Chapter 7: A Change In Me

Esther walked through the snow-covered gardens. She admired the frostbitten magically alive flowers and how they glistened in the sunlight. Ion and Katie, who both wore capes with hoods to protect their skins from the UV rays, walked with her. Ion ran before the two women and over to a small flower plant. He picked a frostbitten daffodil; then, he ran over to Esther. He held up the flower and said, "For you."

"Oh, why, thank you, Ion." Esther said as she took it from him. "That's very kind of you.

"You're welcome!" He replied as he wore a childish grin on his face.

As all this was taking place, a certain crusnik was watching from the balcony above. Abel watched dreamingly at Esther as she walked. He sighed. About a month had passed since Esther had arrived at his castle and he seemed to have taking a liking to her. "I've never felt this way about anyone." He muttered under his breath. He looked at William, who stood by his side, and gave him a determined, yet childish, look as Abel said, "I want do something for her." Abel's expression softened as he asked, "But what?"

William took his pipe out of his mouth and breathed out some smoke. "Well, there's the usual things: flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep…" William began his list.

"No, no! No!" Leon interrupted, "It has to be something very special and very romantic. Something that sparks her interest," he though for a moment, "Ah! I know!"

Abel let Esther down a sunlit hallway. He stopped at a door. He looked at her, as gently as he could in his beast-like form. "Esther, there's something that I want to show you." He turned to the door and opened it slightly.

"What is it?" Esther leaned forward to get a good look inside, but jumped back when he suddenly closed it and looked back at her.

"But first, you must close you eyes." He told her.

"My eyes?" She asked as she gave him a questioning look.

"It's a surprise." He explained.

She sighed and did as she was told. To make sure that her eyes were closed, Abel waved a hand up in front of her face. When she didn't respond, he turned back to the doors and opened them. He turned back to her and took her hands. He felt her shudder at his cold hands. He led her inside the dark room. "Can I open them?" She asked as she was blindly led into the room.

"No, no. Not yet." He told her as he led her to the center of the room. When they had reached the center, he said, "Wait here." He dropped her hands and turned around. He walked over to the large windows and drew back the curtains, allowing the sunlight to flood into the room. He drew back the other set of curtains. The sunlight had begun to reveal just what that room was.

"Now can I open them?" Esther asked as she wondered just where she was.

"You can." He told her as he looked at her. His eyes were a peaceful blue. He still had fangs, claws, and a halo of silver hair, but his wings were gone and his eyes weren't glowing red.

Esther opened her eyes and gasped at what she saw. The grand room was almost just as big as the ballroom that she had seen just the other day after recovering from her cold that fateful night. Books lined the high walls from top to bottom. "I can't believe it! I never seem so many books in my life."

"Do you like it?" He asked her. He sincerely hoped that she would.

"It's wonderful!" She told him.

"Then it's yours."

She looked at him. "Mine? Oh, I couldn't accept such a generous gift. Am I not your prisoner? I'm not allowed to have such a luxury…"

"I'm giving it to you. I want you to have it and be sides, you are more of a guest than you are a prisoner." He explained to her.

"Thank you very much." She told him. If she weren't so strong, she probably would have cried.

"You're welcome." He said as he took her hands in his and looked down as her with such compassion that no one had ever seen.

From the partly opened doors, Leon, Noélle, Kate, William, Caterina, Ion, and Seth all watched the two of them. "Oh, would you look at that!" Kate gasped quietly.

"I knew it would work!" William exclaimed.

"It was my idea." Leon grumbled.

"What? What worked?" Seth asked.

As she began to leave the doorway, Caterina told Kate, "It's very encouraging."

"It's wonderful." Noélle said as she walked away with the others.

"I didn't see anything." Ion told Kate.

"Come along, Princess Seth, Ion, let's leave the two lovebirds alone." Kate said as she scooted the two children away from the library.

Before the two knew it, it was the next day. Abel and Esther were seated in the dinning room as Vaclav served them breakfast. Kate served them tea and she put Abel's normal amount–thirteen spoonfuls–of sugar in his tea and even more into his bowl of brown sugar oatmeal, making the oatmeal into a sugary mess.

Esther took a spoon full of her oatmeal and raised it to her mouth. She looked ahead of her and gasped at what she saw: Abel was practically inhaling the sugary oatmeal. He had heard her gasped and he looked up with oatmeal that was smeared at the corners of his mouth and a facial expression that said "What?"

Esther looked away, not knowing what to do or say.

Abel wiped his mouth with the back of his bare hand. Then, he continued eating, only this time a bit slower.

Abel had invited Ester to feed the birds before lunch. So there they were, outside in the snow as Esther held in her white dress, which was trimmed with a sky blue color, some bird feed as Abel stood next to her and watched her gently throw some feed at the small group of winter birds. The birds pecked at the feed.

