Chapter 3: Chapter 3: What are you

She really did have somewhere to go. It wasn’t a lie. She wasn’t making an excuse just to not talk to Box, as a matter of fact she sort of wanted to spend the day with him. She was so intrigued by what this mysterious man really was like. But she had no idea how she could go about this. She felt so lost and confused the more and more this man would come into her life that she felt almost as if it followed her. She did have something to do however. After every weekly art class, she would go visit Lily so they could play in their imaginary world, a world Belle enjoys traveling to. She arrived at Lily’s house and saw Lily sitting on the dusty, worn down front porch as she always does. When Lily saw Belle in the distance, she again squinted until Belle came up close and then jumped to her feet. 

“BELLE!” She whispered loudly.

“Hi Lily.” Belle smiled. She got off her bike and slowly walked up to Lily. “You ready for some adventure?”

“YEAH!!”

Lily and Belle went off to play in their imaginary world again. Today, they were in a dystopian city. Pollution had ruined the world and they had to tread through the desert in a mask to find the final store with the supply of food. They hid behind trees away from the desert hoarders who had violence in their eyes. Lily would run ahead and scout the area for Belle making sure it was safe to travel. While on the way, Belle found a shiny red rock on the floor 

“It’s safe here Belle! But be careful, I think people may be after us.” Lily said while checking over her shoulders.

“Thank you Lily, I think they’re after the magic rock you hold.” Lily looked confused.

“What rock?” Belle handed the rock to Lily

“This one,” Belle handed her the red gem she found on the floor “Don’t let anyone ever take it from you. You must protect it with your life or else the secret of our magic will be out to everyone.” Lily looked at Belle with a determined smile and they continued on their journey.

 Lily and Belle tiptoed from tree to tree until they arrived at their local grocery store. “This is it, our promised land.” said Belle. When they entered, they were greeted by the bright white lights and rows and rows of various foods and food products. Lily had stars in her eyes.

“It’s been months since I’ve seen this much food!” Belle felt a wash of sadness over her face. Was it wrong to not know if Lily was still in character or was she just saying this as Lily. Lily ran in excitement. “Is this all ours?!” Belle stood in silence. Usually, when they played in their world they never actually went to any certain place instead creating their own. Belle felt ashamed and didn’t know how to tell Lily that she was actually poor and couldn’t afford many things if anything. Belle scrambled to find the right things to say.

“Actually, we don’t know if these are poisoned, maybe those men sent assassins! We should just look through and inspect first.” Belle looked over at Lily and saw her smile grew weaker. Lily still smiled but obviously seemed a bit saddened. She knew exactly what Belle meant. Their imaginary world slowly merged back into reality, and Lily’s gaze slowly turned from the skies back down to the ground. She stopped running around and slowly walked from place to place. She waddled over to Belle until she was glued onto her. Was it cruel what Belle did to Lily?  Lily put out her hand and Belle held it gently. “I’m sorry, '' Belle thought. She wanted to give Lily the world, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t even have her own slice of the world. Belle didn’t have any money because she never was able to get a job due to both time and transportation so she could not afford to buy a single item here. Lily still seemed fascinated to be at the store as if this was her time, as if this store held treasures beyond her imagination. They quietly toured the store. As they walked around the store Lily stopped suddenly. Her gaze was fixed on one thing. A bar of chocolate. 

“Do you like chocolate?” Belle asked. Lily merely shrugged.

“I don’t know.” Lily told the floor. Belle wanted to cheer up Lily and this whole time she was conjuring up a story. 

“That, is the holy treasure of this nation.” Belle said in a grandiose voice.

“What nation?” Lily looked back up at Belle with a small smile. 

“The nation of…um…conveland. Yeah that’s the one! Every year they hold a contest to see who deserves this treasure and pick one winner to receive it. But the contest has already ended this year.”

“What do I have to do to win?!” Lily was back to being the excited girl she hid inside.

“Well,” Belle started walking backwards while explaining. With every word she used her body as a canvas to portray her message with comically large motions and voices. “You have to become big and strong!” She puffed up her chest

“Stronger!” Lily responded.

 

“study hard to become smarter!” Belle struck her best thinker pose.

 

“Smarter!” Said Lily.

 

“And last BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY! You have to be-“ Belle felt herself bump into something in the middle of her posing. She turned around and saw the person she wanted to see the least. Box. She shot back to her regular poised position and pretended to be looking through the aisle next to her. 

 

“Hey Belle. You alright?” Box asked.

