The Beast of Beauty (12 page)

I sat and cried for hours. I
couldn’t believe that I kept something like that from Daniel, but then again,
he did leave, just like I had thought that he would. I never thought it would
feel so bad to be right about something.

“I’m so stupid!” I yelled,
kicking the water bucket. It sloshed around inside, but none spilled out. I
looked over and realized that I had lost almost half of the water on the trek
back.

I sobbed and sobbed, unable to
think about anything but the events of this morning. Had Daniel been
suspicious? Had he been bored? I couldn’t figure out why Daniel was looking at
the book, unless…

… unless he wanted to figure out
a way to heal me.

“Of course!” I screamed, grabbing
the book, “I can use the healing spell to heal me of whatever’s wrong with me!”

I said the spell aloud for the
second time, and waited. I closed my eyes tightly, hoping to open them and look
down at my hairless hands.

I opened my eyes, and I was still
the beast.

Sighing, I threw the book aside.
I should have realized that if it was going to work, it would’ve worked when I
said it out loud to Daniel.

Maybe the spell only works when
someone else says it? Who knew, it wasn’t like I was some kind of witch or
anything.

I grabbed the water bucket and
tried to pull it over to myself, but failed. I wasn’t even strong enough to
budge it, even though it was halfway empty… or halfway full, for the delusional.

I cupped the water in my hands
and slurped some of it up, and then splashed the rest on my face. In all of the
turmoil that was going on inside of me, I hadn’t realized how terrible that I
felt.

I stood to go outside to get some
fresh air, and fell right back down on the mattress. I was too weak to even
hold my body up.

“Daniel…” I whimpered, knowing
full well that there was no way on earth that he could hear me. “I really need
someone right now, just like I did when my mother died. You left me in my
greatest time of need, again.”

I began to cry again. My sobs
were so out of hand that I found it hard to catch my breath. My body suddenly
starting tensing up, and instead of sobbing, I was coughing. Once again, there
was blood all over my hands.

I wasn’t just sick; I was dying.

It all made sense. Amara didn’t
stop writing because she miraculously got better and rode off into the sunset
with the guy that used to love her and then feared her. She died within days
from the spell. Even without any proof of my new theory, I believed it with my
whole heart, because if she had changed back into a human, she would have wrote
what made the spell finally work, and if she hadn’t, she would have wrote about
how she was searching for another way to change back.

I closed my eyes and continued to
cry, even though the tremors from my sobs hurt my whole body.

It didn’t matter whether or not
Daniel was here, I was still going to die. I just wished that he and I would
have parted on better terms.

I laughed to myself, “I wonder
what people will do when they find my body here? Send me off to be experimented
on?”

It was an honest question, but
the thought of it went from funny to sinister in a heartbeat.

This was really it. I was really
going to say goodbye to this world.

After my mother died, I began to
think a lot about death and the afterlife. I was more than convinced that there
was a God and a heaven, but what was blurry for me was whether or not I’d get
to experience both of them. I hadn’t been the person that I wanted to be, and I
certainly wasn’t doing anything to make other people’s lives better either.

I drifted off to sleep, wondering
if this would be the last time that I breathed in this air, and if I would wake
up in some place way better, with people who loved me unconditionally, with a
God who forgives, and with my mother.

I only hoped that dying wouldn’t
be painful.

“Have you heard anything from
Daniel?”

“No, but I hope he’s alright. The
dude has been missing since Friday.”

“Yeah, I hear the cops have
searched his house and all over town, but they have no idea where he could be.
It’s starting to get really weird; I thought that all of this would be over by
now.”

I was getting irritated that all
everyone could talk about was Daniel. It was only first period, and it was all
I could do not to roll my eyes. It’s not like he made the first string. He
wouldn’t even get to play in our games unless we were up by at least thirty
points. Why does it even matter where he is? Is it because his dad is the
mayor?

“Maybe we should go driving
around looking for him after school?”

“If the cops couldn’t find him,
then what makes you think that we could?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

I threw the basketball I was
dribbling at the guy who spoke last and hit him in the side of the head.

“What was that for?!” he yelled
at me.

“You are in the second string,” I
said through gritted teeth. “Do you know what that means? It means that you
need to pay attention when the other first-stringers and I are running through
the plays, alright?”

“Fine,” he grumbled. He turned
toward the other guys sitting on bench and whispered, “I don’t blame the guy,
sometimes I feel like running away too.”

The coach blew his whistle
signaling that practice was over, and I was relieved. I was actually hoping
that the teachers would lecture in all of my other classes just so I didn’t
have to hear the latest gossip about what could have happened to the golden-boy
Daniel.

I walked up to second period,
still sweating from practice and angry because it seemed like everyone had
forgotten that I was the team captain. Friday it was like I was a celebrity,
but no one was holding out their hands for a high five when I walked down the
hallway today. Everyone was too worried about Daniel. Nothing like this had
ever happened in our town before. I silently wondered what it would be like if
I was missing. Would the whole town be in even more of a frenzy looking for me,
or would they go about their business as usual?

“Let me call roll before you get
into your groups again for your book report on Shakespeare,” Mrs. Farmington
announced. “It’s easier for me to see who is here and who isn’t when you’re in
your normal seats.

I had almost forgotten about the
groups. I looked over at Holly, my partner, and she was fixing her make-up in
one of those small mirror-make-up things girls have. I was excited to have a
partner that was so hot, but then, it also meant that I wasn’t going to get by
with not doing any of the work. If I wanted to slack off I should’ve been partnered
with Adeline. I would actually have to read whatever book we decided to do our
report over, and I bet that Daniel doesn’t even have to open his when he gets
back. Between Adeline being a nerd and everyone else’s expected coddling, he
may not have to do any work in all of his other classes for a while.     

