The Beast Within

by SL Perrine

  “And now I want to vomit.” I shuddered.

  She rolled her eyes at me and scanned their science class for Mike. She’d had a crush on him since the third grade, but Mike was more into girls who were like Callie; less involved with themselves.

  “Oh, come on, Ren. We have got to go party. You’ve been a certifiable zombie since your mom left you guys. You have to start living.” Robin found her target. Mike hovered over his teammates in the back of the room trying to spin balance a basketball on his index finger. “Way to be sympathetic, Robin.” I felt the air move under the table as Callie tried to kick our squad captain in the shin.

  Robin brought her gaze back to her own table. “What?” she asked us, unaffected.

  “I am living, and right now, I’m living a nightmare.” I looked down as Mr. Hock dropped a tray on our table. The metal bounced slightly, moving the contents and making it seem almost alive. Inside the tray was a half-dissected frog. Its underbelly stared at me. A long slice was in it from the bottom of its mouth to where its hind legs split. I could feel the bile threatening to rise from deep within my gut.

  “That is so gross, Mr. Hock,” Robin professed.

  “This is biology, Miss. Fuller,” he said to Robin before motioning to the rest of the class. “Biology is the study of all living things. Frogs are the only thing the department of education is willing to let you youngsters put a blade through.” We heard the chuckles from the boys in the back of the room.

  “Ugh, this is gross. I’m having my mom excuse me from this section.” Robin pushed the tray closer to Callie and me.

  “That’s fine, Miss Fuller, but that will get you a definite zero for this section as well. If you try to participate, maybe I’ll give you a D.”

  “Fine.” She sat upright in her chair.

  “Minus,” Mr. Hock added while the rest of the class chuckled. He straightened and headed back to the front of the room.

  After the last bell, normal hooting and hollering could be heard as the weekend was official. Even though I didn’t have any interest in going to Mike’s party, I really did feel like letting loose for a few hours. As I made a mental note of what I would wear, I noticed one of Ty’s brothers waiting at the curb in front of the school. He wasn’t enrolled, and apparently, he couldn’t be bothered with pretenses. It was rumored around town his bad-boy routine had gotten him expelled from his last school, so he was being home-schooled. I walked past him and he turned in step with me.

  “Can I help you with something?” I asked without looking at him. My gaze was purposely locked on the street ahead.

  “No, but I have something for you.” He smirked a little and stopped walking. “Don’t worry, Principessa. I have been given strict orders not to harm so much as a hair on your head.”

  “What could you have for me?” I asked as I rolled my eyes, stopping a few feet ahead of him.

  “An invitation from my uncles.” He gave me a smug look, as if an invite from his supposed uncles was a treat to be granted.

  All the blood rushed to my face. Ty made me promise never to go to his house; never to see his uncles. He seemed genuinely worried about what would happen if I did.

  “Why would they want to see me?” I asked.

  “That’s between you and them.” He turned on his heel and walked in the opposite direction. “I was just asked to deliver the damned message like some errand boy. Go find out for yourself.”

  It didn’t take me much time to realize I would break the promise I made to Ty, but speaking with his uncles could get me more of the answers I’d been looking for. I figured I could go see them and still have time to make it to the party, after a quick stop at home to change. Well, as long as they didn’t kill me.

  I knocked on the front door half-expecting Ty to answer, but found myself being greeted by a squat, round man. He quickly ushered me inside and closed the door. We walked through the foyer into what looked like a living room, down a hallway, and passed a few doors into what appeared to be a very crowded den. The room had two very large wooden desks, each in its own corner of the room. If I’d not seen the amount of furniture in the room for myself, I would have never believed it could all fit. It looked overcrowded, to say the least.

  The two men were not what I’d imagined. They weren’t intimidating at all. The man who answered the door looked like he was in his late forties–balding, with dirty blond hair and a full beard. I guessed him to be about five-feet tall and with a very round midsection. He reminded me of the twins who caused mischief in Alice in Wonderland.

