~Beauty~

I turn the pages of the brand new book, feeling it's tenderness and smelling that wonderful new book smell. It's so nice to let go of this terrible world and go somewhere nicer, where anything can happen. There are adventures and journeys just waiting to happen. It's an escape and refuge that I'm glad to take advantage of. It's so magical and-

"Go long!"

"Belle! Watch it!" I look up from my book to see a football soaring towards my face as Grayson jumps in front of me, catches it, and falls to the library floor with a loud boom! "I've told you a million times, you don't catch footballs with your face," Grayson teases as he gets up. He pats himself off chuckling all the while.

"And I've told you a million times, you don't play catch in a library," I say feeling slightly annoyed. I place my book down. I can't read in these conditions.

"Sorry..." he says sheepishly. His eyes hold the weightlessness they always do. It's hard to stay mad at those eyes. They're brown with hazel flecks. The poetic side of my mind has always seen them as representing the light inside of the darkness.

"Hey, Carter! No more tossing the ball over here! Belle is trying to read!" he shouts across the library as we get a bunch of mean stares from people. But as soon as they realize it's Grayson they seem to get nicer with their stares and go back to what they were doing. Everyone loves him. Girls want to date him and guys want to be him. Which is totally unlike me. Everyone hates me.

"Shhh. You're being a bit too loud." Grayson has never been the type to sit down and quietly read a book. It's just not his thing. It's like how football isn't my thing.

As Carter walks off I hear him mumble, "Must be because she's hot. Why else would he spend so much time with her?" I brush it off like I usually do. Sometimes it feels like all of New York is talking behind my back.

Grayson takes a seat next to me on the soft little couch, oblivious to what his friend said about me. "Sorry Bells." It's a nickname he's used since we were younger. "I don't think the library is a good place for me." He shrugs and runs his fingers through his shaggy dirty blonde hair.

"It's fine, Grayson. I just wish we could find a place to hang out that's good for the both of us."

"Why don't we try something different then?" he says, excitement playing in his eyes. It's almost like the hazel bits are dancing around now.

"What do you mean?" I giggle. Grayson has been my best friend for a while now, well only friend, but I still laugh whenever I see an idea pop into his head. Let's just say it rarely happens... Just kidding. Grayson's not all jock, he's got brains to. "The whole package", that's what all the girls whisper to each other as he walks by. The only problem is he doesn't like to dedicate himself, that's what the teachers say.

"How about we go out somewhere different like a coffee shop or Chinese food place? Like a da-"

Strangers judgemental eyes stare me down. It makes me feel out of place and anxious. They're not giving me the usual disgusted looks for being Amy Anderson's daughter, but a look of pity and wonder. I try to ignore it but it seems to spreading along the group of faces until there's pointing and whispering. I feel like I'm being suffocated. I would normally shove my nose in a book to drown it out but not today. I can't take it. "Yea, coffee shop. Sounds great."

I quickly grab my stuff and run out the school library doors. Once I'm out, I feel like I can breathe again.

"Hey! Belle? What's wrong?" He puts his hand on my shoulder forcing me to slow down.

"Did you see how they were looking at me?" I ask continuing to rush down the school hallway.

"Uh, no. I was too busy looking at you." He gives me a goofy smile and I shake my head.

"It was different than the usual stares it was-" One of the boys in my math class gasps when he catches sight of me, then hurries over.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," the boy says looking more sarcastic than sincere. Grayson and I give each other confused glances.

"What are you talking about?"

He ignores my question and starts to walk off with some friends. "But you have to admit, New York will be a better place without your mother."

"My mother? What happened to my mother?" The boy ignores my question yet again and continues walking, laughing about it. Everyone knows my mother but they never confront me about her. They usually just talk behind my back about how I'll end up just like her. This is new.

Before I can say anything else, Grayson grabs the boy and slams him into a locker. "What happened to her mother?!"

The boy's eyes widen in fear and he spills. "Sh- she's missing. The police say she was abducted. The neighbors heard screams and they called the police. In the apartment, everything was torn apart, blood everywhere."

I start to shake, this can't be true. My mother's disappeared a couple of times but that was for obvious reasons; her drugs. She'd usually end up wandering all the way across town or passed out on the street somewhere.This . . . this can't be happening. She's my mom, she can't be gone. It has to be some cruel joke.

"Is that all you know?" Grayson asks with a hint of a threat in his voice.

"Yea-yea I swear." He puts him down and the boy scurries off.

For the first time, nothing Grayson can say can cheer me up. "Bells..."

