by Cara Wylde
I stopped and held my breath when I heard a noise down the corridor. It was soft, as if someone was trying to step as lightly as possible. Someone was coming. Maybe it was the thing that had thrown me into this cell. I shuddered at the thought, and even though I knew this could be my chance to convince it to let me go, my instincts kicked in and instead of approaching the iron bars, I took a step back, and then a second step, and with the third I hit the wall. I didn’t know why, as I had never been superstitious, but I had a gut feeling that what was coming to my cell was not human. If it was the thing that had threatened me and locked me up, then it certainly wasn’t human. No man could move so fast and carry a person so easily.
The steps became louder, then I heard a jingle which could have only come from a set of keys. A huge set of keys. My heart started hammering in my chest as if it wanted to break free, crawl through the bars, and go find someone else to serve. I pressed my cold, sweaty palms to my breast and willed my body to relax. If I wanted to convince whatever was approaching my cell to let me go, then I needed to be calm.
The sun had long set, and the thought that I had to face my captor in complete darkness almost paralyzed me. When I saw the shy flicker of a candle throwing long shadows down the corridor, I started breathing a bit more easily. I even managed I smile when the person who stopped in front of my cell and stuck a key into the lock while holding the candle with the other hand proved to be a petite woman dressed as a maid. A very sophisticated maid, since the uniform she was wearing looked as expensive as the dresses my sisters and I used to wear when father was still a wealthy merchant.
“Oh… thank God…” I whispered. I walked to the door and watched her turn the key in the lock. She didn’t look at me. Her brown hair was tied up in a neat, tight bun, but I couldn’t see her eyes. She kept them on her hands and on the floor, refusing to even acknowledge my presence. I was getting ready to ask her what her name was when I saw a second shadow coming down the corridor.
It wasn’t a human shadow. As the thing approached the cell, its shadow grew bigger and bigger, until the beast it belonged to stepped beside the maid and in my line of view. I gasped. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The thing was the biggest, most massive brown bear I had ever seen. Standing on all four legs, it was way taller than the maid. If it wanted to rise on its hind legs, it would have probably been too tall to fit inside the corridor.
“What are you?” It was amazing that I had found my voice.
“Not what. Who.” The maid’s snappy comment made me flinch. Great! The only three words she chose to speak were meant to scold me. Why was I so incapable of making friends when I really needed them? I lifted a questioning brow, but she didn’t say anything else. For some reason I couldn’t understand, she took a step back. The heavy lock was now in her hands, which meant that she had only come here to let the bear inside my cell.
“Oh no! Please don’t do this… Please…” I was standing there, helpless, my body refusing to react. Even if I managed to make my legs work so I could back down against the wall, it would still have been pointless.
“I’m not here to hurt you.”
That voice again. Booming in my head as if it had always been there and I just never noticed it.
“I am the master of this house.”
I looked at the massive brown bear. It hadn’t moved a muscle. It simply stood there, on the other side of the cell door, staring at me. Its small, black eyes glowed eerily in the soft light.
“Wait… you are…” I swallowed heavily. This was a bad dream. “You’re the one talking… in my head. You’re in my head! How can this be?”
Finally, the bear moved again. It was the simplest of gestures: it tilted its huge head to the side.
“I’m not in your head. I’m merely projecting my thoughts so you can hear me. I hope you weren’t expecting a talking bear.”
I shook my head, not as a response to his words, but as an attempt to clear my mind and gather my thoughts.
“This isn’t possible,” I whispered.
The thing ignored my confusion.
“I am the master of this house, and you’re trespassing. Even worse, you wanted to steal roses from my garden. I am not pleased with that.”
My eyes went wide with disbelief as my brain was finally decoding the meaning of his words. The master of this house? But how could a…? No. It couldn’t be. There was no way…
“I know what you’re thinking. Get over it. That train of thought won’t take you anywhere. Instead of going in circles trying to find some logical explanation that isn’t there, I suggest you focus on the issue at hand: you wanted to steal from me. No one has ever stolen anything from me without suffering dire consequences.”
Right. The issue at hand.
“I’m sorry… You don’t know how sorry I am. If only I knew this wasn’t an abandoned house… I’d never steal from you or from anyone else. I’m not that kind of person. I just thought… I thought the mansion was deserted, and that no one lived here. I thought the roses didn’t belong to anyone.”
“What you thought doesn’t matter. Even if the mansion was abandoned, the roses were still not yours to take.”
I looked down at my feet. “You’re right, of course. I’m sorry. I will pay you back. If only you let me go, I could go home and bring the money to cover the damage I caused in your garden.”
There was silence for a long minute. My eyes went up to the maid’s face, but she didn’t look at me, she didn’t speak, and she didn’t even move. Then the bear opened the cell door with its huge snout, and I jumped in surprise. What was it going to do to me? Turn me into its dinner? No, I couldn’t die like this… I simply couldn’t.
“Don’t…” I managed to whisper before tears spilled from my frightened eyes.
