The white lycanthrope knew what was best for him and so did they all. Each night she drained him off his blood until it satiated her thirst and each night he made love to her body as her moans of satisfaction mattered to him. She would often give him orders and the lycanthrope would slaughter anyone or anything that she merely pointed or gestured to. He was a good obedient dog and he submitted under her authority entirely. One day, however, he felt something in his heart and he could not quite explain. There was a beat, a warmth, that he had hoped would go away and yet was present. He had felt this way once before but that was in a past life and yet the closer he got to the spire, the center of the castle, is where he saw the grand tree leading to the heavens but what he also felt was unexplainable, and so he decided to follow the source. One day he had found himself moving up the steps and into the ‘Monster’s Tower’ where he found the garden of roses but this time Victor was not present for he was taken to the laboratories. There he stood, the beast, staring at the black rose that was retrieved from Blackwood and he did not know why.
“Igor!”, called William and the wolf turned to see a spirit, a blue glowing ball of light that took on the form of a wisp. “You gave me your word that you would protect her and shield her from harm, and instead you allowed her to become a monster.”, said the spirit and Igor growled.
“Don’t dare impure my honor, human, I swore that I would protect her and that no harm would come to her but my own!”, he shouted back at the spirit. “If only that was the case, perhaps she wouldn’t behave as she does now if someone else harmed her.”, the spirit replied.
“She said it herself; her will is her own, William. I do not dare to intervene.”, said Igor and then the spirit turned into the apparition, the form, of the man he once was in his life that walked over a small lake of water upon which the pedestal and the garden of roses were located within.
“Why have you come here, Igor? Why are you not with your mistress?”, William asked and Igor gazed upon the rose, his heart felt like a stone. “She is on a tour of the castle…”, he nodded before he would add. “While I am left to the silence of the cruel reminder that is this accursed rose!”, as he proceeded to shout at it and then William realized that this rose was somehow the reason that the white lycanthrope was here but he could not put his finger on it.
“And what is it that you’re feeling?”, asked William and then the white lycanthrope raised his head, staring into the rose as he heard the screams and wails of his past. “I feel…”, he placed his right claw over his heart as it was difficult for him to say. “The emptiness where my companions once stood for I took them for granted and now I have nothing. My first surge of emotion in years… for as long as I can remember…”, he seemed to snivel and turned away from the rose.
“And it’s… loneliness.”, he looked to his surroundings as he heard the echoes of his past through the voices of joyous people that once dwelt within the castle, people he missed. “Do you see? Having these emotions is just pain...”, said Igor and William shook his head. “No.”, he said.
“Pain is being alive, Igor.”, William said. “I would pay anything just to feel alive once more.”, said William and the wolf chuckled. “Really?”, asked Igor who then turned around. “It must take… incredible strength.”, the wolf remembered the pain he once felt in the past, a pain that resurfaced and William looked on in silence before the wolf suddenly spoke out.
“I haven’t felt this pain since… I last laid my eyes upon her.”, said Igor. “Upon Belle?”, William asked and Igor nodded his head. “But that could only be a decade ago when you came across in the woods.”, William implied and Igor nodded his head, seemingly confirming what he implied.
“Yes, I can still remember it like it was yesterday for that is when I first laid my eyes upon that accursed rose.”, the beast turned to look at the rose as a petal fell from it and memories of his past returned back to him, haunted him at that moment. “What happened, Igor? What happened in the Grimm Woodlands that very faithful day?”, William questioned the wolf at his weakest.
“I was harvesting lumber and then upon all of a sudden, while I was out chopping wood, I saw little red riding hood. She carried a basket to deliver food to her sickly grandmother and I said to her, I said…”, the wolf was reliving his past as William stood back and listened.
“That the woodlands are grim and full of terror.”, William helped and Igor turned, nodding his head. “Yes, yes…”, he nodded and looked so broken. “I pleaded with her not to go for I said the angry wolves could already be stalking her. I tried to distract her by having her pick some of the flowers and I tried to talk sense into her but she insisted she had to go see her grandmother.”, the beast explained and then William truly understood what made him who he was today.
“You followed her to the cottage, didn’t you?”, he asked and the beast nodded his head as he dragged his claws over his head in frustration. “So I escorted her to the cottage and I did not trust our surroundings at all times. She went inside to greet her grandmother and right from the start Belle was an observant one…”, explained Igor only for one of the mirrors nearby to show the very reflection of the memory of the past that he long wished to forget.
“Granny, are you okay?”, asked little red riding hood. “Of course I am, Bellindia. How are you?”, an old woman asked but the little red riding hood noticed something was unusual.
William turned to see the reflection fading away before another appeared on another mirror.
