The Beast

The Beast - Neon Sunrise

I am writing this in the journal that the King has given me. The jail cell is dark and damp, and rats crawl across the floor. The cold seeps into your bones, and your clothes are always wet from the puddle in the corner. It gets lonely down here. This pen and paper are my only friends.

Have you ever felt like that? So alone, desperate, yearning to be free, but trapped inside a prison? Probably not. You don't understand what it's like. You don't know what I did. I deserve to be here.

The candle the jailer brought is about to run out, so I shall tell my story quick. We wouldn't want the candle to burn out, now would we? Bad things hide in the dark. Scary things, like beasts.

It all started on a lovely summer day. The sun was bright, the air was clean. My friends were playing in the garden. They were chasing butterflies. I was never one for playing. I was young then, and people scared me, even my friends.

They had gathered water from the town well and were splashing it on each other. I was not. I was content to lie in the shade, petting my bunny named Dan. My friends got too close to Dan that day, and he spooked.

Dan leaped out of my arms and sped off into the bushes. I scrambled after him, screaming his name as my friends watched with wide eyes. Dan was my only friend. I tripped, hit my head on a rock, and passed out. I never saw Dan again.

I don't remember what happened after my skill connected with the rock. My friends say that I was rushed to the nearest healer, and cared for about a year. The next thing I remembered was waking up to my mother's worried gaze, and the fresh scent of herbs.

I stayed with the healer for a month afterward. I got frequent headaches, and I couldn't sleep at night. Eventually, I got better. Almost. I've never told anyone this, but I heard voices in my dreams. Even after treatment, they never went away.

The voices stayed as voices for most of my life, remaining in my dreams until I married my wife. Almost at once, the voices began to grow stronger and stronger. Soon after our ceremony, they grew to plague my waking mind as well.

I loved my wife very much, but something about her angered the voices, the beast. I tried to spend time with her, but the voices would urge me to do awful things. Terrible things. I withdrew from her, but she stayed with me out of the goodness in her heart. She cared for me, and still stayed with me, even when I drifted away. I wish she had left.

I was out hunting that day. That fateful, fateful day. I had been setting snares all day. Suddenly, THWIP! A snare had been triggered. I grabbed my knife and rushed to the snare.

The rustling in the bushes alerted me to the success of the trap. All I could see through the foliage were flailing legs covered by light brown fur. I pushed the bushes back, and...

Dan.

It was impossible! He had been lost for nearly twenty years! I thought he hadn't survived! Nevertheless, there he was, hanging from his neck right in front of my face! I reached out to cut the snare and set him free, but something stopped me.

The beast was alert, ears pricked. It made me crouch, and study Dan, who was making frantic cloaking noises. The beast was chanting in its horrible, horrible voice. Blood. Blood. Death, suffering, and blood.

I was in shock. Completely frozen. The beast was in complete and utter control. It watched Dan dangle by the string until it choked to death. Its blank eyes stared into the distance. Stared at nothing. The beast cut the rope, and gave a snarl of satisfaction as Dan's still warm body hit the ground.

It grabbed Dan, and brought him to the nearest rock. It grabbed my knife and began to skin the hare. Once the hare was stripped of its fur and cleaned, the beast stashed the body in a pile of leaves and made its way to the only place close enough to a lair, my office.

Once the door shut, the beast released me from its spell. I couldn't stop shaking. Dan... my poor sweet Dan! He had been my only friend, and look how I repaid him! My brain was stuck on repeat, You did it. You. You are helpless. The beast will always be with you, and you can't do anything to stop it.

Tears were streaming down my face, and I started to hyperventilate. I began to feel dizzy. I couldn't think straight. Everything was spinning. I couldn't see anymore... couldn't see...

I didn't know when I woke up, or how long I was out. The rain was drumming on the window, and the office was pitch black. A flash of lightning lit up the room, and plunged it back into darkness.

I felt around the room and found a candle. I lit it, and I made my way over to my desk. I sat down, and tried to relax. Maybe it had all been a dream! I breathed deep and watched the shadows that flicked on my wall.

But wait! Were they really shadows? As I watched, they morphed into hideous creatures. Ghouls, goblins, revenents, spirits, devils and demons alike watched me, swaying to the beat.

Then the shadows morphed into something else. A rabbit! Dan! He knew what I did, he knew that I was weak! He was going to take me back to the unholy realm where the monsters had come from! "Lord help me," I screamed, my voice cracking with the effort.

The instant my screech faded away, there was a loud thump from downstairs. The beast. Thump. Thump. Thump. 

Slowly, ever so slowly, the beast made its way up the staircase. A desperate plan formed in my head. I must kill the beast, so that it will never be able to haunt me again! If I didn't, it too would drag me back to hell.

I frantically scrambled to my desk and produced a letter opener. I readied myself by the door, candle in one hand, small blade in the other.

The beast had climbed the staircase by then. I I could hear it's ragged breath outside the door. It turned the handle, and I struck!

The candle had dropped, but I needed no light to slay the beast. My knife struck one, two three times! A warm sticky liquid sprayed over me, and the beast slumped to the ground without making a sound. I had killed it.

The rain had stopped. The room was silent. I felt around for the candle so that I could finally gaze upon the monster that had plagued me all these years. I lit the candle...

And was met by the bleeding corpse of my wife.

She was spread on the ground. her chest and back were torn. Lifeblood seeped into the floorboards, staining them red. Her eyes, usually so bright and full of life, were blank. Her delicate arm was outstretched towards me.

The beast was still with me. I could feel it in the corner of my mind! Only this time, it wasn't forcibly assuming control. It was asking. I knelt by my wife and put !y hand on her cheek. I couldn't resist the beasts call, so there was no use fighting it. I closed my eyes, and the beast stepped forward.

I stayed in a haze the rest of the night, and part of the next day. I retrieved Dan and the knife from where I left them. I believe I ate him, but I'm not sure.

Soldiers knocked on my door about halfway through the day. I was ready with my knife. I slit one's throat and disemboweled another before the rest of the troupe overcame me.

It was only then that I realized that the bunny that I had killed wasn't Dan.

The End.