The Beast Within

by SL Perrine

  “Why would I be a threat to anyone?” I asked, hurling myself onto the sofa.

  He crouched down and held my face in the palms of his hands. “Because you are the principessa stregone, and the world you live in is not your own. Your bloodline crossed worlds a hundred years ago to escape from my people.” His thumb stroked my jawline and his hands dropped to his sides. A spark of intense energy remained where he had touched, and then it disappeared.

  “What? Are you telling me my family is from your world?” I almost stood to confront him, but he still crouched close to me. I was afraid to budge.

  He moved to stand in front of the window across the room. “You and your mother are from Pylira. Your father and brother, I do not know.” He looked confused.

  I stood, crossing my arms over my midsection as though I protected myself from his words. “You’ve got to be kidding me! How on earth is that even possible? This is my home. It’s where I was raised. I’ve never been to your world before. If that were true, how would my mother and I have come from your world, and not my father or my brother?”

  “I can’t say, but I know that’s not your father,” he said with conviction.

  “So, my father is not my father? Wait, does he know?” I felt like crying, but wouldn’t in front of him.

  “That, I don’t know. Only your mother or father could answer that. You could just try to ask him,” he suggested.

  “Oh my! This is too much. No! I don’t believe you.” I hugged myself tight and sat back on the sofa.

  “I’m sorry you have to find out this way, but I believe it is time for answers, so we can put things right.”

  “No, you’re wrong. You have to be. I need to know everything my mother didn’t have the chance to tell me, but that’s not true. I am not from your world.” I couldn’t wrap my head around what he told me. “Maybe you’re wrong.”

  “That couldn’t be possible. For you to be whom I know you are, that man cannot be your biological father.” He moved around the room as he spoke. “I can feel the magic in you; the power of a noble.”

  “Wait, noble? What the hell does that mean?” I stomped over to him.

  “You’re royalty. Principessa means princess,” he said it like I should have known.

  The word hit me like a thud to the chest. I couldn’t be royalty. My family lived like any other middle-class family in the burbs. We had a house, a couple of cars, and per my father, a whole lot of debt. My dad, the professor. My mother worked from home so she could raise my brother and me. No, we were definitely not royalty.

  “I don’t think so. See, I thought we had come to an understanding. I thought we were going to help each other, but you just came over to make fun of me. Make fun of the one person in this world who would seriously hurt you if I could manage to learn magic. You can leave now!” I laughed it off and headed for the kitchen so I couldn’t hear his next words.

  “I’ve been searching for you for a lifetime.”

  Chapter -6-

  “I can sense them,” Chris said as she woke. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and reached deep down inside herself. She looked at Tabby and shook her head.

  “What does that mean?” Tabby asked, wiping her eyes awake.

  “That means they’re getting closer, so we need to move faster.” Chris jumped up, folded her blanket, and shoved it into her bag as Tabby put out the campfire. “Forget that. Let’s go.”

  “How much longer before we get there?” Tabby put her bag in a comfortable position on her back.

  “Just a few more days, I think. We might have to give up on a few more of those sleep hours you like so much, though.” Chris used the inside of her shirt to clean her glasses.

  Tabby groaned. She didn’t fare so well with the little sleep they were getting as it was. All of the muscles in her legs were screaming, and it was never-ending. She wanted to lie still long enough to relax them. When they reached their destination, maybe she’d be able to get a full night’s sleep on a soft bed. She’d even settle for just being indoors.

  They had been traveling for six months to find their clan and their families. Tabby had always felt she had been alone in the world. She was only ever close to her mother. With her gone, Tabby had no one left. Chris was close to her family, but for the last year, they were lost to her. When the passage closed, her brother was the only one accounted for. He reached out to Chris to see if all of their family could be accounted for. The two were the eldest of five children and the closest in age to each other. They’d been close growing up but drifted when Chris started to train. Her brother no longer held his family’s plans at a high standard. He’d grown tired of it and decided to lead his own path. So when the passage closed, he was in his home, where he’d planned to be.

  Tabby was like a sister to Chris, but now she needed to find her sisters who were trapped on the other side.

  “So, which way are we going today?” Tabby looked through the trees.

  “You ask that every day, and every day, we head east. That’s where everyone is heading!” Chris exclaimed.

  Tabby thought of pointing out that it was her attempt at humor, but decided she best not. Since Chris discovered her mother and two youngest sisters were trapped beyond the passage, she had less of a sense of humor with each passing day. Only when they found Annabel did Chris’s mood lighten, but only for the moment. She sent Annabel to Jamie, and Tabby and Chris set out to find the rest of the maga, or sorceresses, who were stuck in that world. Chris said they would congregate together and find an answer to the passage being down. She said the closed passage was the start of something big. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to tell Tabby where they were meeting or what the big thing was. She thought she knew. She’d tried to recall what was going on in Pylira. It’d been so long since she’d been there, she was forgetting everything about home.

  “So, off we go.” Tabby straightened her arms and legs and walked as if she were a wooden nutcracker. Chris grinned halfheartedly and followed behind her.