The bear stepped inside the cell. It was so big that my head could barely reach its shoulder. It leaned its head forward so its beady eyes would reach my level. I could feel its hot breath on my cheeks and neck. I gulped. I was pretty sure I had lost my voice this time.
“What? Do you think I’m going to eat you?”
Was that sarcasm in its “voice”? I shrunk even further into the wall, wishing I could just go through it. The beast might have “talked” like any human being, but it wasn’t human. It towered over my small frame, and every puff of air it exhaled turned into sheer dread the moment it touched my skin.
“Don’t worry. As I told you, I’m not here to hurt you.”
It shoved its cold snout even closer to my face and sniffed me. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open and my breathing even.
“Then why are you here?” I managed to ask.
“To offer you a deal.”
My ears perked even though my gut told me there was something fishy about this deal he was talking about.
“I am willing to forgive and forget, and even let you out of this cell, but on one condition: you’re going to live here, with me, become mistress of this house and my loyal wife.”
That was beyond fishy. Was the beast making fun of me? Was this its idea of a joke? I swallowed heavily.
“You can’t be serious…”
“Oh, I’m always serious. You’ll eventually learn that about me if you accept to be my wife.”
“Never!” I couldn’t believe I had found the courage to not only refuse the thing, but also raise my voice in defiance. “I could never marry someone like you. It’s not… it’s not right. I’m human, don’t you see? I don’t know how you manage to communicate like this, to put your thoughts into my head… I don’t know what you are. But I’m human and I can’t marry a… a…”
“What?”
“A beast.”
That was the moment when I really thought I was dead. That was that. The end of my short life. The bear opened its huge mouth and let out a long, ear-shattering roar. I covered my head with my hands, but it was no use. The walls shook and, for a second, the whole dungeon seemed alive and throbbing with… rage. Pure, relentless rage. And it wa
s all aimed at me. I had no idea how my body didn’t just fall apart right then and there. When the bear finally stopped and took a step back, the dark corridors and empty cells carried its roar through the whole mansion.
“What’s your name?”
I opened my eyes and looked at the beast through a veil of tears. Its “voice” sounded calm in my head.
“Aimée,” I whispered.
“Aimée. Take tonight and think about it. The choice is yours and it is quite simple: marry me or spend the rest of your life in this cell. Corinne will bring you your dinner.”
The bear didn’t wait for my response, not that I was going to give it one. I guessed Corinne was the maid, who had waited for him to leave the cell and was now securing the lock back in its place. She followed the brown bear back to where they had come from, the small candle flame trembling in the dark.
I was alone.
***
Sleep didn’t come easily. The delicious dinner Corinne had brought me did help, though. After a day filled with such strong emotions, I was more tired than I had ever been in my life. Eventually, I fell asleep on the floor, wrapped up in an old blanket the maid had given me. The dinner, the blanket… I had expected a moldy piece of bread and a glass of water if I was lucky, but instead I got two courses and dessert. So, on one hand, the master of the mansion was threatening me, but on the other hand, it didn’t want me to suffer too much, otherwise it would have left me to starve and shiver on the cold floor all night. It wouldn’t have killed me, of course, but the method would have had better chances of breaking my spirit.
I would have liked to dwell more on these thoughts, but strange, colorful dreams claimed me. I smiled in my sleep as I saw myself in a large ball room. I hadn’t been to a ball in such a long time… In my dream, I realized how much I had missed it. The weird thing, though, was that the room was empty. I could hear an orchestra playing a waltz, but I couldn’t see it. I spun in place, trying to locate the musicians. It was all in vain. I was alone in this sumptuous ball room, with no one to dance or talk to. Eventually, I shrugged and started dancing on my own.
The music was magical. With my eyes closed, my arms spread before me as if I was dancing with an invisible partner, and the tips of my toes barely touching the floor, I waltzed and waltzed until I felt like I was flying. The music just kept going on and on, not stopping when I would have expected it to stop. I soon came to the conclusion this was an endless waltz, and now that I had started it, there was no way I could stop even if I wanted to. It didn’t bother me. I felt like I could dance like this for an eternity. Then, I felt cold fingers sneak into my right hand, while a strong arm came to encircle my ample waist. I opened my eyes and I was met by a pair of deep, black orbs, perfectly framed by straight eyebrows, high cheekbones, and a noble, slightly upturned nose. The man smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Aimée…” he whispered, and his deep, soothing voice went straight to my core.
He took the lead and guided me on the dance floor, and I felt myself melting in his firm embrace. He had short, dark brown hair, and he was dressed like a prince. Even though he was well-built, his body was also extremely elegant and gracious. It was the first time I was waltzing with such an experienced dancer. He moved naturally and effortlessly, and it drove me insane with desire. The reaction of my own body surprised me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
He smiled. “Aimée…” He pulled me closer to his body, and I felt the strong muscles in his thighs brush against my hip through the silk dress. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Is this why we’re alone in the ball room?” It sounded like a silly question, but then again, all the things we say and ask in dreams are usually silly.
“Yes. I’ve been waiting for a very long time.”
“Well… I… I’m here now.”
