The Beast Within

by SL Perrine

  “Chris, you don’t have to be sorry. I chose to come here and I had to leave my family behind. I’ll help you fix things here, and we can find a way to get her back, but don’t be sorry for me. I’m good.” Tabby fell in line with her friend, grabbed her hand, and squeezed it in reassurance. “Let’s go. Your student is getting away from us,” Tabby added after a beat.

  As the sun went down, it became harder to keep the girl in their sights. They decided to keep pushing forward anyway. They had two more days, by Chris’s calculations, before they reached their destination. Tabby relented at the idea of sleep and figured the quicker they got there, the better. Traveling started to get to her and Chris. Once they arrived at their destination, they would both feel better.

  * * * * * *

  “Christina, you need to practice. I won’t always be here to help you.” Her mother stood over her.

  She was a young girl–all of twelve–with long dark hair, sitting in front of a small campfire outside her family’s home. The yard was densely-packed dirt. Chickens ran across the lawn in the distance, clucking as the little blonde-haired girl chased after them. She concentrated on a ball of fire suspended in the air above the pit as she watched her younger sister. “Mom, I want to play with Celia.” The girl moaned.

  “I know you do, but this is important. You will be the protector of a great family of luce someday. You need to know your magia,” the woman spoke with reverence. “You can play with your sister when you’ve finished.”

  “Why don’t they have to practice?” She turned from the fire to face her mother. The ball of fire dropped into the pit and sent embers flying all around.

  “You’re the oldest, Chrissy. I’ve told you this. This will be your job.” The woman turned her back to her and was gone.

  * * * * * *

  “Chris! Chris... wake up. Someone’s here.” Tabby shook her friend.

  Chris sat up, startled. “Who… where?”

  “There!” Tabby pointed in the direction they had come from the night before. Two–or maybe three boys–were walking through the trees without making a single noise and were heading straight for them.

  Tabby shook. “What do we do?”

  Chris pulled herself together and shoved her blanket in her bag. “Let’s just get out of here. Any sign of her this morning?” Chris looked ahead of them, frantically searching for any sign of the young girl.

  “No... I’m guessing she got pretty far ahead of us last night.” Tabby pulled on the zipper of her bag and tossed it over her back. A loud pop and crack erupted as a tree limb fell behind them. They turned around in time to see the boys fall beneath a large pile of tree branches.

  “What the–” Chris started.

  “Wow, I’ve been trying to do that all week!” The young girl they had been following bounded down, out of a birch tree. She stood and looked up at them. Chris was right. She was no more than eight years old; blonde pigtails with ringlets, blue eyes, and freckles on her cheeks, which almost looked like blue glitter when the sun licked her face. “You two slept in, so I figured I’d give it another shot.” She wiped her hands on her tattered jeans and made to leave. “We should go, though. I doubt that’s gonna hold them for long.” She skipped in the opposite direction of the boys, her pigtails bouncing up and down as she went.

  Chris and Tabby followed after her, hoping to put some distance between them and the boys before they freed themselves. If they were lucky, the boys wouldn’t catch up with them until they reached their destination. The girl walked with a skip in her step for most of the day. She didn’t stop to talk to Tabby and Chris, nor did she slow down to walk with them. Chris wondered how long the girl knew they had been traveling behind her, and Tabby wondered if she had been making them wait each day on purpose while she practiced her magia. Each had decided not to ask until they were able to rest for the evening. The fact she walked without a rest was evident enough to Tabby that she had indeed been holding them up. Chris was happy they were gaining ground without the usual pit stops. When Tabby said she would confront the girl, her friend advised her against it. They had gained five miles, and with any hope, they would be able to double that for the day.

  As the sun came down, Chris noted the boys hadn’t caught up with them. She called ahead to the girl and told her they were going to stop for the night. They looked around for a spot that would conceal them better than the last resting place and made camp. While Tabby and the girl collected small kindling for the fire, she decided it was a good time to confront her. Also, Chris wasn’t nearby to stop her.

  “So, did you know we were following you?” Tabby shoved a few branches on top of a small pile at her feet.

  “Of course I did. You two were not very quiet.” The girl skipped from one spot to another as she picked up the small twigs and piled them in her arms.

  “So did you stop every day to hold us up, or were you really practicing magia?” Tabby grabbed a few thicker branches.

  “Well”–she pressed a finger to her dimple as if she were contemplating her answer–“I was practicing… it’s a bit more difficult to maneuver spells in this world with the passage closed.” She moved to another spot farther away from Tabby. "And…” She paused for dramatic effect, and after she giggled a bit, added, “I was listening to you two bicker like my sisters do back home. You’re very entertaining.” She moved farther still.

  Tabby fisted her hands and moved to where the girl stood, but stopped when she heard a branch snap behind her.

  “What’s going on?” Chris stood a few feet away from her friend. With an outstretched hand, she offered Tabby a metal camp mug full of hot tea. “I got a fire going already. You two were taking too long,” she said.

