Free The Beast of Beauty by Valerie Johnston

a
different place with different parents and a different set of struggles. I was
so, so very tired of my own struggles. I wasn’t afraid of them; I was over
them. I was over feeling ugly and useless and monstrous.
    Yet, that was all I felt.
    I stared into the darkness,
listening to the sound of Daniel breathe. Even though my eyesight was better as
a beast, it was still hard to see him in the darkness. He looked the same as he
always did, but I saw him differently. I saw him differently because he was
able to see me differently, probably because he didn’t know that it was
actually me.
    I couldn’t stand the thought of
him figuring out who I was. I didn’t want to see his eyes go from warm and
understanding to cold and evasive. I couldn’t bear it. Not again.
    I was also able to see him
differently because I was forgiving him. When I looked at him, I didn’t see the
person who let me down; I saw the person that was here right now helping me
stand. I would have gone crazy out here alone with no one to skin my rabbits.
    I chuckled softly into the night.
We had fun out by the fire tonight doing something that would have caused me
great stress if I had to do it alone. He took something that terrified me and
acted as if it were no big deal. He slept in the same room with me even though
he knew that I was bloodthirsty. He saw past the beast.
    I just wish that he knew who he
was seeing.
    In frustration, I turned away
from him and tried to will myself to sleep. There was no reason to waste time
thinking about something that I couldn’t do anything about. Even if I did
change back, what was really waiting for me? My father? Jasper? Daniel? No,
everything would be exactly the same as it was when I left.
    Daniel began to mumble in his
sleep. I turned over to see if I could make anything out and smiled at the idea
of telling him what he said in the morning.
    “Aaaaaa…” he mumbled.
    “What?” I whispered, wondering if
I could interact with him while he slept.
    “Adeline,” he grumbled.
    I froze, “What?”
    He snored twice and turned away
from me.
    I couldn’t move. Whether he knew
who I was or not, he was dreaming about me, not Violet.
    I glanced up at the rose that I
had picked laying in the windowsill. It was as beautiful and full as it was
when I had picked it earlier today.
    ***
    When morning came, I saw Daniel
flipping through the pages of my plant book. The fact that he slept-talked my
name last night immediately came to mind, but I pushed it back, unable to
confront him about it yet.
    “Morning,” he said, not taking
his eyes off of the book.
    “Good morning,” I said “Find any
better plants that you would like to try?”
    He shrugged, “Not really. It is
October, so it’s going to get hard to find plants soon. I’m hoping to be able
to walk in the next couple of days anyway.”
    I hung my head, aware that he
would leave me and I would be all alone.
    “Come with me?” he asked.
    “To where?” I wondered. “Another
place in the middle of nowhere?”
    He laughed, “No, silly, to my
house. I’ll hide you in the extra room and bring you rare steaks.”
    I smiled, “What about your
parents? I’m sure it wouldn’t look good for Mayor Cotton if he was hoarding a
beast… especially around re-election time.”
    He looked up, “How do you know my
father?”
    I froze, trying to keep my face
solid, “Uh, I know a lot of people from all of the towns around this area, not
just Holbrooke.”
    “Why?” he asked.
    “I…” I started, but I just
couldn’t finish what I wanted to say.
    “Yeah…” he said.
    I sighed, “I don’t want to talk
about it, okay?”
    “Why not? Did you do something
bad as a beast?” he asked. It was the first time that he had called me that.
    “No! Just leave me alone!” I
said. My voice got louder and began to drip with attitude.
    “You don’t have to get so upset,”
he said calmly. “I just want to know the truth, and you’ve been evading it ever
since I got here. I