Curse of the Beast

"You are apeshit crazy."

Three girls stood outside an ancient castle that resided not too far from their hometown. Two bickered a bit away from the wrought iron gates while the third leaned against the metal, staring as if mesmerized. She wrapped her brown hair up into a tight ponytail, knowing that even before her friends, Kim and Jenny, were through arguing they would all agree to go inside the grounds. It was their nature after all to explore the old, creepy, and abandoned.

"It's what I heard!" Jenny insisted. The slightly older blond laughed.

"You're just too damn gullible for your own good," Kim teased before turning to their friend. "What d'you think, Dria?"

Alexandria, or Dria, turned to look at her, a mischievous glint in her golden brown eyes. Kim was groaning in mock exasperation before the words came out.

"We're going in!"

Jenny squealed in delight. The gate before them was twenty feet high and padlocked, but climbable. They could use it to get close to the top of the stone wall then make their way from there. With Kim at the rear, grumbling and complaining, but following nonetheless, the trio scaled the barrier and landed smoothly within.

Dria found herself unable to hesitate. She took off through the once beautiful garden, running haphazardly up a broken cobblestone pathway to the castle doors. All around her were the ruins- a split willow crushing a small statue. The cherub's severed stone head lay not too far from its smashed remains. Horrible black vines crept across the sprawling lawn with inch long thorns sticking out. The sight reminded Dria vividly of an old movie she had watched with Jenny. A castle had been surrounded by vines such as these with a dragon within guarding a sleeping princess. Dria laughed. This was going to be one of her top explored places once she was done with it.

"Wait up!"

She skidded to a stop just near the large front doors as her two companions caught up. Kim stumbled to a halt, panting and trying to straighten her bright pink, ruffled blouse. The girl never dressed for adventure despite having known Dria for well over three years now. She claimed that upholding her superior looks was far more important than making sure she could break in somewhere.

“Ditch the fancy attire for once in your life, diva,” Dria suggested sweetly. Jenny had stopped to look at the empty fountain with its crumbling façade. “Y’know, she could be right. There could be someone in there. Maybe not a beast.” The story Jenny had told had what convinced Dria to go there in the first place. Of course, Kim being the one with her head on right and skeptical as always had argued with their friend the whole walk there. Still…the story told of a horror haunted Beauty and the Beast. Except that in this version Beast had long since killed Beauty and had become forever cursed. Was it true? Was there a beast within the confines of the ancient structure before them? What Dria had neglected to mention to her companions was the light. In the far western tower she had seen a lit window followed by a large, dark shadow. The others had missed this thankfully or else she would never have convinced them to enter the grounds.

Kim didn’t reply. She didn’t fancy the possibility that there might be someone living in the place they were about to break into. For a moment she wanted to laugh. Before Dria had come into her life, she was just the typical popular girl at Little Town High. She tore people down with her words, never her fists. Then this raggedy dressed nobody showed up and the second Kim had tried to assert her power, Dria had shot her down. Without cowering, without ducking her head and running away like most, Dria had stood up to Kim. Insulted her back the instant the diva had let the cruel, ego shattering words fly. Why would she be enemies with someone so confident?

“Are we going in or just admiring the view?” Jenny asked. “There’s a broken window on the far right. I think it leads to the kitchens.” The trio hurried over to examine and sure enough, they had their way in.

Dria entered first, her strong beamed pocket flashlight at the ready. She pulled the broken glass out until the frame was completely clear before easing in like a cat burglar. It helped that she wore mainly dark clothes. Just in case, she laid her jacket across the bottom of the window for the other two girls and looked around the cramped space while they entered.

Rotten food covered every inch of space she could see. There was a horrible stench too that she couldn’t pinpoint. It was like something decaying or dead. Roaches scattered from her light, hiding in the peeling and cores and bits of trash. Kim muttered inaudibly behind her. Assuming both girls were in, Dria stepped forwards to the door on the opposite side of the room where she saw the source of the odor.

Whirling around, she clamped her hand over Kim’s mouth upon the sight of the dead cat swinging from the doorknob. “Don’t scream,” she warned. “As far as it seems, the place is empty, but just in case someone is hiding. Do. Not. Scream.” Kim, wide-eyed, nodded.

“We’ve entered a madman’s house, haven’t we?” she asked softly as Jenny took the cat from the door and gently laid it outside the window.

“Like you said earlier, there’s no way someone lives here,” Dria reminded her. “I’m sure we are safe.” She then told Jenny to cover the cat with her jacket. “We’ll bury the poor thing later.” She hated the jacket anyways. It was a ‘gift’ from Dean, her stepfather and Jenny’s real father. The jacket was neon green and puffy. Dria shuddered inwardly on that last part. She hated those stupid puffy jackets. Leading the way, she opened the door finally and stepped out into a long hallway with a door on either end. The one on their right was large and with a huge, iron padlock on it. “What a day for me to leave my knife at home,” she muttered then louder, “Come on. This looks like the way to the main hall. Maybe.” The faded red carpet expelled dust with every step they took, but held far less trash than the kitchen had. Quietly, they made their way to the left side door.