 

Belle felt warm, because she was so embarrassed. No one other than Lily had seen Belle play imagination, not even Ashe. Wait, did he just call her Belle? 

 

“Yeah I’m fine, thank you Box.” She was trying to compose herself but it was seeming to be a bit hard. She looked to her side and saw Lily look at her confused. She was stuck between two worlds. Box looked at Belle still concerned.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Yes I’m very sure.” Belle wondered why Box was so suddenly concerned, until she realized what aisle she was in. Right in front of her were bottles of laxatives. She looked back at Box and felt her sweat mat her forehead. “M-my friend ate something bad.” Box did not seem to buy this. He saw the girl by Belle’s side and decided to question her instead. He kneeled down and asked.

 

“What are you doing here with Belle?”

 

“We’re here looking for food supplies for our base, but you have to be really quiet though because we’re being chased by bandits because of my magic stone.” Belle felt her face get flushed. 

 

“Hey you can’t tell people about that-“

 

“Ooooooh that makes sense, I knew I saw a bunch of bandits dude around here too.” Box looked over his shoulders, “don’t tell anyone, but I’m running away from them too.” He held out his necklace showing the fiery dog “this is an ancient artifact handed down from my family and they want to sell it for money! But you know I couldn’t do that right?” Lily grew a small smile and nodded. Box looked back up at Belle. “Now what are you doing here.” 

 

“I” Belle looked over at Lily. “I’m here to protect Lily from the bandits, and collect food supplies.” Lily smiled at Belle and Belle smiled back. “What about you?” Belle asked Box.

 

“Just getting some groceries, this is the closest place to me so I come here all the time for food.” Box looked like a lightbulb just turned on in his head. “Um…I know we met each other twice today and it kinda seems very convenient, but I swear I’m not following you. I know you might think ‘oh that’s what a person following me would say’ and to that I say I wouldn’t know what they say because I am not a person who follows and uh” Box saw Belle start staring at him with eyes so cold and dead they could freeze lava. Box pulled out his uno reverse card. “So you got bad poopies? You and me both sister.” Box pointed at the laxatives that Belle was facing towards and Belle’s eyes grew even colder. She took a deep breath in and out. 

 

“You’re really weird aren’t you.” Belle said.

 

“So I’ve been told.” Box smiled. “Well I’ll let you go back to your poop medicine.”

 

“Thank you” Belle responded, waving and signaling a goodbye. She felt a tug on her shirt then.

 

“What if someone steals his ancient artifact, we have to help protect it from the bandits.” Lily said into Belle’s shirt. 

 

“Don’t worry, he’s strong enough to protect himself.” Belle felt like she was lying for some reason saying this.

 

“He doesn’t look like it.” Box looked as if an arrow pierced his heart. Belle let out a small laugh. 

 

“Okay we’ll protect him.” Belle looked up at Box. “Do you have a bit of time?” 

 

“I can make some time, anything for my protectors.” The trio walked through the store occasionally living in their imaginary world. It wasn’t long until Box broke Lily out of her shell. He hid alongside Lily from strangers trying to protect her magic stone even if he would get embarrassed. Belle stood in the back to observe these two kids run about but after a while Belle decided to break away from the group. She needed a small break because after all this talk of imagination and being around two people, it had drained her. She walked through the aisles alone thinking how surreal everything was. Not just last week she had no idea who the man was and now they were casually walking through the store together as if they were best friends. Belle could still hear the two’s chattering from aisles away and smiled knowing they were having fun. As she walked, Belle wondered if Lily would have more fun with Box as he was more committed to his parts than if she just spent the day with Belle. She couldn’t help but feel a bit dirty for thinking like this, but she thought to herself “Maybe if I just left right now, who would notice.” 

 

As Belle walked around, she spotted the chocolate bar that caught Lily’s eyes. She picked it up and examined the treat until she reached the price tag. Four dollars. “What an absurd price.” She thought to herself. She held the bar in her hand contemplating what to do. She really wanted to get it for Lily but she didn’t even have any cash on her. She didn’t even have food for herself. Belle was living off the few dollars that would appear on her table some nights. She held onto the bar a bit longer. Belle has never broken the law, violent as she may be , she’s never gone out of her way to be deviant. Slowly Belle started putting the bar into her pocket.

 

“Thank god we found you, I thought they caught you.” Belle jumped and put the bar back. It was Box. Well it was Box's head peeking over the corner into the aisle above Lily’s head. 

