The Dark Beast's Love

This was the first night in many months that I spent in my bed while the full moon was over us. My vow to slay the beast wasn't anything less important only because I was haunted by its terrifying looks, but this month I had too much at stake to go and temper with the beast. I didn't need to give father a reason to hasten the wedding with Wallaby, not when his fear for my life had been the reason for my sudden marriage after all. When my father had asked me about my sudden change of behaviour, I had just blamed it on the wedding, claiming that the nerves had me exhausted every night and I tried to get as much sleep as possible before the hectic last days before the never-happening-wedding in two weeks. Despite the comfort of my bed, I could not sleep. Perhaps it was a habit, perhaps it was fear, but I just turned and twisted under the poor excuse of a comforter as my instincts listened and searched like they always did, for a howl, for a temperature drop, for a sound that was out of place, but tonight I heard nothing, which wasn't too uncommon. On nights when it hunted the rich instead of the poor, we would hear nothing until the morning around and the wails of a mother or a father, woke the town, perhaps alongside a sister or a brother, and a lover if the victim had one, the same way the rich's nights were peaceful on months when the beast hunted amongst the poor.

No one knew what its hunting pattern was, and why it choose the victims it did. All that was known is the fact that when a target is chosen, it doesn't matter how much blood it spills to reach them, the target is always stone dead by sunrise. Rows and rows of soldiers can stand as a defence line against the beast, and it can slay every single one of them, but it is not satisfied until the selected victim meets the same fate, it was proven the month when its target had been one of the riches in the village, the daughter of a general. People still talked about how bravely the soldier fought in order to protect the general's most prized possession, just to die with her body on top of the pile of corpses. That same morning, the representatives of the village had created a new law for everyone, that on the night of the full moon, everyone was to remain off duty, despite social status or wealth, if one was to die, they deserved to do it around their family. It was the fog in front of my lips that made me realise what I should have paid attention to sooner, the temperature had dropped. I cursed somewhere in my mind as I reached for my dagger under the pillow, tightening the grip until my knuckles ached. There were many in the area, anyone could be its victim, but it didn't help my thoughts as my mind flashed back to the moment in the woods. Perhaps it would mark me again because I escaped last time, perhaps it had returned for vengeance, my scent imprinted and amplified in its mind as the days passed.

For a second, I hoped that it was just my thoughts running free, but the hopes soon shattered when I heard our front door break in.

I was up and out of the bed in a second, one dagger still clenched in my hand as I reached for the cold handle of another, thanking myself for preparing with comfortable clothes to move in in case my fears were to come true. Beside me, the door that connected my brother's and father's room to mine was hastily opened but the action was still quiet as they both knew that a single sound could be our doom.

My brother looked at me with wide eyes, hands gripping his gear tightly as his eyes darted from me to my door. Father was behind him, even him with a weapon in his hand, the axe he used to cut wood, perhaps not the best weapon, but it was better than being left defenceless.

Varius silently formed words with his mouth, asking me if I had seen anything after the sound of the door had caught our attention but I just shook my head, the light under my bedroom door leaving no clue as to whether this was a burglar or a beast. We all turned our attention to the door, listening to whatever could be on the other side, but we were only greeted by silence, one so loud that it was even more haunting than it should have been.

After a few moments, the hesitation was obvious in our stances, and Varius, my father and I continued exchanging glances to see if there were any signs that it was still out there. When nothing happens, Varius takes a step forward, causing me to reach out my hand to stop him from whatever he's thinking, but he snatches it back and gives me a look that reveals that he's thinking what I'm thinking, that whether it is out there or not, we need to know. If it isn't, it'll feel like we've dodged a bullet, but if it is, our fate was inevitable anyway.

Varius places his hand on the handle and takes a deep breath as he prepares himself for the unknown, but he never gets the chance to follow through with his actions.

The large beast storms so violently that it causes my brother to fly across the entire room, the impact knocking the breath out of him for a second. His name was at the tip of my tongue when I let out a horrified cry but my brother only got his eyes on the beast in front of him. Our house was small, and the distance between the roof and the floor even smaller, that was probably why the beast looked ten times bigger in our house than it had done in the woods.

Its pale almost snow-white fur glistened in the light that the torn-up door opening let in and once again, it could only be described as an abomination between a wolf, a lion and a man. It was on two feet, most of its lower body covered in fur while its upper half was a little less animal-like, and a little more human-like, still with untamed fur growing in ways that were unnatural for any man. Meanwhile, the face reminded of a man's, it had sharp teeth almost too big for its jaw and ears like the elves we would hear stories about but the most significant part of it was its eyes; feral, glowing, golden, deadly. It let out another howl before it turned its attention to me, and I was frozen in my spot as I watched in approach. "Liliana watch out!" A voice beside me screamed before someone knocked me over, pushing me away just moments before I was within its reach.

The impact woke the muscles in my body, and I quickly turned around just in time to see my father throwing himself on the beast trying to cut off whatever limb it could access with his axe, but the beast had too many advantages, the extra two heads in length only being one of them along with strength and speed. It raised its arm to slash my father with its long talons, but used the element of surprise to stab him in the back, right on the shoulder blade of his raised arm. It growled in pain and swung with its arm, sending me crashing against the cabinet where most of my clothes were, its talons cutting open a wound in the process.

At the scent of blood, it turned around and faced me. For a moment, it seemed like it was frozen on the spot, eyes unreadable and head tilted to one side, an action too human to fit the murderous beast in front of me. It looked at the blood and back to me and I wondered if this was people meant with the calm before the storm, if it was studying me to savour me for a moment before it would launch itself upon me. My heart was beating violently in my chest and my arm ached from where the blood continued to soak my shirt.

Somewhere on my right, my brother was yelling my name, and suddenly, there was a gunshot.

The wound that should have been fatal for any living creature, only seemed to anger the beast, and it directed its anger towards where my brother stood in my room, hands shaking but gun prepared to fire another shot between the beast's eyes. He never got the chance to as it threw itself over him, tackling him to the ground as it opened its jaw to take its first bite for the evening.

I scrambled to my feet again, ignoring the thundering in my arm again as I threw myself upon the beast's back, stabbing it over and over again as I screamed in a fury. "Don't you dare hurt my brother!" I yelled as my arm continued its motion and steel met flesh.

The beast staggered back from my brother, who was still alive based on the desperate gasps I heard from underneath us and towered over me, a mean growl on its face as it cornered me. I could barely breathe as it pierced me with its stone- cold look. Somewhere in the middle of it all, my father tried to attack the beast just like I had, but it shoved him without any signs of struggle and I heard the wall break as his body went through, but saw nothing but the beast before me. Whatever happened afterwards, happened in a blur. Its beast-like hand was around my throat even before I could scream and as if I hadn't had trouble breathing already with the blood and the adrenaline leaving my clothes, this was the last step to desperation. But no matter how many times I tried to stab it with my dagger, my strength significantly decreasing for every passing second of lost oxygen, its grip never faltered.

In the end, the world left me with nothing but the sound of my brother screaming my name and the feeling of my feet leaving the ground.