❀ Beauty and the Beast ↠

↞16↠

I watched her run from the room, I saw the fear in her eyes when I towered over her. Every day it became harder and harder to picture this woman, whom I doubled in size, was a great warrior. However, my impeccable acting seemed to do the trick. She was never going to come back to me after that. It was the right thing to do, she deserved more than me. Once she was clearly out of sight, I let out a deep sigh that I had been holding down in my stomach and closed the door. I hated myself for lying to her. I wanted nothing less than to hurt her but it was necessary in the moment. She should be married to Thor, a suitable queen of Asgard. Not saddled to me, an immigrant book worm who would never be king. I felt the rage building up inside of me as I stormed over to my desk and cast all of its contents across the room with one swoop. I leaned on the desk and tried to control my breathing when I noticed the slight blue tinge of my skin over my fingers. I stood straight with alarm and studied my hand in front of me, rushing to the full-length mirror and looked into my eyes. Soulless and red. I was exactly the monster that Thor said I was. 

Later that day, I decided to leave my chambers and made my way to the library. The usual silence and gossip followed me as I stormed down the halls. Though, this time, I was not the only subject. Little did they know, I could hear every word coming from their filthy mouths. 

"I saw Freya leaving his chamber this morning, she looked upset," 

"I knew she was brave but I didn't know she was that brave,"

"Guess she couldn't handle it," 

"Who in their right mind would go for him when Thor is practically drooling over her!" 

The muttering's stopped when I shot a threatening glance in their direction. The young woman scuttled back to  their work. I sighed when they were gone. I didn't want to be the bad brother! I didn't want to be like this anymore. I reached the room and threw open the doors. I took every single copy of La Belle et la Bête and began to tear out the pages of every single one. The story was nonsense! Someone so horrid as to be described a 'beast' is not worthy of someone as good and innocent as her. I was surrounded by bits of torn paper and clouding dust that I had disturbed when destroying the books when Thor ran in. 

"What do you want?" I yelled. "You know you're never to come in here!" I told him with rage boiling my blood. I knew very well that part of my skin were starting to turn blue and my eyes were already flooded red and not only from Thor's reaction. He tried not to pull a face but my form still disgusted him. I cared not for his opinion today. Ignoring his own better judgement, he closed the door and continued into the room, however, keeping his distance so that I didn't go for him. 

"It's Freya," He said. The second he said her name I calmed completely. I no longer cared about my own anger towards Thor or my own emotions regarding what I had said and done this morning. I recoiled and calmed, I already knew that something was coming that I didn't want to hear. 

"What about her?" I asked genuinely concerned for her. 

"They took her," I stood sharply and threw open the doors, once again and made my way to her chambers. I yelled at Thor that the war was over! How could they have taken her. "It had to be the order of Nerthus, she never accepted Asgard as her victor," Thor told me as we reached Freya's chambers. I stopped when I saw the carnage around the room. I stepped in, careful to avoid the bedpost which had been broken off the bed and cast to the floor, only to step into a pool of blood which I failed to see until I looked down. I made my way further into the room, only to find that the window of the balcony had been shattered and cast around the room in shards. The curtains were torn and Freya's sword was cast to the floor, covered in blood. I wasn't sure who's until I found the scraps of her gown crumpled before the balcony. They were soaked with blood. She had fought back. I dropped to my knees and took the fabric in my hands. Distraught, I held the fabric to my chest and stood, looking out toward the sea which faced Freya's balcony. 

"We have to find her," I told them, looking around the room to see if I could find any other evidence of harm on Freya. I would make them pay for every drop of blood that she lost at their hand. Thor approached cautiously. 

"Brother," He started. "One of us should stay," He tried to convince me as he touched my shoulder but I shrugged him off violently. 

"Thor, the last thing we did was fight. And now you want me to entrust her safety to you?" I spat. "I'm going," I told him as I pushed past him and stuffed the scrap of fabric into my pocket. "Come if you wish," I offered just before I rounded the corner hastily and made my way toward the Bifrost.