“What a deep voice you have.”, said Belle to her grandmother who seemed to look uneasy and sad. “The better to greet you with.”, replied granny as little red riding hood placed a basket over a nearby table and opened it to prepare what she brought her dearly beloved grandmother.
The memory of that past then faded from that mirror as the beast held onto his head and he seemed to be tormented by the memory. The voices were too much for him to bear. It was then that William heard the pouring of wine inside of a glass along with a dish moving for Belle prepared a slice of delicious cake that which placed on a plate that she would then put a wooden platter to deliver to her grandmother. Belle noticed that her grandmother looked even more unusual when she approached her and William wondered why the mirrors showed him these memories that the beast was about to explain to him only for the rose’s petals to fall again.
“Goodness, what big eyes you have.”, the little elf thought it was her granny’s glasses that made them appear so when she looked into her eyes on the mirror. “The better to see you with.”, the grandmother replied as she took a fork and it seemed her body lost all energy to even lift it as she could barely cut a slice of her cake, and Bellindia seemed to notice.
“And what big hands you have!”, the little elf said and the grandmother looked to the little elf before saying with a smile on her face. “The better to embrace you with.”, and this caused the little elf to notice that her grandmother’s eye iris were now pale as if she were blind.
“What a big mouth you have.”, said the elf for she had noticed that several things about her granny seemed to be off and then a knock could be heard on her door that caused the wolf to tear into his own fur and skin, dragging his claws over his body in frustration.
“The better to eat you with.”, said granny that then looked down and closed her eyes. “What?”, asked the little elf. “What do you mean, granny?”, she continued to question her as the huntsman seemingly knocked yet again. “May I come in, little red?”, Igor’s younger self could be heard and Granny then opened her eyes as she tried to snatch the little elf
Belle could be seen stepping back from her grandmother for this was truly unlike her behavior. Every muscle within the grandmother then began to expand; her jaw and her nose began to take a different shape. Her hands turned to claws, her feet to paws, her eyes widened, her ears became long and wide like a dog with fur growing out of her skin that soon overwhelmed her entire body, and she began to snarl and then roared at the little elf whose tails hissed back in retaliation for they sensed an imminent threat. The lycanthrope, also known as the lycan, is what many cyberpunks referred to as were-wolfs. Those who are infected by lycanthropy transform into lycanthropes and it seemed that granny was one of those, which now explained why she held a rifle. She burst out of bed, leaped to attack little red and then the huntsman kicked the door in as he immediately fired his own rifle. The lycanthrope was struck and he fired again, aiming for its head that he had missed and reached for his saw-blade that he activated that functioned like a chainsaw that he gutted her with. The lycanthrope, however, surprised him for she burst forth and he raised his rifle that she bit on and bit on as she clawed at him and tried to penetrate his armor. Little red riding hood was screaming as she watched the horror unfold in front of her very eyes and she realized now what the huntsman warned her about. The huntsman fought desperately against the lycanthrope that bit his neck and he screamed for her knowing that he was done for until a shot was fired, a bullet struck, and the lycanthrope fell down and over the huntsman who then pushed it off himself only to see that it was dead. The huntsman turned and stared to see little red riding hood holding her granny’s rifle in her claws, it seemed she was horrified by what she had to do and the huntsman stood up as he held his neck with his right hand before the vision ended before William’s very eyes. The spirit of the uncle would then turn.
“I told her to flee for I knew what was to come. That roar called the rest of the pack and I told her that I would hold off them, and that’s the last time I ever saw her again. And so I ran…”, the beast told his tale as he stared at the waters beneath his paws and suddenly William saw the very reflection of the day that he ran away, a memory that Belle saw over and over again already.
The beast outran them all and faced all lycanthropes with his rifle. He kept shooting until there were no bullets left and when they finally attacked him he half-way transformed into a beast. In his fury and his unwavering bloodlust, he had slain all those around him, even his own kind, and then when this bloodlust had finally faded away is when he saw what he had done. He killed not only lycanthropes but humans and elves alike. It was then that he saw an elf before him that did not appear like the rest of the woodland elves and before her was a black rose blooming…
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“How does it feel to finally understand the lust for blood? How does it feel to finally be able to hear the blood that pumps faster when your prey begins to run away from you or fear you?”, she asked the beast these questions because all elves could understand this and could hear this with their ears, and because she knew what he was transforming slowly into and Igor fell down.