“Indeed, you are.”
We danced like this for hours, looking into each other’s eyes and smiling. Now I truly wished the waltz would never end. Unfortunately, it did when the handsome stranger stopped in the middle of a step and suddenly let go of my waist and hand. Heavy silence enveloped the room. I could almost feel it pressing down on my shoulders, and I couldn’t understand what was happening.
“Why did we stop?”
His gorgeous smile faded, and his black eyes fixed my green ones as if he was trying to see straight into my soul.
“Aimée, you have to help me.”
“Help you? How?”
“I’m trapped.”
“Where? In this…” I took a second to look around me, as I wasn’t sure where we were. A castle, probably? But as my eyes took in the tall ceiling and the beautiful tapestry on the walls, the ball room started changing its shape and colors. A second later, I realized we were in the supposedly abandoned mansion. The man’s strong hands on my bare shoulders snapped me out of my thoughts.
“Aimée, listen to me.” There was fear in his eyes. Fear and… something else. A cold shiver ran up my spine when I realized his fear was mixed with impatience. Urgency. That was exactly what I saw in his eyes: urgency. “We don’t have much time. I’ve been trapped in here for years and only you can help me escape.”
“Why me?”
“Because he wants you. He’s never wanted any woman in his whole life, but he wants you, and you have no idea how incredible that is. I finally have a chance to break free from this prison!”
“Who… who wants me?” I tried to close the space between us and press my hands against his strong, wide chest. I didn’t know why, but I had this dreadful feeling that I was going to lose him soon, that the dream was about to break. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I wasn’t sure I could feel his hands on my shoulders anymore, even though I knew they were there.
“The brown bear. The beast. The… thing. He wants you, and you must marry him.”
His words sunk in and I wiggled myself out of his arms. The pain and hopelessness I read in his eyes when he understood my refusal made my own heart ache. My green eyes softened, and I reached for his hand. I knew I was touching his fingers, I could see my small hand disappearing into his, but I couldn’t feel him. The dream was dissipating. We had to move fast.
“Who are you? Who trapped you in here? Tell me, and I’ll help you. I promise I’ll find a way.”
“There is no other way…” His voice was fading. My eyes were losing focus, and it was like I was looking at him through a thick fog.
“Tell me your name. I promise I’ll help you escape.”
“Gabriel…”
That was the last thing he said, or the last thing I heard. I woke up with a start and I almost broke down in tears when I realized where I was. “Gabriel…” I forced my mind to focus on his name, on his handsome face, deep, beautiful eyes, and full, smiling lips. “Gabriel… are you real?” Maybe it was foolish of me to read so much into a dream, but it had felt so tangible. Almost as tangible as the cold stone floor I was lying on.
***
Unable to fall asleep again, I curled up in a corner and waited for dawn. I took my time to analyze the dream and decide if Gabriel truly existed. I didn’t believe in dreams, and I had never tried to determine if any of them meant anything. At most, they were expressions of our deepest insecurities, desires, feelings. Seeing a dream as real was the same thing as believing in magic. On the other hand, since I stepped over the threshold of the gothic mansion, it did feel like the world had shifted on its axis. An unnaturally big brown bear communicating through telepathy, calling itself… himself… the master of the house… A maid who didn’t seem to mind her master was a beast… Acceptance came with the first sunray reflected in the dirty window: yes, there was magic in the world. If the brown bear was real, then Gabriel could have been real too. Maybe he was also a prisoner in this mansion. Maybe his cell was not far from mine. I had so many questions, but I wouldn’t get the answers I needed if I was locked up in this dark, filthy place. So I made my decision.
Corinne brought
me breakfast. While she unlocked the door and came into the cell to place the tray on the floor, the beast watched us from the other side of the bars. I pushed the tray away and looked him in the eyes.
“Tell your maid to take this to the dining room. I’m going to eat there after I take a bath.”
The bear growled, but his “voice” in my head sounded soft and… cautious. “Does this mean you’re accepting my offer?”
“I accept part of it. I will live here, with you, and I promise I will never leave the grounds of the mansion. I can’t marry you just yet, however. You see… I’ve always dreamed of the day when I’d meet the one. A child’s dream, of course, but I need… I need some time.” What I was about to say was going to sound so stupid that I took a few seconds to find my words and make sure I sounded convincing. “I need time to get used to you and this place. I need time to… fall in love with you.”
The bear didn’t say anything. He kept fixing me with his small, black eyes. Maybe he was trying to determine if I was playing some kind of game.
“I’m not a noble woman,” I continued. “My family was quite rich once, but because we had made our own fortune and didn’t depend on anyone, my sisters and I were free. Father never wanted to force us into marriages that would benefit his business or social status, so we knew we were free to marry whomever we wanted. Marrying a man you actually love and desire is a privilege.” I did my best to produce a couple of tears to add more weight to my tragic situation. I had no intention of spending my life in this stupid house, but the bear couldn’t know that. “All I’m saying is… I need time to… to…”
The beast entered the cell, which forced the maid to press her back against the wall.