Jude left the small cottage that he shared with his sister, Callie. He was a young boy of seventeen and, while a sweet, friendly teenager, he was viewed as an outcast by the people who lived in his village. Jude was different and while none of the people were able to clearly articulate what was so strange about him (was it simply the fact that he kept to himself? It was the fact that he barely spoke to anyone but his sister, for sure. Where were their parents? Perhaps it was how desperately both Jude and Callie wanted to leave the small village where everyone else was so content to stay) but they rejected him nonetheless. Despite their often bullying ways, Jude took no notice of them. Instead, Jude looked to the future. By the end of the year, if he and Callie continued to work and earn money at the rate they had been, they would be able to move to the city and Jude couldn't wait. He knew that there was more than this tiny town that, while nice in its own way, moved in the same patterns day after day. Jude wanted something less predictable.
Jude wanted to feel like he was living his life instead of just existing.
The only thing that Jude had to do in town was pick up some groceries. Callie was leaving early tomorrow morning – there was a seamstress the next town over that was willing to pay Callie more than the seamstress here was. Jude needed to get enough food for her day long journey. He quickly picked up the necessary food items and was just about to take the short way home when he spotted Liam loitering by the tavern – his usual hangout spot. He was accompanied by his sidekick, the boy whose nickname had long been forgotten in favour of his nickname: Fooly.
Jude snuck down a side alley, hoping to avoid Liam, who was one of his biggest tormentors. Liam was the golden boy of the village. He was handsome and talented – the greatest hunter in the entire country! Or so his many admirers claimed. While Jude and Callie both found him cruel and obnoxious, they were alone in their thoughts. Their less than stellar opinion of him did not, however, stop Liam from having an opinion of Callie – he desperately wanted her hand in marriage. She rejected him at every turn, and he had tried many times. Jude knew that she would never agree to it and he wished Liam's pursuit of his sister would stop, but he also wished that Liam's infatuation would make Liam nicer to him. If only to make Jude's own life easier.
Jude was almost to the end of the alley way when he heard Liam's distinctive voice.
"Wait up, Jude! We want to talk!"
"Yeah, Jude." Fooly, this time. Everything he said sounded like a sneer and his condescending tone made Jude's skin crawl even more than Liam's arrogant one. "We want to talk to you."
Jude thought about making a break for it, but they'd follow him home. They might even through a punch or two at him on the way. While Fooly was too scrawny and weak to do much else, Liam was an entirely different story. Jude wasn't in the mood for bruises or theatrics today, so he made himself stop at the end of the alley and he waited for Liam and Fooly to catch up to him.
"So, how's your sister?" Liam asked, as Jude knew he would. "In hiding? Pining over me? Figuring out a way to tell me she loves me?"
Jude rolled his eyes. If Liam's ego got any bigger, he wouldn't be able to move. Then again, that might not be such a bad thing.
"Of course Callie's pining over you!" Fooly assured Liam. "She'd be crazy not to! You know how women like to play hard to get."
Jude readjusted the handles of his food basket further up his arm and then he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Is Callie home?" Liam asked.
"No," Jude answered quickly.
"When will she be back?" Liam pressed, his eyes narrowing.
"Next week," Jude lied. "Later in the week, she thinks. She's not sure. It depends on work."
"A woman should not have to work."
"Then where should a woman be?" Fooly wondered.
"Well, that woman should be in my bed," Liam boasted.
Disgusted, Jude turned his back on the duo. Objectively, Jude knew that his sister was attractive; Callie certainly wasn't ugly. However, just because he knew that men looked at his sister, that didn't mean he wanted to hear what they thought about her. Especially when it came from someone like Liam. In the past, he'd been a lot more graphic in front of Jude, but now Jude usually just walked away from him when he got anywhere near the subject of Callie doing anything.
"Jude, come back!" Fooly called.
"I have one more question for you!" Liam jogged a few steps and flung his arm around Jude's shoulders and Jude tried not to flinch at the contact. If there was someone that Jude didn't want touching him, it was Liam. "If I wrote your sister a letter, would you send it to her?"
