Beauty and the Beast

I woke up when someone sat on the edge of the bed I was facing. I groaned and rubbed my eyes. Seeing that CC was staring down at me. “Up and at ‘em.” He said patting my side.

I rubbed my eyes harder and sat up, exposing my bed head. He chuckled and flattened one side of my hair with his hand. He continued to chuckle as he left my room, leaving my door open. I yawned and stretched before hopping onto the cold floor. I put on my normal clothes but instead of the open shoes, I went for my boots. The old black leather held my feet safe and warm. I laced them to my mid-calf and tied them in a tight knot. It was snowing lightly outside so I grabbed my coat. http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=150851858

“Ready?” Andy asked standing in my doorway.

I nodded walking close to him. He looked me up and down and took my hair out of the knot I had just out it in. “What was that for?” I asked snatching the hair tie from him.

He shrugged, “it’s cold outside. You’ll freeze your ears off that way.”

He did have a point. The rest of the morning went without conversation, on my part. Outside the castle were two black horses tied to a carriage. The carriage was old and gothic. Much like the castle, two for one. I was placed in the carriage first, CC went upfront to lead the horses with Jake. Jinxx was sitting directly across from me, and Ashley to the side of him. Andy had taken his spot next to me.

I had never ridden in a carriage before. There was no need, if I needed to get somewhere in the village I would just walk. The mayor had at least three carriages. He would parade around the village on special occasions or just do it to show off. He would then offer to sell one of them at high prices. He never sold a single one.

The outside world was unseen to me. Off white curtains let in some light but blocked the view. The road there was rough and uneven. I was just anxious to be going home. Butterflies were fleeing their cages in my stomach. My palms were sweaty, and if Jinxx kept looking at me any longer he would soon find out that I was planning something big.

“Kill the beasts.” I thought.

That might have been too harsh, but just lock them up like they did to me. That would do. The scene and ground changed, there were small voices and the ground was more even. Andy looked to me and gripped my hand tight and fast. I decided to ignore this and looked out the window that was blocking my view.

The carriage stopped and Andy opened the door, letting Ashley, Jinxx, and then himself out. He then turned back to the carriage and held his hand out and helped me down to the stone pavement. It was not my village, that was for sure. It was a village I had never even heard of. Often some villages will talk about one another. My plans were crushed in an instant. What was I going to do? Claim to some stranger that the people who were treating me well had me locked in a tower? Yeah right. And there was no way I was running for it when I had the chance. Jake and CC talked to the people around them like they were good friends. They laughed and hugged each other. Every second in the village made me feel worse and worse. I was never going home.

Andy had taken my upper arm slightly and pulled me close to him. “This place is not one you want to get lost in.” He whispered. “Stay close, stay low.”

I walked close beside him like he asked. Everyone in the village had giant holes in the ears, noses, lips, cheeks, you name it. It frightened me. They were all tattooed like the guys were, some of them were tattooed from head to toe. I walked closer and closer to Andy with every shop we passed. I had ended up just wrapping my arms around his. For the time being, he was my protection. This village was dark, even though I knew it was midday and there were no clouds in the sky, it was dark, musty, and it smelled of spices I had never smelt before.

“Here,” Andy said leading me into a shop with wooden walls and a large glass door.

A bell overhead rung as wen stepped inside. Even though there were not very many people in here I still held on for dear life and Andy’s left arm. I looked around, it smelled of pine trees in here. There were headless, and legless bodies on sticks that wore dresses and shirts. I assumed that they were not actual bodies. Ashley made his way to some curtains and started talking with an old man with a hunched back and one tattoo of a skull on his right cheek. He had very little hair, but yet it reached it chest. His one tooth stuck outward over his bottom lip.

I guided Andy away from him and kept my stare to a minimum. A pair of pants caught my eye. They were a dark color but the same material as the ones I wore back home. Andy looked down at me, my arms still connected to his.

“You want these?” He asked. I nodded my head knowing that I wasn’t going to get them. He took them off of the rack and placed them over his shoulder. “Then you get them.” He smiled.

This was odd, had I stepped into another universe? Even CC asked me if I liked a necklace that was on a shelf. When I nodded slyly he also said I now owned a necklace. Ashley had aslo asked what kind of curtains I wanted for the main floor and my room. When I said purple, blue, and gold he smiled and grabbed 20 of all the colors I had said. Jake and Jinxx met us by the carriage with bags upon bags of food.

The way home was trying to get comfortable with everything we had bought on our laps. Maybe I was brought here for a reason. Maybe my little chat with my pink rose finally let me see that. Or maybe more so, Andy had.

Notes