Bella hugged her woollen coat tighter around her body, sneaking glaces at Adam walking calmly beside her. He looked unperturbed by her frequent glances yet the tenseness in his body indicated that he was well aware.
Bella eyed the layers of clothing Adam wore, bundled in woolly coats and thick jackets that were too small for his body yet tight enough to keep him warm.
"I have a question," she said, breaking the silence that had reigned between them.
"I should have known that two months would be your breaking point. I knew having silent walks with you would be too much for you to bear," Adam said, a hint of a smile on his face that transformed the beastly nightmare into someone more human, albeit heavily scarred.
Bella chuckled, giving into the teasing. She had to admit that she was always curious about everything around her and staying silent about it was not her strongest forte.
"What is your question?" Adam asked finally, as they walked along the edge of the huge frozen lake that Bella often stared at from the edge of her window on nights when sleep evaded her.
"Well," Bella started hesitantly, suddenly wondering if her question might be too rude. "Why do you wear so many layers of clothes when you leave the castle? Are you sensitive to the cold?"
Adam looked out beyond the lake, at the edge of the castle where the mysterious, dark woods laid.
"The witch," he began slowly, gulping back the nervousness in his voice. Bella understood his hesitancy, knowing after two months after striking a friendship with him that the topic of his curse was one that was hard for him to open up about.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Bella said quickly, not wanting to force open old wounds.
"No, I want to tell you. It is easier to talk about the curse with you because you weren't there when it happened and you do not judge me by who I was as a youth," he replied, sorrow in his voice.
Bella had heard stories of Adam when he was younger, before he was cursed.
As the illegitimate son of the King, he had been banned from the royal castle at the tender age of five, cast away to spend his life in the summer castle owned by the royal family, hidden far away in the woods to hide their sordid affairs.
Instead of growing up with a vengeance for the royal family, Adam grew up spoiled by the staff of the house whose hearts were captured by the innocent boy. Receiving a hefty monthly stipend from the royal family as well as more love than he had expected, Adam grew up more or less like a rich snob, demanding things went his way and demeaning people he did not like.
He was also a very keen on parties, spending almost most of his allowance monthly on parties as a way of defying the expectation of the royal family. It was at one of these parties, where he insulted a witch and was cursed, becoming ostracized by everyone who once flocked to him.
Contrary to popular belief, however, the staff of the house and the guests at the party had not been cursed. They had been given the option to either flee or to stay with Adam.
Most of the staff stayed, their love for the young child he had been surpassing their annoyance at the man he had become, and they were transformed into animate objects with certain magical abilities that will allow them all to live for five hundred years while Adam searched for his Beauty.
Regardless, the guilt Adam faced at the situation, and the regret he had of the man he used to be, always made it difficult for him to broach the subject and converse about it, especially with the other occupants of the house who pinned their hopes on him.
"Alright then," Bella said, urging Adam to continue.
"Part of my curse was that I would be susceptible to the cold. It is supposed to be my weakness," Adam said, wrapping an arm around himself. "It was an amusing joke on the witch's end, to cast eternal winter on the castle and make me vulnerable to it, so that I would always be reminded of my weaknesses. Another aspect of my punishment, it seemed."
Bella's lips trembled as she struggled to keep the tears at bay. It was a horrible punishment, to constantly be reminded of your failures and your vulnerabilities. She could not bear to imagine how much Adam must be suffering throughout the centuries, constantly reminded of his mistakes of the past, even with a single look out of the window.
"It must be painful for you to walk with me daily. Do you want to go back?" she asked shakily.
Adam shook his head, his shaggy hair falling in front of his eyes. "It is alright. We can continue. I like having these walks with you," he confessed softly, melting Bella's heart further.
Bella nodded, as she smiled softly at him before they turned towards the lake, as they did every day, walking over the thick ice.
Just as they reached the centre of the lake, where they often sat and stared at the sky, Bella felt the ground crumble under her feet.
The moment she looked down, she saw the ice crack and the ground under her fell away as she was plunged into cold water.
----
Question of the chapter: Have you ever had a near-death experience?
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The Beast Inside | ✓
Romance"I'm here to take the place of my father," Bella said, her heart pounding with fear. The beast smirked, his face the epitome of evil. "Well then, I hope you enjoy the dungeons because from now on, that is going to be your home forever," he whisper...