I looked around to find Adeline,
knowing that making her the center of attention in a bad way would definitely
put me in a better mood, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. I scanned the room
again just to make sure since she kind of blends in to her surroundings, but
she really wasn’t there.

“Daniel and Adeline are both
missing today. Who are their partners?” Mrs. Farmington asked.

Everyone looked around at each
other in confusion.

“I think they were partnered with
each other,” one girl who I don’t know announced.

“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Farmington said,
“I remember now. Well good, that means that we don’t have any un-partnered
people today. Get to brainstorming! Your papers are due next Friday!”

Adeline was gone, just like Zoey
said she would be.

I looked across the room at Zoey,
and she was staring me down with a look that said, “See? I told you.”

I snorted, unable to accept what
Zoey’s eyes so desperately believed. I was mad at Adeline for missing school
today and making me go through all of this nonsense with Zoey.

It just wasn’t possible. There
was no way that Adeline had turned into some kind of mythological being. I
couldn’t believe it.

But then again, I did see Adeline
in the woods, didn’t I? It was dark, but I remembered talking to her. I told
her that she looked better “this way”. She must have been different for me to
say something like that. Why else would I give her a back-handed compliment?

“Daniel?”

“Oh my, look! Daniel’s back!”

Daniel blushed as he walked
through the door, “Hey, everyone.”

Mrs. Farmington approached him
slowly, “Daniel, son, are you alright?”

He nodded.

“Did you check in at the office?
Do your parents know that you’re okay? And the authorities?” she continued.

“Yes to all three,” he smiled.
“I’m glad to be back.”

“Oh, yes, about that, well it
seems that your partner, Adeline, isn’t here today,” she explained, “so you’ll
have to do homework from another class today.”

He looked confused, “Oh, how long
has Adeline been gone?”

“She hasn’t been here all day,”
Mrs. Farmington stated. “Now go sit down and occupy yourself reading your book
for the report.”

He sat down and pulled out his
copy of
The Twelfth Night.

“Uh, Holly, would you mind if we
went over and sat by Daniel? We have some catching up to do,” I asked her,
already standing up before she said yes.

It looked like everyone else
wanted to talk to Daniel too, but I was the only one that was brave enough to
do it.

I sat in the seat right beside
Daniel, “Hey, old friend.”

“Hey,” he grumbled.

“We’ve all missed you around
here. So what happened? Did you get abducted? Run away?”

He shook his head.

“Oh, aliens. I knew it. You were
abducted,” I taunted.

“No, Jasper,” he said with exasperation.
“That’s ridiculous.”

“So you ran away, then?” I asked,
expecting that that was the answer.

He sighed, “I didn’t run away
either. Please leave me alone.”

I laughed, “Oh, good, because it
would just be pathetic if you ran away just because I stole your girl and you
didn’t make the team.”

“You can have Zoey,” he said,
turning a page like he was still reading, even though we both knew that reading
Shakespeare was hard enough without someone bothering you.

“Oh, I dumped her already. She’s
way too talkative, plus she thinks she saw some kind of monster in the woods.”

Daniel stiffened.

“Oh, did you see it too?” I
asked, “Because I hear it looks a lot like your ex.”

He looked at me like I had just
ran over his dog, “You did this to her?”

“Did what?” I asked, honestly not
knowing what was going on.

“You gave her that book! You
despicable…”

“Wait!” I interrupted, “I didn’t
give Adeline a book, okay? She and I aren’t exactly on a gift-giving basis.”

He calmed back down and looked
down at his book again, and the wheels started turning in my mind.

“Wait, are you saying that
Adeline is in the woods, and that she is some kind of monster?”

His jaw tensed up, “Of course
not, that’s ridiculous.”

“You’re lying,” I said. “I used
to be your best friend, you know? I know when you’re lying. You saw her in the
woods too, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t,” he said, jaw
still tensed.

“So Zoey wasn’t lying… well, at
least there’s that. It looks like me and the boys will have to go on a hike
through the woods sometime soon to see if we can spot this elusive beast.”

“NO!” Daniel yelled.

“DANIEL!” Mrs. Farmington yelled
louder, “Keep your voice down! There is no reason for you to yell at another
classmate.”

Daniel got up and left the room,
grabbing the hall pass on his way out.

I couldn’t believe it. Daniel was
protecting Adeline; Adeline was in the woods and had been since Friday,
probably with Daniel; and Adeline was most likely not a human being anymore.
This day could not get any weirder.

I knew he was lying, though. He
had to be. There was a 180 degrees difference in the way that he said that aliens
were ridiculous and the way he said that Adeline being a monster was
ridiculous. It would’ve been obvious to a complete stranger.

“Boys, come here,” I said,
gathering my team.

They brought their groups closer
to mine so that I could address all of them.

“Don’t breathe a word of this to
anyone else,” I warned, “but right after school, we are going on a little hunt.
We’re going to figure out what’s going on with Adeline in the woods.”

James asked, “I thought that you
didn’t believe any of that stuff.”

“I didn’t,” I agreed, “but
there’s been a new development that has come to light, so we’re going to go
investigate.”

“How will we find her?” Zeke
asked. “Those woods are miles long and wide with nothing in them.”

“Well, I have a hunch that
wherever she was, he’s going to go back as soon as he can, and we’re going to
follow him.”