The Beast of Beauty (15 page)

I drove through the forest on my
four-wheeler as fast as I possibly could. I had to constantly slow down to
dodge trees and maneuver around huge rocks, and it was killing me. I would have
given anything to be able to put it in high gear and go as fast as possible.
The only thing that made it better was that I knew I was making better time
than if I had been on foot.

I pondered what my mother said as
I drove. There really wasn’t anything that I could do for Adeline besides take
her to a doctor. She would be furious if she knew that I had decided to bring
her to a hospital, but she didn’t leave me with a choice. My only options were
to bring her to a doctor and expose that she had turned into a beast, or to
live in a world without her in it. It only made sense to at least try and see
if a doctor could help. I only hoped that I wasn’t too late.

I knew that I had to be getting
close. I had already passed the ledge that I fell from when the four-wheeler
began to slow down.

I pressed the gas harder, but it
kept going slower and slower.

I had run out of gas.

I hit the handlebars in
frustration, jumped off, and began to run. I would have to carry Adeline back
to my house, but I could handle it. I would have to.

My heart was beating faster than
it ever had from the combination of running and worrying about how Adeline
would be when I found her. Suddenly, I heard someone screaming—someone that
wasn’t Adeline.

It was Jasper.

My heart and my feet both
stopped. I heard more voices too, laughing.

They had found Adeline.

I began to pick up the pace, but
I ran slightly away from the voices so that they wouldn’t know I was coming.

I reached the cabin on the
opposite side of the chaos. With my back against the back of the cabin, I
peered around to see what I had feared the most.

Adeline was tied to a tree,
slumping, with blood all over her face, and Jasper and his friends watched,
laughing. One of them was even videoing it.

I whipped my head back around and
assessed the situation.

I couldn’t fight them. I had
already proven that when I tried to on Friday. I was outnumbered.

I put my face in my hands. I had
never been so ashamed of my lack of strength. Adeline was in enough pain
already without those idiots torturing her, and there was nothing that I could
do to help her. I couldn’t save her. I didn’t even have a weapon. I wished that
I was stronger, like Adeline had been before she got sick.

My head shot up as I realized
what I had to do. It was the only way to save Adeline.

I snuck around the cabin as
quietly as I could, but the guys were so enthralled in what was going on that
they didn’t even notice me. From the doorway, I looked straight at Adeline,
hoping that she would see me and it would comfort her, but she hung her head
with her eyes downward and didn’t notice me either. Jasper punched her, and I
almost charged him right then, but then I remembered my plan and sprang into
action.

It didn’t take me long to find
the book; the hardest part was finding the right spell. Adeline had pointed out
to me which one that it was, but it seemed like it was taking me forever to
actually find it.

I breathed a sigh of relief when
I came across the right page. I didn’t take the time to hesitate or think about
the repercussions of what I was about to do, I just did it.

“
Make me a warrior

The creatures are people

The people I fear

I will fight back

I will be strong

I will bring justice here”

I closed my eyes and felt the
spell consume me. I was going to be a warrior now. Jasper was the true beast
here. I was afraid of him and I didn’t know what else to do, but I was going to
fight him and save Adeline.

When I opened my eyes, I looked
at my hands that were grasping the book. They looked just like Adeline’s.
Apparently anyone could do the spells, not just her. I was relieved and
terrified.

I took in a deep breath, and ran
outside to rescue the girl that I loved.

“GROWL FOR THE CAMERA, ADELINE!”
Jasper yelled in her face.

I let out a roar that could have
been likened to a lion. All five guys whipped around to face me. Although Jasper
was the leader, I went after James first. I ripped the phone from his hands and
crushed it with one of mine. They all started running away at the same time,
but I was much faster than them. I didn’t even have to try to be.

I caught up to Jasper first and
slung him to the ground. I did the same with everyone else, one at a time. They
all lay on the ground, frozen in fear. I squatted down and spoke slowly so that
they all could hear me.

“Get away from here,” I said as
scary as I could, “And don’t you ever come back. I don’t want to see any of
your faces again for the rest of my life, and neither does Adeline. However, if
you speak of us to anyone, I will have to see you again in order to teach you a
lesson. I am not an enemy that you want to have. Do you understand me?”

