Chapter Two
Belle
Shayna Montgomery
(earlier that day)
"Roses are red. Violets are blue. Shayna, my sweet, I've been dreaming of you."
I didn't have to look up from the shelving of books I was browsing to know who was behind me in the bookstore. There was only one person who tried to get my attention with ridiculous poetry on a daily basis.
"Ever the charmer, Jarek." I said, continuing along the row of books, looking for the one I wanted to purchase.
"Oh, come on, sweetheart. You love my poems" he said as he blocked my path with one of his muscular arms. I let out a sigh before turning to walk the other way but he just stopped me with his other arm. With a second sigh, I turned to face him, looking into his green eyes.
"First off, I'm not your sweetheart. Second, your poems are actually kind of creepy." I admitted truthfully. I pushed his arms from around me before turning back around to face the shelves grabbing a book and beginning to flip through the pages. I didn't have long to flip through the book before it was tugged from my hands. "Give it back." I demanded as I turned back toward Jarek with a glare.
"Why do you even read this rubbish?" he asked, his green eyes looking down at the cover in disgust.
"Because I don't find it rubbish." I responded, yanking the book from his hands before turning and starting to walk toward the register.
"Why do you keep avoiding me, Shayna? All I want is a date from you… for now." He asked as he grabbed my arm to stop me from leaving. At this point, I was getting annoyed and I turned back toward him, my nose flaring.
"I've told you many times times that I am not interested." I said as I shook his hand from my arm and walked away.
"You should consider yourself lucky!" he called after me, "many other girls would fight to be in your place."
"Good. Go find one of them!" I called back over my shoulder. I reached the register and put my book on the counter.
"That Galloway boy bothering you again, Shayna?" the old man behind the counter asked.
"Nothing I can't handle, Uncle Alfie." I responded. I had known Alfred, the owner of the book store since I was younger. He has always been so kind to my family, especially after my mother passed away. With a smile, I handed over my money to pay for the book.
"No, no dear. I will not be taking your money. This is a birthday gift to you." Uncle Alfie said as he curled my hand around the money and pushed it back toward me.
"Thank you, Uncle Alfie." I said before stepping around the counter and placing a kiss on his cheek.
"Will I be seeing you in here again next week? I'll be getting in a new shipment of books."
"You know me, of course I will be here." I said with a smile and a wave as I walked toward the door.
"Say hello to your father dear." Uncle Alfred add as he waved me off.
- later that evening-
"It's not like father to be this late." I commented as I looked out the window into the rain for the fifteenth time this evening.
"He probably just stopped to get his princess something on his way home." My sister, Ellis replied with a sneer from her place on the couch.
Ellis was older than me by four years and carried a lot of features that were similar to my father's. She had the Montgomery auburn hair that cascaded down her back with green eyes and her face was covered in freckles. I, on the other hand, looked more like my mother, or so my father says. My dark brown hair flowed down to my elbows and I had hazel eyes with very few freckles. Ellis was always under the impression that my father favored me because I looked like mum.
"Ellis, something just doesn't feel right." I said, begin to grow fearful that something was wrong with my father.
"Then go out there, in the pouring rain, and look for him. I'm not going with you though." She said as she shifted her position on the couch.
"I didn't ask you to go with me. Clearly, you don't want to be here so you can go home to your family." I said as I pulled on a pair of boots and tugged my hair back into a braid. Ellis lived on the other side of town with her new husband and rarely spent time with my father and I.
"Dad would be pissed if he came home and I wasn't here to celebrate. So… go out there and see that he is alright, but hurry. I'm so bored." She said with a wave of her hand.
Pulling on my coat, I walked out to my car and climbed in while thinking about where my father could be at this time of night. Dad wasn't one for deviating from his routine. Deciding that tracing his path from the house to work would be the best idea, I started my car and drove down the road slowly, trying to see through the rain.
About halfway between home and father's work, I saw his car setting outside of an abandoned factory. I drove close to it and saw that it was empty and at least one of his tires was blown. Since it was raining, I didn't think he would walk far from the car to I turned my car and began to slowly drive through the neighborhood. Ahead of me, I saw a house with a light on in the window and decided to stop there to see if they occupants had seen my father. I was not prepared for what was in store for me.
As I approached the house, I was overcome with a sense of unease. It was dark, save for the window that had the light in it. Swallowing my fears, I knocked on the front door. I waiting for sometime and was about ready to leave, thinking no one was going to answer the door, when the door creaked open a crack and I could just make out a woman's face.
"What do you want?" she asked in a harsh voice.
"I'm looking for my father. I saw his car at the end of the road and was wondering if he…" before I could finish my sentence, she threw the door open and pulled me inside by my braid.
"Ow, you're hurting me." I said as she tugged me along into a living area that was being lit by a fireplace. Any other time, I would have been amazed by the books that lined the walls, but when my hair felt like it was being yanked out of my head, I felt no amazement.
"Look what we have here, my Lord. Severus was right. The muggle filth did have family come looking for him." The woman said as she shoved me to the floor in the middle of the room.
