The Cursed King

Four

Despite hearing my every thought, the beast didn't have any reactions to my mind rambling. That's good for me. I tend to overthink things and if it provokes him, I can be in danger.

I never thought my life would be at risk just because of my overthinking.

For the rest of the journey to the castle, we were silent. I didn't ask anything else in case I hurt his feelings or refresh some old wounds that are better to be forgotten.

When we entered the broken castle, my jaw hung open. It was beautiful, even when it was broken. There were holes in the walls that looked like someone had punched through them.

Guess who else could do such a thing?

From the broken gate (it shouldn't be called that because there was no gate at all) we entered a round open hall with many hallways and stairs facing the entrance.

There was a big statue of a woman in the middle of the hall. The statue was thrice my size and whoever the woman was, she was ethereal.

She has this glowing aura behind her. I'm not kidding, there was literally the aura behind her that was so bright that it illuminated our surroundings.

Her hair was so long that it was laying on the floor like yarn. Half of her face was hidden in the clock she was wearing but the clock can't hide her beauty.

She was the only thing that was unharmed and in a perfect state. This shows that the woman holds a special place in his heart.

"She's my mother, Selene" the beast saw me watching the statue and fulfilled my curiosity.

"She is beautiful," I commented. I mean, she is the moon. She is bound to be beautiful.

"The light has diminished," he murmured under his breath, watching the statue of his mother with me.

What light? I thought. The beast started walking away, going up the stairs. I ran after him in case I got lost here. With so many hallways leading to this hall, it wouldn't be long before I lost my way.

We walked up the stairs for a while and ended up on a two-storey high balcony that looked over what looked like an abandoned city.

Over the walls of all the houses were flowers that I saw outside. The flowers were bright and lit up the whole surrounding.

While the flowers add to the beauty of the city, the damaged walls and the darkness lingering around it made it seem eerie.

"There is no other place you can stay except here," he spoke up, breaking the peaceful silence.

"This is good enough for me. Until I find a way to get out of here, I will pretend this is my house," I said, trying in vain to lighten the mood. Okay, then.

"Um, can I at least get something to clean this up and some clothes to change into and something to use as a temporary bed?" I asked. Am I asking too much?

"I don't have any of those," he said.

Of course. I nodded my head.

"Though we can go and check the houses for something," he suggested. I liked the idea because I sure as hell can't stay in my dirty clothes for long and I can't sleep on the floor that's covered in hands-deep dust.

"Come here," the beast opened his arms, motioning me to come to him. Thinking he needed a hug, I stepped forward and hugged him.

Maybe he should have described his intention to carry me princess style. That way I could have saved myself from the embarrassing situation.

"I meant to say that I'll carry to our destination. The cities are quite far away from us and we can't reach the city until evening if we go at your pace," the beast said.

"Right. I was figuring out a way to let you carry me," I said, my face beating red. My dead God, why did I face this humiliation?

I could have asked him what his intentions were before getting ahead of myself and hugging him.

"Here, pick me up," the beast picked me up in his arms. I was so tiny in front of this giant beast that it looks like he is carrying a six-year-old child.

Though I have to admit his arms are comfortable to rest on. I could sleep like a log in his arms.

He has this strange effect on me. Whenever we touch, it's instant serenity inside me. My mind relaxes and so does my body.

It's weird.

And the sparks that ignite when our skin touches feel so pleasant it makes me want to continue to touch him.

I need to distract myself from thinking about the sparks and him. He can hear everything and I don't want him to get any wrong ideas.

As I tried to distract myself, my thoughts crawled towards the earth. I have many questions I have to ask but have no one to give me those answers.

What happened to that psycho? Did he get caught or if they have started a rescue mission for me?

All those questions led to another one - or if I'm already forgotten by them?

No one would be able to live if they fell into such a deep pit. It is possible for the police department to not start a search or rescue mission for me because I have no family that will need my body. I have no bonding with my co-workers, nor do I have any friends.

And if the police start a search mission, it'll require a large number of rescue team members to go to such a deep valley and search for a body. No one in their right mind would waste resources on a detective who is dead.

It makes me sad to think that no one would care if I'm dead or alive.

I smiled bitterly. Now that I'm facing the situation where I leave no sad person behind me, I'm feeling regret.

I decided to live my life alone so that when I leave, no one would be sad. I know all too well how wrecked a person feels when they lose the person they love. I never want to cause anyone that pain.

Ironically, it is me who is sad.

"We're here," The beast said, breaking my chain of thoughts. He lowered me to the ground.

I looked around us with goosebumps raising all over my body. The air around us was dark and ominous.

My knees gave up on me and I stumbled. I have seen many gruesome murder cases, seen a body getting torn into shreds, and seen an unlimited amount of gore in my profession but none of those scared me as much as this place.

The City feels like a haunted town.

"Don't be afraid," the beast caught me before I fell. "They can't harm you."

His words made me scared witless. Even the place didn't scare me as much as his words did.

One thing you should know about me - nothing in this world scares me except ghosts. I can't sleep for the night when I hear the word "horror", that's how much they scare me.

And the reason for my fear of ghosts emerged from an incident in my teenage years. I have always felt something wrong around me but I always pass it off as my illusion, but that one day when I was sleeping soundly, I could feel someone behind me.

My eyes snapped open but I didn't have a gut to turn around. After a while, I could see a silhouette of a man walking out of my room.

Suddenly, the man turned, making me almost piss right there. I could see what he was wearing, I could see his height and all, I could even see his hair and ears but I couldn't see his face. It was as if someone had blurred out his face.

I have never seen something like that in my life before and after that night, I couldn't sleep with the lights off. It was only after the detective experiences that I slowly got used to darkness but that ghost is still fresh in my memories.

"Who is "they" you're referring to?" I asked.

"My pack. These flowers are the soul of my pack," he replied.

"No wonder," I murmured under my breath. The flowers are beautiful but the reason why I couldn't ask about them must be because of this.

No matter how beautiful they are, they are something I would prefer not to know about.

"How about you go in and bring the things out?" I suggested to him. He agreed after seeing my pale face but as he walked in, I heard a swoosh sound, making me shake in fright.

"Wait for me," I shouted and ran after him. It's better to stay with him than to stay alone.

~•~