  The other man looked to be in his sixties. He was thin and tall, with a full head of white hair, but his skin seemed to be lacking melanin. His face and hands were ashen. When he took my hand to greet me, it was cold as a block of ice.

  “Welcome. Please do take a seat,” the shorter of the two said. Once I took another step inside, the eldest man closed the door behind us.

  “Why did you want to see me?” I asked before sitting.

  “Relax, we didn’t ask you here to hurt you,” the elder of the two said.

  “Well, I’ve been told you would like nothing more than to get rid of me. So, why shouldn’t I think you would wish me harm? Or that you would lure me here to get rid of me?” I didn’t have an overwhelming sense of doom from either of the two. There was a small feeling of foreboding I couldn’t shake. Ty had warned me not to come. What if he’d been sincere in his warning?

  “Well, we simply want to talk. Besides, il principe has requested you be unharmed,” the round man added.

  “The prince?” I asked, completely confused. I was surprised at my ability to understand Italian and again shocked at the fact I knew it was Italian.

  “You’ve been studying. Yes, the prince has asked that we not harm you. He is very fond of you,” the taller of the two men stated.

  “Well, I find that very funny. I don’t believe I have met your prince yet.”

  “Be that as it may, we have simply asked you here to speak to you,” the younger of the two said.

  “Is your prince the one I am foretold to marry? Is that what this is about?” I looked at one, then the other. “Because I’m only seventeen. I have no interest in getting married.”

  “No... That’s not it. We just realized you are a new maga, which is so unheard of at your age. We had to ask you for ourselves. When did your mother introduce you to magic?” the stout man asked as he poured himself a drink from the table in the corner. I realized the room was a strange red color, as in the tra monde, but the walls were a stained cherry. The fireplace roared. With the door closed, the room had filled with so much heat it had become overwhelming for me.

  “So, you’re assessing my skills with magia?” I felt faint suddenly, and my stomach tightened. “It’s really warm in here.” I sat on the edge of a green velvet chaise lounge while removing the sweater I had on over my cheerleading uniform.

  “Our apologies.” The short man opened the door and turned a knob on the side of the fireplace, which lowered the flame inside.

  “How about we start over?” the taller of the two said. “I am Hogarth, and this fun-sized gentleman is my brother, Gareth.

  “I’m Renee.” They both reached to shake my hand again. I’d expected to feel some sort of electricity when my hand released each of them, as I felt with Ty, but there was nothing. The sense of buio was there, deep in my stomach, like indigestion.

  “To answer your question, my mother hadn’t told me about magic in our family until I was fifteen, so that would be one year before she went missing. Technically, she never stated I had magic or was born with it. She just taught me to hunt.” If I was going to stand there and answer questions, I figured I could ask them a few as well. “Do you know why the passage closed?” I gave them a steely stare.

  “Yes, indeed we do.” Gareth had his back to me while he poured himself another two fingers of scotch. “We know why they are closed and we know who closed them,” he finished.

  Hogarth continued,
“We believe we know who. Let’s not jump the gun now, brother.”

  “So then you knew the passage was going to close before it did?” I asked them, even though Ty had answered the question for me. I couldn’t help being wary of them all.

  “Well, yes,” Hogarth said. “We were sent through the passage to collect the young ones before the passage was closed, to hopefully avoid them being trapped here or do this.” He motioned to the entire room.

  Gareth took over, like a well-scripted show. “Care for them in the chance we didn’t get them back in time.”

  “When the Buio King heard the youngsters had come here, and he knew of a plot to close the passage for good, he sent us to get them,” Hogarth added.

  “Why?” I asked. They had similar answers to Ty’s, but unlike him, they were willing to disclose a bit more.

  “Ourobus is our king, and he cares for all the children as if they were his own. In our world, they are unable to be killed or even harmed,” Gareth started.

  Again, Hogarth continued, “We do not know if that is the same case here.”

