OKAY! I KNOW THAT YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO UPDATE A FIC MORE THAN ONCE A DAY, IF THAT, AND I THINK I'VE DONE A VERY GOOD JOB OF SPACING OUT MY UPDATES THUS FAR. BUT I AM FAR TOO SAD, BORED AND ANGSTY NOT TO ADD THIS CHAPTER. I USUALLY LIKE LEAVING YOU GUYS HANGING WITH SOME AWESOME SUSPENSE, BUT TODAY...

WELL, I DUNNO. JUST READ.

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Rather than listening to a soundtrack, I listened to some of my weirdo music (which includes things that I myself have written). So the song for this chapter is Beauty and the Beast by Nightwish. The only version I have is the live version, but the original is easy to find on YouTube and it's much better.

It's about bloody time that song made an appearance, too!

I also was listening to a song that I wrote for this story (I do that sometimes because I'm weird). If you're interested in hearing it, PM me and I'll email it to you.

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Chapter 13

A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist – Steward Aslope

Aisling was about to take a sip of her coco when she heard someone scream her big sister's name. The sound was faint, but it brought her to attention. Then, she heard Adara's voice crying out in pain. Without saying anything to the invisible person watching over her, she slid off of her chair and ran to the place that she had last seen her sister.

"Aisling!" Molly chased after her, "Where are you going!"

"Adara's in trouble!" Aisling cried, "I need to help her."

-

Emily heard the din from the other end of the castle and sighed, balancing blankets atop a pillow on her arm before going back to the kitchen to make some coffee. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she could guess that it had something to do with Torin waking up and seeing Adara.

It was strange how much her feelings about her master had changed. She still thought he was a little spoiled… but that was nothing compared to the pure, burning hatred that she'd felt for him earlier. It was as though, with Adara around, Emily was able to see the better side of Torin.

And who knows, Emily thought, Adara may very well be the one to break the spell.

-

It was like someone was slowing time down. I saw the heavy lead bullet rip messily through the Beast's stomach, puncturing several vital organs for sure, before tearing through his back and shattering into the wall behind us. Beast howled in pain and anger, falling to his knees.

"Oh, god!" I fell to my knees beside my fallen Beast as another bullet tore through the middle of his chest and Briac grinned in triumph as the Beast dropped onto his hands and knees, drawing in ragged breaths as blood gushed to the ground. "Oh, Beast, my Beast…"

There was too much blood for either wound to be non-fatal. I wasn't a doctor, but I could tell from the amount of blood that major veins and arteries had been severed. Beast wound bleed out in minutes.

"Adara…" he slipped in his own blood, falling messily to the ground with a wolf-like whimper or pain. He lay face-down on his stomach, blood coating his clothing and fur.

I crawled beside him, ignoring the thick blood that coated my hands and skirt as I did so. I muttered meaningless things to him, trying both to comfort him and come to grips with what had happened. "Oh god, Beast… I'm here… I won't leave you, I promise… oh god…"

Despite his wounds, Beast struggled to get back to a sitting position. He whimpered and cried out as blood ran thicker onto the floor. I grabbed onto his shoulders and helped him along, my fingers digging into his thick shoulders until I was able move to his side and sling one of his arms over my shoulders to hold him up.

"… Adara?" Briac murmured, taking a step into the room.

I held Beast tight, desperate to comfort him. "Briac, you don't understand. I'm not under his spell. I came back because I wanted to." Tears filled my eyes. "I wanted to."

Blood ran more slowly from Beast's wounds, telling me that his heart had pumped almost everything out already. He closed his eyes for a moment and fought for breath, his paws closing into loose fists before he opened his eyes again and turning to look at me. Ice-blue sorrow burned from his eyes into mine, drawing out my tears.

I was going to watch him die. After all of that, he was still going to die…

"Adara," He whispered, a thin coating of blood on his lips and teeth, "I'm so… sorry…"

Aisling and Molly entered the room then. I heard Molly gasp and Aisling cried out my name, running to stand as delicately as she could in the blood puddle in front of the Beast and I. Her eyes were wide with fear at so much blood, but I knew that she wasn't afraid of Beast.

His eyes focused on her for a moment and he murmured, "This is your sister…"

"I'm Aisling." She whispered, kneeling carefully in his blood.

"Thank you," Beast winced again from pain before continuing, "For bringing her back…"

Aisling nodded, watching as the light faded from his eyes and replying, "You're welcome."

His eyes closed then, and he began to fall back. I cried out and managed to hold him despite his bulk, hugging him tight. I was sure that I was hurting him, but I was terrified of letting him go. He was able to weakly wrap his arms around me, returning my embrace for the last time. His wounds were bleeding directly onto my tattered grey dress, but I didn't care. I clutched the fabric of his plain shirt, whispering, "This is my fault."

"No…" His eyes rolled back and the lids closed over them. His arms fell away from me and I lost my grip on him. Beast fell to the floor, his last breath rattling from his chest and through his lips. I thought I heard my name whispered as I threw myself over his body, clutching the fabric of his shirt in my hands.

"I'm so, so sorry." I sobbed, "I never meant for his to happen… I love you." Hoarse cries tore from my throat as I clung to him, desperately trying to wake him up again. "I never got to tell you how I love you…"

Aisling stood, ignoring the blood on her knees and looking over the Beast's face. "He's nice," she murmured.