“Lily was worried sick about you.” Lily slowly nodded.

 

“I…I missed you.” Lily whispered. The scare knotted Belle’s stomach, but hearing these words from Lily brought her down to earth. 

 

“You’re being silly.” Belle walked over to Lily and patted her head, “Let’s get you back home.” The trio headed towards the exit without any rations to speak of but successfully protecting the magical stone. 

 

“You’re gonna be alright right Box?” Lily said shyly. Box kneeled down to get on eye level with Lily and smiled. In a whisper he responded.

 

“Don’t you worry about me. Keep this a secret but I’m actually a really powerful wizard.” Lily’s eyes widened and began to glow.

 

“REALLY?!” Lily was fully convinced. 

 

“Here let me show you.” Box reached out and gestured for the rock from Lily. Lily was hesitant at first. She gave a look towards Belle and as she gave an approving nod, she handed the rock to Box.

Box closed his eyes for a moment and held the rock firmly. He focused so hard and intently it looked as almost a wind of right formed around him. After a few minutes of intense focusing, he let out a big breath and handed it over to Lily.

“Now everytime you’re ever in trouble, hold onto this rock and think of me, and I’ll come to help you.”

Lily smiled widely and took the rock back. Box stood back up.

“Alright I’ll let you guys head out and do your thing, you guys get home safely. I would make you one too Belle but I’m all out of rocks.” Belle let out a chuckle.

 

“I’m sure I’ll be alright.” They waved goodbye and headed towards Lily’s home. 

 

Belle and Lily held hands as they walked to her home. Belle and Lily usually never played this far from their houses so they had a long walk back. Since they had been gone for so long, they were able to watch the sun set over the horizon. As it set, the sun had a beautiful crimson hue. Streaks of pink flew across the fly as clouds picked up on the bits of the red being shone by the sun. Belle took it in for a moment holding onto Lily’s hands tightly. She had seen this sunset a million times but it looked so much more beautiful that day. But nothing gold can stay. Soon the sun left the sky and the night crept up, seemingly following the pair from behind. Lily walked tightly next to Belle clutching on to her hand and forearm. They walked from streetlight to streetlight trying to stay as brightly lit as possible. Anytime they wouldn’t be in the circle of light, Lily would clench tighter. Silently, the two treaded through the night.

 

Belle stayed vigilant. Walking from streetlight to streetlight through the darkness of night was frightening to Belle. Shadows stretched and crawled on the floor making ghostly, morphed figures. Lily might’ve been scared of these apparitions, but Belle was fearful of one thing in the night. After a few minutes of walking, Belle spotted exactly what she was fearful of. A man sat on a park bench not just a few feet away. It looked as if he had been sitting there a while with nothing on his mind. He did not particularly seem homeless, being well dressed in a full suit, but this caused more concern for Belle. Belle held Lily tightly towards her and avoided any sort of eye contact with the man. Lily, with innocent eyes, let curiosity take her and let her eyes drift towards the suspicious man until Belle gave her a little pull. The seconds felt like hours, and every step felt torturous. This man, not even looking towards the girl's direction, sent a chill down Belle’s spine, almost as if he was inspecting them with something greater than his eyes. With bated breath the two walked past the man. Belle let out a big gasp of air. She felt like she had just conquered a mountain, but after a few steps, her nightmares would come true. Even as she was slowly distancing herself from the man, she heard the sounds of him starting to get up. The man started following the girls from a distance trailing without speaking a word. Maybe it was just coincidental the man got up right then and there, but as Belle took different turns and routes to get to Lily’s house she knew she was in trouble.

“Hold on.” Belle told Lily. She grabbed Lily’s hand tightly and began to run down the dark streets. Lily had a hard time trying to keep up with Belle for a while, stumbling over her feet to try to match her pace, but Belle knew that she needed to get Lily to safety. Belle could see the fear in Lily’s eyes as tears started to form. As Belle turned back, he saw the man run after them trailing closely behind and closing in the gap between them. “What’s his problem?” Belle thought. She was desperately trying to run from this man but he was slowly creeping up on her. Belle noticed how much Lily had been stumbling and falling to try to keep up and decided to lift her onto her shoulders. No matter how hard Belle ran it seemed as if she could not shake off her pursuer. She would turn corners to try to evade the follower but he would always be right behind her. Belle would trip and fall injuring her own knees but as they bled she kept running to bring Lily to safety. After a while, she realized that she had become completely lost in her attempts to shake her pursuer. She became more and more frustrated by the minute, growing more fatigued with every step. Tears started forming in Belle’s eyes as she ran. Belle was terrified. 