"Abel," Esther began, "why don't you try?"

"Oh, no. I couldn't. I would just scare them away." He told her. Sorrow circled in his wintry-blue eyes.

"Nonsense. They wouldn't fear you." She told him. "Hold out your hands."

He obeyed and she dropped some bird feed in his clawed hands. He bent over and placed the back of his hands on the cold snow. The bird approached him, but they wouldn't take the feed. He moved closer to them, but they flew away a few feet. He moved even closer to them and held out his hands to them, but they flew away a bit farther. Sadness swept over his face.

Esther noticed something about him right there. Abel was kind. Sure, he didn't look it, but he was very kind. At first when she had met him, she thought him as a cruel and heart-less monster, but now she could see in him his true nature. She went to him and kneeled at his side. "Here I'll help you." She told him. She placed the rest of the feed in his hands and took some out of his hands. She placed it on the ground in a trail from the birds to his hands.

One small bluebird approached the trail of feed. It pecked at the feed, and then it hopped into Abel's hand and began to eat the feed there. He smiled up at her, his fangs showing off.

She just smiled back at him simply. She stood up and walked over to the nearest tree. She walked behind it and leaned her back against it. She sighed. These new feelings in her heart were a bit alarming to her. She had never thought that these feelings would ever be! She pulled the hood of her sky-blue cloak down from her head. She looked around the tree to look at Abel. He was surround by the birds, but this time it seemed that they had doubled. When the feed had run out, they began to peck at his head. He shrieked and tried to shoo the birds away, but it was vain. He tried to run away from the birds. But only did he run in circles, until he slipped in the snow and landed on his backside. That startled the birds and they flew away. Esther smirked at this as she watched.

An idea hatched in her brain. She scooped up some snow and before Abel could get out the words "I'm all right". A ball of snow hit him in the face. He wiped it away with his hand. "Esther!" He gasped.

She giggled.

He glared at her playfully as he smirked. He gathered in his arms a large bundle of snow and raised it over his head, but before he could have thrown it at her, she threw another one at him. It hit his face again and he dropped the large one right on top of his own head.

She laughed out aloud, harder than the first.

"I'm gonna kill you!" He teased as he jumped after her.

She shrieked and ran away from him. But before long, he caught up with her. He pinned her to the ground playfully. "I got you." He told you.

"I know." She said as she looked up at him. Another idea hatched in her brain. She reached up and began to tickle his sides. He chuckled at first.

"Stop." He told her. She wouldn't. "Come on, stop it." He told her as he rolled off of her and into the wet, cold snow. She didn't. She tickled him harder. It seemed that this beast was very ticklish. His chuckle soon became a full-hearted laugh. A laugh of pure joy and love. "Please stop!" He exclaimed. His sides were shaking.

"No." She told him as she climbed on top of him and tickled him all over.

He got his revenge. He reached up and began to tickle her. When he hit her most ticklish spot (her waist) she automaticly stopped tickling him and rolled off of him, laughing.

"Oh, please stop it!" She told him.

"No, this is my revenge." He told her as he tickled her some more. She held her side, but his long fingers some how kept finding their way on her most ticklish parts on her waist. She rolled in the snow in a very unladylike manor.

"Please stop!" She begged. But it was useless. Abel didn't stop until he grew tired. Both of them breathed out smoke in the cold winter air. They both lay in the snow, panting. The looked up into the clear blue sky. Esther then began to move her arms and legs in the snow.

Abel, curious to see what on earth she was doing, looked down at her puzzled. "May I ask, what are you doing?"

"I'm making a snow angel." She told him with a sweet smile.

"A snow angel? What's that?" He asked, curious.

"You'll see." She said as she continued to move her arms and legs up and down in the snow. After an interval of not speaking, Esther spoke up, "But you know, the trickiest part in making a snow angel, is that there will always be that hand or foot print in it when you climb out."

Abel stood up. "Here." He said and reached his hand out to her. She sat up and took it. He pulled her out. They looked down at it. "It's beautiful." He told her.

"Yeah, just like a real angel." She shivered. "Abel, could we go back inside now? I'm getting cold."

"Sure."

Inside, the two of hem headed for the library, but on their way they ran into Kate. "Ah, Kate could you send some hot tea in the library." Abel asked. Coldness that was once in his voice seemed to have melted away.

"Right away, Your Highness." Kate said with a heartfelt smile. Then she skipped passed the two of them.

In the library, Leon or William (one of them) had stoked up a fire in the fireplace. Abel and Esther sat in a couch the faced the fireplace. Esther had picked out a book from the lower shelves. The book was Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Esther read it to him. "Two households…" she began. Abel barely paid attention to the words of the story. All he could care about was the sound of her voice and those cute facial expressions that she would add in. He knew the story very well. He had read it before. The way she read was so intoxicating. He could listen to her for hours.

