Someone might as well have been banging my head with a hammer with the way I felt. For the second time today, I raised my head off of my pillow and tried to push back the pain. I was less successful than I has been this morning. A low groan escaped my lips. With a shaking hand I reached for my lamp in the darkness. As I searched blindly for the switch, the sudden realization of where I'd been before blacking out hit me. I froze mid reach. I’d been on my back in the dirt with a hag that had come out of a tree looming over me in the neighborhood garden. I’d been blind and utterly defenseless! Where was I now?

I was on a bed, laying on top of soft covers with an equally plush pillow under my head. Above my head was the recognizable curve of a cool metal bed frame. My fingers fell and rose on the swoop of the curls. I’d traced it a hundred times before. I reached out to my side and hit something else familiar. My bedside table stood right where I’d expected it to be when I’d first woken up in my disoriented state. In the darkness I could feel the place where I’d stacked some of my textbooks for school and the cup I’d used for soda that hadn’t made it back to the kitchen yet. I was home. I had to be.

Next question: how exactly had I gotten home?

I patted around with my hand, looking for the base of my lamp and the switch. There was a slight click when I turned it on. The dim shadows remained. “No!” I gasped, pressing my hand over my mouth and passing my other in front of my face frantically. Nothing. “Oh God, oh God, oh God!”

Weight shifted off to my right quickly as though the person had been startled. “Luke!” I cried out. He had to have been the one to come and save me again I realized. “I can’t see! I still can’t see!”

“It’s alright. Calm down Beauty,” said a voice that most definitely didn’t belong to Luke. It was too deep and coarse. Bile rose in my throat as I caught sight of a hulking outline of a massive beast. It moved towards me slowly. It’s shadowed figure sat down at the side of my bed. Claws rested on my legs. My breath caught in my throat. “The Wood Hag hit you with Black Asolla spores. They cause temporary blindness. It’s only been a few hours. Give your body some more time to clear the poison.”

I shot out of bed. The creature that had had his claws on my legs jerked backwards. I gasped in half surprise and half horror. Never had anything I’d read or seen discussed a monster that was capable of rational thought or speech. Yet here one was. In my bedroom. And I couldn’t see.

My hand hit the wall hard followed by my arm and then my shoulder. The crash I made when I hit the ground had to shake the entire condo. The creature swore and leapt over the bed towards me. I threw my hands in the air, trying but failing to will a shield into the air. “What the hell possessed you to do that?” he snapped.

“Stay away from me!” I yelled.

“Beauty! For the love of God, will you please calm down! It’s me. Not some goblin in the night,” the thing told me.

That meant absolutely nothing to me. I pulled myself up to my feet and threw my hands in front of myself. If it came after me there was no way that I was going to be able to fight back. It reached one of its massive forearms towards me. I stepped backwards. My back hit the wall. Instantly, my heart leapt into my throat. I had no where to go. I had no where to go. “St…stay back!”

The creature froze. It drew backwards. The floor creaked as he stepped away from me. “Genevieve it’s me, beast.”

Confusion colored his voice. Like he truly didn’t understand why I was reacting the way that I was. “Don’t come any closer!”

“Will you quit screaming? You’re going to wake the entire building up.”

“Good!” I said without thinking. Immediately I regretted it. I clamped my hand over my mouth.

Heat radiated off of the creature’s massive limbs. He was so close. Claws wrapped around my forearms. The tips just barely dipped into my skin. “You’re safe here at home. Your enemies don’t know you’re here otherwise they would’ve hunted you down by now regardless of your brother’s protection or not.”

“Then how did you find this place?” My voice came out as a whisper. No normal person would’ve been able to hear it. However, this thing… this supposed beast prince wasn’t normal.

“I’ve seen you pass through the doors of this building many times.” I couldn’t see his eyes on me but I could feel them. My hands sweated against the wall. The pause dragged on for what felt like an eternity.

“Stalker.”

“No I— I swear to you that isn’t what it’s like!”

I didn’t know what else it could possibly be like! Bianca had told Luke that rebels knew I was the Enchantress. Did they now know where I lived too? Terror wrapped around me and wouldn’t let go. Our home was no longer safe!

“Where’s my brother? Where’s Luke?” I demanded. He couldn’t be home. I highly doubted that he’d just let a creature like this waltz it’s way into our condo.

“You got a text from him about a half hour ago. He’s still with his classmates. Apparently they’re playing video games.”

Luke was a dead man walking if I was still breathing after this encounter! The Beast continued on while I made my decision to murder my brother. “I will let you decide to tell him about what happened in the neighborhood garden with the Wood Hag.”

I didn’t say anything. My tongue was stuck to the top of my mouth. This creature lied. Someone knew where Luke and I lived. They’d sent this thing here after us. What was bound to happen next definitely wasn’t going to be pretty. Seeing as I was still mostly blind and unable to really defend myself against this hulking monster, I was going to come out worse on this one. God! I just really wanted out of this damned corner!

The creature’s shadowy outline didn’t move away from me nor did his claws leave my arms. “You’re shaking like a leaf,” he mumbled. Confusion laced his voice. Well… he wasn’t wrong there. The only thing keeping me upright on my trembling legs was his grip. My fingers practically drummed against the wall with as much as they shook. “Are— are you afraid of me?”

I pressed my eyes shut and let the shadows disappear. “What do you think?”

My words were so quiet. Nothing remotely close to human could have been able to hear them. His claws left my arms and I flinched, waiting for a blow to come. The creature backed away. I heard his heavy footsteps as he stepped away from me. I opened my eyes and saw his looming shadow several feet away. Or at least as much of it as I could at the moment. “So it’s true then…” he whispered. “You have no memory of that time. You remember nothing?”

“I—I’m sorry.” I whispered. “W—what?”

“You don’t remember me and you’re afraid of me.” The beast sounded horrified. Someone who’d just made a terrible discovery or come to an equally awful realization. My breath caught in my throat.

My legs gave out from underneath me. “I don’t understand what’s going on. Why did you help me? Who are you?”

The beast swore under his breath.