Beauty is Beast

Chapter Four

I was trying to calm my mind; it was going three thousand miles, and I couldn't pause it. The poor punching bag was suffering the race inside my mind. If I knew that this was going to be the consequence of a fight, I wouldn't have agreed. It has been six years since the death of my father, which meant that my last fight was six years ago.

My hand was on fire and in pain, but it didn't matter, I had to get everything out of my system, and the only way, was punches. I heard the sound of the rattles from the punching bag grow louder and louder, and it was until that sound was the only thing I could hear, that my mind settled down.

"BELLE!" Orin appeared holding the punching bag. "Princess, stop!" He shouted and I gasped breathing heavily. "Kitchen, now." He spoke and I nodded.

I followed him towards the kitchen, my knuckles burning, my breath ragged, and myself covered in sweat. I sat on a stool, and Orin started treating my hands. No words were needed, we both knew why I was doing what I was doing. I gulped and hissed, as he took my left hand into his.

"Fracture," He whispered. "We'll go to the doctor after I finish cleaning your other hand." I nodded. "If I knew, this was going to be your reaction, I wouldn't have let you fight. I thought you had it under control Belle, didn't you tell me that you had it in control?"

"I thought I had," I whispered. "Maybe when I finally decide to watch his last match I can overcome this."

"I hope so too because they want you back, and to be honest, I need you back," He spoke calmly. "After the match yesterday, the inscriptions have gone up, and we have gotten offers to participate in different tournaments, but only if you participate as part of the team."

I bit my lip as I stared at him. The gym needed this, that meant that I needed to man up, this is my father's legacy, and I wasn't going to let it drown, only because I was scared of something... "I'll do it." I sighed. "Whilst I recover from the fracture, I will manage to keep it under control. I promise. For Beast, for you, for Bear, for Beast's Fighting Ring."

Orin chuckles softly as he looks at me with his father's eyes, believe me, it was a thing. "You should do it for yourself," He whispered and I bit my lip, maybe he was right... "Change into something decent, we are heading over to the hospital." He sighed and shook his head before he left the kitchen. 

I heard whispers and more whispers as I walked through the school hallway. Apparently, from what I could gather of the whispers, was that Beast, was back, not from the dead, but he was in another fighter. This town has always been into fighting, ever since we relocated from England to here. And now, rumours went that a Little Beast was in play, and I wonder, how long will it take for them to figure out, that it is me, Beauty... Beast Jr.

"So," Dorian laughed as he approached me. "You murdered that dude yesterday night," I raised an eyebrow. "You fought like if you did this on an everyday basis! It's incredible!"

I rolled my eyes. "Well thank you," I spoke. "But murdering him got me a fractured knuckle," I growled. "I can't really punch anything right now, and my training has become boring."

Dorian barked out a laugh. "How long are you out?" I shrugged. "What about Ares? Aren't you training him for tomorrow night?"

"Yes, I am training him for tomorrow night," I sighed. "I feel like a loser because I can only instruct and observe, not fight with him or spar." Dorian raised an eyebrow. "I know that he is going to fight you, because of one of the above, but still, when we were training, sparring was a thing," I explained with a shrug.

"Truth time," Dorian sighed. "My chances to win Ares are?"

I licked my lips as I thought of an answer. "Neither slim or effortless," I nodded. "I would use debatable." I chuckled. "See you later, Sleeping Beauty." I winked and made my way towards my class.

I walked around the gym, and I observed everyone as they trained. Orin was right, we had a lot of new trainees, most of them were teenagers, but I was more than sure that they weren't going to last a month. We train hard. We train to be the best. We train because it is in our blood, not because it's famous. It had taken me a while to understand, why my father used to be so hard on the people he trained, but he was right, he wasn't going to waste his time with people who didn't understand nor wanted to understand how to fight.

I sighed as I saw Dorian spar with another usual guy. Tomorrow night, we had our monthly tournament, in which we fought for two Fridays, and we had four fighters, that would fight for the "title" on the last month of the year.

Since I was young, I had always won that tournament, but ever since the death of my father, I retired. With a sigh, I turned to look at his office. I had promised Orin that I was going to watch his last match, maybe that way, I could overcome my fear.

"You know," Ares appeared in my line of sight. "I didn't think you would show your face for training today." I stared at him and blinked. "I'm sorry," He whispered. "I'm sorry for asking questions that I don't deserve an answer for."

I gave him a nod. "It's okay," I replied. "Just so you know, I take my job seriously, so I don't care if I hate your guts, you can bet your sweet cherry ass, that I will be there to help you." And with that, I turned around and walked over to my father's office.

With all the courage I could muster, I once again opened my father's video files and went over to the very last one. Clicking twice on it, the video screen appeared. I gulped and prepared for the worst.