20

She couldn't forget it. The look, the face.  It was like she had looked at the face of death itself. 

As she sat on the dirty prison floor as a real captive, Izabelle wondered in fear what all the manor held.  Not just a few hours ago she had woken up remember everything. The face, the pressure, the fear. Izabelle wondered how she could ever forget the nightmare that stains her heart.  As she had tried to run away, she was put in here, a dirty underground prison.  Again and again she screamed having seen the monster of the castle.  Skin a pale white purple and eyes a dark blood red. Veins marred the thin face and sharp teeth elongated as the Lord of the manor had let out a voice so inhumane that everything has been a blur of black dots. 

,  was her first thought of concern.  She had sent out a letter not long ago to her parents to come to the manor and now that she knew of the true face of the lord of the manor she wondered what would happen to them.  Ignorance is bliss. If only she had been ignorant of everything around her.  The ghostly seem of the workers was only a little better than the lord. 

Everything was out of place, unreal however a small part in Izabelle made sense of it all. Sitting on the dirty cold floor filled with left over pieces of straw, Izabelle went over a million things in her head.  Being a reader could be bad in situations like this.  All the worst possible scenarios from all the books were coming to her. She knew she had no knight in shining armour or a theif in love with her.  There was a beast guarding her door to freedom.  It's been doing that for the past month and there were no signs of any saviour coming to the rescue.

Anyone who even could muster the courage and determination to come to the rescue was sure to be slaughtered by the beast.  Lord Willington; Talk about a wolf wearing a sheep's skin.  How could such an inhuman being exist beyond folklore.

The past month has been a mix of feeling.  From being in her village room reading a book on herbs to having to come to this manor and being told that she was now promised to someone.  Was everyone in the castle like the Beast or did the beast keep them as a captive too? 

Izabelle remembered that once she had fainted when the Beast had gone crazy about the young lady Toby.  Whenever the Beast went into a rage or showed a lot of emotions in front of Izabelle it seemed that she would faint.  The aura surrounding the inhuman Beast was too much for the young body of a human girl.

Izabelle doubted that the Beast wanted to eat her as a snack because if that were the case she would have been long gone. Maybe there was a special ritual that consisted of him eating her on the wedding day. Who knows what sort of things go through the mind of the beast.  He was a tough one to figure out and an over imaginative mind was doing Izabelle no good. Maybe he would let her go.  Maybe he would realize that she was no good to him and if he ate her he would get indigestion.  The Beast did not seem to lack any money nor man power.  The  reason for her to be here were something Izabelle could not comprehend. On top of it he hadn't really treated her badly except making her faint a few dozen times and some crazy things now and then.  She did crave an adventure and she was getting it.  A mystery far greater than anything she had seen in her life.  A knock broke Izabelle's train of thoughts followed by a familiar voice.  "Ms Edwards? "

"Becka!" Izabelle exclaimed happily having lost her sanity in the few hours spent alone in the dungeon. She rushed from the corner of the room to the door letting some light into the pitch black room. 

"Poor girl, you look horrible.  We need to get you fixed up." The old woman said and a small smile lit on Belle's face at how concerned the old woman was for her as always. She was almost a mother to her and she couldn't think of her as a beast no matter what. 

Delicious smell filled the air as Becka opened the door and bought in some food along with another person carrying a lamp. Izabelle's mood saddened at seeing only a couple of spoon worth food. Enough to get rid of the growling in her stomach but not enough to fill it up. Izabelle wouldn't mind filling her stomach up to the brim and taking a long nap just to wake up to find it all as a horrible dream. 

"I know a lot of things may be going in your mind now but trust me Miss,  everything will be alright at the end. Enjoy the meal while it lasts.  Lord Willington would like to meet with you in an hour. " Izabelle shrugged and wondered what will be going wrong this time.  All her hunger lost as the key turned in the lock again.

***