Beauty and the Monster

Chapter 1

Olivia’s POV

It was past 1 AM. It had to be. You know that feeling when you’re being watched? Yeah, it was one of the creepiest feelings.

My heartbeat quickened at a gradual pace as I contemplated opening my eyes. It was probably nothing.

Okay, I would do it. Just to put my spirits at rest.

Unknown to me, doing that would accomplish the total opposite.

When I did open my eyes, I heard a soft gasp beside me. I held back a scream. I slowly turned my head to the left and was met with glowing green eyes. No iris, no pupil, just green everywhere.

I opened my mouth only to have a hand clamped over it.

“Mmph!"

I focused on the face in front of me. The creature, apart from its unnatural green eyes, had cobalt blue hair in short bangs. His face tinged light blue was dusted with freckles and he looked…kinda hot. Very hot in fact.

I shook my head, or at least tried to. he wasn’t a normal person. And he snuck into my room.

“I’m gonna remove my hand now,” he said quietly “Please don’t scream, okay?”

I stared at him warily. I slowly nodded and he carefully lifted his hand.

My gut told me to scream but my curiosity held me back. I sat up and studied him. He looked about my age, if not older. He was kneeling by my bed and looked up at me, blinking unsurely. He probably still thought I was going to scream.

“Wh-who are you?” I asked, my heartbeat slowing down little by little from its previous fast pace.

He smiled faintly, showing his pearly white fangs and I could have sworn my heart picked up its pace again.

“I’m Terrence,” he said and winked.

I tried my hardest to keep my face neutral and asked “What are you doing here? Where did you come from?”

In the dim light, his long elf-like ears tinged red and flopped slightly. My eyes widened at the sight. He looked down at his thumbs which were fiddling with my blanket.

“I uh…” he cleared his throat."Well, I like to watch you sleep…”

My eyes grew to the size of  frying pans and so did my mouth.
 
“You what?!” I screeched loudly and he winced.

Three seconds later, my door burst open and my older sister appeared in the door way. Her long brown hair was messy and she looked disheveled and sleepy.

“What…why…? Why are you up?” she asked annoyed. She loved her sleep.

I turned to Terrence but he was gone.

“Uh…” I muttered, thinking of a valid excuse “I had a nightmare.”

Well, it wasn’t completely a lie. It could all have been a dream.

Diane’s face softened and she walked over to me, sitting on my bed. She gave me a hug and asked whether I was okay. I smiled and said i was fine.

“Then you guys can go to sleep,” another annoyed voice asked from the door.

I looked at my elder brother. The first born child. He looked every bit as sleepy as Diane did. That was one thing they had in common: the love of sleep.

“Go away Luke,” laughed Diane, “Olivia doesn’t need your snooze monster vibes”

“Whatever nerd. Go back to bed Olivia. It’s okay now,” he said and went back to his room.

Diane left as well after kissing my forehead.

“Terrence?” I called but my only reply was silence, I shrugged and concluded that it was a dream.

A flash of Terrence’s winking face appeared in my mind and I smiled faintly. Soon I fell into a peaceful slumber.

I woke up forgetting everything that had happened the previous night. Over the horizon was still paying from my alarm clock and I sat up and yawned. Switching it off, I walked into my adjourning bathroom to start my daily routine.

I picked up my toothbrush from the sink and glanced at the mirror

  Wait. That wasn’t there before.

Apart from the reflection of my messy blonde shoulder length hair, groggy blue-grey eyes and a caramel skinned face, in the fog of the mirror was a message.

“Bye” I read aloud.

Who could have…?

Suddenly, yesterday’s memory hit me like a brick.

He was real. He was the person who had done this, my curiosity took over. I suddenly wanted to know everything about him. What was he? Where had he come from? Did he have a family?

I shook the thoughts away from my head. He probably wouldn’t come back anyway. I was probably just imagining things. I stared at the mirror message again as I brushed my teeth. Maybe I wasn’t imagining things…

After I got dressed in my black long-sleeved shirt that had ‘Deku’ written in front in green, my camo shorts and black converse, I walked downstairs and met my family at the dining table. I smiled as I sat down. I was always the last to get to the dining table. That was just the way it was. My mother, Lucid Mittson with her bouncy blonde hair (the same color as mine) and bright blue eyes, happily put pancakes on my plate. My mom was always the shinning bubbly star in the room. She had this charisma and joyous attitude that would just make you smile.

“Good morning sweetie,” she said, her melodious voice tickling my ear.

“Morning Mom, Dad.” I said, turning to my father. Dad could not have been more different than mom.

“Good morning pumpkin,” he said, glancing at me. He had dark brown hair and even darker brown eyes. On the outside, you would think he was a very serious man who hated all forms of humor. Surprisingly, he’s the one who tells the most jokes.

He was reading the morning paper and muttering to my brother about stocks and business stuff. Luke was, let’s say the sunshine golden child. Dad was grooming him to be just as successful as he was so Luke kinda had his life planned out in front of him. Not that he was complaining though. He and I shared the same hair color though for some reason, his eyes were much greyer than mine. With good looks and Mom’s natural ability to just draw people towards herself, he was basically every girl’s dream.

“Do you mind if I follow you guys to the office?” Diane asked, batting her eyelids.

Sweet Diane. She was the kindest soul I had ever met. She got dad’s brown hair but her eyes were a tad lighter than his. She was always smiling and she got a lot of attention. It was very easy to be jealous of her good grades, flawless teeth and impeccable fashion sense.

“I wanna come too,” said little Autumn, the youngest. The pride and joy of our parents. As sweet as she could be, she had the raging adventurousness of well…of a boy. She wasn’t into dolls for too long. Then again, she got tired of monster trucks and moved to dresses, then she moved to super heroes…she’s just so full of surprises. Oh yeah. And she can be very nosy.  Good thing she’s a deep sleeper.

Mom turned to her “you can’t go Autumn. You have school today. Now hurry up. I have to drop your sister off first.”

“Don’t worry,” said Diane encouragingly patting Autumn’s head. “You can come along another day.”

That seemed to satisfy Autumn and she pushed off the table and followed Mom out the door.

Diane always tried to make everyone feel better. Although, she does baby everyone a lot. I mean, come on, I’m 17 but she still treats me like a 7 year old. Not that I’m complaining though, it’s always awesome when you have someone to rant to about all your problems.

“I better get going too,” I said, standing up. Dad and Luke would go to work and Diane who was on break from college would tag along.

I said bye to them and rushed to mom’s car.

I was in for a big surprise at school.