  Tabby looked questioningly at the mug as she took it from her friend. “We're done.” Tabby traded the mug for the pile of branches she had picked up. “We were just about to head back.” She took a welcomed sip of tea, which seemed to calm her nerves.

  The three of them settled in for the night around a small fire. The girl did not offer any more information. She ate something from her pack and drank some tea. When she finished, she lay down, rolled over on her blanket, and drifted to sleep. Tabby agreed to be the first watch for the night, so Chris lay down after finishing her tea and eating a handful of crackers they had stashed in their bags.

  Tabby sat and watched the area around her. The flames had died down, so she only had the light from the glowing embers to keep her company. As she sat with her back facing the other two, she leaned against a tree and pulled the silver locket from beneath her collar. She opened it and studied the pictures within before closing it tight and tucking it away.

  Chapter -13-

  I woke with a start. The room was warm and bright. Morning, it was obviously morning, I thought to myself. As I tried to sit up, a hand touched my shoulder. The pain in my head, more than the hand, made me lay back down.

  “Renella, try not to move.” I relaxed a little at the sound of Ty’s voice and drifted back to sleep. The name he used. I tried to think of it as I was swept back to a darkness I could not escape. All the while, I could feel the electricity of his touch when our skin made contact as he moved the hair from my forehead. I tried to open my eyes, but sleep took a firm hold on me. When I woke again, I didn’t attempt to move.

  “Hold on.” I felt Ty move away from me and the light in the room dissipated. He shut the blinds and I opened my eyes to see I was in my room, lying in my bed.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “The spell was a bit too much, I suppose. You passed out.”

  He appeared tired as I looked around my room. “Have you been here all night?”

  “Yes, I slept in your chair.” He glanced towards the over-sized armchair beside my bed. He looked nervous. His hands were in the front pockets of his tattered jeans and he rocked slightly, his eyes darting around the room, looking at everything except me. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I’ve never seen anyone pass out after doing
a simple protection spell.” The worry in his eyes didn’t concern me as much as it had the night before. I could tell he seemed to worry an excessive amount.

  “Well, it was the first spell I’ve ever done.” I tried to sit again, and he was by my side in an instant.

  “Go slow. You might be dizzy.” He laid his hand protectively on my back to help me sit.

  “I’m okay,” I said as I shrugged free of his hands. I managed a sitting position and looked at myself in the mirror, attached to the dresser across the room. I quickly grabbed the hair band off my wrist and pulled my hair into a loose bun to tame the blazing wild ringlets.

  “Well, I guess I should go then. When you’re ready later, come by and we can start training. It looks like you’re going to need it.” His hands were back inside his pockets.

  “Wait, I have to ask you something first,” I called to him before he could leave.

  “Yeah, what’s that?”

  “Well, I don’t know if I’m remembering it correctly, but when you rematerialized that first day–” I didn’t know where the thought came from. It sprang to my mind.

  “Yeah?” he said quietly.

  “You had a luce sigil on your chest.” I couldn’t believe that one detail had been forgotten until then. It was something about the way he stood there that reminded me.

  “Is that a question or a statement?” He laughed and shrugged.

  “You don’t remember?” Loose strands of hair fell from my hair tie and tickled my cheek. I pushed them behind my ears and twirled the ringlet around my fingers, another nervous habit.

  “I am buio. I carry the same curse as everyone else in my clan. That just doesn’t make sense.” He looked stern.

  “No, I guess not, but then why was it there?”

  “Are you sure that’s what you saw?”

  “Yes, I know the difference.” My annoyance at his questioning was evident, and I could see him flinch.

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know how to explain that.” He ran his fingers through his hair, and I thought about it for a moment.

  At the time it happened, I didn’t even wonder about it, but then I became curious. He was clearly a beast, and my brother had been training to hunt with me. He insisted the men could hunt as well, whether they had magia or not. He fought Ty in beast form with help from my mother. My father had been curious, and he went to the tra monde with the two of them to dispose of the beast. I winced a little at the thought of my mother.

  “Well, maybe we can figure that out together,” I said with more softness in my voice.

  “Okay. Later?”

  “Yes. And then maybe you can finish telling me what you were trying to tell me last night?” I yawned so unexpectedly, I startled myself.

  “Listen, Renee, about that...” He turned back to me in time to see me yawn and lay my head back down. “I …um, okay, we can talk later. Get some more rest. It’s still early yet.”

  I looked over at my bedside table to see it was only 6:30 on a Saturday morning, which was very early for me. I closed my eyes and opened them again to thank him, but he was gone. I lay back down again as I realized I didn’t hear him leave, and as I did, sleep came once more.

  * * * * * *

  The light was such a pretty green; the color of an emerald. The hue radiated from behind a hill, overlooking the town's welcome sign beyond the border. Like shadows walking out of the light, a large group of people moved over the hill, towards the town. The light shone at their backs. At first, they were seemingly quiet, but as they got closer, they sounded more like an angry mob. I tried to turn, but my feet wouldn’t move. “Oh no, I’m stuck. Can somebody help me?” I tried to scream, but nothing came out.

