"Sphere?" His words were becoming clearer and more recognizable as, well, words.

Lilia laughed again. "No, silly! Zvir."

"What does it mean?"

She shrugged and stood up. "I don't know. It just sounds neat."

The edges of my vision became blurry again. I turned to Kvir "Wait! What about the rest?"

"Lizaveta, there is nothing more to see here. Let's move on."

So, that's what we did for a while. I watched my mother and the beast--or as she called him, Zvir--do different things around the castle. She went to the library and read, ran around outside, played hide-and-seek on the castle. Every new scene I saw, she was older and the beast was more human.

The next thing we stopped at was Lilia and Zvir standing face to face. Zvir stood like a human, and actually wearing clothes. Fur still covered his face, but just barely. His eyes were a new color-- chocolate brown. He and Lilia were evidently in an argument, and had been like that for a while.

My mother's hand were clenched by her side and trembling. "Zvir, I need to go home."

He shook his head. "No. I told you that. You can't leave."

"I must!" she screamed. "I miss my family--my father and even my sisters! I miss the village people, I miss my friends!"

"The friends who dared you to come here? The friends who sealed your own fate?" he roared.

"Yes!"

Zvir stepped back. "Fine. Leave," he said sadly.

The smile that crossed Lilia's face was short-lived.

"Be warned," Zvir began. "Once you leave, you can never come back."

Lilia reached out and touched his hand-paw. "Zvir, I will always come back."

He closed his eyes and shook her off. "Just leave," he whispered painfully.

I turned to Kvir. He didn't watch what was happening in front of him. Instead, he was taking great interest in the wall behind us.

I closed my eyes. "Did she ever come back?"

He was silent. "Just watch," he finally said.

I opened my eyes again. The castle was dark, with no light shining through the now-nonexistent windows. One torch hanging on the wall let off a dim, flickering light--just barely enough to see by. The beast sat in a chair, staring at the gray wall intently. He was how I knew him--stringy blonde hair; long, gangly body; a black cloak that swallowed him, silver mask, that stupid cane that he swung between his hands. The only thing different were his eyes. They were still dark brown--so dark that the brown blended in with his pupils.

"Zvir?"

I jumped and turned, along with the beast, who shot up from his chair as if he'd been shot.

"Lilia?"

My mother stood uncertainly in the doorway, clasping her hands nervously. She smiled tentatively. "Hello, Zvir."

Zvir twirled his cane around. He didn't approach her. "You didn't come back. I waited. I waited for days, for weeks. Where were you?"

Tears sprang to Lilia's eyes at his words. "I wanted to," she whispered. "They stopped me--my father, my sisters."

He nodded. "I see."

Silence descended on the room. Lilia opened her mouth and closed it again. "I'm--I'm here to say goodbye."

He looked up. "What?"

"I'm being married off."

He nodded. "Oh."

"So you came all this way just to say goodbye?"

My mother at her feet. "Yes. Once I am married, I won't be able to come back."

She stepped forward. "I missed you, Zvir. I will miss you. You were--"

The beast held up his hand, cutting her off. "Lilia, you were--are--and will always be--my friend."

They both embraced quickly. As they pulled away, my mother whispered something softly in Zvir's ear.

It was a song.

I gasped and backed up, trying to stop what was coming.

Yeah, that didn't work.

The scene in front of me blurred and changed quickly. Flames spread around me, licking at my ears. Wooden panels fell to the floor around me--the remnants of a once-gorgeous house. The burning remains of a stuffed animal lay on the floor.

My breath caught in my chest. "No. Not here."

Kvir looked at me. "Lizavyeta? Where are we?"

I bent down to the floor. Kvir's hand grabbed my shoulder. "Lizavyeta, you have to stop thinking about it. Close your eyes. Press it out."

"Mama?"

That one scream, that scream from a little girl stopped me. I couldn't breathe. Every breath hurt--bringing along the knowledge of what would happen next.

"No!"

It couldn't happen, not again, not ever. I grabbed at my head, my hair, my ears thinking maybe it would block it out.

A board fell from the sky, covered in red fire.

Red. Red like blood. Red like death. Red like pain.

Redredredredred.

It surrounded me, covered me with a tidal wave of heat but no pain.

"Mama, where are you?"

The little girl ran right by me, through Kvir and toward the room.

The room where death happened.

I shut my eyes. The red turned black. The crackling and popping did not.

"Lizaveta!" Kvir's hands grabbed at my shoulders and squeezed. "Listen to me, this isn't real. It's a memory, okay? You can't latch hold, otherwise it'll keep playing."