 

Losing her energy and strength, Belle decided the only choice of action was to hide. Belle took a turn into a random street and as she searched her surroundings, she realized she only had one option. Belle climbed a fence and jumped into a backyard. As they fell down the fence Belle dropped violently, slightly dropping Lily off her back. Belle ran to Lily and held her tightly.

 

“Are you alright Lily?” Belle whispered. Belle examined Lily and noticed multiple bruises and cuts on her legs and arms. She hadn’t realized how much they had been tripping until she saw that her own legs weren’t in any better shape. Lily responded with a nod.

 

“Are we gonna die?”

 

“No we won’t die I promise, I’ll protect us.” Belle held Lily tightly against her. She remained silent listening to the stranger’s footsteps. Step by step she could hear the footsteps slowly approaching her. She put herself against the fence door and sat down. She could hear voices from inside the house of confusion. A man and a woman started talking about the noise coming from outside. Belle was in a bad situation. The footsteps came closer and closer until it approached the fence gate. Belle dug her feet into the ground attempting to  use her body to barricade the door to keep the man outside. The man started banging against the door causing the voices from inside the house to get more decisive. The door was slamming against Belle’s back and even as she tried her hardest not to falter, the force of the door was too much for her legs and eventually knocked her to the ground. She fell harshly on her knees and turned around just to see the man standing over her. She collected Lily and asked the man,

 

“What do you want?” The man looming over her gave her a twisted smile.

 

“You know at first I just thought you were just a pretty little sight, but the way you ran.” His eyes widened, almost lizard-like. “The way you ran invigorated me a little bit.”  Belle felt revolted by the man's response and now upon closer inspection, by his face too. What looked like just a regular businessman afar on the bench, now looked almost alien and morphed. His eyes weren’t lined up and was far apart, his hands big and hairy, and his legs looked like two tree trunks about to burst out of his pants. 

 

“I’ve been getting a little lonely ever since my wife stopped being so loving, and caring for me. Not wanting to attend to my needs. But I’m a man, and men have their needs you know. My wife understands too because she also goes out late at night and drinks with all those pretty boys. So I just want my own fun. I know you girls understand.”

 

The more the man spoke, the more his face morphed and contorted. Belle tried to slowly back away but this made the man’s smile grow. 

 

“Where do you think you’re going beautiful.” The man walked closer and closer and started to reach for the two girls. Belle, with her free hand, grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at the man’s face. The man pulled back in pain and as he was trying to clean his eyes. Belle took this opportunity to throw a deadly right hook at his face. The swing landed and a small cracking noise was heard. Since she was already exhausted and racked with pain, Belle fell to the ground immediately after attacking the man. When she looked up, the man’s face was warped towards the direction of the punch. His jaw slacked to one side but the punch seemed to unphase him. Belle winced in pain as she clenched her wrist. She was sure she just broke every bone in her hand. 

 

“You’re pretty strong huh, you could have KILLED me with that punch. So now you’re gonna make up for it right? That’s only fair right? That’s what equality is.”

 

Belle was backed up into the other side of the wooden fencing. She looked over to Lily and saw her in tears, fearful for her life and uncontrollable sobbing. Belle swung into action. She punched the wooden fence with her bare hand breaking the slat of wood enough to let Lily through. She screamed out of pain but was able to push Lily through with the last of her strength. She looked at Lily with a smile and whispered.

 

“Run and hide, I promise I’ll be right with you soon.” Belle realized this was a lie but she needed Lily to get to safety. Lily turned back at Belle but did not move.

 

“Hurry.” At this moment the man grabbed Belle’s arm and held her up. Belle screamed in excruciating pain as the man grabbed her by her broken wrist. She looked back over to the man only to see him smiling.

 

“For some reason, you know all the ways to work me up little

Girl. The way you run. The way you SCREAM.” The man let out a laugh. “ I can't wait to do all the things I want with you.” With his other hand the man started to hold Belle’s leg with a firm grasp. His breath was absolutely revolting. No matter how much Belle tried to distance himself from him it was to no avail. His hand started working it’s way up Belle’s leg. She tried kicking him off but her feet just seemed to be squishing off him. All of the sudden she heard a voice. 

 

“Hey what’s going on back here?!” A bearded man with a shotgun came out from his house. Seeing the scene of a man, holding up a girl by the arm, the bearded man went on the offensive.

