Beauty & the Beast [Narry]

Chapter 9

I'm sorry it's taken me so impossibly long to update. I just started school and I haven't had much time for the Internet in general. I'll probably be off and on with updates, so please bare with me. This is actually the last chapter before the epilogue (because, as you can see, this is a short story) so for this story in particular, you won't have to deal with my wide-spread updates for too long. I'm still really sorry and if you're still reading this, then thank you x

-

Niall told Nathan everything that had happened first. Throughout the story, he ignored Nathan's confused stares and cut him off every time he went to interrupt with a question or somewhat rude remark. When he finally finished, Nathan frowned. "How can you love a beast?"

Niall shook his head. He had tears on his cheeks, now, though he can' quite remember when they got there. "I don't know. He was so kind to me and he told me I was beautiful- I don't know what's going on. Nobody . . . nobody's ever made me feel loved before."

Then it clicked, to Nathan, at least. Nobody's ever loved Niall, not properly anyhow, and if they did, like his mother, Niall was too young to remember. Niall fell for the beast so fast because the beast showed him love.

Nathan didn't like that. This was all the more reason to kill this stupid beast. Nathan stood up. "I shall kill this beast. I shall show you love."

Niall looked up, an eyebrow raised. Since when did Nathan talk like that? Since when did anyone talk like that? Then what Nathan said clicked in Niall's mind, and his heartbeat picked up, his other eyebrow shooting up as his eyes went wide. "Wh-what? No! You can't kill him!"

"Oh, but I can!" Nathan showed Niall the dagger. "I will stab him seven times and leave everyone else there to rot! He will die, and you will love me."

Nathan ran off before Niall could say anything else or even open his mouth to do so. Nathan is crazy. Niall thought. He's going to kill the beast!

Niall stood up and ran, too. Frisy followed him, barking. Niall had already lost sight of Nathan, though, and he didn't hear the crunch of leaves under Nathan's feet anymore.

Niall collapsed, his face in his hands, and sobbed. Frisy stopped, too, sitting down any laying his head in Niall's lap. That was something Frisy always did, because Niall sometimes buried his face in his og's fur and sobbed there. After his father beat him, Niall would do that. When he would have dreams about his mother, he would do that.

Niall continued on sobbing. He sobbed because the only . . . thing he's ever loved is going to die. He sobbed because he's going to drop back to the point of having only his dog as his best friend (though, his dog couldn't hurt him, at least). He sobbed because nobody else would ever love him.

He sobbed because he was alone.

Suddenly, though, he wasn't alone. There was a hand on his shoulder and a concerned voice said, "Niall? What are you doing out here?"

Niall looked up. It was one of the boys from the dinner table- the one that was missing when Niall ran away. Liam! It was Liam!

"Liam!" Niall threw himself into Liam's arms. It was weird for both of them for a moment, because they didn't know each other very well, but that didn't matter. "Liam you have to take me back to the castle!"

"Hmm?" Liam frowned, almost losing the balance he had, leaning on his toes and crouching. He was still confused as to why Niall was out here and why he was crying. "Why?"

"Please!" Niall pushed, scrambling to stand up. Frist stood up, too, and then Liam. "Someone's trying to kill the beast! You have to stop him! We have to stop him, Liam, please."