Grace

Lurking

Beast lurked in the hallway, half hidden in the shadows.

He was agitated, as he always was when he wasn't on duty. He didn't really have any desires outside service to the Queen, so felt listless just standing here in the hall.
He just waited for her next orders.

Not that she'd give them to him herself.
No, she barely acknowledged his existence, except when she needed something he could provide, and then she referred to him as 'Asset X'.
He was her arm, that she could extend to assert control wherever she needed. And that didn't make him a person in her eyes.

He'd only ever seen her face to face a few times, and then he'd been too small to really remember. They'd blocked it out with pain and punishment, though he didn't know what he'd done. It was all too blurry.

Some women came down the hallway, arm in arm, bedecked in elegant outfits.
They giggled coyly as they passed him, peering at him through the corner of his eyes.

Beast ignored it. He was used to it. Apparently, some people found his enigmatic, dangerous persona attractive.
Pair that with a handsome face, and it was like bees to honey.

Well, a mostly handsome face.

What was left of it was very pretty.

He had sharp, almost hawkish features, offset by raven black hair, the kind that almost had a blue sheen under the light. His skin was chalky pale, unnaturally so, it seemed as if he were lacking blood under his flesh.
His eyes were midnight purple, and appeared as if they absorbed light.

This is what the young women found hypnotic, what drew their gaze.
He smirked at them, his left eye twinkling charmingly, the right of his face turned to the wall.

Then, still smirking, he turned his face slowly towards them, and watched the shocked reactions.

He'd forgone the half-faced mask he usually wore, and as a result the horror of these women said it all.

Dun dun duuuun!

Okay, so the face thing may seem a little phantom of the opera, but hey, who doesn't love that?