It wasn't a memory. It was happening, over and over again. Every night, every moment of though, every time there was a fire, never stopping.

It was as real as it'd even been.

"Well, what do we got here, boss?"

Everything shifted. Three men stood above us, knives in their hands, red blood soaked through their shirts.

Kvir glanced in the direction they were standing. There was brown hair, torn out, littered across the floor, attached to a head, a body covered in holes--holes leaking a crimson fluid. Eyes staring into space.

My name was faint when he said it again. His voice was loud, by everything

just

kept

fading.

It was time for the girl to scream. For me to scream.

There was one.

But it was different.

It was an older person's scream, not one of a little girl.

Not one of mine.

I opened my eyes. The fire was gone.
The burning had never happened.

A body was on the cobblestones in front of me, bleeding from a gash in his neck. People ran around, swords at their waists and guns in their hands. Cobblestones were painted scarlet with drained life.

"Brennen, run!"

I turned to see who spoke. There was no one there but a woman holding a child. Her hair fell into her eyes, matted with sweat. In her right hand, there was a long gun.

She turned to go up the stairs. At the top there was an older man, sword up and ready for her to meet it.

But she didn't see.

She had to see.

I reached out my hand, step taken toward her. "Wait!"

The sword swung--

Then, it was gone. I grasped the couch underneath me tightly, feeling it beneath my fingers.

We were back.

For some reason, my arm hurt. I looked at it. Kvir held onto it tightly, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Kvir?"

"Hmm?" he mustered out. "Just talk. Say something--anything--I don't care."

I was at a loss. "Like what?"

"Whatever. Make me stop," he shuddered.

I wanted to know about the lady and child.

I didn't need to know.

So, I said the first thing unrelated to the memories that came to my mind.

"Do you and my mother ever have... uh. Well... you know."

He shook his head painfully. "No, I really don't."

Well, he asked for it.

"I'm not like, descended from you two, am I?"

My face was on fire.

It worked. He stopped thinking about whatever he was thinking about. Instead, he just burst into laughter.

"Why would you ask that? The answer is a resounding 'no', by the way," he gasped through peals of laughter.

I grinned. "I just wanted to make sure that you weren't my father or anything weird like that! And you didn't have--"

"No!" He held up his hands. "Don't finish that sentence. The answer is still no. I may be what I am, but I still have morals."

A shaky laugh came from me. "Good. That would've been..."

"Awkward-er," he finished for me.

"Yes. Awkward-er," I laughed.

"By the way, if I had done that with Lilia, I wouldn't be here today. We wouldn't be talking."

"Huh?" I asked, confused.

"Something like that would mean that I married her. If I married her, then it would have meant I loved her, and I wouldn't be in this castle. I'd be with her--wherever that would be. We were just friends. People can be friends without any type of romantic love."

It was nice to see someone else who thought that way.

When he finally settled down, Kvir looked at me. "What were the flames about, Lizavyeta?"

My smile faded. Cold latched onto my bones. "Please, can we not talk about it? It was nothing."

"It didn't look like nothing."

"I don't want to talk about just as much as you don't want to talk about your memories, okay?" I stood quickly from the couch and began to exit the room. Guilt gnawed at my stomach. I stopped by the door.

I sighed. "Thank you for showing my mother, Kvir. It--I'd forgotten how she used to be."

It was true. All I saw of her was a body, mangled and unrecognizable.

Something in his eyes clicked and all at once, he understood. It was the same understanding I had for his past--his memory.

"You're welcome, Lizaveta."

_______________________________________

I honestly wasn't going to add that last (and very awkward) question in originally, but GreggTheGrimReaper alerted me to the fact that the way I ended the last chapter made it seem like Beast was Lyza's father, and NO!, that is not true. Not happening, not doing that, sorry.

I just really wanted to clarify that.

And no, to all of those nasty-minded people out there, nothing happened between Zvir and Lilia. NOTHING.

Okay, I think I got that settled.

Fun fact: I was originally going to use Lilia as Kvir's wife's name, but changed it to Rosalie at the last minute for the sake of having something related to a rose in the story. Zvir was going to be what Zara called Kvir, but again, I changed that and opted for her to make up a name and learn a name somewhere in there. The name she made up wasn't actually supposed to sound like Zvir, but I sorta forgot what I had him called originally. The meaning behind the name also changed. Instead of Zvir and its meaning of "beast" or "monster," (if I remember correctly) Kvir means "strange." It was picked because I liked the sound of it, but then is as asked what it means and had to go to dear old Google for an answer.