Beauty and Her Beast

prologue •

♥

I remembered the night perfectly.

It was a cold December night; my car had slipped on the icy road and crashed into a tree on the way back from work. I had took the woods route as it was a quicker way home, but boy was I wrong.

With no signal, and a few cuts along my arm, I sat paralysed in my seat. My hands gripped the steering wheel as I stared at the icy, dark abyss of the outside. The hood of the car was completely messed up, smoke coming out of the engine. Basically, this vehicle was wrecked.

Deciding to get out was my next horrible choice. It was freezing, a definite below 0 degrees. I walked around, clueless on what to do, every so often glancing back at the car as if it would magically repair itself.

Snowflakes fell from the heavens and layed onto my beanie covered hair. Looking down at my appearance, dark patches were on my ruined jeans, indicating the blood stains and my now destroyed sweater had ripped in random places, and I knew for a fact I would have bruises and cuts along there too.

As if to make matters worse, I took my phone out my bag that was perched on the drivers seat, and realised, not only did I have no signal, it was also running out of battery; 5% to be precise. "This is not how I planned this night at all." I mumbled tiredly, feeling my lips being numb from the cold.

After a long day of work, all I wanted was to go back to my warm home, sit by the fire place, read a good book and drink some hot chocolate. Was that too much to ask for? But no, I'm stuck on a deserted road, with no phone privilege, no warmth and no safety.

Maybe there was a house nearby? I mean, I did see a couple of houses when I drove past, they could always let me stay there for a bit and get contact of someone?

I decided that was the best idea for now, as it was getting very late. Grabbing my things, I headed down the road; but of course, 20 minutes later of walking around, I get completely and utterly lost. I had somewhat, wandered into the forest itself, and now I'm currently lost inside it, fantastic.

The snow didn't even hesitate and continued to fall from the sky, falling to my feet as it started to make a blanket of snow covering the ground. It was getting impossibly colder and all I had to rely on was boots, jeans, a messed up sweater, a jacket, scarf and beanie. I kept wondering around, praying I'd find a random house I could ask to stay in, or just at least some shelter or warmth.

But as time passed, my hope shrank. The sky got darker and soon I had to rely on the moons light to guide me, lucky enough, it was a full moon and it provided me with as much light for me to see where I was going. I could always try making a fire? I did learn that from scouts when I was younger...

Thinking that was my only chance of surviving this winter, I found a spot to build my fire. I was already deep into the woods, so no chance of anyone finding me. Brushing the snow off the log I found, I placed my bag down and got to work.

It took a few tries but soon, my scouts skill came to the rescue as I sat on the log, basking in the warmth of the fire I made. My wounds still felt a bit painful but I could bare it, what I was really worried about was my thirst and hunger...

Lost in my thoughts, I was fully distracted, until I heard a deathly growl coming from behind me. My body tensed as I heard it again, although it didn't sound alone..

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark, tall shadow, with its amber, blood thirsty eyes staring right at me, it's lips curled into a snarl as it bared it's teeth.