The Dark Beast's Love

I released the arrow and shut my ears just in time to shut out the sound of the whimpering animal. Most times, the hunting part wasn't even the worst part of it, it was when I later had to take an innocent life for selfish reasons such as survival. Through my years of practice, I've learned how to shut out the overwhelming emotions by making sure to at least give my respects to the creatures and kill them in the most peaceful way possible. But there were days when not even that was enough, and this was one of those days. If it had been up to me, I would have preferred to skip the hunting for the day, but it had been too long since I checked my traps due to the marriage scheme and we were getting short on other provisions at home.

As I took the bunny my arrow had perched, and started walking towards where I knew one of my most successful traps was located, my mind wandered back to the previous month, to the second the beast had hovered over me with just seconds between that moment and the moment that should have been the last in my life. That was another reason why I had avoided the woods as much as I possibly could, when the darkest shadow overruled the forest it was as if I was back to the month before, and the fact that we were reaching a new month meant nothing to the nightmares that sometimes haunted me at night.

It was always the same, its bloody teeth and large body over mine. A howl at the full moon before its gaze turned back to me who was frozen against the cold ground, unable to move and unable to scream, the golden eyes like glowing orbs in the dark. I would wake up gasping, as if it was actually my last breath I was taking before the end and it always took me several moments to collect myself and return to a normal breathing speed. Tonight had been one of those nights, because I knew that the following night was a full moon. And even if I'd tried to forget, it was all the town could talk about.

They had been divided into two groups, those who believed in a miracle and heard prayers, claiming that the curse had finally reached its end and those who spoke about the calm before the storm, trying to warn everyone that would listen that tonight was going to be their last night of peace, and that by tomorrow, the survivors (if there were any survivor) would find nothing but blood on the streets and corpse after corpse piled up on one another. The latter believers had tried to do their best to secure their homes as much as they could, surrounding them with traps and obstacles that they believed would slow down the beast. The really ambitious ones had even taken the month to just cover their homes with clay until it dried out and worked as an extra layer around the house, while others had replanted trees in the hopes that it would camouflage their homes enough for the beast to walk past them.

I did not believe in the miracle some spoke about because I had stared the beast right in the eyes, and seen that it wanted nothing more than just blood. But I wasn't so sure about the massacre either, because I knew why the beast hadn't left anything behind that night, because I got away. No one knew of this encounter, not my family, not the rest of the village and certainly not Nathan who would have had me locked up for my own safety under the fear that the beast would have come back to start looking for me. The rest just wouldn't believe me, because I was a girl and because it was impossible.

None had faced the beast and survived.

The sound of faraway steps brought my mind back to my body, and out of instinct, I placed an arrow on my bow, preparing for an unpleasant surprise and to act out of self-defence. The light feathers were familiar under my fingertips, and the tension of my bow string an assurance I could rely on. I focused on the sound around me to hear if anything would reveal what was approaching and where its current location was.

A stick snapped under something's weight, and I quickly turned to the left with my bow in my hand, the string almost vibrating under the tension I'd forced it into.

"Come out whoever you are," I said loudly to make sure that the intruder heard. "Or I'll have to warn you that I don't miss."

An auburn-haired boy stepped out from behind the largest tree with his hands in the air, palms facing me in a request for peace. I released a breath I didn't know I was holding when his familiar grin greeted me and slowly lowered my bow, only releasing the tension from the bowstring when the arrow was facing the ground.

"Nathan!" I exclaim slightly furious. "I could have killed you!"

The boy just seemed amused by the thought. "You wouldn't."

"I could have!" I protested. "How did you find me out here anyway?"

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Nathan approached me slowly, releasing the grip on my bow until it fell on the ground so that he could now take my free hand and bring it to his lips, placing soft kisses on my knuckles as if they belonged to a Queen's hand. "Perhaps I'm not as devoted as you," Nathan spoke fondly. "But I have listened, and learned enough about tracking and you to track you in these woods."

Something in my chest warmed at the thought.

"You still shouldn't sneak up on me," I pointed out, the fury subsiding into something else.

"Perhaps not, but I was tired of waiting at the cottage and I wanted to see you," Nathan shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Can't a man check up on his fiancé while she's elegantly murdering animals in the woods?" Nathan referring to me as his fiancé still made my heart skip a beat and my cheeks get dusted with an embarrassing bright pink.

It had almost been a month since his proposal, and even if the wedding planning for a wedding I wasn't going to attend, with money we didn't really have, was exhausting to the point where I some night was unconscious before my head was on the pillow, I often found myself dreaming of the wedding I would have with Nathan, and that was enough to keep the spirit going. Our ceremony was in three days, and Nathan had managed to find a priest that would bound us and two witnesses that would say nothing about it until it was all over. He had apologised when he had explained that the wedding wouldn't be anything exceptional, due to all the secrecy, but I couldn't even find myself minding the lack of elegance when the plan was in order, leaving only time as our enemy. Time and an awful variety of dull-coloured napkins I had to choose for the other wedding.

The month hadn't been difficult in its sense, but it was exhausting to the mind. Even if my choices didn't really matter in the end, there was still so much the Wallaby family wanted to get in order. Mrs Wallaby had been the most insistent one, claiming that the person who was going to marry her precious son needed to at least have a respectable service so that she could brag during the following housewives' tea party. There had been a long list of guests, days of picking out random objects like napkins, candles, flower arrangements, cutlery (even if the Wallaby family only had one they were satisfied with), trying on all kinds of dresses and taste-testing cakes (even if there only was one edible choice) and picking songs for the orchestra. Some parts had been enjoyable enough, like the cake testing and the orchestra, however, every time Hector showed me any type of affection, I got nauseous with guilt. He'd gotten bolder as the days passed, more confident every time I forced a laugh or didn't shy away from his touch, and I had just felt worse.

Nathan had assured me that we could remain friends with Hector after it all, if he ever found the heart to forgive me, but I wasn't sure if it was Hector's hate that would prevent that, or my own self-loathing knowing that I tricked a person who'd done me no harm. I could barely face him now, how was I supposed to look him in the eye after it was revealed that I was married to someone else? I wasn't even sure if Hector would hate me for it. He would feel a stab of betrayal, yes, but if I knew him right, he would think that this had something to do with him, and knowing that only made the situation worse.

"Are you okay?" Nathan suddenly asked with genuine concern in his voice as his hand brushed back a strand of hair from my face, eyes searching into my soul.

"Yeah," I said, a partial truth as I relaxed into his touch. "I'm okay."

"Three days from now," He said, placing his lips gently on my forehead.

"Three days from now," I found myself echoing, counting every passing second.