They all nodded, wide-eyed and
afraid. I could sense the blood pulsing through their veins and realized that I
had forgotten to eat lunch. I suddenly felt sorry for Adeline because I
realized just how much that she had been wanting to eat me.

“Go,” I said, “everyone besides
Jasper.”

The other four took no time in
leaving their friend behind. They scrambled to their feet and took off faster
than they had been running before, probably fueled by their fear.

“I wish that I could have some
special time of torture for you, Jasper,” I said to him as he lay on the
ground, “but I just can’t think of anything that would be good enough. Can
you?”

He stared at me in fear, and in
that moment, I saw the same kid who I grew up with, who was afraid of the dark
when we were five but made me promise not to tell anyone.

“I’m going to let you go,” I
said, and it was news to both Jasper and myself, “but I’m serious. I’m through
with you. You were supposed to be my friend, and you were anything but. I’m
going to prove to you that I’m not just like you. You can leave.”

I got up and walked back toward
Adeline. I didn’t turn back to look, but I heard him get up and start to run
after his friends. I had saved her, and I hadn’t become a monster in order to
do so. Well, I guess literally, I had.

I couldn’t believe it. Not only
was Adeline an animal, but Daniel had turned into one as well. I didn’t know
what was going around, but I convinced myself that the only reason that I was
running was because I didn’t want to catch it.

I ran and ran, trying to catch up
with the guys, but it seemed like I was never going to find them. I had gotten
out of there in such a hurry that I didn’t even know if I had run in the right
direction in the first place.

My pace slowed as I realized that
Daniel wasn’t coming after me and I really needed a break to catch my breath.

When my breathing slowed, I tried
to be as quiet as possible to see if I could hear the sound of footsteps on the
forest floor, but I couldn’t even hear the sound of the guys running because
they were so far ahead of me. I groaned as I realized that they probably took
my truck and that I would have to walk home.

I fished in all of my pockets for
my keys to see if I had left them in the truck or not, and in my pocket was my
pistol. I was so stunned by everything that had happened back there that I
forgot that I even had it.

I forgot about my keys and began
to backtrack to where Daniel and Adeline were. They had no right to boss me
around and act like they’re better than me because they weren’t. They were both
complete losers, and their current situation only made them more-so, not
better. They had no influence over what I said or did, ever.

I stopped as I realized that Daniel
had let me go. We really did used to be friends, but that didn’t matter
anymore. He pulled me to the ground and bullied me, and I had to fight back. I
would not be walked all over like a doormat this time.

I put the gun in my right front
pocket for easier access as I approached the camp. Daniel was breaking the
ropes that tied Adeline to the tree. She looked like absolute crap, but he was
looking at her like she was a supermodel. It was disgusting, but he looked
pretty disgusting too. Perhaps they were made for each other after all.

I walked slowly in their
direction, and Daniel must have had some kind of superhuman hearing because he
noticed me. He looked up and acknowledged that he knew I was there, but he
obviously didn’t consider me a threat because he went back to getting Adeline
down. He helped her sit down on a rock that was surrounding the fire-pit, sat
by her side, and finally looked up at me again.

“What can I do for you, Jasper?”
he asked. “I thought that I made it clear that I never wanted to see you again?
Are you already violating the terms of our truce? I’m serious, get out of here
right now and I won’t hurt you.”

I smirked, “Stop acting like
you’re so tough, you didn’t even have what it takes to make the basketball
team, and I am the captain. And I thought I made it clear that I was never
going to let you win at anything. This is no exception.”

He chuckled sarcastically, “Oh
really? Would you like to become a beast as well?”

I grimaced, “Absolutely not. I
have my life to think about, and I could beat you fair and square when we were
both actually normal people, and that’s good enough for me.”

“Look at us,” Daniel said,
pointing to himself and Adeline. “Basketball doesn’t even matter right now, and
it shouldn’t to you either. Have a little sense of self-preservation and
leave.”

 I scoffed, “You don’t get to
boss me around just because you think you’re stronger than me.”

“I am stronger than you,” he
corrected.

“No, you only think that,” I
assured him as I put my right hand in my pocket. I felt the coldness of the metal
and knew that I was the one in the position of power. I was always going to
win, and I was always going to make sure of it by whatever means necessary. He
was right, we weren’t friends anymore.