 “I already called the police so you better not think you’re getting out of this situation.”

 

The grotesque man threw Belle aside at the fences and slithered towards the man with the shotgun. 

 

“If you get any closer I’ll shoot, I ain’t joking around.” 

You are reading story Your World at novel35.com

 

“I wanna see you try, I feel like I can’t hold back tonight. Not anymore. I’m free you see, I’m truly free.” The man had his twisted grin and as he approached the other man fired off his shotgun right into his chest. The mutated man took a step back to catch his balance, his chest was riddled with the shrapnel of the shotgun shell but it merely stopped at his chest. After a few moments, the bullets oozed off in an almost slime like coating, hitting the floor like congealed rain. The bearded man had a look of fear. The man now seemed almost monstrous like with the amount his body has morphed, now moving with almost a slug-like crawl.

 

“What are you” the man asked in terror.

 

The man slugged his way towards the bearded man and held his gun. Just by being in his hands the shotgun began to melt in his hand. The bearded man, realizing what he was dealing with tried running back into his house crying for his wife to save him, but as soon as he turned around, with a flick of his finger, the disgusting monster flung the man across the yard into a shed, incapacitating him. He then turned slowly back at his original target and headed towards her. Belle didn’t know what she was looking at, it was as if his face was slowly melting almost as if he was gonna turn into a blob. Out of nowhere Lily appeared in front of Belle eyes filled with tears and her arms outstretched as if she was trying to protect her. 

 

“I-I know what you want. A-and she doesn’t have it.” This made the man curious. 

 

“What do you think I want?” The man asked Lily.

 

“My magic rock.” She stretched out her hand and showed the rock Belle had given her early that day. “I-I know it’s valuable. But I don’t want Belle to get hurt a-anymore for it. So if I give it to you, would you leave us alone.” 

 

“Lily run!” Belle shouted.

 

The man left out a boisterous laugh. The whole time Lily spoke she had been staring at the ground unable to look at this abominable man, but now it was obvious the tears were flowing from her eyes as it landed onto the ground underneath her. The man backhanded Lily so hard she hit the ground and became unconscious. Belle was filled with anger. Seeing Lily on the ground with blood coming out of her head, she used the last of her strength to get up with a mighty yell and punch the man with her other hand only to have it crack on her too. Desperately she punched him but to no avail, he looked unphased and somewhat pored.

 

“Now you just look so ugly.” He grabbed Belle by the neck and picked her up off the ground. Everywhere he would touch him she could feel her skin slowly burn away.

 

“Before you get too ugly I’m gonna have my way with you. I can't let meat spoil.” He threw her on the ground and began to straddle her. He squeezed Belle’s cheeks in one hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll make the last moments of your life a memorable one.” As the monster loomed over her a few drops of his toxic ooze landed on her clothes. When the deep dark ooze landed on Belle’s clothes it was almost as if the ooze wanted to get through. But within this chaos, and the stench of the monster, she smelled a faint aroma, something almost sweet, like peaches. Slowly the scent grew stronger, and from a distance she could feel a warm light emerging. From her position she couldn’t see who it was but when she heard her voice she could tell immediately. 

 

“Could you get off my friend? I think you’re a little in her personal bubble.” The monster stopped in his tracks. He slowly stood up and turned towards the voice at a snail's pace. 

 

“Who are you?” The beast gurgled.

 

“Could you please get out of here, I have to tend to my friend.” Just by hearing his voice Belle knew exactly who it was. It was Box. Belle tried to look up to get a glimpse of what was happening but her entire body was in pain and could hardly move. The sense of relief lasted merely a moment. If he couldn’t take on two regular thugs, how was he supposed to take care of this mutated thing?

 

“Box, get out of here! Take Lily with you and run!” But before Box could even respond, the monster charged at Box head on at breakneck speed. But as fast as the beast rushed him Box hopped about 10 feet in the air dodging the oozing bull. The monster crashed into the wooden fence from where they came from and groaned in pain on the floor. Belle couldn’t believe her eyes. She stared in disbelief at the man slowly flowing back to the ground. In the air he walked down an invisible staircase towards Belle creating ripples in the air with every step he took. When we got to Belle he had a look of horror over witnessing how much she’s been through.

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.” When Belle saw Box standing between her and the monster she couldn’t help but tearing up. However, this moment only lasted a second when behind Box the monster was preparing his next attack. The monster raised its arm in the air pointed towards the two. It created orbs of the same ooze surrounding him and the orbs soon turned to giant waves rushing towards the two.

