Time turner ⚜️prince Adam ⚜️

Nightmare

I'm warm, no snow. no cold. No Florence. I shoot up off the warm mattress, the blankets pooling at my hips. I'm in a canopy bed, red velvet curtains hang delicately against the dark posts. The blanket is white, a red foot blanket drapes across the end of the bed where a head rests. The beast.

He's asleep, his head braced on his forearms. Is this his room? I turn to room taking in the large open space. The stone room is open, random objects from other areas of the castle scattered. A balcony joins to the room, welcoming wide arches allowing access between the two rooms. A table rests in the middle, a dead rose lay inside a glass vase. My eyes travel away from the vase, across the walls. A portrait hangs torn on the wall. Did he tear it?

It's a family. A women with blonde hair and a round face. A man beside her, his face ripped up and a boy between them. He has striking blue eyes, and blonde hair. But the boy also ripped. Is this him? 

I turn to the beast asleep at the end of the bed and gently place my hand on his shoulder. When he doesn't react to my touch I shake him lightly keeping away not to risk bashing heads. He might stab my with his horns. "Wake up." I whisper . He moves slowly, sweeping himself off the bed and rising from the chair he sat on.

He looks to me, his blue eyes holding my own. "You're awake." He looks me over slowly. My lips feel numb as I open my mouth. "Where am I?" He seems shocked, like I've forgotten about the castle before he realizes what I mean. "My room. You were frozen in the snow beside your horse. He's fine." He reassures when I go to jump out of the bed to get to Florence.

"How did I get here?"  His eyes dance across the room to the empty vase. "I carried you up. I thought you were dead at first. I was looking over the garden upstairs when I realized you hadn't left and went down to find you asleep in the snow. You could have asked to stay." He states. I nod. "I don't want to be a burden." I sigh wringing my hands through the fabric.

"Why didn't you go home? To Villeneuve?" He sits against the bed post across from me. "It's not my home. Ma threw me out almost a week ago. I wouldn't tell her where I kept going after the noon bell or why I was taking food everyday. If I had told her, oh how fast the hospital workers would have come. I wish it wasn't true. I wish she didn't think I am crazy, that I am a liar and ungrateful. I can see it in her eyes, she thinks i killed him." I was rambling without reason everything I kept locked up suddenly pouring out of me. The beast just sits and watches me work myself up into tears. When the beast speaks I huddle into a ball, the tears spilling like waterfalls down my cheeks. "Killed who?" The accident, the flames. It all comes to me. All at once and I can't  stop the memory from stealing me from the castle.

"Papa!" The little girl screams running into the kitchen. Flames blacken the ceiling. "Papa!" She screams running from them in fear, the study door is shut. "Papa!" The girl sobs burning her hands as she opens the door. Papa sits in his chair, his hands clamped around the arm rests. "Papa!" The child sobs running to him. "Océana, child what's wrong?" He looks to the smoke pouring through the doorway. He leaps to his feet running out into the hall and then back inside coughing. "Child, come." He reaches for the girls chubby hands. She clings to the man as he guides them through the halls. A silver locket sits on the floor in the living room. "It's gran's! Papa I need it!" The child goes to grab it. "No. Leave it." He insists trying to push the fallen objects from the stairs. "Papa! I need it!"! She screams. The last object tumbled away from the clear stairs, smoke burns the child's lungs, her vision burning with tears. "Papa! Please!" The child screams sobbing violently. "Fine!" The man runs over picking up the locket as the ceiling beam falls. The man hits the ground with a pained shriek. "Papa!" She cries running to him. "Océana! Go! Child go!" He pushes at her struggling to free himself. "Papa!" The child yanks on his jacket trying to pull him up. "Ah! Océana go! You must go!" He presses the locket into her small hands pushing her away. "Go!" He roars frightening the child more. She runs, quickly down the stairs as more beams fall. One strikes the child, sending her down the stairs with a sickening crack at the bottom. She sobs, staying awake and crawling for the door. Her right knee twists to an unnatural angle forcing her down again. "Help!" She shrieks. "Help!" Beams collapse around her, caging her in the flames. "Help! Ma! Papa! Help!" She shrieks. The door opens casting white light through the flames blinding the child. Black builds in her vision. "Help!" She screams before the darkness takes her.

I huddle in a ball muttering frantically. "I killed him. I killed him." I rock myself, the beast sits watching me as I shake. My demons dance around the room teasing and taunting, the fire in the candles becoming beasts of death and ruin. I shudder recoiling into the soft pillows. The beast slips across the bed taking my shoulders  and pulling me to his chest. I tug on the strip of cloth draped around his shoulders.  I can't see anything. I can't breathe.

The beast doesn't ask what horrible memory I'm reliving, his paw strokes my hair. When I start to choke on tears and sobs. He reminds me to breathe when I hyperventilate. He speaks calmly, never asking me anything unless I need something.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I hiccup struggling to catch my breath. "Don't be sorry for something that isn't your fault." He holds me an arms length away as he speaks, I'm still not sure I'm breathing. His blue eyes seem brighter, the hatred and sadness no longer darkening them. Only a caring look holds them stead. "I never got your name. I want to stop thinking thinking of you as 'the beast'." He nods looking to the little boy in the portrait.

He continues to nod for a minute then looks down pulling his hands to mine sitting between us on the bed. "Adam." I smile holding his hands and giving them a light shake. "I like it." He looks down shyly before helping me off the bed, my legs are stiff causing me to lean on him heavily.

He leads me down the tall stairs. He carried me up these, all the way up. I feel guilty. Adam senses this and looks back up the stairs. "It wasn't hard. You're rather light." I purse my lips and nod. He takes me down the west stairs and up the east outside onto a dangerously high pass way that has no rail. I hold tightly to his arm trying not to stare down at the foggy drop. He wraps his arm around me holding me to his side as he walks with ease inside the tower at the other end of the bridge a small curved hallways leads to a set of double doors.

A bedroom. Thrice the size of my old room. Beautiful gold threads hang from the ceiling. The round room is filled by the canopy bed. A wardrobe takes up a side of the room and a desk takes up the space beside it. An assortment of objects like a mirror and a brush sit on the desk. I walk to the large window throwing it open to see the breath taking view of the timeless garden.

I wipe the tear streaks from my face and turn back to Adam who stands in the doorway watching me with an odd toothy grin. "Do you like it?" I reach out holding the tall bed post. "It's amazing." He perks up. "It's yours." I cover my gaping mouth. "I can't, no. I don't want to be a-" he cuts me off. "Yours. You have no where to call home anymore. Anything you want. The castle, the gardens, kitchen, library. Name it." He insists. I shake my head a sly grin taking over. "Anything?"  The smile falls from his face as he catches the glint of mischief lurking in my veins. Suddenly he seems to regret his statement. Oh I'm so going to tease him on this.