Beyond the door lay an immense foyer. Like the rest of the place it too was decrepit. A massive chandelier lay in the middle of the entrance hall, shattered to a thousand pieces. Small statues were knocked from their pedestals and one even hung precariously from a brazier. Aside for one window high above the front doors and Dria’s pocket light, no other light illuminated the room. Across from where the girls stood were four other doors. Each closed and had locks on them as well. Opposite of the entryway stood two more massive wooden doors, slightly ajar. Dria stood in the center of the hall, staring at the slightly open doors. The blackness beyond filled her with an unusual sense of wonder. She trembled just imagining what might be beyond those doors. Kim tried the front doors. They were predictably locked. Jenny tried all the other doors and met the same end with each of them.

Dria went ahead as if mesmerized. There was a small flight of stairs up to the tall, beckoning doors. One of the statues lay on a step, tilted on its side as if it had been purposely left there. She passed it and reaching the doors, opened them.

Light flooded this room out of nowhere, several torches suddenly springing to life around the rich, red velvet walls. Unlike the cold gray stone of the previous hall, this one was much more welcoming though similar in structure with four doors on both sides and matching double doors across from where Dria stood.

“Wow,” Jenny whispered, peeking in behind her stepsister. Even that small whisper echoed off the walls. Kim even was forced to acknowledge the sheer awesomeness of the room before them. Dria entered with the two close behind her. For once there was no trash. The area was clean, though held an air of loneliness and abandonment. Spider webs clouded the light fixture above. This one was even larger than the broken chandelier.

Seeing ahead that the staircase split off at the doors, Dria rushed up to it. Left or right? The western tower had been off to the left side of the castle. Common sense told her she should avoid that side, but her unfailing curiosity beseeched otherwise. Without a word, she took the left, the stairs ascending straight up over a dozen feet before cutting abruptly off onto a short landing. Two doors stood on either side. Again, she thought back to the tower. It had been close to the front. She chose left again. A much longer, darker flight of stairs met her. This time the trash was back and she saw rats scurrying along with the roaches.

“Dria, haven’t we done enough?” Kim asked quietly. “I need to get home soon and so do you and Jenny.” Even Jenny tugged on the hem of Dria’s tanktop to get her attention. None of the girls wanted to really mention how the lights in the second vestibule had turned themselves on still. Kim and Jenny were more than ready to leave.

“Yeah, c’mon, sis,” she said.

“Five more minutes. I…I wanna check something out,” she muttered. She entered the stairwell and began climbing up, careful to avoid making noise. Something about this place egged her on. It was as if the vast castle was just begging her to explore it more, but first she had to see this. It’s like I’ve been led here, she mused. At first only her flashlight shown. Then after a while she began to notice quite a different kind of light. It flickered somewhere ahead of her. She shut off hers quickly, indicating the others to stop. “Okay…I think we are good to go- Oh!”

The light ahead extinguished and the door it had been behind creaked ominously. Dria fumbled to turn the flashlight back on. Once they had light, all three girls certainly wished they were still in the darkness. Massive, black furred paws stood in the fresh beam, a long tail swished through the trash. Fear- actual chilling fear- kept Dria from raising the light for several long heartbeats.

“Get. Out.”

He didn’t yell or scream. He didn’t need to. Jenny and Kim ran away as fast as they could. Dria, however, mustered the courage to look the master of the castle in the face.

Jenny was right.

With a scream of terror, the no longer fearless leader took off after her friends, passing through the other rooms without stopping or pausing for breath. She ran and ran until she came to the doors of the first hall. Kim and Jenny were at the broken chandelier, urging their friend on when the unthinkable happened.

She was running to fast to stop, to fast to remember the statue laying on the stairs. Her feet hit it and her left leg caught the gargoyle’s wing. A terrible, sickening crack filled the hall as her leg snapped under the shocking force. She tumbled down the rest of the stairs, in agony, but alive and conscious.

“Go,” she rasped before the two even made it to her. “Get help. Go get help and come get me.” They would only be dragged down by her in her current state. That and any movement could cause severe damage to her broken leg. “Go, I’ll be fine.” When neither made to move, she shouted, “GO!” They tottered backwards.

“We’ll be back, Dria,” Jenny promised. “No time at all! We’ll be back for you!” She started forwards to give her sister one quick hug when her gaze caught a shadow at the top of the steps. Dria didn’t need to look to know who it was- what it was. A cold acceptance washed over her. She had brought them so deep into the forbidden place. She had known someone was there. Now it was only fitting she paid the consequences. Bitter tears welled in her eyes as she watched her friends run out of the now open front doors and out the gates that were also open. How that all came to be she didn’t care to know. Their shouts, promising to return for her echoed back until they were beyond the grounds where the gates slammed shut and so did the doors.

Now she was alone with the Beast.