Beast

Outsiders

WILL EDIT LATER xoxo

Days later, the wall surrounding the perfect city shook with fear. The guards standing by the gate heard, for the first time in hundreds of year, noise outside the wall. No outsider had ever come within twenty miles of the city. The entire world was in an unspoken agreement that this land be saved for those inhabiting it. After all, there was virtually no way to enter the hidden city, and Mayor Pierre new that more than anyone.

He stood at the window of his large office, his brow furrowed in worry. The walls had never been approached by an outsider, and he was caught at a weak time. Gaston had been on his mind for the days after the meeting. The mayor wondered whether or not the council had made the right decision. Pierre's time as mayor was also running down to its last few years. He was making preparations for Gaston to take over, for him to leave this stuffy old office for the first time for a good thirty years. The old man sat wearily into his desk chair, running a hand through his graying hair.

He had a problem on his hands. If someone dared enter his city, his people would not know how to accept them. His people and the rest of the outside population were complete opposites. He was the only man in the city who knew anything of the outside world, and it was not a place that his people needed to know about. Outside the wall were rebels and thieves. Druggies, alcoholics, murderers. None of that existed here. Men in the pub were allowed one drink per night. Drugs were taken in front of the pharmacist. The small jail in the city was vacant, the green paint of the cement walls peeling. The policeman was usually just patrolling the streets, his eyes on the local teenagers who were experimenting in ways to rebel against their parents' rules. His people did not know crime existed, and Pierre was not sure that they would be ready to learn of it just as a large BANG rattled through the town. Pierre searched out his window until the wall came into view. Smoke swallowed it whole, dust and screams surrounded the mess. And when the smoke cleared, the wall was no more.

Gaston had heard the explosion from miles away. No one in the town knew what dynamite was, let alone what it did to their sturdy wall. But now they were all seeing it firsthand. The explosion knocked books off shelves in the Desrosiers' book shop, glasses off of the bar in the pub, children to the ground while playing games in the street. The gaping hole let Piana's beloved citizens view for the first time the world around them. Gaston was walking toward the Desrosier household to talk to Belle. He held a letter in his hand as he was walking through town. But right as he reached the doorstep, the explosion tremored through the ground below him. He heard the clanging of pots and pans from the house during the wreck. Shouts from inside followed and soon glass shattering was heard from the oak walls. Gaston ran inside the house, strong and alert in his movements. He moved from room to room, calling out Belle's name. But the person inside was not Belle. Monsieur Desrosier was dusting off his trousers when Gaston found him in the kitchen. Letting out a sigh of relief that no one seemed hurt, Gaston assisted in helping him up and clean up the mess. But not long after, more loud bangs were heard. This time, they were sharper and sounded like a whip snapping against the air. The sound made everyone in earshot tremor, especially Gaston. He knew enough from hunting with his cousins that that sound was not just another explosion. They were gunshots.

"Monsieur, where is Belle?" Gaston asked the poor man in a worried tone. If Belle was anywhere near those after the explosion, she was not safe. And keeping Belle safe was Gaston's priority. Belle's father started to answer:

"Oh she's, -" Bang! Bang! Bang! Three more shots interrupted the man, fueling Gaston's worry.

"Maurice, answer me! Where is Belle?" Gaston shook the old man, expressing his anger. Gaston knew the damage those weapons caused; every rack on his wall was proof. One head he didn't want hanging up there was Belle's.

"In town! Closing up the shop!" Maurice shook through his answer, realizing how much danger his daughter was in. But before he could get another word in, Gaston was running down the street toward the scene of the explosion, toward Belle.

xxx

"There aren't any weapons in town sir," a man with dark skin by the name of Maxwell told his boss. He was the type one would never cross. He had a scar running down his face, daunting passerby. Tattoos trailed down his arms, covering them like sleeves. A black vest rested over his torso, intimidating the Pianan citizens more than they already were. Maxwell crossed his arms behind his boss, glancing around at the numerous dead bodies strewn across the cobblestone street. Eighteen men entered Piana that day, each more horrible than the next with tattoos, piercings, dark clothes, and scars. They strut around the street, pulling children from alleyways and mothers from the houses outlining the road. Pulled out by their hair, the women were rounded up in the middle of town, guarded by four men with guns the size of a six year old boy.

"How unfortunate. I was looking forward to a fight," the man in charge tutted at the news. He was not like the others in appearance, but they were not like him in intelligence and power. He sent off his first in command, Maxwell, and started to walk through the town. His hand rested on the gun in his holster. Dark eyes scanned the women and children being collected from their hiding spots. He heard the screams of precious Piana's citizens. He knew that this was a gentle city. That they stayed aloof in a world so different from them. But he never imagined that they woud not carry weapons, they would not have armed guards at the gate, that his men would have to slice the throat of the captain of the guard just to stop his blabbering about how this was a "peaceful city who will do no harm as long as the citizens are not injured" yada yada yada. What was the mayor thinking? Well, he sure would ask him once he got to his office. Throw him onto the floor and demand to know what great stupid reason he had to hold his people back in a world of greatness. Greatness, in this man's mind, meaning pain and destruction. But before the dark man reached city hall, he noticed the one thing that surprised him more than the state of this city. Her auburn hair draped past her shoulders in flowing waves, and her hands shook, trying to turn the key in a door. He looked up, trying to read the sign above the door but it was in that damned French language that was all over this town. The woman looked quickly around herself, watching for anyone coming. No one else was on this street but him and her. He had hid himself behind a wall, watching her so she would not see him. She was beautiful and he had just changed his game plan. His lips turned up in a devilish smirk.

xxx

Gaston's feet pounded on the cobblestone toward the bookstore. He had prayed to every god out there that his love was safe. That she was locked up in the back room of the bookstore, unaware of what was happening. He prayed that she was lost in a book and hadn't heard the commotion Gaston was passing as he ran. His friends were fighting two men in black, men he saw at the pub each night were running from more outsiders, and women were being dragged along by the ends of their hair toward town center. He ran through it all, determined to reach Belle before she was treated like the rest of the women in town. His mind was racing; how could outsiders penetrate the wall? His father had assured him in every way that it was indestructible; that he was always safe. But now the outsiders, who were worse that Gaston had ever dreamed, were destroying the city everyone he loved lived peacefully in. Screams and cries were heard over the sound of gunshots as fires were set on homes. Where was his father? Why was no one stopping these men who were destroying the city his father has perfected over his lifetime? Gaston did not care once he reached the bookstore. A light was on inside, a book open on the table. But when Gaston stepped away from the store window and tried at the door, he found it locked shut, blood on the knob.