Beauty Says Goodbye
The dreams had become more and more frequent over the past few weeks, until she was having them every night, and the memory of them interfered with her schoolwork. She'd even begun to avoid A.J., fearful of telling him what she'd begun to believe the dreams meant.
Every one of them, although varying in the details, carried the same core elements: a forest, a castle, a lurking presence who could see her across the miles, and a growing sense of anger. Sometimes she saw her father, looking at her with disappointed eyes. Sometimes it was her sisters, faces stained with tears over some vague misfortune, begging her to do something to help them. Once in a while it was Ger, standing at a fork in a path, watching her with an expectant expression.
It was that last dream, the rarest one, that made Beauty's decision for her. So long as she could keep the situation in limbo, so long as no final act of obedience or disobedience was made, maybe she could protect her family and her independence. She'd have to leave, though. Go someplace where no one from her own time would know to look. And that meant leaving behind the one place where she'd begun to feel like she fit, and the one person who loved her for who she was.
Beauty packed the lightest bag she could manage, which meant most of her books had to stay behind, and in the end only the one A.J. had given her for Christmas went with her. Her beloved Socrates and Spenser she tied together with a ribbon, and after indulging in a good long cry that left her eyes swollen and her nose red, she walked through the dorm and knocked at A.J.'s door.
Every one of them, although varying in the details, carried the same core elements: a forest, a castle, a lurking presence who could see her across the miles, and a growing sense of anger. Sometimes she saw her father, looking at her with disappointed eyes. Sometimes it was her sisters, faces stained with tears over some vague misfortune, begging her to do something to help them. Once in a while it was Ger, standing at a fork in a path, watching her with an expectant expression.
It was that last dream, the rarest one, that made Beauty's decision for her. So long as she could keep the situation in limbo, so long as no final act of obedience or disobedience was made, maybe she could protect her family and her independence. She'd have to leave, though. Go someplace where no one from her own time would know to look. And that meant leaving behind the one place where she'd begun to feel like she fit, and the one person who loved her for who she was.
Beauty packed the lightest bag she could manage, which meant most of her books had to stay behind, and in the end only the one A.J. had given her for Christmas went with her. Her beloved Socrates and Spenser she tied together with a ribbon, and after indulging in a good long cry that left her eyes swollen and her nose red, she walked through the dorm and knocked at A.J.'s door.