I pull at my brown hair, trying to think. I can't freak out now. "Can you drive me to my apartment?" I don't trust myself to drive it this condition.

We'll see what happened once I get there. I'll see if it's true and then work from there. I just have to pray it was a lie or my mom had another stupid "misconception" with a dealer and the worst that happened was a black eye.

"Sure, anything." We rush out of our high school and get into Pedro, my baby blue buggie. It use to my dad's before he died. He got it in Mexico and named it after a friend he made over there while he was visiting family. We never addressed it as a car. It was more like a friend and now is the only thing I have left from my father.

The drive goes by too slowly. It feels like something is clawing it's way up my stomach and I nervously tap my fingers while waiting to arrive at home. The city streets pass by in a blur as Grayson drives a little over the speed limit. I don't tell him to slow down. I need to see if my mother's okay.

We pull up on my block and the sight sends chills down my spine. Police cars crowd around my apartment building.

"Oh no," I mutter.

I guess I didn't believe it. I couldn't believe my mom got herself into this much trouble but I can't deny it now. The police, the yellow tape, the blood, the mess, it's all here.

The rest of the day passes in a big blur of questioning, standing around, and holding onto Grayson for support. The police are looking around for clues, asking me things and assuring me they will work hard to find her. But I know they won't. The police are familiar with my mom. They know she's always looking for trouble, doing drugs, anything to get her away from reality. She can't face reality without my dad and he's dead.

By the end of the day, I'm left in my apartment sitting with Grayson. He's suppose to drive me to his house since it isn't safe to stay here.

I try to wrap my head around it all. My mother is somewhere unknown, in danger, possibly. . . dead.

"Are they gone?" I ask referring to the cops.

"Yea," Grayson says closing the door after them. The day has been hard for him to. There are bags under his eyes and his feet drag along the floor as he walks.

"Good." I get up from the kitchen table and wipe my tears away. The apartment is torn apart. Some of the furniture is flipped over, scratched, chipped. There was broken glass and blood. Not all of the blood was my mother's though. That's what the police said. Someone took her, that's for sure. They took some samples to analyze but it might take some time.

After waiting a second, I go into my mom's room, praying there's a clue to what happened to her in her diary. I move one of the rickety chairs to the closet, step on it, and reach for the book that I know is laying at the top of it.

"What are you doing?" Grayson watches me with curious eyes. My hand brushes against a book.

Yes!

I place it on her bed and flip through the pages. I stop at today's date.

"My mom keeps a diary. I thought maybe there could be a clue to what happened to her in it." The diary was an idea her old rehab coach suggested to help her quit drugs. Though it didn't help accomplish that goal, the diary has never failed me yet. The last time I used it I found out she was arrested in New Jersey for shoplifting in a drug store, the usual.

"Why didn't you tell this to the police?"

"Can't you see? The police don't care about my mother. No one does." He gives me a guilty look, he can't deny it. "Look, today's date." Grayson sits beside me and reads it aloud.

November 2nd,

Today I decided to get out of the house. It felt like the walls were closing in on me. I had to go. Go where? I wasn't sure.

Somehow, I made it across town to this shady looking place on Castle Road. I stopped in an alley way to collect myself. I had a super big headache. Everything was dark except a small touch of bright red. I couldn't see where it was coming from exactly but... it was beautiful. Mesmerizing.

The next thing I knew, I was jumping over a wall and crashed into the most glorious garden in the world!

The garden was long and full of green and red. In fact, it seemed as if the only plants in the garden were vines and roses. All the roses were different shades of red, some dark like blood and some light like the sunset.

I don't know how long I was in there but I eventually stumbled upon a single rose in the center of the garden. It was placed in a glass container and of course I had to remove the glass to get a closer look.

It looked like the rest of the flowers but . . . sadder? I can't really explain it. The next thing I knew the glass container was in pieces on the floor and a roar filled the air. I stumbled back, the rose falling onto me. I grabbed it and ran with it in my hand. How could I not take such a beautiful flower? Big mistake. Turns out, that's all The Beast wanted.

You heard me. The Beast. The murder that is terrorizing the streets of New York City, was chasing me. All I saw was his dark mask and ice blue eyes before I ran out of there as fast as I could.

He stopped chasing me once I got to a more public place. I'm scared though. His last words to me were ,"I will get that rose back even if I have to kill you."

But I did make it home and I have a beautiful rose for my daughter.

I shut the book and take a breath, unable to believe what I just read.

"The Beast took my mom."