 

“Box!” Belle shouted in warning. Box quickly sprang into action. He turned to face the monster and with his left hand conjured a protective bubble around both the man and Lily. For the toxic wave ming right at them he merely stopped it with his pointer finger splitting the wave in two. 

 

“Come on now mister.” Box said. “I don’t want to have to do anything to you. Think about your wife. She wouldn’t want to see you like this. I don’t even want to see you like this. Ugly.” Box pointed straight at the monster when saying this. The beast screeched and rushed straight for Box again. This time he was much more powerful than before as he was losing more of his body to his anger. The ooze on the monster grew darker and muddier almost looking like sewage waste. Box focused for a second.

 

“Well here we go.” He put out his palm and stopped the beast immediately. All the debris and dirt around floated in the air like a ballet. Box took a few steps forwards at the snarling beast. When he got close the beast tried to snap at him while suspended in the air but Box easily evaded the attack merely hopping back slightly. 

 

“You, you think you’re better than me huh.” The beast spoke in a guttural tone.

 

“Well right now, honestly yeah you ain’t looking so good.” The beast struggled to move the ooze kept pouring out of him but this time it flowed upwards and off him slowly.

“People like you, that’s why she left me. She’s probably out with some pretty boy like you right now at some cheap hotel. Having the time of their life. Behind my back!” The beast roared at this thought. His body kept morphing with his emotions until he eventually broke from his confines and swung at Box. His punch landed on nothing but the air as it ripped where the impact had been. The monster grunted as he tried to break this invisible barrier. Box slowly began to expand the barrier causing the monster to take a few steps back. Box concentrated a pink orb in his hand and shot it into the beast’s heart causing him to fall asleep. Box caught the man as he fell, the acidic ooze burning at his skin as it was too for even him to handle. Slowly vines grew from the ground covering the man’s body. 

 

“You really lost yourself huh.” He bounced the man on his shoulder to keep him propped up so he would not hit the ground “You must be in a lot of pain.” The vines eventually covered most of the monster's body. It gently raised it in front of Box almost as though it wanted to give him a better look. Box wiped the ooze covering the man’s face to reveal the same human face that was at the bench. Unconscious and slouched . The ooze bubbled and burned as it tried to tear away at Box’s hand but he merely wiped it off.

As he held the man’s face, the grass beneath Box’s feet began to grow at an alarming rate and flowers blossomed all along the vines holding the man. A warm but familiar glow emitted from each of the buds slowly melting away at the ooze to reveal the man’s true self. 

 

“Hurting others won’t help your hurting heart.” He held his hand on his chest. “This right here is a fragile thing. It can bring you all the powers you never needed, but it can also hurt you more than any physical damage can do.”

 

“She left me.” The man said. “No matter how strong I strived to be for her, how powerful I was, it wasn’t enough. I worked for years and years to support her and this is how she treats me. She’s a bitch, who just runs around wanting money and sex.” The man started tearing up. “Now she's out there with some other guy, I just know it!” Box grew a chair out of twigs and branches and took a seat, looking right up to the defeated man in front of him.

 

“Do you love her?”

 

“She just wanted to use me. I worked so hard. Made so much money. Became so powerful. For WHAT! For her to leave me? What were all the years for? Why did she have to throw everything away?”

 

“Do you really think this?”

 

“I loved her”

 

“I know you did, but look at what you did. Look what your anger caused you to do.” The man opened his eyes and saw Belle staring right at him and Lily badly injured on the floor. 

 

“Oh god, oh god I didn’t do this. It must’ve been someone else. I didn’t do this, I swear!” The vines holding the man started to slowly tear away and in an instant Box stuck his hand into the man’s chest. Belle looked on in horror. The man at first screamed in pain then fell unconscious again. From his chest Box pulled out a sphere of a dark liquid. He held it over his mouth and crushed it causing it to spill into his throat. After Box had drank it he winced in pain slightly but then coolly regained his composure. Belle looked towards Box in fear. He stood under the heavy moonlight looking up at the stars. The vines slowly laid the man down to the ground as Box turned back towards Belle. When Box saw Belle he kinda jumped a little.

 

“Oh my god you scared me. You didn’t see any of that right?” Box pointed at the man on the ground.

 

“Did you kill him?” 

 

“What?! Kill him?! Oh my god Belle that’s so dark. No look at him, he's fine.” They both looked at the man lying lifelessly on the floor. 

