Inside the Beast's Castle

Chapter 11--A Choice

"You have to continuously make choices throughout your life. Whether it is made consciously or unconsciously, by making a choice means that you have given up on something. If you do not hold any regret to your choice, then it means you have made the right decision." --My Little Monster

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I woke with a jolt. As I calmed down, I tried to take in my surroundings. The stone wall I was sitting up against was damp, like a water leak in the ceiling was hitting it.  My arms were chained to the wall at shoulder height. One small candle sat on a round disk at the ceiling, giving off a flickering light that was only enough for me to see the room I was in. A set of iron bars were in front of me, locking me in. I slowly remembered what happened. I tucked my chin, looking for the chain of my mother's silver necklace around my neck.

 Nothing.

The only piece I had left of her was gone. I leaned my head against the wall, then thought better of it as the knot I got from falling touched the hard surface. I couldn't move my arms or my hands, but I would have touched the front part of my head where I struck it to see how bad it was. I wrinkled my brow in and out, up and down, to see it I could feel the spot, but I felt nothing. It was almost as if it never happened.

"Hello?" I croaked.  I coughed, trying to clear my throat. "Hello?" I tried again, this time my voice was much clearer.

"There's no need to shout. I'm right here." A pair of crimson eyes peered at me from the other side of my cell as the beast spoke in a low voice. I froze. In my mind's eye, I saw what he did to the man in the forest.

"You lied to me."

Well, this conversation will go well.

I almost rolled my eyes, then thought better of it.

The beast narrowed his eyes, almost like he knew what I was thinking.
"You come in here with this infernal thing and try to kill me in my own home. I should make you an example to all who try to do that again."

He pulled his fist out from underneath his cloak and opened it. In the candlelight, I could just make out the shape of a cross.

I clenched my teeth. "I told you, that necklace belonged to my mother."

"Silence!" he bellowed through the bars, banging his fist against the wall.

I was seriously trying to get myself to back through the stone wall behind me to get away.

His monstrous shape started pacing back and forth the small space he was in.

"I want you to leave tomorrow morning, and never return," he declared after he finally stopped pacing. "If you come back here, I will kill you." He began to walk out of the room, seemingly finished with me.

Relief flooded through me at first, then I remembered the king. "Wait!" I shouted after him. "Wait!"

A masked face peered at me through the bars. "What?" he growled, silencing me. 

I took a deep breath. "I can't leave," I said softly, the words paining me as I spoke them. "My brother--the king will kill him."

The beast's eyes were cruel and unsympathetic. "Do you have any other family members? A father, perhaps?"

"Yes."

"Then your brother will live through him. Every time you see your father, remember your brother fondly."

I was shocked. When the disgust at the beast wore off and I could speak without telling him off, I gave a mirthless laugh. "So my brother would be living through the bottom of a beer glass?" Tears pricked at my eyes, threatening to spill out. I wouldn't allow them too. I would not show him any more weakness than I already had.