~The Beast~

Teigan could have really used some clarity.

He had thought the plan to save someone was going to work. He had tremendous faith in it. For once, he had allowed himself to hope that he wouldn't spend the rest of his life as a beast. After this stunt had failed, he was beginning to reimagine what his life would look like from then on. Gone were the fantasies of being reunited with his mother, getting a job, being out and about - his existence would be reduced to hiding or catching bad guys. Not only would he be held hostage by his appearance but he wouldn't have the superhuman abilities that allowed him to do something with himself by fighting crime.

He had begun thinking deeply about life without the curse because of Bethany.

After the two had finished watching a thriller, Beth and Teigan had stayed up a while longer talking about what he would want to do when the curse broke. It was something he had never thought about until she asked.

"What do you mean? Surely, you've daydreamed about it at least a little!" she said, craning her neck over the couch pillow to glance at him. She was laying across the couch much like she was her first day at the house but this time she was smiling.

"I never thought I stood a chance at breaking the curse. In my head, I didn't have any reason to change and what the witch said was so vague - I didn't know what to do with it."

Not to mention, it took a whole year to even come to terms with what happened - to fully accept it as reality and not some nightmare he had yet to wake up from. Going after criminals wasn't his attempt to break the curse but to hold onto a sense of purpose . It was also to live up to his father's expectations to some capacity. He could never join the military or the police force but he could do his best with the hand he was dealt. He hadn't cared what the witch thought while he was doing it. He did it because he needed to.

"Then think about it now. What would you do?"

Teigan leaned back into the couch where he sat beside her, holding back a yawn. He thought about it for a moment and then answered, "I wouldn't go back to college. I hated school."

"Fair enough."

"I'd find a career I'd like." He thought about the path he was on before the curse blocked it off. If he was honest, he wasn't exactly passionate about the life he had ahead of him. Actually, he hadn't been passionate about anything for quite some time. "I wouldn't be a police officer. I don't think I ever wanted to do it for myself."

"What about woodworking?"

He smirked down at her. "Because I made you a bookshelf?"

"Teigan," she dropped the strand of hair she was playing with and stared at him, her brown eyes ablaze. "It's a beautiful bookshelf and you made it in one morning."

"Thank you."

"You could run your own furniture selling business or sell your work to furniture stores." A sheepish expression took hold of her face. "Sometimes I go out in the shed and sneak a peek at your latest creations. I know that the bookshelf wasn't a one off."

Tiegan gaped at her.

"That's right. I know about your secret hobby."

He turned from her, tugging on the drawstring of his hoodie. "Which one is your favorite?"

"I like the chest with the branches carved into it. It outlines the lid beautifully. You know, I never would have pegged you as someone artistic."

"You actually think I'm good at it?"

"Definitely."

"Then maybe I'd start my own woodworking business."

Beth rolled onto her stomach, folding her arms over each other and resting her head on them. "Where? Would you stay in the city?"

"No, too many bad memories. Also wouldn't want to risk being found out after I quit my vigilante ways." He thought about all the places in the country he could move to, all the places in the world. Nothing jumped out at him. "I don't think I have a preference for where I settle down. Home is where your people are and I don't have many of those."

The statement was sadder out loud than it sounded in his head. Bethany gave him a half smile.

"At least you'll have a world of possibilities."

Teigan would have to go home and tell Bethany that their daydreaming had been in vain. No matter how he racked his brain he couldn't figure out what didn't work. If this was not the act he needed to do to prove he changed, then what was?

If only the witch would have given him a blunt answer instead of leaving him hanging. She had no problem showing up to lecture him about keeping Beth when it inconvenienced him. Why not magically appear to give him a clue on how to break the curse?

It was time to go home.

He started his car in the cloak of the night and drove in a somber silence. It was when he was dozing off at the wheel - eyes heavy from the disappointment of his failure - that he saw a body lying in the middle of the road.

At first, he thought he was seeing things. He blinked a couple of times and expected the figure to go away. When it didn't, he panicked. He didn't have as much time to avoid it as he needed.

The tires screeched against the pavement as his foot slammed on the breaks. He jerked the wheel to the left to avoid the body, causing the car to skid and stop just shy of a tree.

He hadn't hit whatever was in the road but that didn't make him feel any better.

His car remained immobile on the side of the empty road. The car was diagonal and blocking both lanes. He took a deep breath and then adjusted his car, knowing he would have to get out to see what it was on the road . . . Or who it was.

It's a deer, he told himself as stepped out of his car.

He closed the door, his hands shaking at his sides. The headlights were casted directly onto the body.

Please be a deer.

The stillness of the night was a symphony in his ears, his heart beat the metronome. The hair on his arms stood on end. The chilling air around him only further sobered him until he couldn't believe he had been falling asleep seconds prior.

He circled around his car and peered at the shadow.

He screamed.

It wasn't a deer.

He staggered a few steps, grabbing the hood of his car to keep from falling over. He gagged as his guts turned about inside of him. Tears were pouring down his face and blurring his vision. He was choking on a sob as his mind raced. He was trying to comprehend what he just saw.

He had called her last night. She was okay when he had talked to her last night.

Bethany was lying on the pavement. Three gashes ran from her right shoulder to her torso with blood crusted and dried inside of them. Her eyes were open and vacant.

He was gasping for breath and no matter how much air his lungs took in, he couldn't breathe.

A wheeze came from Bethany's body. Her chest rose and suddenly she was moving - trying to sit up straight but unable to.

"Teigan -!" she rasped.

He stumbled onto his knees to be next to her. Her eyes were wide with horror as she saw the gashes running across her body. He didn't know what to do or what to say. He just wanted to scream.

Her head fell back onto the concrete as a whimper escaped his lips. Her eyes rolled back into her skull and for a second that felt like eternity, he could only stare at her corpse helplessly.

Dread. He was filled with endless dread.

Then she smiled. "This is what they think happened to her. Every single second you keep her is another second this nightmare drags on for them."

Her eyes shot open, causing him to jump back and hit his head with the front of his car. The brown in Beth's eyes morphed into a glowing green. A faint purple hue outlined her body until she was enraptured by the light.

Teigan stepped away. His tears dried and the chasm of distraught that had formed in his chest filled with disgust.

"You're sick!" he snarled.

The rest of Beth's image melted until the witch stood in her place. "I was proving a point."

Teigan was shaking.

"Stay away from me."

"You may not be going after criminals but you're still hurting people!"

He sat against the hood of his car and focused on the puffs of smoke that came out everytime he exhaled. "Do you know what I did a few days ago?

"Yes." She didn't look the slightest bit impressed that he had saved someone. "I can tell you plainly that you are not going to break the curse like that."

He slammed his fist into the car. "Why do you loathe me? I know I'm terrible but why me? Out of all the scum on earth you're doing this to me."

The witch pressed her cherry colored lips together, breaking her signature gaze to stare at her feet. He thought she may not answer until he heard her voice as gentle as the autumn breeze. "When I cursed you, I thought I was righting a wrong in the world. What I really did was hold a mirror up to my face."

He could neither decipher her change in demeanor nor her words. "What?"

"You and I have made the same mistake and we're both trying to fix it."

With that, she turned around and walked into the darkness of the road ahead of her. Her figure was swallowed up by the night, leaving Teigan with the image of Bethany's corpse on the road imprinted onto his eyelids.

She had gotten a point across with her morbid performance - just not the one she wanted to.