  “Wait… You're immortal?” I jumped in and asked. I didn’t remember Ty saying anything about them all being immortal. He said his age was undefined, but I never asked what that meant.

  “Not in the way you know. We can die, only by another’s hands. There is no death in our world due to old age, or rather, we have not yet seen it in our own lifetime,” Gareth answered. As the brothers went back and forth, answering in turn, I got a neck cramp looking back and forth between the two.

  “Oh.” They really didn’t answer my question, but I decided to ask Ty to explain later, if he would. Then again, I’d have to admit I was at his house.

  “We were never able to be in our true form in this world before now. That is why we are uncertain about our mortality here,” Hogarth quickly voiced as he stepped in closer to where his brother was standing. I gave a silent thanks as I rubbed the back of my neck. They exchanged looks. “I suppose we will find that out eventually. While they are in this house, however, they are your idea of immortal.”

  Again, they switched from Hogarth to Gareth. “The house has been spelled to make certain that those from Pylira cannot be harmed.” He glanced at Hogarth, who continued, “So, see, we couldn’t harm you here inside our home anyway.”

  “I’m not from Pylira. I’m from here,” I told them. They exchanged a look, but said nothing to contradict my statement.

  Gareth simply continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “While they are outside, they may be in danger.” He gave me a stern look.

  “If you think they're in danger from me, then why tell me all of this?” I asked.

  “We have told you to prove to you we don’t think you mean to cause them harm. Besides, we don’t believe you are the enemy any more than we think you could hurt a fly.” Gareth looked at me.

  Hogarth continued, “You are very powerful, and we would ask you to help them. Not just the three that live here, but the others as well.”

  “I don’t know who you’re getting your information from, but I’m not a powerful maga. I haven’t even done magic or any spells, for that matter. My mother told me we were huntresses, not sorceresses. I’d no idea about any of this until three days ago!” I bellowed, giving them more information than I intended; information they could use to their benefit if they did harbor any ill feelings toward me, if only to protect their prince.

  “Well you are principessa stregone, and the last of your line. You are of the bloodline that supersedes all maga,” Hogarth said with such ferocity I could tell he was trying to convince me.

  “I grew up a human, and then was a huntress. I am no princess, and I’m sure as hell not magical. I can say I will not harm any of your boys, nor do I wish to. I just want to open the passage and get my mother back. I have no idea if she is okay and it’s killing me.” I threw my hands in the air as I spoke.

  “Child,” Hogarth started, and again, Gareth picked up.

  “Your mother is the Regina madre. She is fine. I can tell you she is with her clan, and more than likely, with your father. No harm is going to come to her. The passage will never be open again unless you can commit to your heritage and magic.” They both looked at me with a stern gaze, as a parent would to a child being disciplined.

  “How can you say that?” I asked, frustrated.

  “Because luce maga is responsible for the passage being closed, so it would only be fitting that you should be able to help open it.” Gareth sat on the arm of the red sofa. He attempted to sip his drink and realized it was gone. Gazing at the bottom of the glass while holding it in front of the fire, the flames licked the glass and seemed to have pulled him into a trance.

  “Okay, how am I supposed to help them and the rest? I don’t understand.” I sat, weary of the entire conversation.

  Gareth, without looking away from his glass, added, “All in good time.”

  The answers I thought I wanted were not well received. I should have remembered the old mantra my mother used to say to me: “Be careful what you wish for.”

  Chapter -9-

  The conversation with Ty’s uncles still had me reeling by the time I reached my house. Ty had tried to tell me I was a princess of my clan, and now they were telling me I was the princess to all the clans and powerful with magic. I didn’t ask them if they were able to teach me magia, which was far from my mind while I was there. All I thought about was how Ty made me promise not to go there. Now more than anything else, I was afraid he would be angry with me for it. Plus, I hadn’t gotten any more answers from them than I had from Ty; not less cryptic anyway. I should not have gone there.

