angry. Murderous. Down right animalistic even in his human form.
"N-no," I stammered, face heating at the thought. "Not at all, I just thought you were him but..." I paused. "You look nothing like him. I am very confused..."
"You saw whom you wanted to see most," the man growled, a sneer painting his beautiful face.
"What do you mean?" I stood up and took as large of a step the confined space granted me to do so. Was I really questioning this lunatic? Run, Poppy!
"Oh, don't you get it by now, girly? The big bad wolf lured you into his den. With magic." He circled me like the animal he was, watching my chest heave up and down with each panicked breath. What he was saying couldn't be true. He laughed like he read my mind. "I made you see the one person your heart wanted to see in hope that you would follow. And you did..." His grin vanished and something deadly overcame his humanlike features. "And it appears it was this boy."
My mouth bobbed open and close but no words came out. I think my brain had shut off completely. This is all too much. I am in shock because a childhood friend was brutally murdered and then the Andrews with their wolf heads above their mantle and that stupid, nutcase of a story this town tended to believe...
"Not even going to question the magic part, little red flower?"
My head snapped in the man's direction and my brain slowly began to work again. "What did you call me?"
A shallow memory began to resurface because of the nickname but I pushed it back down because it was too fuzzy to dote on at the moment. Plus the man began to circle again and the terror of the situation began to settle in my bones.
How do I get back to Grandmother's house?
I felt him stop behind me and for a moment I thought about running for the exit but even as my eyes frantically roamed the room for one, it was not visible. Hot breath kissed the back of my neck and his nose pressed into the back of my head, inhaling.
A shiver racked down my spine.
"You even smell like a flower."
I spun around before he could touch me again. "Please, just let me go home. I won't tell anyone what I saw tonight. It never happened, okay?"
He hushed me and patted my hair away from my face. I closed my eyes to keep from having a panic attack. I counted to ten and he waited for me, watching me with enthusiasm.
Once I had felt like I had more courage, I clenched my jaw. "Get. Your. Paws. Off. Me."
He took a step back and I hoped that it was because I was hulking out about being angry for being kidnapped but by the little smirk on his handsome lips told me he allowed me to push him away.
As he pinned me to my spot on his deer sheared rug, my brain started gradually working. The strange man saying he used magic to lure me into the woods, to the legend of shapeshifter, to him calling this place a den--
"You're the Beast." The words left a chill in the air the second they left my mouth.
His grin turned sinister and his eyes turned glassy to the point that I could see my disgruntled self starring back.
"I prefer being called that than a dog, that's for sure."