There were roots that entangled around him and she approached him in the rain. It was then that she leaned down and turned her claw towards the rose whose roots themselves came to life and entangled around her claw. She stood up as the human was held and his mind was lost to a state of insanity he could not explain. The veins in his body became far more visually able to be seen. The blood that was coursing through his veins affected him even more and he was being transformed ever so slowly but certainly into the monster he did not wish to become. Jack’s hands clawed into the earth beneath him as he pulled on the grass that he ripped from the ground as he tried to fight it and then he ripped from his roots only to attack her only for her to disappear in a second, out of sight and out of bounds. He then grabbed his head and fell with his body to the ground due to the amount of pain he felt, the pain he could not control as he screamed. The vision then added and William then looked at him as he recognized the elf in the vision.
“My brother was given a black rose by the enchantress, the same rose in that vision and that is before us now. But I do not understand, what does it all mean, beast? What does it all mean?!”, the spirit shouted and then the wolf shouted back. “Igor!”, he said his name. “My name is Igor!”, he reminded him and William could then feel his pain as the wolf took a few steps back.
“My family was convinced that you two brothers could save me and you did, for a while…”, he revealed and William remembered that well. “Your medication kept the curse at bay but it only prolonged my suffering. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, William, anyone.”, he reminded him.
“The enchantress visited me once again in the garden and she carried the rose, and then my jaw felt like someone was ripping it a part. My teeth felt like someone was pulling down on them. The children in the garden covered and why wouldn’t they? They had every right to fear what was to come and so did the rest of them. The enchantress said…”, he was forever haunted by these words and the petals of the rose fell as then they both saw a memory in the waters again.
“I am not going to kill you, little human, for that would be mercy.”, said the enchantress much to the past Igor’s horror before she reached for the vine that sprouted and grew from her clothes that she wore. “This rose I bestow upon you, little human, as my gift to you.”, the enchantress explained and lowered the rose in front of his face that began to glow in a bright orange light.
“This rose’s light shall represent one’s light, that is the essence of the good that is within their soul but wait…”, she leaned her head on the side. “What is that, we see? Is that a darkness taking hold of the soul?”, there were other elves in the field that cackled like hyenas as the curse of lycanthropy took over Igor’s mind and as his body began to be surrounded in white fur.
The enchantress wore a uniform made from the barks and natural flora as well as fauna of nature with it appearing bloody red. She wore jewelry with orbs of red blood being held by them, orbs of real blood she had gathered throughout the many decades of her life. She wore a crown of thorns over her head with a blood red pendant built into the center of it that beautifully displayed above her nose, giving her red eyes a beautiful matching appearance. She had long white hair that reached down to her hips and her arm sleeves appeared green compared to the rest of her natural uniform that were surrounded by red thorns and natural vines that moved lively around her arms. There was a rose that sprouted from the top of her right shoulder with many others.
“A winter setting in?”, the enchantress seemed to wonder as Igor’s veins became dark, his hair started to turn into fur, the iris within his blue eyes turned into a blood shot red.
His bones began to crack as his entire body endured the pain of the transformation and she would just look on with a smile after he howled towards the skies on that very faithful day.
“A winter that is drowning out the summer that is one’s soul?”, she stated as she stared at the rose and the elves stepped back into the woodlands behind them. “It seems to make a life of its own, a life that wishes to snuff all others and when it does the last petal will fall.”, she then looked straight towards the eyes of Igor and the wolf glared at her back then as he roared.
“But fear not, human, for the longer that this winter remains the longer it will prevent this rose from withering away and as long as the lover’s rose continues to blossom in this fashion…”, the rose turned to darkness and transformed into a blackened rose as a winter then set in.
There was a darkness that took over the woodlands, transforming it into an eerie and grim place.
“You shall forever remain a beast.”, those were the enchantress’ final words to him as the then stepped back into the woodlands and the white lycanthrope marched to Castle Perrault where he had done the unimaginable, the unthinkable, and the very thing that haunts him to this day.
“Wait…”, said William. “She said as long as the lover’s rose blossoms that you shall remain a beast but her petals seem to be falling, but…”, William turned and looked to the beast. “Don’t you love her?”, he asked and the beast shook his head. “How could I possibly love a monster such as her? How could I love a beast?”, it was then that William understood what was at stake.
The beast then landed on all fours and ran out of the room as William called for Igor but he did not respond, and it was in that moment that he knew that the beast needed some time alone…
“So this is the aviary?”, Belle, on the other hand, was someplace else. “Seems quite dark to me, dear brother, and full of lifeless statues.”, she knocked on the head off one and Rendfield chuckled. “My dear sister, they are gargoyles at our service.”, he replied and she looked excited.
“Oh, are they? Then why aren’t they serving us?”, she questioned him and he smirked. “Well, because this a grand library of ancient knowledge first founded by the founding fathers of this castle and the first civilization of this world.”, he explained and she then stopped in her tracks. “Boring!”, she declared and then turned to face him. “And that still doesn’t explain why they are not servicing right at this moment.”, she replied and then she heard a faint voice.