  As I walked in the front door, my father and brother were in the kitchen getting dinner on the table. Entering the room, I could smell the fast food of choice for the evening… pizza.

  Then I heard them arguing, which wasn’t like them at all.

  “You can’t just take it upon yourself to decide when you’re going to work or not. That’s how you get fired,” I heard my father say.

  “I figured it would be okay. You can just give them a note or tell them I wasn’t feeling good or something,” Xander replied.

  “Just because I got you a job at my office doesn’t mean you can count on me to let you slack.” My father set the table for dinner while Xander sat, eating a fudge pop.

  “Having dessert before dinner again, Xander?” I laughed as I entered the kitchen to try and lighten the mood. I couldn’t remember the last time those two ever argued about anything. Following the afternoon I had, I wanted a quiet evening.

  “Shut it, Renee,” he said, trying to kick me as I passed. He missed, slid in his chair, and his pop went in his eye.

  Laughing, I hugged my father and grabbed the silverware out of his hand. “I’ll help. My hands aren’t broken,” I said with a nod in my brother’s direction.

  “I was craving chocolate. Leave me alone.” He rubbed the fudge from his face.

  “On your period again?” I asked.

  “Okay Renee, real funny,” he said, still wiping his eye.

  “You know, since mom’s been gone, all you do is eat and sleep. Dad was nice enough to get you a job, and you’re treating it like school. Instead of working at the college, why not just go to college so you can ditch class instead? You made a career out of it in high school.” I poked at him with a fork.

  “First, mom leaving us was tough. Sure, I had to cope in my own way. I’m not saying I’m depressed or anything. Anyway, that has nothing to do with my need to not go to another scholastic institution, as a student at least. I am not a very good student, so why pretend I am?” he said as he finished his pop.

  “You’re not a very good employee, either.” I scoffed.

  “And I’m not supporting you for the rest of your life,” my father said as he filled the plates with pepperoni pizza.

  “Wait… what do you mean mom left?” I looked at them, puzzled. I realized my brother spoke about our mother as if she�
��d run off; as if she’d decided she didn’t want to be there anymore, instead of what really happened.

  “Renee, honey, it’s been over a year. Don’t pretend you didn’t realize she’s not here,” my father said as he sat down in front of his plate.

  “Dad, I’m not pretending anything. Mom didn’t leave. She’s stuck in the other world…remember?” I was perplexed. Even my father acted as if his wife, who we searched months for, had abandoned us.

  “Funny, spaz…” Xander spat pizza sauce on the table.

  “Don’t call your sister names, and wipe that up.” My father turned to me after he finished scolding my brother. “I know it’s hard, but making up fairy tales is not going to make it easier to handle. We have to move on.” He turned from me as he ate a slice of pizza.

  Oh my, what was going on? My brother and father were acting as if they had no idea what happened to my mother. Trying to talk to them about Ty was as bothersome. Both my father and brother believed the same nonsense story the rest of the town believed as fact; that Ty and his family moved here years ago. Ever the loners of the neighborhood, the two older men never stepped foot outside. Okay, well maybe that part was true, but my father and brother had known the truth at one point. How was it they were stuck under the veil of magic keeping everyone else oblivious? And how was there a veil at all with the passage closed?

  I couldn’t believe my ears. The worst part of it was when I went to my father’s desk in the living room. All the books on supernatural activity, magic, sorcery, and everything not normal were gone. There wasn’t an old leather book anywhere in sight. Not even the dust from the old covers had been left behind. It was as if fairies had broken in and cleaned the house of everything involving magic, wiping the memories of my brother and father as well.

  I studied the rest of the house. Everything else seemed to be in order. My parents' wedding picture hung above the mantle. The assorted pictures of my brother and me were scattered around the living room. There were so many, I couldn’t remember if any of them were new to that environment. My mother’s collection of butterfly magnets was still on the refrigerator. The furniture was all where it had been and nothing else looked changed.