Beware of the Beast. Epilogue.
"Behind my smile is a hurting heart. Behind my laugh, I'm falling apart. Look closely at me and you will see, the girl I am...isn't me."
Arian Lorenzo was a strong girl.
Not physically, per say. She was not perfect. She was just strong in her own way; mentally, not physically. She was the type of person that would easily sacrifice herself if need be, if only to protect those she loved.
She was not remarkably pretty, nor was she a genius in anything she did. She could work for hours on end, if given the necessary motivation, her only redeeming feature, she would say. She worked hard to maintain her high grades, if only to see the proud smile on her mother's face, and feel like she was sufficient enough to be worthy of everything she had.
So she worked hard. She worked, and she worked, and she struggled. She fought the constricting chains of her parent's expectations, and endless amounts of stress. Until she snapped. She broke down, she became a shell of what she used to be. A little girl could only endure so much, alone.
But then she found her sanctuary: a quaint little spot, right at the edge of a large forest, so simplistic in its beauty. A weathered little fence, and a perpetually cheerful little boy.
Her own little ray of sunshine.
Beware of the Beast. Chapter One.
She found it when she had run out of the house, tears obscuring what was left of her vision; she had run out of the house so quickly, she had forgotten to grab her glasses. Her saving grace, considering she practically blind without it.
And so, vulnerable and susceptible to injuries, she had ran frantically, everything an undistinguishable blur. Until she came to a stop when she had noticed there was nowhere else to go. And that she was helplessly lost. A stupid act on her part, seeing as she had never ventured so far out into the dark, frighteningly expansive area of the forest.
But then she realised she had a place to finally release all her pent up emotions; a place without her older sister's malicious bad moods, and her brother's too-hateful-to-care attitude, and her mother's endless money concerns, and her father's unhealthy superior attitude, and stupid worries about how others would perceive their perfect little family.
Realising she was finally alone, she had cried, and cried; for hours with a seemingly continuous well of tears, until her tears finally ran dry, and all that was left was a numb little girl, with positively negative outlook on life.
They probably won't notice I was gone until they get a phone call from school, demanding where I was, and then they'd look for me, like the image of truly concerned parents, and then when they find me, they'll lecture me for hours on end, screaming about how it looks like they aren't looking after me properly, blah, blah, blah.
With her head tucked in between her knees, a mirror of a grieving woman, she stared mindlessly at the dark, ominous forest before her. I wonder if I'll die of hunger, or a wild animal attack before they find me. And with a spiteful little smirk, she whispered words with more bitterness than a 14 year old should have. "I hope so…"
She stayed that way until the sun began to set, frozen in more ways than one. And then movement disturbed her. At first she had thought it was the wild animal she had previously hoped for. But then she heard a voice.
"Hello? Is anybody there…?" it seemed young… and innocent.
She froze, not knowing how to react. It remained that way for a few moments: Arian waiting for any sort of further movement from the mysterious boy, and said boy anticipating any sort of response. So when it seemed like no one was out there, lost (?) like he had originally thought, he made a move to walk away.
Arian was at a loss at what to do; should she call out to him, in hopes of acquiring directions for her house, or should she stay put, lest he was dangerous. But then she heard sounds of him moving away, and she thought she saw eyes watching her from her side of the forest, and she could not help but blurt out a frantic "Wait!"
Immediately she heard him freeze; when she didn't do anything more, he seemed to realise that she didn't want to leave, but didn't want to be left alone. So he sat down, on his side of the weathered wooden fence. A feeble piece of wood remained in between them, but neither made a move to try and see what the other person on the other side of the fence looked like, even after their first conversation.
They remained still, watching the setting sun from their side of the fence. Until he heard a hesitant voice.
"W-what are you doing here…?"
He chuckled-a warm, happy sound- calming her previous musings of the fence boy being a psychotic axe murderer. Something so nice sounding could not come from a killer. "I could ask you the same thing"
She could hear the smile in his voice, prompting her to crack a small one herself, only for it to immediately vanish as she contemplated whether she should tell him the truth. It couldn't hurt, right? After all, they couldn't see each other. And she doubted she would ever see him again. With a careless shrug (after all, she had no parents breathing down her neck, correcting her this time), she answered, her voice weak. "I… I was upset… and I somehow ended up here"
His response was instantaneous. "Did someone die?"
She frowned at the unusual question. "No…"
"Did someone leave you?" he tried again.
"No." she repeated, the same answer every time he asked again, within the same line of questioning.
Eventually, she heard him pause before he could ask another meaningless question. His next words struck something within her, even as his confusion was so blatantly revealed with his words. "Then why are you so upset?"
She was getting angry at him for such simple minded thinking, ready to make a sharp retort before stomping her way angrily out of the clearing, before she suddenly stopped and thought about it.
His way of thinking was so easy, so simple, so refreshing. It made her think. She wasn't dying like so many people out there. She wasn't starving like those poor orphaned children. She had a family, albeit a clearly dysfunctional one, that provided for her. She had no right to think she deserved any pity. And so she told him.
"You know what? I think you're right…"
And so, it was the start of wonderful friendship. Whenever she was upset, she would always end up at the same secluded clearing, and somehow, he would always be there, with his simple logic, and his simple comfort. It was empowering; she had something that belonged to her, and her alone.
And on that first day, before she had left, (with the necessary information to find her way back home from her mysterious friend) she turned, curious about what her friend had looked like. Peeking through the gaps in the browned, old fence, she saw a glimpse of tanned, russet skin. And then she quickly looked away.
She didn't need to look; she didn't need to know. She confided in him because she didn't know him. And she made certain it remained that way.
They stayed separated; the wood remained between them.
They never looked, they just talked, and talked. An easy going conversation that never failed to comfort her.
Until one day, she never came back.
A/N: Godd, I'm such a hypocrite. I don't like the whole depressed-girl-with-the-werewolf, but then I'm kinda writing one. *sigh*
NOTE: I've never read the books, and I'm British, so I don't know what Washington actually looks like.
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