The Beast of Beauty (13 page)

I ran out of the classroom as
fast as I could toward the library. I couldn’t stand the thought of Jasper
being the one that gave Adeline the book. When I confronted him about it
though, it was like I gave him new information, which scared me just as much.

I had to find out if he really
was the one behind all of this, and I had a plan.

The library was empty. I looked
around and didn’t see a sign of Mrs. Stacy anywhere, so I went to the store
room.

I tried to turn on the light, but
when I flipped the switch, nothing happened. I feared leaving the door open
just in case someone came in, so I closed it and used my phone’s backlighting
to look around. I scanned what I could see of the floor with the light and also
kicked around with my feet to see if they came in contact with a book. I
spotted something near the wall and went over to investigate it.

I held it up to the light in
order to read the title.

“It was Mrs. Stacy,” I whispered,
“because
The Twelfth Night
never even made it to the parking lot.”

It wasn’t Jasper. I breathed a
sigh of relief in knowing that, but then again, a new mystery had opened up;
did Mrs. Stacy give Adeline the book on purpose?

As I walked out of the high
school, I called my mother.

“Daniel? Is everything okay?” she
answered.

“Yeah, Mom, but I had to leave
school. The students were really giving me a hard time about being gone all
weekend, and I just needed some air. I just wanted you to know so you wouldn’t
worry.”

“Okay, Daniel. Are you sure
you’re okay? You can come home if you need to.” She offered, “I’ll even come
and get you.”

I smiled, “I’ll be okay, thank
you though. If it gets too bad, I’ll come home early, okay?”

“Okay, I love you,” she said.

“I love you too, Mom. Bye,” I
said, hanging up.

“Why would you leave school
early?” Jasper said, coming up beside me.

“It’s not your concern,” I said
to him as I walked off campus. I just didn’t have time for his games.

I walked as stealthily as I could
toward the Jones household just to find that Mr. Jones wasn’t at home. I snuck
in the back door that I knew was never locked and took in my surroundings.

The house was an absolute mess.
There were beer bottles and all different kinds of drug paraphernalia
everywhere. I avoided stepping on or in anything so that Mr. Jones wouldn’t be
able to tell that I was here.

Just as I made it to the living
room, I heard him pull in the driveway. I quickly hid myself in the living room
closet and hid further behind the jackets inside, hoping that he hadn’t seen me
through the windows. My heart was beating so fast that I could feel it in my
throat. I had never done anything so terrifying before in my life.

I heard a dialogue as he
approached the door; he wasn’t alone.

“Stacy, could I interest you in
something to drink?” He said as he swung the door open. The handle hit the door
to the closet with a loud
thump
that almost made my heart stop. My whole
body ached from being tense.

“No thank you, sweetheart, I’m
going to have to go in to work after lunch. I at least need to make an
appearance so that I don’t lose my job,” she said, “but if I could stay here
with you, I would. You know what? You should think about buying a new house. It
feels so weird staying with you here where you lived with your ex-wife. I
couldn’t stop thinking about it when we were dating earlier this year.”

“I don’t want to buy a new
house,” he said. “I can’t afford to, really.”

“You could if you sold this one,”
she said, “and you could stay with me in the meantime.”

“You don’t understand, I
seriously have no money. Divorces cost a lot, in case you didn’t know,” Mr.
Jones said. “I also don’t know if anyone would buy this house; it needs a lot
of work.”

When did Mr. Jones ever have a
divorce? I racked my brain trying to think of whether Adeline ever told me that
he was married to someone else before her mother.

“I’m sorry, we’ll talk about it
some other time,” she said, “but could you please drop me off at school? I
might as well go in now and maybe no one will realize that I didn’t make it on
time this morning.”

He sighed, “Sure thing, honey.
I’ve got to go get some groceries anyway. Since Adeline ran off, I have to do
everything around here. It’s not as easy as it looks.”

He talked about Adeline like she
up and decided to move out, not that he saw her after she turned into a beast
and shot at her.

They exited the house. I didn’t
leave my hiding place until I counted to thirty after I couldn’t hear the
engine any longer.

I crept out of the closet,
anxious to get out of the house and back to Adeline with some questions. As I
was walking past the coffee table, something caught my eye that wasn’t there
before.

It was Mrs. Stacy’s purse.

I knew I had to hurry, because
she would notice it was missing when she got to the school, but I quickly
pilfered through it. At the very bottom, I found an old-looking worn out
envelope.          

I pulled it out to see that it
had
Adeline
written on it.

I heard Mr. Jones pulling up
again, and in an instant, ran for the back door instead of hiding in the house.
I didn’t care what I messed up, I just knew that I had to get out of there as
fast as possible.

I burst out the back door and ran
for the woods behind their house, and then made my way back to the school in
the shelter of the trees. My adrenaline powered my strides, and I ran faster
than I ever had before in my life.

I continued to run at a full
sprint until I got to my car. Once I was in there, I locked the doors and let
myself breathe. Then I pulled out the contents of the envelope that had already
been opened.