"I wasn't aware you could write," Jude snapped before he could stop himself.
Liam's arm became tighter around Jude's shoulders. Jude thought it was the most subtle threat Liam had ever given him.
"Just answer the question," Liam encouraged him, though his tone was dark.
"Fine. If you manage to write a letter, I can manage to send it."
"Now, was that so hard?" Liam's voice was back to its usually friendly tone. "I'll see you soon, Jude. Tell your sister good things about me!"
As if Jude and Callie didn't have more important things to discuss.
Jude gave a small grunt and continued on his way. Liam and Fooly fell into the background and he was left alone for the duration of his short journey. He let himself into the tiny cottage that he and Callie shared. She was in the living room, carefully folding her clothes into a pack that would easily fit on the back of her saddle.
"I got your food," Jude said, laying it on the table for her.
"Thank you. How was the village today?"
"The same as always," Jude said, not without bitterness.
"Did you see Liam?"
"He's going to write you a letter."
Callie's lips puckered, as if she'd bitten into a lemon, and then she shook it off. "I wasn't aware he could write."
Jude smirked, but he let the subject drop. Talking about Liam never made Callie happy. "Are you almost ready to go?"
"I am ready. Just hand me lunch."
Jude picked up the food that he'd just put down and followed Callie back out the front door, around to their small stables where their one horse stood saddled. Phillipe, a large draft horse, pricked his ears at his humans as they entered. As was his habit, Jude greeted the horse, while Callie just secured her bundle to the saddle. Jude deposited her lunch in one of the saddle bags.
"Stay safe, Callie."
"I'll be back by the end of next week."
Jude hugged her goodbye.
"You stay safe," Callie said sternly.
"I'm not a child!" Jude protested, though it were useless. Callie had been taking care of him for so long that Jude doubted she would ever see him as an adult.
"Stay safe," Callie repeated, and she was off.
Jude returned to their little cottage, and set about cleaning it. Tomorrow, he would do his early morning rounds to see if the farmers he usually did some odd jobs for needed assistance. They all had permanent farm hands, and Jude wasn't often needed until the busiest times of the year. Done cleaning the tiny cottage, Jude took a seat in their main room. There was a half-finished game of checkers on their small table. He and Callie had a small stack of games in the corner and he stared down at them. It was the one thing that he always liked, but Callie and he barely played anymore, and playing on his own wasn't any fun.
It was early, but Jude put himself to be anyway. There was nothing else he could do.
(-.-)
Jude woke to the whinny of a horse. At first, he ignored it. It was still early that it was dark outside, and he wished Phillipe would be quiet. It wasn't even close enough to time that the horse would have to be fed. It took a few minutes for him to realize that he didn't have Phillipe. Phillipe was far away, with Callie.
Jude pushed the blankets off himself and raced out of the cottage and outside into the morning. Phillipe was standing on the front lawn, neighing desperately.
"CALLIE!" Jude yelled, grabbing onto Phillipe's reins. "Callie?"
There was no Callie. Her saddlebags were still strapped to him, and Jude opened them. She hadn't even eaten her lunch. Jude lost the ability to breathe. His sister could be out there, hurt or worse. She was all that he had! He tied Phillipe's reins to a fence post, so the spooked horse wouldn't bolt and ran back into the house. He pulled on better riding clothes and shoved his bare feet into boots, and then he was back out the door. He untied Phillipe's reins and boosted himself into the saddle.
"Where is she?" Jude demanded. He knew the horse was intelligent, now it was time for the animal to prove it. "Take me to Callie!"
He kicked the horse into a canter and headed the way that Callie would have had to go. He never looked back.
They entered the dark woods all too quickly.
"CALLIE!" Jude shouted. "CALLIE!"