I saw that I was at someone's pale, bare feet and I slowly raised my head up to look at who it was. When my eyes reached the face, I sucked in a breath. I was looking at the most hideous man… thing… I had ever seen.
"Now, now, child. There is no need to fear." The creature said as he held out a hand to me. I was scared to touch it, but I had this nagging feeling that if I refused, I would regret it. "What is your name?" it asked as it pulled me to my feet. Despite looking thin and frail, the man was strong.
"Shayna." I replied with a shaky voice, looking into the man's snake-like eyes.
"Severus, please show Shayna to where you have pitilessly locked up her father." The creepy man said as he pushed me toward a man clothed all in black. He grabbed me by the shoulder, though not as roughly as the other two had and began to lead me to a set of stairs. Up we went until the stairs were no more and we were blocked by a door.
From his sleeve, the man pulled a stick and waived it at the door. With a click, the door opened. I turned to look at the man with a questioning gaze but all he did was push me forward through the door. Once inside, I couldn't make out anything because the room was dark. I could feel the man move his arm again and from the end of his stick a glowing light lit up the room.
Using the light, I glanced around the room. I was in an attic and in the corner was a small cot. On the cot, I saw a figure and, realizing it was my father hunched up, I ran over to him.
"Dad?" I asked as I went over to him and tugged on his shoulder. He was facing the wall in what appeared to be sleep, but he was very pale.
"Hnnnh…" he replied in what I first thought was a sleepy way but, upon feeling he head, I found that he was burning up with a fever.
"He's sick!" I exclaimed turning back to the figure clad in black that stood in the doorway and was my only source of light.
"That is not my problem." He said icily.
"YOU MONSTER!" I yelled, enraged. "It IS your problem. You dragged him up here and locked him up after he was out in the rain. It's freezing up here!" I continued to yell.
"Severus, she called you a monster are you going to take that?" the woman asked. I hadn't heard anyone else come up the stairs with us.
"Your father was trespassing…" the man, Severus, began but I cut him off.
"He was looking for help… and then THIS is how you help him. What kind of people are you?" I asked with venom in my voice as I walked over to the man in black.
"The kind you don't want to mess with." He said as he stepped closer to me, trying to intimidate me.
"He needs medical attention." I said as I narrowed my eyes.
"I'm afraid, my dear, that he has found himself a servant of this household." The snake-man hissed.
"If he stays here, he will die." I spat back.
"You would do best to watch your tongue, lest I cut if from you pretty little mouth." The woman said as she came forward, grabbed my chin, and held a blade in front of my mouth. If looks could kill, I would have given her a death so brutally painful.
"Your father cannot leave." Severus said as he pulled me out of the woman's grasp.
"Then let me take his place. I'll do whatever you want. Just let him go." I said turning around to face him.
"She wants to take her father's place… how interesting. This could be of great value to us Severus." The other man spoke.
"Very well." Severus said without hesitation and then grabbed my father up from the bed. He began to drag him down the stairs with me chasing after him. When we reached the bottom, he grabbed a vial that was sitting on a shelf and uncorked it before dumping its contents down his throat.
"You're poisoning him!" I shouted as I tried to pry the vial from his hands.
"I'm saving his life. He will be fine in a few moments." Severus responded as he proceeded to drag him out the front door and then shove him in my car. The rain had stopped at some point while I was in the house. "Keys?" he asked me.
I threw them at him as I watched my father begin to regain the color he had lost. After the man had his back turned to close the car door, I ran and tried to get around to the other side of the car. The man was quicker though and caught me by the shoulder.
"Avada Kedavra!" I heard the snake-like man his behind me and Severus's hand on my shoulder tightened as I watched my father slump over in the car.
"Dad? Dad… DAD!" I cried out when I realized he wasn't responding.
"You're a fool of a child if you thought I was going to let your father go that easily." The snake-like man said as he approached me and the man holding me. "Severus, take her inside and lock her up. All of this muggle business has exhausted me."
"Yes, my lord." Severus responded as, once again, I was dragged back into the dreary house and back up the rickety stairs. Once back in the attic, I was thrown into the room and I stumbled to the floor. "You will remain in here until I retrieve you."
The door was slammed shut and I could hear the lock click. Once I was sure that the man had left, I finally let out the emotions I had tried to hard to keep at bay. Tears flowed down my cheeks a mixture of sadness and fear.
"Now, now dear. There is no reason to cry." came a gentleman's voice. I was startled from the position I had been crying in and looked around the attic, trying to find the source of the voice.
"Where are you? Show yourself." I called out to the room.
"I'm afraid that is easier said than done." The voice said. I kept scanning the room, but could not see anyone in there, not to mention the room was nearly dark.
"Who are you?" I asked the darkness.
"An ally, you need not fear me."
"They killed my father."
"I am very sorry for your loss. But you must know, Severus is not the man you have encountered tonight. The other two were Bellatrix Lestrange, and Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard alive."
"Wizard?" I asked
"My dear, I must tell you a story. And this story begins with…"