Inside there was a note that
read:

Dear Adeline,

I’m so sorry that I have kept the
truth from you. I hope that you are able to forgive me. Sweetheart, your father
and I are no longer married. We decided to get a divorce after we found out
that I was sick, and I just didn’t want to burden my last days with you with
talk of divorce, so I made him promise not to tell you. He is still your father,
and he loves you, and so do I. We just don’t love each other anymore. I hope
you understand.

I have enclosed the key to a
safety-deposit box. Take it up to the bank along with your license, and you’ll
get what’s rightfully yours. You don’t have to tell your father about it if you
don’t want to. It’s all yours to do with what you want. I know that you are
responsible and will spend it wisely. It eases my mind to know that I can help
secure your future even though I can’t be in it.

I love you so much, and I’m so
sorry that I had to leave you earlier than we always planned. I would have
loved watching you grow into the wonderful woman that you are becoming. I would
have loved to be a grandmother to your beautiful children someday. I’m so sorry
that we both got cheated out of more time in our relationship.

Stay strong. I’m with you always.

I stared frozen at the letter. I
dug in the envelope, and sure enough, there was a key inside.

I racked my brain for an
explanation to all of this, and then it hit me.

Adeline’s mother and Stacy were
friends. I bet she gave Stacy this to give to Adeline, without knowing that
Stacy and Mr. Jones would get together, or that they already were. She was
denying Adeline access to both the money and the information. It was beyond
cruel.

I didn’t know how Stacy got ahold
of that spell book, but I knew that she gave it to Adeline on purpose. She
wanted something bad to happen to her so that she and Adeline’s father would be
able to live together undisturbed.

I gasped as I realized that if
Adeline was pronounced dead, then the money would probably go to her father
because he was her closest living relative.

I turned on my car and tore out
of the parking lot, knowing that I had to get to Adeline as fast as possible.

I got a text from Elliot in the
middle of math class that read, “He’s back.”

I waited until the teacher wasn’t
looking, and motioned for the other three to leave the room with me. Once we
were outside, we found Elliot, staked out right where I left him to watch for
Daniel.

“See guys? I knew he would come
back. Looks like we are headed out sooner than I thought,” I said as I motioned
them all into my truck.

“It’s a good thing Daniel just
sat in his car for a while,” Elliot remarked. “I thought you guys might not get
out here in time.” 

James grumbled, “We better not
get in trouble for leaving school.”

“Coach will take care of it, no
big deal,” I said as I started the truck. “Don’t be a coward. Look under the
seat, there should be a couple bottles of whiskey from the other night. That’ll
take the edge off.”

I tried to follow Daniel as
discreetly as possible, all the while drinking and contemplating what on earth
that all of us were skipping out on school to chase. I wondered if I should be
as afraid as Zoey was.

“Look, he’s pulling over!” Troy
yelled as he passed me the bottle. I turned it up and drove on past Daniel. He
started sprinting towards the woods clutching something white, and it didn’t
look like he saw my truck.

“I’m gonna park around this next
corner, and we’re gonna follow him on foot,” I said.

We got out and started off into
the woods.

“Can you guys hear him?” I asked,
motioning for them to stop.

Sure enough, in the far distance,
we could hear him stomping through the woods. He was probably so intent on
getting where he was going that he wouldn’t hear us running after him.

I pointed to James and Zeke,
“Follow him. Text us if you see anything. I’m going to go get my pistol out of
the truck, and we’ll catch up.”

“Sure thing,” they said as they
started running.

“Why do you need a pistol?”
Elliot asked. “You don’t really believe Zoey’s story about the beast, do you?”

I shook my head, “I didn’t at
first, but now I’m not sure what to believe. I know Zoey saw something or she
wouldn’t have been so afraid. Even if it was just a coyote or something, it
won’t hurt to have a gun if we run into it.”

They nodded. I put the gun in my
pocket and started running with them directly behind me.

It wasn’t long before we caught
up with James and Zeke.   

“Where did he go?” I asked
through my heavy breaths.

James sighed, “The heavy running
sounds stopped, so we were afraid that if we kept running, we wouldn’t be able
to sneak up on him.”

“Good thinking,” I said. “Let’s
just keep walking straight ahead. He seemed to know where he was going, so I
doubt he took any kind of elaborate turns.”

We walked as quietly as we could
through the woods. The leaves crackled beneath our feet, and I was afraid that
even while walking Daniel would hear us and confront us for following him. I
didn’t have a choice, though. I had to see what was going on out here, even if
Daniel did see us. At least I would know what this whole monster thing was all
about and what Adeline had to do with it.

I woke up feeling worse than I
ever had before in my life. I tried to sit up, but I couldn’t. I began to fear
death in a way that I never had before in my life. I had been so prepared to
die when I was falling asleep, but now that I was awake, I began to fight it.

I crawled across the room to the
water bucket and slowly scooped out a few drinks. They made my throat feel a
lot better and got the taste of blood out of my mouth.