“Shh!”, in the distance and then she turned her head. “Don’t you shush me!”, she shouted. “Shh!”, the voice then got louder and the gargoyle heads all rose towards Belle and the others looked down the hall towards the voice that shushed the elf from before.
“Remain quiet and stay silent like the dead when you are here, little elfling.”, she then saw a lantern move on its own and she wondered whether or not it was some sort of spectre, a wraith or a ghost as then the light illuminated a harpy, a gargoyle, who was taller than all the rest.
“Ah, dearest sister, may I have the pleasure to introduce the High Matron and the Keeper of the Library of Perrault; Gloryana of the Brood of Deathwing.”, Belle smiled at what she had seen for nothing frightened her and before her was a beautiful haru, a half-harpy and half-human.
She appeared like obsidian stone much like the other gargoyles and her wings appeared to carry two lanterns on each side that emanated a blue light. The haru leaned over and her stone-like eyes observed Bellindia Frankenstein closely that just had that same smirk on her face.
“I am…”, Belle went to introduce herself. “I know who you are, Bellindia Frankenstein.”, the haru’s voice then sounded like an echo before she stood up tall. “And I know why you have come.”, the haru implied while Belle just stood there, shrugging her arms and claws.
“So why have I come? Enlighten me?”, the blue lights then turned to that of an orange flame and this light shed brighter that revealed bookshelf after bookshelf, shelf after shelves, ladders after ladders and so many gargoyles that appeared to be perched all over the ancient library.
This light illuminated Gloryana herself whose shape started to form color and the beautiful haru could be seen with long scarlet hair, a golden crown, her long slender ears surrounded by armor, a blood red pendant hanging from around her neck and two red tattooed markings underneath her fiery-like eyes. In her gargoyle form she was blind and in her living form her eyes were pretty much alive. Gloryana was unique as most female gargoyles were born with feather-like wings at birth but she was born with bat-like wings that were common among male harpies. It was then that the tip of her wing to the left gave the lantern to a gargoyle that took it from her and another that took it from the right tip of her wing as the lanterns turned blue that once more concealed everything in darkness. Once the sight of all the bookshelves had disappeared, Belle appeared to be very disappointed for she wished to see more of it.
“This library was founded by the first of the vampires, my dear sister, and all sorts of books called Necronomicons can be found among its shelves that contain knowledge of ancient spells that are used to this day. Should you wish to expand your knowledge on necromancy, this is the place to go.”, the librarian stepped on side as Belle stepped forth along with Rendfield. “What about knowledge of a historic nature?”, she asked and Rendfield leaned his head.
“Well, yes, of course…”, said Rendfield. “But history is in the past, dear sister, why bother with it?”, said Rendfield and Belle then turned towards the librarian. “Is there anything in this library that contains the history of the first vampire and I mean the very first vampire?”, asked Belle. “Yes, Lady Frankenstein, and his name was Vlad Dracula.”, Belle’s eyes widened the moment that she heard the last name of this deceased individual and her brother noticed her surprise.
“I’d like to read this book.”, said Belle and then Rendfield wondered why she was so curious. “I am disinclined to acquiesce your request.”, said the haru and Belle smiled. “It means no.”, stated Rendfield and then Belle raised her right claw to smack his chest that confused him.
“I know that.”, she said to him with a serious look before turning to once again smile to the haru. “She knows that.”, she added before she stepped forth towards the gargoyle who was once again discolored and in her black obsidian storm as she looked down to the gorgon.
“But what I do not know is why you are disinclined to acquiesce my request?”, Belle told the librarian that then raised her right claw as chains appeared from the void that were tied to a book that was so ancient and so heavy that it felt like a burden to all who would carry it.
Belle stepped forth to observe it to see a skeletal face that was a part of the book’s front cover and she placed her claws on both sides of the book, trying to open it only to find herself unable to and she thought they were the chains that held them tight but they would not freeze to her at all to her icy touch. Belle then looked up towards the eyes of the gargoyle.
“The book’s knowledge belongs to the very bloodline from whom it originates and should the last of this bloodline fade from existence then it shall forever be sealed in memory. Only the blood of one of its relatives or even its descendants can unlock the ancient knowledge stored within this book.”, the librarian explained and then Rendfield chuckled. “Well, tough luck, sister, because the last of the Dracula bloodline died a century ago.”, he commented and Belle smiled.
“That is where you are wrong, my dear brother, for I have tasted the blood of this bloodline and it is here underneath our very noses where it resides.”, she revealed and then Rendfield could not believe it as he stepped forth. “There is a descendant of the great House Dracula that is still alive?”, Rendfield was in shock. “Who, dear sister, who is it?”, he asked and Belle grinned…