I knew without looking that Briac was leaning against the door, watching us with a sinking feeling in his stomach. He thought he had done something noble, I was sure, but by now he was realizing that the Beast was more than the monster he saw him as.

Molly's quiet sobbing could be heard from across the room. I imagined her sitting against the wall, crying for her master. She was the only one who came close to understanding what I felt.

-

Molly stared at her dead master. She'd never pictured this as the way he'd die. In fact, she had been sure that he'd never die. He'd tried starving himself, stabbing himself, hanging himself… other than bruising and a few nasty scars, nothing had happened.

But, after all that time, there had been two loopholes to the curse: death by love, and death by murder. Molly shook her head as another wave of tears burned her eyes. At least he hadn't thought of that earlier. Emily had been so bitter in the beginning that she may have very well obliged… at least, before she started to go soft.

But it didn't matter now. Torin was dead, and the curse would never be lifted now.

-

The last thing Torin knew before slipping into darkness, other than pain from his wounds, was the sound of Adara's voice and the look of her face. "I love you." he tried to murmur, but he had already slipped away and he couldn't see her anymore.

It didn't matter. She already knew he loved her. It was just a shame that she hadn't fallen for him in time. At least then they could have had a little more time together…

By now, Torin was sure that he should have fallen into total darkness. But something was nagging at him, keeping him from total peace. Something about Adara's letter…

With all my love.

-

I smoothed the fur on Beast's face, willing him to open his eyes so I could be with him again. Briac had fallen against the wall, muttering, "I… I didn't know. I thought… I thought he was a monster…"

"This is all my fault…" I whispered to myself, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

"Adara, what's this?" Aisling asked, pointing to Beast's bloody paw.

I glanced towards her pointing finger, only to discover that the fur was disintegrating off of Beast's paw. Not only that, but where the fur had fallen away it left the longs, slender hand of a male human. I gasped as I watched the fur disintegrate off of his arms, leaving the long, lean limbs of a man.

I drew back, recalling the day Beast had admitted that he hadn't always been a Beast. Had he been human before?

The fur disintegrated from his legs and arms, leaving perfectly formed human feet, legs, arms, hands, and wrists (these had some faded scars on them though I couldn't imagine why). It was working its way up his torso and to his shoulders, closing the bullet wounds but leaving angry purple scars in their place.

I bit my lip as a human neck appeared, closing my eyes and looking away. I didn't want to remember him as some handsome human. I wanted to remember him as my Beast, the Beast that had loved me enough to die.

"Adara…?" Aisling asked. I ignored her, though I heard a gasp from Molly. Briac's mumbling stopped, and for a moment the room was silent.

After a few moments, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I moved away from whoever was touching and whispered, "Leave me."

"Adara," a male voice murmured, "Please don't cry."

There was something very familiar about this voice. The way it spoke words and pronounced my name was almost exactly like Beast's. But that made no sense, because Beast was dead. So who…

I opened my eyes and found a handsome man staring at me. He was about twenty-five years old and was wearing a white shirt and brown pants that where much, much to big for him and covered in blood. He had curly brown hair to his shoulders and he was a few inches taller than me. His body was slim, but toned, and his skin was a rich tanned colour that reminded me of candlelight. Aisling was holding his hand, pulling him towards me. I glanced to where Beast's body had been laying and discovered that it was gone, and even the blood was turning to mist and floating away as though it had never been. I stared at this newcomer for a moment and noticed that his eyes where a deep icy blue, just like the eyes of…

"Beast?" I whispered.

He nodded, opening his arms. He flashed me a broad smile as I flew into his arms and rested my head on his chest. Human arms encircled me, but they held me as the Beast had held me in a desperate embrace, clinging to me as though he never wanted to let me go.

"Who the hell are you?" Emily's voice snapped as she entered the room.

I turned to see a tall, curvy girl with dark brown eyes and even darker hair ran into the room, carrying a blanket and a mug of coffee. She tossed the hair from her pale face with a quick twist of her neck, curving her eyebrows to finalize her question and glaring daggers at a terrified Briac.

Another girl sat against the wall, her curly blond hair in a loose braid down her back. Dark blue eyes opened, slick with tears, as she regarded the dark haired girl with mild surprise, putting a slender hand on her forehead. The dark haired girl turned and her eyebrows went up as she saw the blond.

"Oh my god, Molly, we're visible again!" The coffee was thrown to the floor as the brunette snatched Molly's hands and started to dance around like a drunken idiot.

"Adara broke the spell!" the blond girl said in a voice that sounded exactly like Molly's. The two girls screamed in joy, jumping up and down as Briac regarded me with confusion.

"What… just happened?" he asked.

I ignored him. That curious pull had started again and I found myself being drawn closer to Beast. Our lips were about to touch when Emily pulled me from his grasp. "Come on. You two need to wash up."

Molly took the Beast's hand and pulled him out of the room before he could do anything about it. Our eyes met for one moment before we were both whisked off to our separate places with Aisling following close behind me and Briac being left all alone in the study.

-

Come on, you know I'd never kill Torin off. He's much to awesomely cool and stuff…

Except I miss him as a Beast… (Cuddles Beast plushie)

Ah, well. Trust Molly and Emily to whisk Adara and Torin away from one another when they want to be together the most.

… Seriously, guys, if you don't listen to any of the songs I give you, please listen to Beauty and the Beast. It's on YouTube, I know it. Just listen. It. Is. Bloody. Fricken. AWESOME!