  Once they reached the line of trees, Tabby pointed out the actual journey ahead of them. “Looks like we're going south today after all.” She pointed to the downward slope in front of them. Chris let out a long sigh as she looked down. The steep decline was covered in brambles, upturned earth, and trees.

  “You like irony, don’t you?” she asked Tabby with an elbow jab as she walked past her.

  “Ouch. You know I could very well let you do this on your own!” Tabby yelled.

  “Yeah, you could, but you won’t,” Chris pointed out to her as she stumbled ahead. Going downhill took more energy than going uphill. She had to concentrate on the tug from inside her and watch out for holes in the earth hidden below the tall grass and tree roots.

  “Really, you know me that well?” Tabby shouted as she lost her footing on a patch of dew-covered grass and started to fall. Chris turned in time to stop her from landing on her face.

  “Yes, I do.” Chris chuckled as she let go of her friend and continued on.

  “Well, the whole world knows I’m a klutz. That just doesn’t count.” Tabby squared her shoulders, straightened her shirt and jacket, and continued down the embankment.

  “It’s too bad we didn’t think to bring a sled. We could’ve killed two days from this trip.” Chris laughed a little at her own joke.

  “Was that a laugh I heard?” Tabby poked at her.

  “Umm, nope. I don’t think so.” She gave a small grin, as Tabby was safely behind her and unable to see it.

  “When you said cross-country hike, I thought you meant cross-country hitch-hike!” Tabby yelled. She was used to bringing up the rear. As much as Tabby was anxious to get where they were going, Chris seemed even more determined to get there. She’d mastered the art of speed walking. Although, at present, she was forced to slow down a little.

  “Can’t. What happens if we were to run into a group of them? What would you do, joke them to death?” Chris scoffed.

  “Hardy har. We can sen
se them and steer clear,” Tabby pointed out.

  “Yeah, I just think it’s too risky. I mean, without being able to chop off their heads, what would we be able to do to them to protect ourselves? Not much, so we stick to the roads less traveled.” Chris smiled again as she thought of the tough terrain they had traveled, most of which had been over back roads with hardly any traffic, but Chris had changed that when she decided to take a shortcut through the woods. The forests would have been a shortcut if it remained flat land, which they had not. They endured mostly hills, rivers, big boulders falling from above, uprooted trees, and a steep descending slope.

  “You mean no roads,” Tabby said as she focused on her footing.

  “Yes.”

  “Chris!” Tabby whispered with enough panic in her voice, Chris stopped in her tracks. “Look down there! Looks like someone else also decided on no roads.”

  They both stopped and crouched down. Below them, about a half-mile away, at the base of the slope, was a group of men. It seemed they were harrying each other at first, but as they looked on longer, they could make out a small girl.

  “You think she’s a…?” Tabby didn’t need to finish the question.

  “I don’t know, but if she’s not, then she’s defenseless. It looks like five against one down there,” Chris pointed out. If it had been her younger sisters, she would have known they could defend themselves.

  Her mother had started them, each at a very young age, to develop their magia. She was convinced each of her daughters would be needed to protect some very important people. Chris had her doubts, but when the passage went down, she felt the tug in her gut leading her wherever she needed to be. Her mother knew the day would come and had even warned her about it, though Chris didn’t listen. She always thought her mother’s words were based on a false vision the woman so desperately wished she’d inherited. Seems it was just dormant. Chris had no idea where she was going, but a pull inside her guided her, and she knew she would know when she arrived.

  “I think we can beat those odds,” Tabby said, pulling Chris from thoughts of her sisters.

  “Did I not just say that this is what I was afraid of happening?” Chris pointed out scornfully. Tabby gave her a look that always got them into trouble, only because it made Chris cave every time her friend wielded it. “Oh, come on.” She pulled Tabby by her shirt-sleeve.

  With as much caution as possible, they hurried downward. They slid here and there, but managed to stay on their feet.

  “Shhh, don’t let them hear us,” Chris told her friend.

  They were about fifty feet away and they could see the girl tried to work magic, but it didn’t appear to be working for her. Chris stood, grabbed Tabby’s hand, and chanted.

  All at once, the boys fell to the ground and erupted into a bout of laughter.

  “That wasn’t us.” Tabby looked shocked.

  “Nope, it definitely wasn’t,” Chris agreed.

  They looked on as the young girl smiled. They watched as the girl collected the bag she carried and ran farther downhill, out of sight. The boys, all still lying on the ground, were laughing uncontrollably with no idea of their surroundings. Chris and Tabby walked right past the group and headed farther downhill.

  “I guess we're headed in the right direction then.” Tabby motioned to the downward path. “It looks like she’s headed there too.”

  “Yup,” Chris said as she readjusted her pack. She looked back over her shoulder to assess the boys. Some were still laughing. A few seemed to have been overcome with unconsciousness. Chris grabbed Tabby around the waist and guided her along. She didn’t want to know how they would be able to handle them if they woke. “Let’s just get out of here.”

  Chapter -7-

  So much had happened in the last three days. I was told I’m royalty from some magic line of sorceresses from another world; the man I knew as my father shared no blood, whatsoever, with me; I lost my mother, but it turned out she was stuck in the home she was born to. She may even have been with my natural father. It was all ludicrous. I didn’t even know why I considered any of it to be real.

