(15th June, 19:16, First Quarter Half Moon)

Beast and the Beast

Chapter Seven – The first Trifle of Aggression

(Please note this story has vast similarities to Beauty and the Beast, yet I claim no ownership over Beauty and the Beast, only my inspiration is stolen from the movie/book.)

x.X.x

Sakai looked into the eyes of the demon who she was sure was about to kill her and so many things went through her mind that fear was nothing more than background noise. She had spent her entire life in solitude, she had been alone all her life and had never helped or even considered helping another human. She was barely human herself as the witch had proven; yet this demon was about to murder her because she used to be one, because she had their blood. Because she was human.

And what was she going to do? Sit there and let him kill her while she pretended she could do nothing because he was a demon? She was a demon as well due to her dark soul and even if it was horrible to know she had a soul as dark as a demons she still had comfort in the fact that she would be human again sometime and she would be damned if this hideous thing thought he could take it from her.

She stood up as well and faced him, determination shone in her snakelike eyes as she tried to stare him down, even if it wouldn't prove or do much, it would show him she wasn't going to let him just kill her, she would stand her man and she would fight for her life.

He examined her as she stood poised to attack and he suddenly started to laugh at her, so much that she took a step back in surprise and relaxed; immediately she realized it was a mistake when he grabbed her with his bone-like fingers by her neck and threw her across the camp with little effort.

She groaned as her back hit a tree and she felt a branch tear through her cloaking and stab her skin, enough that she felt blood trickle down her back in waves, though she could tell it was not deep, though she had always been a bleeder.

Once she hit the ground she pulled herself up and Baal was walking towards her again, he was still laughing at her and she was confused, his laugh wasn't menacing, it sounded innocent! Why was he attacking if he found this amusing or fun? Why?

She didn't dare try to examine her wound while her companion was advancing on her, it would only be foolish and she would find herself against a tree again and this time she might not be able to get up. She tried to get her determination back up to par but she found that she couldn't. He was too powerful, he had flung her across the camp like she was a small rock in his palm; how could she face someone who could easily consider her a toy.

"Let me go rather than kill me!" She yelled at him suddenly, if she wasn't travelling with him he had no reason to dispose of her if she wasn't going to be close to him, did he?

He stopped in front of her, his eyes shone with a sort of horrid amusement and she could see her death play out in his eyes. "Oh, this has nothing to do with you being turned into a demon; it has to do with you lying to me." He said and shock took hold of her, lie to him?

"Lie to you? When?" She asked confused, she couldn't remember any lie she told him.

"Do you want to know why I laughed?" He asked and she wasn't really sure whether she wanted to know, but she nodded her head in any case; she had the feeling he would tell her anyway.

He smirked. "When you threw up, that was not because you were sick, that was because of my appearance when you saw it in the light." He said and she knew he was right, but how did he know that, why would he know that?

He seemed to be thinking for a second. "Actually, that makes it two times you lied to me." He confirmed and she took a step back, her back resting against the tree as she tried to ignore the stabbing pain of her wound.

"Elaborate." She said and looked down at his fingers, then back up at her.

"A human who was turned into a demon and flung into the forest with no memories except a hardwired idea of morals would not find my appearance disgusting, let alone enough to invoke nausea." He said and she suddenly understood what he meant about lying to him.

He meant when she said she remembered nothing from her previous life. "So why don't you tell me what really happened little morsel?" He teased her and she stood still, staring at him in absolute silence. Where demons meant to be this smart?

She sighed as she saw this as a 'safe moment' and looked at her wound, she saw her green blood pouring out and put her hand to it, feeling the odd velvet feeling of her blood. She turned back to Baal. Her eyes were set like stone and she stood dead still.

"Fine, if you insist on knowing." She spat out at him as she still didn't move, she balled her hands into fists and glared at him though he seemed to take her anger up as amusement and crossed his arms.

"I was turned into this bloody monstrous form because I'm a horrible person okay, apparently I'm a bloody monster and THAT'S why." She hissed at Baal and he seemed very amused because his eyes shone with a form of excitement she didn't know or like much.

"So you're a monster? You seem pretty tame to me." He said with a laugh as he walked to her and started to circle her, examining her as if he hadn't ever seen her before. She glowered at him, yes, tame to him because she couldn't do anything to him. "Though you have a pretty sharp tongue on you, I can almost guarantee that's what got you turned." He said and she knew he was right, at least partially.

Though she firmly believed it had more to do with the fact that she tossed a machete at the old hag that set this in motion. Though she wasn't about to mention that to anyone.

"Yes." She said and Baal stopped circling her and stopped in front of her, a question was burning in her and she decided she would ask, she was never one to keep to herself when it came to questions, she was blatantly forward and tactless. "I want to get something straight, you're not going to kill me because I used to be a human, but you're going to kill me because I lied to you?" She asked and Baal let out another laugh.

"Yes." He said shortly and she was surprised that he considered the death of another so little, as if it didn't bother him in the least that he would be killing someone for something as silly as a lie.

She sighed and closed her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me, you're bloody insane." She said as she kept her eyes closed, mainly because she was irritated but also because she didn't want to see the blow coming for that would kill her.

"Partially yes." He said without much thought, as if it had been said to him before. "Though what reason would you have to live anyway? You're the opposite of what you used to be, what life can you find with our kind if you cannot even stomach the idea of consuming the flesh of what you once were?" He asked and suddenly his eyes darkened. "Unless of course there is a way for you to turn back… is there?" He asked her, his eyes boring into her soul and she knew for all the love she had for herself that she had to lie now.

"No, I cannot be turned back as far as I know." She lied; she hoped he wouldn't pick up on it because another lie would surely count against her, as he was already considering her demise, though there was no positive outcome if she said otherwise. "My reason for wanting to live is my own and it doesn't concern you." She said sternly as well, he didn't need to know.

He laughed. "You really have a sharp tongue mortal." He said and she took the fact that he called her 'mortal' a bad sign, so she decided to interject.

"I'm immortal because of the curse so I don't think you're wording applies." She said and Baal said nothing as he walked away from her. She was confused as she stared after him. "And now?" She asked stunned and he didn't turn back to her as he went to sit down by the fire.

"You have permission to live, though you will still accompany me, rest now." He said and she was completely speechless. One moment he is positively happy with the prospect of her dying and the next he is giving her 'permission' to live? What was wrong with demons? Or this demon to be specific, she had never met one, though she really hoped all of them weren't like this or she would a lot of trouble getting to like them.

"Oh and no need to worry about your wound, it's minor, it will be almost fully healed by tomorrow if you are a full-blooded demon." He said to her like she the idiot she was on demon analogy.

She didn't saying anything as she walked over to the tree opposite the side of the fire he was sitting and leaned against in, closing her eyes, ignoring the pain of the wound as she in any case didn't have the energy to fix it right now; she was exhausted.

"I suppose you wish you had a pillow?" He mocked her and her eye twitched in irritation, both from his insult and the fact that she couldn't say much, considering it was true and she had just barely survived being killed.

"Goodnight then." Baal said and she gave a nod as she tried to clear her mind of everything, but the only thing that kept reoccurring in her thoughts was this thing she was travelling with and the way he was and looked.

Though soon sleep did take hold of her and she drifted into a dreamless sleep.