Shadows Of Goodbye

Bella

I, like many, feared The Beast. No one that had ever laid eyes on him had lived. I grew up hearing tales of the plagues that he had unleashed when his thirst wasn't satisfied. The last time was in 1470 BC. Those plagues mostly affected the Middle East, but all humans feared it could spread so they started selecting tributes to serve as sacrifices.

All of my 28 years of life, I have been cursed with visions. They are snippets of the past intertwined with the present. I had been placed in institutions until one day I pretended to be cured. Because these visions only occur when I sleep it makes it easy to say that I was cured. Since my release, I have started sleeping less and less. Now my days are filled with paperwork and fetching coffee for Mr. Daniels. He is a crude and horrid man, but as long as his coffee is fresh and hot, I can avoid his wrath. I often daydream of a beautiful land teeming with wildlife and filled with joy. I long to be free, but that is a reality that will never be.

However, one day my monotonous life took a bizarre turn. I brought in Mr. Daniels’ coffee as I had done for years but instead of him sitting behind his desk an eerily handsome man’s gaze met mine. I dropped the coffee as the man stood and said, “Seize her!” I tried to fight, but I was no match for the two strong men who grabbed me. The eerie man got up into my face. The putrid stench of his breath burned my nostrils and made my stomach churn. He ran his finger along my jaw before his hand wrapped around my throat and began to squeeze, “This one will do quite nicely.” Then everything went black as I was shrouded in the shadows of goodbye to all that I had ever known.

After what must have been hours later, I awoke in an unfamiliar place. Fog surrounds me as hooded figures chant in a strange language. I try to move but I can't because my arms and legs are tied to a boulder with weird cravings in it. I try to scream but my voice comes out as a mere whisper. Shadows dance on the walls of this desolate cave before the ground begins to shake. The hooded figures fall to their knees and keep their eyes on the trembling ground.

I am going to die. This is how my life ends. An enormous muscular figure rises from the dark rift that formed from the cracks in the ground beside me. His black wings unfurled and sparkled like a black diamond. His chiseled features were borderline cruel, but his eyes…there was something familiar about his steely gray eyes.

I was struck with a mix of emotions but fear surprisingly wasn't among them. I knew that I was going to die at the hands of The Beast, but yet I welcomed it. For reasons that I can't explain, my life suddenly felt meaningless. The Beast roared, “Offering accepted,” before his clawed finger slashed my bindings. The Beast was a huge winged creature with horns and piercing red eyes. He was the devil and we all knew the price if we crossed him. My life would spare humanity until he came to collect again. Before everything went black, all I remember was touching his face with my hand and seeing a heartbreaking sadness in his eyes.

There in the arms of The Beast, I awaited a death that never came. As I let the shadowy darkness comfort me, I said goodbye to my mundane life of slaving away in a stuffy office, of the pain of loneliness, of the heartache of never being enough.