The Beast

9.

Now, only two weeks are left, and I will be with Henry. I will finally be with him after losing all my hope. At one point, I started to think that I would never reunite with him, but now I can't believe it's finally happening.

"Henry and I used to sneak off at night and..."I was telling Louis about Henry.

"Arghhh! can you stop with your Henry? It's annoying." Louis groaned, and I frowned at him.

"Look, I know you like him, and he is your lover or whatever... but I am tired of hearing about him, " he grumbled. I scowled at him. Yes, I have been telling him about Henry for the past week, but it's because I am excited.

"I am also listening about your endeavors whenever you go to the city, how you loot villages and kill people.!" I huffed at him.

"We only loot from the rich and kill those who deserve to die." He cleared, but I scoffed at him.

"But still, I listened to your stories without any complaints, and you can't do the same for me. You said we were friends." I frowned at him.

" Hey, I am sorry..." He starts apologizing, but I didn't let him finish and walked away from there. He called me from behind, but I ignored him.

With a huff, I sat on the foot of cave, it's almost dark, so I sat outside to gaze at stars. As I sat there and thought back to everything that happened in my life. How my parents died and left me in the hands of those. I don't even remember my parents' face now. We never had time to reminisce them. We were always busy doing chores.

I like talking about Henry and the time we spend back at the village because they were the only good memories I had of this place. We would sneak at night and talk for hours. He would tell me how we will run away and build a house, our home.

I thought Louis was my friend and started telling him about us. That's what friends do, right? They tell all their secret to each other. But I am never going to talk to him again.

I heard footsteps coming my way and looked up. It was Beast, he was coming but when he saw me he paused. I stayed seated and looked ahead at the sky.

He went inside the cave, and I heard shuffling from inside. He must be getting ready to sleep. But I don't feel sleepy at all!

I sat their for some more time until I felt a presence beside me. I looked at my side to see Beast sitting beside him at a little distance. He was gazing ahead at the sky just like I was doing. I smiled at his presence. He looked at me and signed.

'Why are you not sleeping?' He asked me.

"I had a fight with Louis, I am never going to talk to him." I don't know why I told him this, but I did. For some reason, his presence comforts me. Whenever I see him, my face lights up maybe because he is the one who freed me. I am here only because of him. I will be meeting Henry too because of him.

He looked at me and raised his brow, and I understood he was asking why we fought.

"He doesn't listen to me, I always listen to his stories, but when it's my turn, he would say that he is not interested." I pouted. I felt like a child complaining about a friend. His eyes softened, and his lips turned a little upward , and he signed.

'I will listen to you'. He said, and I grinned widely and turned towards him.

"Really? You will?" I asked with excitement. He nodded once again.

"Okay ... so I was telling Louis about how Henry and I..." I was speaking, but I saw his smile vanished at his name, and I paused.

"What? Don't tell me you also don't want to hear about him? I only have Henry. It's not like I have someone else to talk about." I sighed sadly and looked down at my hands while fiddling with them. Why don't they want to hear about Henry? He is a great guy, once they will meet him they will know.

I felt his fingers under my chin as he raised my head so I could look in his eyes. There was such softness in his eyes that I couldn't help but smile. He also smiled back at me and nodded to me. He is going to listen to me and that's how I spent half of night telling about Henry and I, about our house about everything.

I also told him about people back at the village, especially Miss Margaret, and after hearing about them, Beast's turned angry. But I told him that it's fine now, they would never hurt me or anyone else again. I still worry about the other orphans who scattered around when Beast's people attacked us, but he assured me that they would be fine.

I didn't know when I succumbed to sleep while talking to him, and when I woke up, I was on the mattress. I sat up and saw his place empty. He had gone, I yawned as I rubbed my eyes, scurrying away the sleep.

"Good morning, Beast." I said softly and smiled.

~~~
After getting ready, I walked towards the kitchen and started helping Cookie.

"Someone is happy today!" Cookie teased as he saw me grinning.

"Yes, I am!" I told him excitedly.

"Can I ask who is behind this happiness?" Cookie asked while wiggling his eyebrows. I giggled at him.

"Let me guess." He said and pretended to think then looked at me. I looked at him excitedly, waiting for him to guess.

"Is it ..." He trailed off and then spoke.

"Is it Beast?" He asked, and I nodded with a smile.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Because today I saw beast smiling for the first time in my life." He told me, and I gasped.

"Really? He never smiled before?" I asked in shock.

"That guy has a pretty bad past.. I am happy that he has finally found someone who will always make him happy." He said as he patted my head and then got to work.

I, on the other hand, stood still as I thought back to his words. He doesn't know that I am not going to stay here after two weeks. I will be gone forever... and Beast, he will find someone else for him. They all think I am with him, but it's not true. I am sure Beast also doesn't feel anything for me. He lied so that I could stay here. Right?