I pulled the gun out, pointed it
at the two of them sitting there on the rock, and pulled the trigger. Daniel
was so comfortable in his new “position of authority” that he never even saw it
coming. What I didn’t see coming is that I missed him and hit Adeline.

The pain in my arm was so intense
that I couldn’t breathe for a second, and when I could breathe, all I could do
was scream. My lungs were crying out in pain as I did, but I couldn’t help it.

I opened my eyes to see that
Daniel had knocked the gun out of Jasper’s hand and had him on the ground. He
punched him over and over, and then got up and started searching. My pain began
to subside as I realized that he was looking for the gun.

He was going to kill Jasper for
what he had done to me.

Without thinking, I jumped into
action.

“Daniel, stop!” I yelled, running
as fast as my legs could carry my weakened body to throw myself in front of
Jasper.

He had found the gun and turned
to look at us, “Adeline, what are you doing? I gave him a second chance, and he
blew it! He came back after I gave him a free pass, and look at what he’s done
to you? I don’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice,” I
assured him, “You can always choose to do good instead of letting the bad get
the better of you.”

“This guy has treated you worse
than anyone on the planet has or probably ever will. He is the devil. What do
you want me to?”

“I don’t know!” I admitted, “but
killing him is definitely not what I want you to do. I want to have a life with
you, Daniel. I want to marry you and have kids with you and grow old with you!
I can’t do that if you do this. I can’t stand beside you if you choose to do
something this evil. And what’s more, I don’t even care that Jasper did all of
those things. I’m dying, Daniel, and because of that I am choosing to forgive him.
As my last dying wish, I want you to spare his life. Please.”

Daniel stared at me like I was
insane, and honestly, I might have been. Jasper did make my life as miserable
as he possibly could, and I couldn’t even see out of my left eye because it was
so swollen from all of the times that he punched me. It seemed ridiculous that
I was acting the way I was about him, and I didn’t understand it in my head,
but I felt it in my heart. My arm was killing me, and blackness started
creeping in my vision.

“Move, Adeline,” Daniel said
sternly.

I obeyed him, and stood out of
the way. All I could do was trust him to make the right decision.

He held the gun in one hand and
lifted Jasper by the shirt with his other.

“When you wake up, the offer
still stands. Go away, and never speak of this again. If you do, I will finish
this,” he said.

He threw Jasper to the ground and
hit him one last time.

Jasper lay unconscious on the
forest floor. It was exactly what I was hoping for, but he was alive and he
wasn’t going to hurt us anymore.

Daniel threw the gun as far as I
could into the oblivion of the surrounding woods and ran to my side.

“What can I do? Should I wrap
it?” he asked, frantically taking off his shirt.

I nodded, and he ripped his shirt
into two pieces. He created a tourniquet above the wound with one piece and
wrapped the other around the wound itself.

“Look, I did what you wanted with
Jasper, now you have to do what I want. I want to take you to a hospital,” he
said, “after we heal the bullet wound using the book.

“No!” I demanded, “I’m not using
that book ever again, no exceptions!”

“Fine,” he said, “then just let
me take you to the hospital.”

I looked at him and saw the
desperation in his eyes. He wanted to help me, but he didn’t know what else to
do. I had a feeling that he had planned to take me even before the bullet
wound.

“Okay,” I agreed.

He lifted me up and began to run
with me in his arms. He ran so quickly that it was making me sick to my
stomach. I rested easy against his chest, though, because I knew that my body
wasn’t hanging on for much longer. I only agreed because I knew that I wasn’t
going to make it to a hospital, bullet wound or not.

I looked up at him with my good
eye, “Daniel?”

He slowed down to a fast walk,
“Yeah?”

“Sorry I guilted you into all of
that back there. I know that we won’t be able to have a life together,” I
admitted.

“What do you mean?” he asked,
looking totally confused. “You’re going to be okay, and we are going to have a
life together. We’re going to get out of this town and finish high school and
then go to college together. I have it all planned out. Just hold on, okay?
We’re almost to my house.”

I looked around and saw that he
was right; we were dangerously close to town.

“Why did you do it, Daniel? Why
did you use the spell on yourself?” I asked.

He looked at me intensely,
“Because I love you. I love you so much, and I couldn’t abandon you again. I
won’t
abandon you again, no matter what. I wanted to prove that.”