Evermore [The Beast/The Prince x Reader]

chapter nineteen

She was so cold.

The snow crushed beneath her weight as she ran, her fingers itching forward to grip the icy bark of the trees. Pine needles sliced into her cheeks as she pushed herself to move through places with more cover. If they couldn't see her, she would be alright.

Her hands and feet were so cold. Her hair was in her eyes, tangled at the nape of her neck and hanging annoyingly from her forehead. Her skin, despite being cold to the touch, was sticky with sweat.

Their angry shouts and horrible screams of profanity were quickly disappearing. She was grateful that she knew very little Russian; few names they called her and the Beast translated in her mind.

The Beast. She had no idea where he was, but hoped that he was alright. If he was smart, he would have gone home. She had heard him scream for her as she ran into the woods. Now, it was her turn to worry about what he did after that shout.

Did he come after her? Did he force himself through the crowd, giving himself up for her life? Did he try to distract them? He could be hurt or killed - and she had no way of knowing as she sprinted and limped through the trees, deeper in the woods.

It was quiet now. She should stop. She should try to find a clearing or a high place. She needed to look at her surroundings. Where she was wasn't familiar; for the first time, she worried about how she was going to get out of the forest.

There wasn't a high place in sight. No hills, no ledges, no trunks of trees with low branches. A majority of the trees were pine, and the rest were high enough that they disappeared in the clouds above. She was stuck.

She began to worry about wildlife and creatures that possibly roamed the woods. Was something stalking her right now? Was she crazy, or did she just hear a branch snap?

She started to run again. She forced herself between two pine trees, crying out as she felt the needles poke and scrape her cheeks and neck. With a gasp, she felt her foot snag on a root. She fell forward.

Landing on her stomach, she lifted her head and spat a mouthful of snow and ice. Her face stung with the snow that dripped off of her. She felt her arms sink further in it, and she whimpered.

Her ankle hurt to move. She gasped in defeat and turned onto her back. Trying desperately to focus only on the stars in the sky and not the throbbing pain in her ankle, she relived her last few moments of happiness.

It had felt so right to be in the Beast's arms. He had all of her trust; he was her very best friend. She never worried for her life - especially when he was that careful with her.

He had his moments. He was rude, selfish, and spoiled, like most princes - but he was good. He was kind to her when she needed him to be and, with just a light push, he was willing to be selfless. He was learning, and so was she, and that's all that mattered.

And he danced with her like no one else had. It wasn't like a normal ballroom dance - it was a dance that would make any princess envious. The way he held her was the way all women dreamed of being held. The way he looked at her was how all women wanted to be looked at. She felt like she was the only one for him as they danced, and when his hands were on her waist and cradling her hand like that, she thought that she could have been.

She smiled through her tears. If they had been able to dance for just a while longer together, if they had not been interrupted by that wretch of a man, she was absolutely sure that they would have fallen in love. Something would have blossomed between them; they already knew each other, already trusted one another; they just needed to love one another. And they would have. All they needed was a little more time.

Time. Something that seemed so precious as she lay motionless on the forest floor. In only a matter of time, she would begin to get frostbite. In only a matter of time, she would freeze to death. In only a matter of time, her heart would take its final beat, and her lungs would stop bringing in air.

Wasn't it ironic how, for the past few days, she convinced the Beast that they had nothing but time? And now she was facing her last few minutes, and she knew that she had lied to him.

She was shivering violently. No one would find her now. She was a lost cause; she would die on the ground, be mauled by an animal of some kind, and there would be nothing but bones left. After a while, when the snow melted and the ground was soft with the slush and warm from the sun, her bones would melt into the mud.

She was scared. Her entire body was shaking, her teeth clashing together with every shiver that racked through her body. Sharp stabs of pain made her fingers twitch and her legs jump. She was whimpering, unable to cry loudly. When she called for help, it just sounded like a strangled cry out of the scratchy throat of someone with a cold.

"Help," she croaked, inching her fingers towards a stick several feet away. "Someone - help me."

She couldn't reach the stick, and her ankle was a heavy weight on her frozen leg. She had already lost feeling in her fingers and toes, and she couldn't feel her hot breath against her hand anymore. She was growing numb.

"Help," she tried again, "help. Help. Help."

No one was around.

She was so cold.