  But how could any of this be? I asked my mother the same question. When she told me we were huntresses, hunting beasts from a world parallel to our own, I couldn’t believe that either. Except the proof came barreling through my closet. It headed right towards me. I’d always wondered why it was after me. Why did my blood make them come?

  She said the women of our family were destined to rid both worlds of beasts. They would be hunting me now that I was of age, and they could sense our bloodline, no matter where we were. The sigils on the doors inside our home were there to protect me. As long as I remained indoors, they would not be able to sense me. If they were able to detect our bloodline, then why wasn’t she ever in danger?

  Perhaps she wasn’t the one they were looking for. Perhaps Ty told me the truth; my family separated to keep me safe, but it had to be more. I remembered my life as it was. The first time I skinned my knee, my father picked me up and kissed it better after bandaging it. There were pictures of him and my mother holding me as a baby in the hospital.

  During the last year, before the passage closed, I had become accustomed to large beasts attacking me as I walked to and from school. A battle wouldn’t last nearly as long toward the end of the year as they did in the beginning. I had learned to be prepared and stay proactive. Since weapons were not allowed on school grounds, I had to use whatever was lying around. The key was to aim for the neck. I took what my mother said at face value to protect myself. I didn’t know if I could do the same with what Ty told me.

  I realized, after meeting Ty, the story my mother gave me was vague at best. If I were to believe hers over his, then a century ago, the beasts were created by an enemy clan to search for and destroy us. Us, meaning my mother and me. This enemy clan was once like us, but turned dark when their ruler and king tricked them into working with dark magic–buio magia. She said they lived in that parallel world with others like us but terrorized them. She told me about their world; a once beautiful place with lush, green rolling hills. Flowers were everywhere and the sky and waters were both blue like ice crystals. Also, there were fairies whose magic kept the balance of their world, but the Buio King had killed the Fairy Queen, which killed the land.

  Her story was the luce clans cursed the buio clan and it’s king. He was made to be a beast for all eternity, and in turn, was the one who created more beasts to hunt us. She never finished the story. Whether she didn’t want to or couldn’t bring herself to, I wouldn’t know. Once she returned, I’d be sure to ask her.

  If Ty were to be believed, I was the princess; heir to all of Pylira. That’s as far as he got before I made him leave. I didn’t know if I should believe either of them anymore. Maybe the only way to find out the truth would be to fix everything. For that, I would need Ty’s help.

  My mother explained that the sigil of luce protected us, hiding us from the beasts. Since the beasts were immortal, we couldn’t kill them. However, we could use the sigil of luce to bind them. Only someone from a maga line had the strength and power to fight a beast and detach its head. Once the head was in a box, and the bands were placed and marked with the sigil of luce, the beast would be stuck inside. In our world, the head could regenerate the beast after a few hours, but once the box had been inside the tra monde, the beast would be forever bound to the box. Until a year ago, I didn't know the beasts I’d been taught to hunt and destroy were, in fact, people. Why would one of them want to help me? Maybe he was trying to trick me. Maybe we really were still on opposing sides. So, I’d have to watch myself around him. I'd use him until this mess was fixed, then put him back in his box; maybe take him to the other world myself.

  I’d never seen the other world because my job was to hide those boxes in the tra monde, so they wouldn’t be found and opened. Once hidden, they would be lost to their clan forever, or so we thought.

  Ty also explained a prophecy the leader of the b
uio learned about one hundred years ago. One day, a buio maga would fall in love with a luce maga, and once their love was unified in marriage, the curse would be lifted. However, he didn’t share this information with the rest of his people, since the end of the curse would be the end of him as well.

  “You’re the key to ending the curse, so they go after your bloodline more than the others. They fear you most of all,” Ty had told me. His sadness returned, a measure of emotion from a beast with an ulterior motive.

  I asked him what that had to do with me. Why would they fear me above the rest of the maga? He stood quiet for far too long. When I was at my last straw and about to scream at him, he finally answered me.

  “The two who fall in love and destroy the curse are both of royalty; a prince and a princess.” Then he left. That was the last I saw of him for days.

  All he did was leave me with more questions. I also didn’t feel he’d given me the whole story. I was more confused than ever.

  Chapter -8-

  “Apple or orange?” Robin glared at me over the two lip glosses she held in her hand.

  “What?”

  “Apple or orange. What flavor do you want?” She waved the tubes at me.

  “Apple,” I said too quickly, trying to process too much going on in my life. It’d been three days, and I needed clarification.

  “Wow, consider my head bitten.” She threw the clear tube with the green cap at me and narrowly missed my face.

  “Sorry, I’m just not feeling school today.” I looked at the tube.

  “Or yesterday, or the day before,” Callie chimed in before Robin could.

  “Never mind that,” Robin scolded Callie. “What time are we meeting for Mike’s party tonight?”

  “Oh my. I forgot about the party.” My mind wasn’t focused on the normal everyday activities of school, homework, and parties.

  “What did you think the gloss was for? You have got to wear a flavor tonight, or you’re going to taste the last thing the guy burps up,” Robin declared.