“Look at that he’s fiiiine.” Box started walking towards Lily.

 

“Stay away!” Belle screamed. She tried to get up but her legs were so fatigued and bruised that she instantly collapsed on her hands and yelled in pain due to her broken wrists. Box took a step back from Lily. He went to a patch of grass and put his hand out. In mere seconds a flower sprouted from the ground that Box picked. He walked towards the man and put the flower by his nose. Belle looked closely and saw the flower moving in the wind.

 

“See, he’s alive. He's just recovering.” Belle still seemed both confused and scared. “I hope his dreams are less wicked than what his life is. We all need to escape sometimes and if we can’t escape to our dreams, where else can we go?”

 

Box left the flower in front of the man. “I know you can’t move, but I want to tend to Lily to make sure she’s alright.” Box tried stepping forward again but Belle’s face looked like a guard dog watching a stranger get close to its things. 

“I promise I won't hurt her.” Box walked towards Lily lying unconscious on the floor. His face looked in pain. He looked around for a moment and found the little red rock that Lily had been protecting. He picked it up and placed it back into Lily’s hands. 

“You did a good job Lily, I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner.” Belle watched Box expecting him to reach out his hand out and fix all her injuries with his magical powers. He knelt down in front of Lily. He began to conjure and summon something from his hands. From his hand came out, a roll of bandages. He inspected the damage that Lily had taken during the confrontation and started tending to her wounds. Belle was in shock and full of anger. As she laid on the ground, powerless to do anything, it upset her seeing someone with the abilities to jump ten feet in the air and summon anything to his will only putting on bandages to help the poor girl. Eventually she couldn’t keep the anger in anymore and snapped.

 

“Aren’t you some powerful sorcerer or something ?! Use your magic you have to help her! Please can you not do anything?” This caused Box to stop in his tracks.

 

“I can’t.” He responded. He couldn’t muster up the courage to face Belle when he said this so he continued to tend to Lily’s wounds with his head held down. Box summoned some antibiotic ointment and rubbed it on Lily’s many cuts and scratches. Belle watched as she felt remorseful for saying those words. Who was she to criticize him as she was lying down helplessly watching this near stranger having to help her friend. She grabbed at the grass she was surrounded by and continued watching Box tend to Lily. It was silent for a while. Neither party had anything to say and Belle still was trying to comprehend what just occurred. She felt that she should apologize for having said those mean things so she was trying to figure out what to say. Before she could speak, Box started talking.

“You think if you had the world of magic at your fingertips, that you would feel so powerful. But I only feel powerless. I’ve studied all spheres of magic, every technique, but there’s nothing I can do to heal a simple wound. I couldn’t even help Lily.” He finished up the bandages around Lily.

“Well there we go! It’s not perfect but it’s something. She really is such a brave girl isn’t she. Now then onto the other brave girl.” He stood up and turned to head towards Belle. Belle grew anxious as he drew near and couldn’t bare to look at him in embarrassment and fear. Box knelt besides Belle but as he reached to try to tend to her wounds but stopped just as he was about to touch her.

 

“I’m going to tend to your wounds if that’s alright with you. I’m not sure if you know, but you’re not looking that good.” Belle just slightly nodded in response. Belle waited for Box to start the treatment but he wouldn’t begin.

“You could relax a bit too, it’ll help me out a bit.” Belle hadn’t noticed but she had inadvertently tensed herself up when Box drew near, almost as if by self defense. She didn’t know why she had done this but it was almost as if it was an instinctive instinct of her body as he approached. Belle sat upright and let Box tend to her. 

“You got beat up pretty bad didn’t you.” Box said. Box was extremely delicate and gentle when it came to him taking care of Belle. He quietly bandaged up Belle as she winced every now, but she felt no sense of danger as he was at work. All she could feel was the same warmness she would always feel around him.

 

“I’m sorry” Belle said. 

 

“What do you mean?” Box said in response.

 

“I yelled at you before.” Box just kept tending to Belle unphased.

 

“You were scared, you went through alot and you wanted to protect Lily who’s really important to you. It’s okay.” After a while Belle’s temptation came over her and she blurted out.

 

“What are you?” This caused Box to stop for a moment.

 

“That’s sort of a mean question isn’t it.” The response shocked Belle as she looked up for the first time at Box since he approached. He was covered in burns and parts of his clothes had been ripped from the ooze. She hadn’t even noticed that his eyes had gotten red and puffier.

