LOFTER-网易轻博

The mansion’s corridor was a horrifically repulsive mess. Splatters of fresh blood covered the walls, and there was a repugnant odor. Everyone would be compelled to averted their eyes at the sight.

"What happened here?" the white-haired girl stepped out of her bedchamber. 

"I am grateful that you cannot see..." replied Bestia. "Because you would certainly think me a beast. If you were able to see this...."

"...."

"Because you cannot see, you do not know what I look like. But I know."

"....."

"Another beast, like me, broke into the mansion."

"Was it...?"

"I protected you! Did I not? I protected you! Say that I protected you!! That I did this for you!"

In his hysteria, Bestia tored down the curtains hanging on the hallway window. Blood-stained curtains that reeked of dead beast. What did he have to be so afraid of? He had exterminated the other beast encroaching upon his territory. The maid would understand if he puffed him chest in pride, but far from that, his terror merely intensified.

"Calm down." the white-haired girl comforted him. She extended her hand for Bestia, but even her gentle, lovingly outstretched fingers evoked fear in his eyes. Instinctively, he feared anything that entered his territory, and then attempted to remove it. And driven by those instincts, he shove aside the white-haired girl, the one he had said he wanted to protect.

"Ah!"

Being without sight, she had no way to catch her balance, and she fell to the floor with a splash. For she had landed in the pool of blood left by the beast. Blood seeped into her clothing, slowly spreading through the fabric. At first, it looked like she had fallen into a puddle of fresh, bright dye, but before long, the red darkened into a brownish-black.

"A-Ah... I am sorry, I didn’t.... No, I ...."

"It’s ok. I am fine." she embraced the panicking beast, softly whispering "shh, shh, shh" as if trying to calm a crying baby.

Though Bestia was taller and physically stronger, the white-haired girl was emotionally more stable then he.

"What has you so frightened? Please, tell me. I promise I will not look down on you, for any reason. All I want is to free you from the depths of your suffering."

"...."

"Sometimes, talking about things... can lighten the burden they place on you. We have the ability to use words, both you and me. With language, the gift God bestowed upon man, we can communicate our feeling with one another. Talk to me, please."

"Am I... a man? You act as though I am a man. No, you treat me like one."

"I cannot see you as anything else, as I have said before."

"Only because you cannot see me!"

"....."

"You are the only one who says I am a man. You, who are without sight... But I was content with that. You treated me like a man, so I felt as though I had become one. The time I spent with you, I had real peace. I almost forgot that I was a wretched beast. I no longer sought after prey. Prey... Oh yes. Before you arrived, I had murdered dozens of humans. I don’t want you to know that I was such a sinful beast, leaving a long trail of bodies in my wake. But I though that if I didn’t show them my strength, if I didn’t force them into submission, then I would never find peace!"

"...."

"I was drunk with power. I took great pleasure in it. In slaughtering people."

"The fear was so overwhelming... that you turned the act of killing into one of gratification. You did it to protect yourself."

"Are you still not going to condemn me?"

"Taking another’s life is wrong. Not only does it rob them of their time on this earth, it inflicts great wounds upon those who care about them. However... I do not regret you as a mere beast, nor as a mere murderer. Something made you the way you are. I am almost certain of it."

"Something?" Bestia could not understand the white-haired girl.

"Tell me about yourself. In your words. From your mouth, tell me."

After a short hesitation, Bestia started to tell his tale...

 

When I woke up... I was weak, exhausted, emaciated. I couldn’t think clearly, or even remember much of anything. I was thirst, hungry, sore from head to toe. A crowed people surrounded me. This was a long time ago. Well, not so long as to be described as "long ago," but it is far back as my past goes. I sought help from the people around me. But my words did not get through to them. The only thing that came from my mouth were feral howls. They scowled at me, and then... 

"stinkin’ gross."

"I have no interest in any more trouble."

"Shall we kill it?"

"Never seen anyone like this before."

"Was it he, anyway?"

"Beats me. A Bestia, by the looks of it."

"Bestia!"

"Bestia!"

"Bestia!"

"Bestia!"

I don’t understand what they were saying about me. And I was able to pick out was the word "Bestia." The humans brought sticks and fishing poles with which they poked and prodded me. At first, they only meant to chase me out. But before long, their actions began to escalate.

"Bestia!"

"Bestia!"

"Filthy beast!"

"We got nothing for you!"

"Dirty, nasty thing!"

"Stay back!"

"Hit it! Pound it!"

"Beat it! Beat the thing!"

"Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!"

"DIE!"

Why should I have to die? I was simply asking for help. If they didn’t have food to spare, a glass of water would have been enough. I asked for nothing of them but some relief from my thirst. But the human would not hear my pleas. My words reached on no one’s ears. When they brought weapons and started chasing me around, attempting to kill me, all I could do anymore was run. As I fled, I saw something...

A boy pointing to a wild dog covered in mys and shouting "Bestia!" That was when I finally understood, that I was a beast. And that was why the humans wanted to exterminate me. I was neither cattle, nor swine, nor fowl of the air, but a vicious beast, the kind of creature that ravaged their fields. And so....

"So, you sought to prove your superiority to them." the white-haired girl helped to finish the words. "So you would never have to be called a beast or chased out of somewhere again."

"I was so close to forgetting it all. The time I spent with you is truly wonderful. I could forget about people calling me a beast, chasing me around and trying to kill me... I could forget about slaughtering them, painting the walls with their blood. I could forget everything, it felt like I had actually become a man."

"But you..."

"But then it showed up. Another beast, like me. It was my kin. A different individual, though, built differently than me. I am taller than it was. But it was a beast. And I too, must be a beast."

"Regardless, I will continue to insist you are not, as many times as I must. Should you be troubled by these painful memories, and attempt to cause someone harm again, I will be there to remind you of your humanity. Is that which you can see with your eyes... the whole of the world?"

"..."

"I cannot see you. That’s correct. But I can hear you, sense you, feel you. And I can learn what you bear within your heart. You worry, you fear, and you think. And you also show concern for me. These things all prove that you are human."

At that moment, Bestia thought this woman was really going to change him. If he remained with her, he can become a man. It might be no more than an illusion. With her near, it can become his reality. 

"Have you calmed yourself down some?"

"That hall... needs to be cleaned."

"So it does."

"I will take care of it. You don’t need to worry. You should get changed, though."

"Very well. I believe I care so much for you... because you resemble me."

"We are not alike in the slightest. As I have said, you are a beautiful woman."

"You may complement my appearance. But no one else ever did. I have been labeled a witch. Because of the color of my eyes and hair. My eyes, they are red."

"A beautiful shade of red. Indeed."

A magnificent color, like blood.

"You are the first person, to say that about them. Even my mother said my eyes frightened her. Because people called me a witch, I was rarely afforded the opportunity to interact with others, so I grew up mostly alone. So, as the people outside the mansion called you a beast, so do the people outside call me witch. See? We are alike. Do I look like a witch to you?"

"No. You are a beautiful, compassionate human woman."

"And you are a human man. Even if you don’t believe it yourself."

Yet again, Bestia found himself feeling grateful for the white-haired girl’s blindness. While he had just managed to put on a smile, tears were also rolling down his cheeks. Joy, bitterness, sorrow, a maelstrom of emotions flowed unbounded from within. But he cried in silence. Bestia shed his tears discreetly, so as to not allow the white-haired girl to notice. He looked down upon the floor.

A single corpse lat there. And no matter how hard he tried, he could not see it as anything other than a beast. A beast that looked just like him.