There was nothing but the subtle sounds of the forest around him. Jude and Phillipe pressed forward, and Jude's heart continued to thud at twice the pace it should have. He never stopped calling out for his sister, but he never got an answer either. Phillipe was exhausted and could not keep up a break neck pace, and Jude reluctantly let the animal walk. The sun was at a high point in the sky when Jude came to a crossroads. One way, he knew, was the way that Callie should have gone. But to the other way, to the spookier left path, were hoof prints that looked large enough to have been made by Phillipe. The horse nearly refused to take that path, but Jude coaxed him forward. When they were a few steps down the path, Jude halted Phillipe and looked behind him. The prints matched. Phillipe, at least, had gone this way recently. He hoped that Callie had still been with him. They rode, straight and slow, down the path. It took an hour, perhaps two, for Jude to see the wolf prints up ahead in the mud, covering Phillipe's tracks.
The horse began to spook, though there was nothing around to have done so. Jude stood up in his stirrups, giving himself a better look around. Phillipe's footprints had stopped up ahead, meaning that, at some point, he had veered off the path. Jude wasn't a very good tracker, and the trees were blocking the sunlight as it was. He looked down at the ground, steering Phillipe the way that he had thought Phillipe had gone just hours earlier. Phillipe continued to get antsy about nothing, which convinced Jude that he was going the right way. Clearly, Phillipe remembered this path, and he remembered the wolf prints, which were getting more and more numerous.
He prayed that Callie hadn't fallen from Phillipe and become a victim of the hungry pack. He began to shake at the very thought. Not his sister. He wouldn't know what to do without her.
Phillipe stopped.
"What is it?" Jude whispered. He sat up and looked around. As it had been for hours, there was nothing but trees. The daylight was certainly beginning to dim, though, and Jude urged Phillipe on. He couldn't do this in the dark. "CALLIE!"
Nothing.
He kicked Phillipe on, and the horse moved, reluctantly dragging his limbs.
"CALLIE!" His voice echoed back to him.
Jude looked up and squinted. A break in the trees was coming. He moved Phillipe into a trot and they burst into what he thought was a clearing. Instead, Jude found himself face to face with something so unexpected he jerked back on Phillipe's reins, stopping the horse mid-step. There was a black stone palace in front of him in the middle of this thick forest. Jude stared at it, breathless and scared. There was something about the palace that was sending shivers down his spine. He went to turn Phillipe and leave it alone, when something inside of his massive iron gate caught Jude's eye.
There was a boot.
Jude's heart plummeted as he saw it. That wasn't any shoe. He knew that shoe. It was Callie's. She'd walked out with them on yesterday. He dismounted from Phillipe and walked forward, leading the tentative horse. He pushed on the gates and they opened with an unearthly shriek. Jude expected someone, or something, to come rushing out at the sound, but there was no movement. It would make sense that it was abandoned. He shut the gate behind he and Phillipe, the howls of the wolves on his mind. He walked across the eerie courtyard and picked up the shoe, just to be sure. But it was Callie's. He called out for her again, but there was no response. He tied Phillipe up and steeled his nerve to go inside the palace. If she had been injured, she could be in there unconscious.
The large doors were fairly easy to push open.
Jude blinked, casting his eyes about the foyer. There was no dust about, and there were even candles that were lit. Someone was here, someone beyond his sister. It was an inhabited palace. He was partially relieved. That meant that she might have received medical attention had she shown up here hurt. The other part of him was concerned. No one had come out to greet him, and no one had noticed Callie's boot in the yard. Whoever lived here might not be nice.
"Hello?" he called. His voice was quaking. Callie had always been much braver than he, and Jude found that he shook more with every step he took inside. "I'm looking for my sister. Callie? Hello?"
He thought he heard whispering. He spun around, but there was nothing. Maybe his paranoia was getting to him. He crept further inside. Some parts were more lit than others, and Jude followed the trail of light. Logically, the more light there was, the more likely he was to find someone.
"I don't mean to trespass," he called anxiously. "I'd just like to find my sister. Hello? Callie?"
There was that strange whispering sound again. This time, he thought that it was coming from ahead of him, up a long flight of stone stairs. Jude grabbed one of the three pronged candelabras that were stationed about, and began to ascend the stairs.