  There was a bright white light behind me, and another group of people approached from out of the light. “What in the world is this?” I tried to scream and run, but again, I was quiet and couldn't move my feet.

  Then all was silent…

  “Renella, you must choose!”

  * * * * * *

  I woke suddenly and realized I was also screaming. I slapped my hand over my mouth and wondered where my brother and father were. Then, I remembered Ty staying the night. Did they know he was here?

  “Hey, you okay?” Xander poked his head in my room. “Nightmares still?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” I said, removing my hand from my mouth. “I’m okay.” I stuffed my hands under my pillow to find a comfortable spot and contemplated going back to sleep.

  “Alright. Well, I gotta make an appearance at work. Catch ya later.” His feet scuffed the rug as he moved through the house.

  “Um, sure. Have a nice day.” I moaned into my pillow. The front door shut and I heard the car engine roar to life outside.

  I recalled my dream; the lights and people, and that voice. I couldn’t make out who it was, but it called me Renella–that much I remembered. Nobody knew me as Renella. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a fairy princess. I gave myself the name, but never told anyone, not even my mother. I punched my pillow into flatness.

  “Hmm…” I shrugged and chuckled to myself. Guess I'd have to settle with being a different kind of princess.

  After eating a quick lunch, since it was ten o’clock when I woke the second time, I decided against more sleep and started on my Saturday chores. From the look of the kitchen, my father ordered out again last night–Chinese food. The pliable noodles looked like snakes where they fell in the sink, next to the two coffee mugs. Since mom disappeared, our only food had been cold cereal and take-out. I tried cooking a couple times, but neither my brother nor my father would trust me enough to eat it. Cooking was definitely not my forte. My mother even tried teaching me once. When the entire house filled with black smoke, I was forbidden to ever step foot in her kitchen again.

  I looked around at the house and noticed Mr. Clean really hadn’t been there. There was dust on the end stands and on the coffee table, which made that evident. It’s amazing, the things you notice that need cleaning after the person who’d done it your whole life isn’t around to do it, or anything for that matter. My father spent two months trying to figure out why the collection calls were coming. They both worked, and mom had managed the finances, paying the monthly bills and making sure my brother and I had lunch money for school.

  Surprisingly, getting the house in order didn’t take as much time as I’d anticipated. By mid-afternoon, I went to Ty’s house for my lesson. I wasn’t looking forward to it as much as I’d thought I would be. I had a sneaking suspicion since waking that something would alter the way I looked at things. With the town acting like their polar opposites, I was worried I’d be next.

  Chapter -14-

  Ty’s house was only four blocks from mine. The houses in Cherry Valley were all very similar. There were large colonials built shortly after the town was established in the early 1800’s. Most of them were in desperate need of repair, but their owners took well enough care of them so they passed as nice-looking. A handful of Victorians were around from the early 1900’s. Our street was comprised of the more modern homes from forty or so odd years ago. Nobody developed there anymore. Cherry Valley had reached its maximum capacity, it seemed. We rarely saw anyone move to town who wasn’t born there.

  Chances were, if you saw a moving truck go into Cherry Valley, it was someone who moved away for college, tried to make it out in the big city and had come back, tail between their legs.

  Unlike the cul-de-sac my house sat within, the houses on Ty’s street sat back, away from the road, and had large front yards. Ty’s house could be pointed out from over a block away. His was the only yard that looked as though it hadn’t been cared for in forty years or more. All the lawns were green and neatly sculpted. Ty’s yard reminded me of a rundown cemetery on one of those Halloween movies. As I got closer, I realized that was no longer the case. Walking to the fence separating his yard from the street, I noticed the shrubs out front had grown six feet. They were neat and sculpted to match th
e fence and helped shield the yard against the neighborhood. I entered the yard and expected to find the dead tree limbs, overgrown vines, and three-foot-tall brown grass. However, what I found was a freshly cut green lawn. The trees were alive, full of leaves and newly grown buds, as if it were spring. The new green leaves looked almost alien next to the changing October leaves in the neighboring yards.

  I located Ty in the back of the house, manipulating a rosebush. The rosebuds were growing from bud to full bloom. They shrank back to a bud before the petals had a chance to wither and die.

  “That’s beautiful.” I didn’t even realize I said it out loud, but Ty turned his head to look at me. He didn’t look as he usually did. He looked tired and forlorn. There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin was ashen.

  “Are you feeling okay?” he asked as I approached him. Pushing his blond hair out of his face, I saw his sunken cheeks and eyes.

  “I was just going to ask you the same thing. You look like you’re on your deathbed.”

  “That’s just the magia. It takes a toll on us here.” He continued to manipulate the plant.

  “Well, whatever it is, I feel better than you look.” We both laughed, if only slightly. I knelt down beside him and the rosebush. “What do you mean? How is it any easier in Pylira?” The grass was soft beneath me and the sun kissed my face. The last few months, it had gotten cold and the springtime yard lifted my mood.