Hello all – techbaby here!!! Sorry to say that I haven't heard from lil sis Unleashed Soul for quite a while, she and mommy recently moved to a new house. I'm not sure if they'll get internet access, but from earlier discussions with her, she can send me chapters for posting from an internet café. So, now all I have to do is wait, which sadly means all of ya'll gotta wait too. Sorry. I only have 2 more chapters left on my drive. But anyway….I know, I'm going on and on……
Big thanks to all you great readers and reviewers!!!
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"Why can't you just love me?" She whined. He looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. He was so beautiful. He had dark green eyes and his hair was as black as ebony. His body was perfect; tall, strong from the hard labor and darkly tanned by the sun.
"Please," he said it as if she was joking; his tone breaking her heart into pieces and the expression on his face stomping on them.
"Tell me!" she screamed out, lifting her fists into the air and pounding them into his chest.
He easily grabbed her fists and she fell onto his bare chest and soaked him in tears. He laid a gentle hand on her head, she could feel how strong he was even when he was being gentle. He stroked her mass of red curls until she stopped crying and looked up at him. His face still wore the same arrogant and prideful expression.
"Tell me," she whispered.
"Because, Ella, I can't love you." he said it matter-of-fact. He hurt that empty spot where her heart was just a moment ago; the moment before he ripped it from her.
"Because it would hurt your pride? Is that it? You can't love a noble; you can't because it would mean that everything you said before would be wrong. It would mean that not all nobles where terrible!"
"Is it possible, Ella, for you to be wrong?" He smiled when he said this. He smiled that radiant, lovely smile that melted her soul.
"Am I?" she asked.
It was such a simple question. So why didn't he answer it?
"Marc," she whispered. "I am the only woman who will ever love you!"
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Ella brushed her red hair back out of her face. She let the memory fade from her mind as she stared at the vision the water had showed her. Marc, her Marc, was holding a woman in his arms. Ella was unable to see the woman's face, but that hardly matter compared to what she did see. Marc carrying a woman and gently laying her on the bed...
Ella pushed the bowl and let the contents spill to the ground. She didn't want to see anymore. That bitch couldn't love Marc! Her spell made it so that no other woman could ever love him the way she did. She laid her hands on the table to steady herself and cried.
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Beauty woke and looked up into Beast's green eyes once again.
"What are you doing here?" she asked sitting up slowly but then laid back down, she wasn't yet ready to face reality. "How long have you been in here?"
"Just came in to see if you were awake yet," he muttered. Beauty nodded and swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. "Where is Angel, is he okay? Does he...?" She had to take a deep breath to steady herself. "Does he know?"
"He is working in the garden, and no, he only knows that you were ill."
"Why did it happen, Beast?"
Beast shook his cat head.
"It's unfair," she muttered holding her stomach and sitting up once again.
"I know," he placed a paw-ish hand on her cheek and made her look at him. "But things like this happen. No doctor or mid-wife could do anything about it."
"Is it my fault?" She asked, she really didn't know.
"No," he whispered gently. "It is no ones fault. It was just a something that happened in your life. It was a bad thing. But it wasn't your fault." She looked away from him. A tear fell from her eyes but she wiped it away quickly. "Do you believe me?"
She still didn't look at him, but she did nod.
"Look at me, Teresa." She did. "Do you believe me?"
Beauty stared at him for along moment. She felt another tear fall and reached up to wipe it away as well but Beast grabbed her hand and stopped her. The tear rolled off her cheek and down onto her white nightgown. And then another tear fell, and another. Beast didn't let her hand go, didn't let her wipe those tears away.
"Go ahead and cry," he whispered.
Beauty shook her head, she didn't want to cry.
"You loved that man who died, you loved your unborn child," he growled, growing slightly angry. "Why won't you cry for them?"
Beauty opened her mouth to speak but couldn't find the words. She shook her head again.
"If you don't cry, Teresa, it will build up inside of you and, eventually, it will kill you."
She shook her head again and let it fall into her hands. He pulled her close and let her cry on his chest.
"Teresita," he whispered and Beauty wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest and let the tears and sobs poor from her body.
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Angel looked around the small garden. He hopped on his good foot for a moment and tried to figure out what to do next. He couldn't move all the heavy stuff; the fallen and rotten benches, the big stones that had fallen off the far wall or the logs from who knows where. He really couldn't do too much without Tee's help. He sighed and sat down on the fountain in the middle of the garden and looked around at the dead, colorless place.
But wait, he saw color! Why was there color in here? He stood up and walked towards the splash of red color he saw. He had to move thorns and a few weeds to get a good view of the bush of red rose buds. They hadn't bloomed yet... but they were alive! He smiled widely and pulled his hand away.
He had moved his hand too quickly and a thorn cut the top of his hand and fat drop of blood fell and landed on one of the several rose buds, the blood disappeared into the red color of the buds. Angel ignored the cut and hurried inside to see where Kiddy and Tee where.
He didn't see that the rose bud his blood had landed on began to open slightly.
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Beast had held Beauty until she fell asleep. She seemed to have cried her fill. He saw Angel running – or hobbling, however you wish to call it – towards him. The boy lost his balance in his sprint and Beast reached out a hand just in time to save the brat from falling.
Angel looked up at him. A smile still implanted on his youthful face. Beast pulled the boy back to his feet and noticed the blood on his hand.
"What happened?" Beast asked as he pulled the boy's arm up to have a look.
The boy, as if just now realizing that he cut himself, looked down at his hand in horror and tears welt up in his eyes. Beast sighed impatiently.
Must everybody cry this day?
He wiped the blood away and thought the boy should be satisfied to see no more blood coming, but of course, he was wrong. A small tear rolled down the boy's cheek and his bottom lip pouted out and began to shake.
"Don't cry..." he muttered, not knowing what to do. "What am I supposed to do?"
Angel kissed his cut and then held it out to Beast to do the same. Beast's eyes widened for a second and then, after looking around as if someone might see, he kissed the boy's cut quickly, then looked around once more.
Angel smiled happily and wiped his cheeks and eyes with his dirty sleeves and then hugged Beast tightly around the waist and ran off to, Beast guessed, find Beauty.
Beast sighed and thought back to what Beauty had said; "Why did this happen?" Should he have answered in some way?
He growled at himself. His mother had lost several children the way Beauty just lost hers. Beast had been the second oldest and after he was born his mother began to have problems giving birth to children. She did end up having five sons and two daughters, but she had lost perhaps four or five unborn children. She had cried for each one of them. She was a good mother and loved every child she ever had, or would have had.
Beast growled again and walked off towards his sanctuary, and of course, to find his dinner.
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