I spotted the diary and picked it
up. It seemed only fitting that if I were to die, then I was going to die with
this wretched book in my hands so that when people found me, they would know it
was her fault.

I flipped right to the back and
looked at the spell to change me back.

“
I am more than
what one sees. Bring me patience, kindness, and peace,”
I said aloud.
Nothing happened.

My body was
falling apart. The healing spell hadn’t worked; the cure didn’t work. I had
never hated magic more than I did in that moment. I had always heard that magic
was wrong and that witchcraft was sinful, and I honestly hadn’t even believed
in it. Now, staring at my shaking, hairy arms, I believed, and I knew
firsthand.

“God, please
forgive me,” I prayed out loud. “I didn’t mean to get involved in any of this.
I know that I’ve been angry at you for what happened with my mother and leaving
me all alone in my life like this, but please, let me know that you are here
now. Please forgive me for being angry, for living as if you aren’t there, and
for doing the spells. I promise that I won’t do any of these spells, or any
other spells, ever again. Please don’t let me die right now. I’m not ready yet.
I want to get out of here and live a full life that glorifies you. Please give
me another chance.”

I looked at the
cure again, and read it over and over in my mind. It sounded familiar, but I
didn’t understand why.

I tried to crawl
back onto the bed, but I couldn’t make it. I lay down in the floor of the cabin
and waited for the inevitable to happen.

Just then, I
heard the door open.

“Adeline? Oh my…
Adeline? Are you alright? What happened?” Daniel asked as he rushed to my side.

“I’m sick,” I
croaked out. “I think that the beast thing is killing me, and I think that it
killed Amara too. I don’t know what to do. I…”

“Shhh,” he said.
“Don’t hurt yourself. Let me get you onto the bed.”

He carefully
lifted me and placed me gently on the mattress.

“You came back,”
I smiled.

He smiled back,
“Of course I did. I’m so sorry that I got so angry. Even if I was angry, I
should’ve stayed and worked it out instead of leaving. I shouldn’t have proved
you right.”

“I’m sorry that
I didn’t tell you,” I admitted. “I should have, I just didn’t want you to
leave.”

“Look, I have
something to show you,” he said. “Well wait, first I have some catching up to
do with you. Your father and Stacy are back together. I don’t know how it all
happened, but I went to your house and spied on them. I heard them talking
about some kind of divorce, and your father was talking about you like you had
run away, but he didn’t even report it. No one was looking for you like they
were looking for me. Anyway, after they left, I saw that Stacy left her purse,
and I found this in there. I don’t know why it was in there, but here, it’s
yours.”

He handed me a
ratty-looking envelope that had my name on it.

“So, you’re a
spy now?” I said jokingly, curious as to what this all was about.

I opened it up
and saw a key inside, along with a letter.

As I read the
note, I began to cry. It was from my mother. I missed her so much, and I didn’t
even realize how much until I read her words that were meant just for me.

“My parents were
divorced,” I said aloud. “I didn’t even know. I guess I saw the signs, but it
just didn’t click. I don’t know how that I didn’t put it all together, but I
guess that my mom was trying her best to hide it.”

“Yeah, so I’ve
been playing detective a little bit, and here’s what I think; I think that
Stacy gave you the book on purpose,” he said.

“How do you know
she gave me the book? It could have been Jasper?” I pointed out.

“No, it was
Stacy because I found
The Twelfth Night
in the storage room in the
library. It had to be her.”

My breath caught
as I realized that Stacy had been out to get me, even more than I had thought.

“Do you think
Stacy is some kind of witch?” I asked, feeling ridiculous for saying it out
loud.

He shrugged,
“Who knows? I feel like anything is possible now that I’ve seen what that book
can do. I’ve also been wondering about something else. What if you are a
witch?”

I grimaced,
“I’ve been thinking about that too, but I sincerely hope that I’m not because I
don’t want to be.”

“I guess I
should have tried out that healing spell instead of asking you to do it so that
we would know,” he said. “I could try one of the other ones?”

“No!” I
demanded. “We don’t know the consequences of anything else in the book, and I
don’t want to risk it anymore. No more spells.”

“Good thinking,”
he said, and I began coughing my head off. I grimaced at the blood.

He stood up,
“There’s got to be something that I can get you to make you feel better. I’m
going home, and I’m going to raid my medicine cabinet until I can find
something to help you.”

“I think this is
the spell; I doubt any normal-people medicine is going to help,” I said, “and
I’d really like for you to stay with me.”

My words hung in
the air like fog. I hadn’t meant to sound so vulnerable and needy, but both
emotions were represented flawlessly in my words.

He sighed, “I
want to stay with you too, but I can’t just stay here and do nothing. I have to
try to help you. I promise I’ll be quick, though. I’ll even drive my
four-wheeler back out here, okay?”

“Okay,” I
agreed, “but please hurry. I really don’t want to be alone right now.”

“I will, I
promise,” he said, and he left.