"Hello? Is there someone here? Callie?"
"Jude?!"
"CALLIE!" Jude raced up the remainder of the stairs. "Callie?"
Her hands were stretching out between bars in a door. He ran to her, holding the candelabra up so that he could see his way across the stone floor. He fell to his knees in front of the door so that he was eye level with the bars, and grabbed one of her freezing hands with one of his own; with the other, he held up the candles so that he could see her terrified face.
"What are you doing in there? How do I get you out?" He let go of her to grab the door handle, but it was locked.
"You have to run!" she shrieked.
Jude froze. He'd never heard his fearless sister sound so terrified before.
"What's going on?"
"You're not going to believe me," she said, "but you just have to go. Never look back, Jude. Promise."
"I'm not going to leave you here! There has to be –"
There was a roar that cut off his words. In front of him, Callie went absolutely rigid and Jude dropped the candelabra in shock. It fell to the ground and hissed out. In the semi darkness, Jude reached out and found Callie's hands, as the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He had never heard such an unholy sound.
"Run when you get the chance," Callie whispered.
"What are you doing here?"
The new voice was deep and gravelly; it sounded like the voice of something that could have made the roar. Jude was terrified to turn around, but he did, only to find that the area they were in was too dark for him to see much of anything but a large, bulky shape across the room from him. The only burst of light came from an opening in the roof above them, but the thing across from him was careful to stay in the shadows. He sucked in a deep breath, and he felt Callie's hand start to let go of his own, and he got a burst of bravery. Not his sister.
"Who are you?"
"This is my castle," the voice snapped. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for my sister," Jude said. "Let her go."
"She is my prisoner," the voice said, and the thing shifted.
Jude's heart picked up speed as the huge outline of the creature before him became apparent again. He sucked in a deep breath. "Let her go."
"She shouldn't have trespassed here."
Jude looked down at Callie's pale, shaking hands. "Let her go, please!"
A snarl ripped through the room.
"I'll do anything!" Jude pleaded.
"Just run!" Callie ordered him, but, perhaps, for the first time in his life, Jude didn't obey her.
"You have nothing that I want."
"Go," Callie begged. "Just go. Jude, you don't understand –"
"Take me!"
The creature drew in a sharp breath. "You?"
"NO!"
"Take me instead of her."
The creature snarled. "You would do that?"
"Yes," Jude answered, without hesitation. "I would, if you would let her go."
A quieter, deep noise sounded from the creature. "You know that you must promise to stay here forever."
He felt Callie impatiently scratching at his back, but he ignored her. He was doing this for her. Whatever happened next, whatever came of this, she deserved this. She had real goals and real desires of a life, while Jude had always just relied on her.
"C-come into the light," he said.
There was a snort, and then the awkward sounds of movement. The creature moved into the single shaft of light in the room, and Jude couldn't hold in his gasp. This was what Callie had been trying to warn him about. The ungodly creature was easily eight feet tall, perhaps more. There were large, terrible horns curling out of its head, which housed a jaw full of pointed teeth. Jude's gaze roamed over the beast, noting the large claws with terror. The beast was covered in hair, and what vestiges of clothing it still wore were torn and tattered; there was a dark cloak around its shoulders and grey trousers around his lower body, although they stopped halfway down his animal legs. Jude stood, quivering and transfixed by the sight before him. The thing before him was a conglomerate of nightmares, and Jude was frozen.
"Jude, just go," Callie begged.
Jude knew what he had to do. "You have my word. I'll stay with you."
"Done," the Beast growled.
"Jude, no, no!" Callie fought back as the Beast tore the door to her cell open and grabbed her in his large claws. "Don't do this! Let him go. I'll stay your prisoner!"
"Callie!" Jude reached out to her, but she was gone in an instant, her screams carrying through the night.
Jude rushed to the window in her cell, watching as the Beast threw her into a carriage, and then she was gone, and he was all alone.
Except for the beast.
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~TLL~