 

 Sirens were heard coming down the street of the neighborhood. It was the police. The man who owns this house probably called them before he came out to try to deal with the situation. A panic washed over Belle’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Box asked.

“I can’t afford to go to the hospital.” Box looked down at Belle and she had a genuine look of fear washed across her face as she started to go pale. Even though Box was confused at first he offered to take her back to her house which Belle graciously accepted.

 

“Are you ready?” Belle gave him a nod. Box stood over Belle and from his shoulder took out a piece of paper and placed it on the floor. 

 

“What about Lily?” Belle asked. Box looked over at Lily.

 

“I think it would be better if the police escorted her to her place.” Box carefully lifted Belle into his arms.

“Are you ready?”

 

“Ready for what?” Box just laughed lightly. 

 

“Hold on tight.” Box lept hundreds of feet in the air. Belle screamed the whole way through. The second Box lept Belle had closed her eyes. The only adrenaline Belle ever felt was the thrill of fighting but since she was raised poor she had never been on a rollercoaster or in any tall buildings, so this new height was frightening to her. 

 

“So where’s your house?” Box asked Belle. Belle knew she would have to eventually have to open her eyes to show Box the direction to her house. Box had done so much to help her so she didn’t want to feel like a burden to him. Belle decided they had to overcome this obstacle. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. What she saw was surprisingly beautiful. At first she could feel her stomach turn and her fingers turned numb, but the second her eyes were able to focus on her surroundings, she was entranced in the beauty. The lights danced underneath them, twinkling through the darkness as if they were standing even above the stars. The uneasiness in her stomach left as fast as it came, almost as if it was picked up by the wind against them. She felt the cold night air against her face and the warmth of Box against her body. She could see the mountains in the distance that surrounded her city, and an ocean even further beyond where the beach she would go to was. Before she knew it she started tearing up a bit.

 

“I’m not gonna know where to go if you don’t tell me Belle.” Belle totally forgot that she had a job she had to do. She lifted her finger towards the direction of her house. She held it there but noticed that they weren’t moving. Belle didn’t know what to expect but she somewhat expected they would start moving. When she looked back up at Box to see what he was doing she saw that he was looking straight up in the air.

 

“What’s wrong?” Belle asked. Box gulped.

 

“Well you see, I have a small thing where um, it’s really silly haha, but…I’m afraid of heights.” Belle sat there in shock. The second he said this, the turning feeling in her stomach returned with vengeance and even more violent than before. She was immediately scared and held onto Box tighter, shoving her face into his chest. They were both frozen for a moment in the air where even the birds flew by in confusion with what was going on. Box was embarrassed, after such a cool presentation of his skills, he really had to drop the ball like this at the end. 

 

“I believe in you.” Belle told Box. She slowly lifted her finger back to the direction of her house. Box felt a warmth creep onto his face giving him the courage to look down to see where Belle’s finger was pointing. Slowly he took his first step which each step onto the air causing ripples as he pranced through the air at quite an amazing speed. Before they knew it they had arrived over the house of Belle and slowly Box dropped to the ground. As Box approached the front door Belle tried frantically looking for her keys in her pockets but when Box got to the front door, without even reaching down the door opened and revealed the house to them. Belle held the keys in her hands uselessly as Box walked inside her house. At this point, rather than being in shock that Box had just casually  stepped into her house, she was embarrassed that he would judge her for how poor she lived. In the darkness, all that could be made out were the worn down floorboards, the cracked window letting in the clear moonlight into the dusty abandoned rooms, and the lack of any furnishing. Box didn’t make a comment and instead asked Belle where her room was which she then guided him to. He slowly laid her down into the bed and tucked her in. She hasn’t ever been tucked in ever since she was a little child and being tucked in after such a long time made her tear up again. She had been parentless for so long but after so long she had become numb to it. But having shown this amount of affection she started feeling pained. Box spotted the lantern on Belle’s table. He held his hand to his chest and took out a small glowing or which he placed into the lantern. At the sight of the light turning on, Belle turned away from Box, wanting to hide the tears she was shedding. Box stood over Belle.

 

“You went through alot today, you were very brave, I want you to know that. Through the face of adversity and fear, you fought through to protect someone you love. You did well Belle, now rest. I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you.” Belle didn’t say a single word, and Box thinking Belle was trying to ignore him started walking to the door.

 

“Thank you.” Box turned back around to see Belle hadn’t moved. Box smiled and without saying anything more, left the house. Belle laid there for a few minutes not comprehending what had happened before eventually breaking down in tears.

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