The Last Beast

In the morning, I walked into town and saw Anna waiting for me. She waved once her eyes caught my form, and we both headed into the forest.

I navigated my way through the trees as they cast shadows over us, blocking out the warm sun. I was used to walking in the forest now, I’d been doing a lot of it since my mother passed away, it felt safe. The birds chirped as we walked through the early morning dew.

As we got closer to the beast’s lair, we saw the rocky outline of the cave. The entrance was lit by the rays of light that made it through the leaves, but the rest was as dark as night. I stopped at the entrance, waiting for Anna to catch up.

“Why’d you stop?” she questioned, peering over my shoulder into the cave.

“I took you here, go do whatever you must, and I’ll take you back,” I said.

“Too scared to continue?” she taunted.

“No, but how would you feel if someone walked into your home uninvited? I bet that’s why everyone that hunts the beast ends up killed.”

“This thing slaughtered your parents, and you’re being courteous to it?” she looked at me like I was crazy.

“Yes,” I opted for the short answer, rather than going into detail and voicing my opinion.

She just rolled her eyes and grabbed my arm. She had a vice-like grip of it as she dragged me to the back of the cave and sat down on a boulder. Her eyes were trained on the entrance, she wasn’t looking for anything inside.

“Now we wait,” she whispered. I let out a sigh and sat down on the floor. For some reason I felt perfectly at ease, safe even.

We didn’t have to wait long, only about five or ten minutes. Someone approached the cave, walking at a calming pace. A few seconds passed and the person was recognizable.

With her silky, straight black hair and sparking green eyes, she was extremely beautiful. Her image was imprinted upon my mind, I knew her like the back of my hand. She stood in the cave entrance, the sun illuminating her pale skin. Elmira.

“What is it you want Anna?” her voice echoed within the cave, enhancing her strong and commanding tone.

“I want to kill you,” Anna replied with a smile, as if killing someone was nothing to her.

“What?!” I exclaimed. Elmira and I may not be as close as we once were, but she still meant a lot to me and I didn’t want her to die.

“Change for us, why don’t you? This shouldn’t take very long,” Anna spoke in a challenging tone, as if she had the upper hand.

“I’d rather you leave while you still can,” Elmira narrowed her eyes, accepting Anna’s challenge.

“Change?” I was lost, what exactly was going on here?

“Oh, silly me, you don’t know,” Anna grinned toward Elmira, not looking at me even for a second, “Your friend here is the beast, the beast that killed your beloved parents.”

“Contrary to popular belief, I haven’t killed anyone, especially not his parents,” Elmira growled back toward Anna.

“Oh? Then how do you explain their deaths, surely they were killed by the beast,” Anna smirked.

“I killed the previous beast when I went out with Aron’s mother,” Elmira voiced, “Unfortunately I didn’t know that if you killed the beast, you became the next one.”

“Yes, well, I do know that. Now, I think it’d be in your best interest to change now,” Anna frowned, obviously not liking Elmira’s explanation.

“Would it be in yours though?” Elmira narrowed her eyes.

“Yes, it would.”

The next thing I know, I’m standing in front of Anna with my hands held securely behind my back. A knife was pressed up against my throat, it dug into my skin so hard that it almost drew blood. Elmira let out a vicious growl as I just stared wide-eyed ahead of me, I did not see that coming.

“Change,” Anna commanded from behind me. Elmira narrowed her eyes at Anna, who was watching over my shoulder, before she began to shake.