Beauty's Beast

The Monster.

"That was a bit much, don't you think?"

Can's eyes snapped towards the pesky housekeeper he'd been trying to get rid of for the last year. She was annoyingly chipper and had no sense of her station in life.

He was the master of the household; she swept up after him for Allah's sake!

The damned woman tutted as she picked up the book he carelessly threw over his shoulder. He shouldn't have done that. He loved books and was taught by his father from a young age that they were to be treated with respect.

He moved to snatch the volume from her hand but she quickly sidestepped him.

"You do not snatch things from people like a child, Can bey," Mevkibe tsked at him like he was an errant child.

"Ask for it nicely and I'll give it to you, now use the words I taught you when you were a sweet little boy who loved playing peek a boo."

Fucking hell.

"Am I not due any respect at all in this household!!!" He practically snarled, but she wasn't mollified one bit.

"I'm waiting."

When she crossed her arms and began tapping her foot, he knew he lost the argument.

"Please," he sighed. "Mevkibe hanim, may I have the book that my guest tried to steal from my own goddamn library?" He bit out every single word like they were curses aimed at her head.

The book flew at him and the irritating woman laughed when he comically fumbled it.

"You're fired." Can growled menacingly at her retreating back.

"Sure, Can. dinner is at whatever time I finish cooking."

Impossible woman!

The volume in his hand was an old one, he recognized it as his grandmother's,  a fairy tale book.

What would possess the man, after all he'd been given, to steal a children's book?

He thought, stupidly, he thought to ease the pain and guilt he constantly felt by doing a good deed.

Last night, in the shadows where he belonged, he watched as a drunken Nihat Aydin lamented his misfortunes. He tried not to wince as the hapless man recounted all his financial missteps.

Bankrupt business, money owed to the local mafia, left alone with three daughters to support, who, per his own words, expected lavish gifts.

In a rare display of pity, Can wanted to make some things right in Nihat's life. In the middle of the night he'd woken up his contacts from his previous life, roused them from sleep and given instructions to bring suitable gifts for young women.

Money talked, wealth whispered, was an old adage. With Can's family name and his reputation, everything about him was almost mythical.

He prowled around the room, anger quickly dissipating and slowly being replaced by regret and shame. He shouldn't have been so... so harsh? Violent? Reactive?

His fingers tingled and his heart rate sped up as adrenaline left his body. With a sigh, he leaned against the same wall he'd shoved Nihat against and slowly sank to the floor.

Outside the library he heard Cey Cey flitting about, calling for Nihat's name at the same time sending Rami to go after him.

Was this who he was now? A monster?

He didn't want to admit it but he slowly felt his humanity seep out of him. More and more his thoughts had given over to the darkness within, slowly suffocating him.

When he was a child, the family used to spend summers in this house, Can and his brother had free reign of the mansion and the grounds with the exception of the lake and the woods surrounding it. At least not without adult supervision.

One day, Can dared Emre to climb a tree and jump off a branch which resulted in a broken hand when his little brother broke his fall with his right hand. As payback, Emre dared Can to jump off the dock, thinking he would chicken out and refuse. As willful and dumb boys were apt to do, Can, without thinking twice, took a flying leap into the water in his sneakers, jeans, and t-shirt.

He thought he was invincible as he was a strong swimmer for a twelve year old, but he was no match for the weight of his clothes dragging him down.

Can tried to stay afloat, treading water relentlessly but the heaviness of his clothing made it difficult. He sank, then kicked up to the surface, heard the nine year old Emre yelling at him to quit playing around. It was the sheer panic on his little brother's face that made Can realize, finally, that he was in trouble.

He was exhausted from fighting to stay above the water, much like how he felt right now.

The fight had gone out of him, he was ready to succumb.

That day, in that moment in the lake, he made peace with death. Until he was hauled out of the water by Aziz Divit who caught up with his sons in the nick of time.

Can straightened himself up and reached for his jacket pocket.

The first night Nihat crashed, Rami brought him back to the house, and while unconscious, Cey Cey searched through the man's belongings and found his wallet.

It was an old, brown leather wallet that had all of two hundred liras, and one lonely bank card. Fuel and fast food receipts were of no interest to Can until he came across two photographs.

One of a woman taken decades ago. She was beautiful, with her long hair, heart-shaped face, and bright smile. The other, well, the other was perfection.

Another photo of a woman, but this time she was young, and had a flower crown on her head. It was obvious the photographer took it without her knowing but he or she must love her a lot because the woman's beauty was captured in the snapshot, frozen forever in time.

Sanem.

Can softly traced the name written on the back of the photo before flipping it over to stare at her face once more.

Truth be told, it wasn't entirely pity that prompted Can to wake up half the merchants in Istanbul but the feverish desire to make her happy. To make her smile like she did in the photo again, to make him be the reason for that smile to appear on her face.

Of course, short of following Nihat all the way to Kayseri, Can wouldn't see that smile but it would be there, he would know, he would feel it.

The first time he laid his eyes on her face, she felt like that first lungful of air he took after he was fished out of the lake.

Sanem.

Morosely, he thought, maybe he needed her close by to keep him from completely giving in to despair.

He picked up the book Nihat dropped earlier. Beauty and the Beast.

Hadn't Nihat mentioned the book was for his daughter? Which daughter, Can wondered.

He and Emre watched it when they were children once, he remembered Emre being so afraid of the wolves he refused to explore the woods without a grown up for one entire summer.

Beauty and the Beast.

Can paused, an idea churning in his head. A really stupidly clever idea that could backfire but he didn't particularly care right now.

"CEY CEY!!!!!!" Can roared.

The harassed looking man appeared, like he was a magical elf that poofed at a moment's notice.

"Can bey, you bellowed?"

He narrowed his eyes at the little man in front of him, unsure whether he was being sarcastic or eager. Perhaps Mevikbe was becoming too much of an influence.

"Find Nihat and bring him to me!"

Cey Cey immediately scurried away with no questions.

He changed his mind, he wasn't giving in to the darkness, he was going to embrace it.