" 'She speaks,' Romeo continued, 'O speak again, bright angel, for thou art as glorious to this night, being o'er my head, as a winged messenger of heaven unto the white-upturned wondering eyes of mortals that fall back to gaze on him when he bestrides the lazy-passing clouds and sails upon the bosom of the air.'"

Kate came into the library with a cart of hot tea. She smiled at the two of them. She rolled the cart before them and left without saying a word.

" 'O Romeo, Romeo!' She cried. 'Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name: or, of thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, I shall no longer be Capulet.'"

Time quickly passed by and Esther now at the last line of the book: " 'For never was a story of such wore, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.'" She shut the book closed and sighed. She whipped the tears from her eyes. "That story always makes me cry." She told Abel.

"Yeah, but it's such a good story." He told her.

Esther took a deep breath and looked at the cart with the empty teapot and used teacups. "Um, Abel, I was wondering… how exactly did you become this way?"

He looked at her shocked. No one ever dared to ask him about it and it should stay that way. However, he was drawn to her beauty. He, this beast, was drawn to her beauty! He could not tell her. No, he must not! He didn't want to, but he did….

"It… it was a while ago. In honor of my thirteenth birthday, a ball was held. My twin brother was jealous of me for the fact that I received a special gift from an enchantress. It was a beautiful red rose that matched her hair. My sister also received one, but my brother did not.

"When she left, a terrible storm came upon the castle. Cold winds beat on the castle walls. A knock came on our door and an old lady was there with a red rose like the one my sister and I had received. I must admit that she did indeed look ugly and worthless. She asked my brother for one night's stay in the castle to be sheltered from the cold and in return she would give him the red rose in her hand.

"My brother used to be kind and loving, but after our mother died, he was heartbroken. He was cruel and wicked. He sneered at the offer and turned the old woman away. My sister and I pleaded for him to change his mind for this was a poor old woman who could die out in the cold. But he would not.

"At that moment, the old woman's haggard appearance melted away to reveal the beautiful, red-haired enchantress who had given my sister and I our roses. She told us that she had heard that the king-to-be of this land had grown cold-hearted, so she decided to test out the rumor for herself. When she had confirmed it to be true, she cast a spell upon the castle and all the staff members. She had turned the staff members into vampires. They became bloodthirsty and insane and killed most of the party guests. The ones who had escaped started the stories of what you hear of today.

"While our staff members were vampires, my brother, sister, and I had turned into something even more dangerous: Crusniks. We were insane and bloodthirsty as well. We killed most of our staff members, expect for the ones you see today.

"When I finally got a hold of my senses, I noticed that my brother had gone completely insane for he was trying to kill our sister. I saved her just in time, before she could have died. That is why she is so sickly. But even though he tried to kill her, she still loves her older brother very much.

"Before long I knew I must kill him with my own two hands, before he hurt anymore people. I chased him down. He was more powerful then me. I knew that I was risking my life on this, but even so, I continued to chase him."

Abel looked down at his hands. His hand shook greatly as he recalled what happened that night. "I killed him with my very own hands. And in atonement for my sins, I am the way you see me know. Shut off from the world; living in secret. That is my life, Esther, and it shall always be."

Esther looked at him in shock and sorrow. "You poor thing. Isn't there a way to free you from all of this?" She wanted to know. She wanted to help him. He did not deserved to live this life.

"There is only one way: 'something that is pure and genuine will break the spell.'" He answered. He stood up and narrowed his eyes in anger and sadness. "But what is pure and genuine in this world, Esther? I am a man with blood on his hands. A monster. You shouldn't be acquainted with me, Esther."

"But, Abel, even if you are a monster or a man with blood on his hands, I don't care. You are my friend, Abel." She told him as she stood up as well. She looked at him compassionately. "And nothing shall change that."

"A friend? Me?" He asked flabbergasted.

She nodded and smiled sweetly. She had seen the change herself. She had judged him completely and utterly wrong. She had grown to like this man. He was her friend: one that she had longed for such a long time.

hello! sorry for not updating sooner. now that science fair, acdamic day, and basketball have finally passed, my free time has grown longer. i still have finals at the end of may and softball, but softball isn't that much to worry about and finals aren't until the end of may. but i do have a few fieldtrips with my school and our spring program. plus i have other stories to write.

with all that said, i'd like to thank all my reviewers. and if you are a fellow reader, please review. I love them! it makes me warm and fuzzy inside when I read them :3

thanks for choosing and reading my story! now click that review button at review!!

p.s. i'll try to update soon!