Hi guys!!

I received yet an other amazing cover from _words_of_a_woman_ for the prompt 'beautiful beast'. Her covers are just so damn great!! Do check out her profile and participate.

Thanks 😘

Starlight twinkled across the stygian blankness that swept across the sky. It's beautiful! The gentle night breeze bristled my hair, making it sway slowly along its motion. I reached out an arm from under my head wondering how far it truly is from my grasp. Very far! The million dots seemed to be calling out to me to go join them. And I'm enchanted. I wanted to have one of them. One of the many people gaze at eveyday. And I finally found one, right here. My hands moved to my heart as I remembered her face.

It was a night like this, an year ago, when I first saw her- Pale as the moon, with cherry red lips, crystal green eyes, shadowy black hair, small pug nose and half round ears; a mystical sight. And the most beautiful!

She was sitting, close to the river bank. My legs had moved according to their own accord, a step, each one, closer to where she sat. My arms were numb, my head was numb and my mind was numb. The only moving thing were my legs that I had no control on. With each passing step closer to her, voices whispered in my ear.

"Turn back!"

"Go away!"

"It's dangerous!"

"Run as fast as you can!"

"Get away, Romeo!"

My ears had become deaf after that last voice. I don't know if my ears went deaf or the voices had stopped. But my legs, however, hadn't stopped. They kept moving until I was a just a step behind her. My mouth willed itself.

"Excuse me Miss?"

For a moment I had thought she didn't hear me. She was still, unmoving. As I opened my mouth again to repeat it, she turned around, her crystal green eyes staring right into me. My breath had caught in my throat. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She stared at me for a while, before cocking her head to the side.

"You shouldn't be out here alone this time of the night."

It was almost midnight that day.

"I live here," she spoke. Her voice was gentle, laced with sorrow. My heart melted at her voice.

"What do you mean?"

She turned her head away from me, watching what she had been, before I interrupted her.

"I don't have a home like you humans do. I live here, out in the open. In the forest."

"You are not human?" I spoke, my voice calm and curious.

For a fact, I wasn't startled or scared to tits that day. I had sat beside her, dragging my knees to my chest. She had looked at me for a while before completely turning away.

"No, I'm not."

"What are you then?"

"I'm not sure either," she whispered, a sad smile grazing her lips. "I'm the forest's curse."

I've heard this story before. The forest's curse.

"What kind of curse?"

She didn't move, didn't speak.

"I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that."

She nodded, the sad smile still on her lips.

I remained silent for a while, pondering on what she said. She was the curse of the forest. I've been hearing that story from when I was a little boy.

'Never go into the forest beyond midnight. The forest is cursed. It goes far back in centuries. Men have died, disappered, torn apart. The curse gulps them up, feeds on them.....'

"So you spent your nights alone?"

She cocked her head again.

"I only appear at some nights, when the forest wants me to."

"Why does the forest do this to you?"

She hadn't spoken up. After a long wait in silence, she had stood up.

"I have to go now. It was nice meeting you."

"Where are you going?"

"I have to return back. My time to be in the open is over."

"Oh," I said disappointed. "Well, my name is Romeo," I had to call out as she was far away from me by that time. "What's yours?"

I thought she'd walk away, leaving me hanging. But she stopped and turned around.

"Juliet," she spoke out, before the forest swallowed the last glimpse I had of her, the leaves and the breeze still carried the whispers of her voice..

"Juliet"...

I gazed up at the sky again. That was the first time I had seen her. I came back every night, hoping today was her allowed day to appear, but she was never there. I never gave up. I came each night after that, spending long nights gazing at the starlit twinkling sky. I thought that maybe she was a figment my mind had created, that she didn't really exist, she was all in my head. But, still it didn't stop me from walking here to the same spot every night. She had to be real, she was real. And I was right! I saw her, six months after I first saw her.

She was sitting at the same spot, close to the river bank like she did the first time. I went over and sat beside her.

"It's been six months."

She laughed, something which I wasn't expecting.

"Why are you laughing?"

She shook her head, still laughing.

"You are the first one to see me a second time. All the others never come back."

"There were others?"

"Yes, there was. They never returned. I was all alone."

Her cheerful demeanour dropped to a sorrowful one.

I slipped my hand and took her hands in mine. I thought she'd shake it away. But, she didn't.

"I won't leave you. I'll come eveyday."

"Thank you," she whispered. "But you shouldn't come anymore. You should stay away from me."

"Why?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Then I'm coming everyday to see you," I said insistently.

She shook her head, retrieving her hands from mine.

"No," she whispered. "No, you shouldn't come anymore."

"Can we talk about something else and forget about this. You're going to leave soon and I've had to wait six months to just get a glimpse of you again. Who knows how many years I'll have to wait after you disappear again!"

She laughed and slipped her hand back into mine.

"Why are you so obsessed with me, Romeo?"

"Maybe because you are Juliet," I replied shrugging. I wasn't sure whether she had heard the story.

She laughed again, and I was really liking the sound of it.

"Yeah, maybe we'll have the same ending, although I don't think we'll have a love story."

"You know about it?" I asked, surprised.

"Of course I do! Who doesn't?"

I hesitated. I was thinking she wouldn't know because she was, um, -

She laughed again, more louder this time.

"I know about it silly," she said stroking my hand with her thumb. "I wasn't always a beast. I was a human."

My head spun a one-eighty degree angle.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I can't tell you that."

I huffed.

"It's fine! But you are not a beast!"

She smiled, the sad smile grazing her lips again.

"It's the forest's curse Romeo. Nothing can be done."

My head reeled back to the story.

'...The curse gulps them, feeds on them. It leaves them devastated and there to rot. No sympathy, no feelings. Be careful of the girl you find in the woods, close to the river bank....'

"Romeo?"

Her voice snapped me back into reality.

"Yes?"

"I really appreciate you coming to see me. But don't come again! I beg you. You should never return to this place!" her voice pleaded.

I turned around and sat facing her. I cupped her face with my hands.

"No, Juliet. I won't! No matter what anyone says, I'll come. I'll come running to you even if it's the last thing I do."

Her eyes welled up.

"What if it's the last thing you do?" she screamed, the tears tracing it's course down her cheeks. I wiped them away.

"I don't care! I'll be happy if it's for you."

"No! You shouldn't come anymore!"

"I'll be fine!"

"No!"

I sighed.

"Look, I like you. I think- I think, I'm in love with you. I can't stay away from you. You dominate my entire world. I need you. You can't tell me to stay away from you."

She gasped.

"You c-can't l-l-love me!"

"I can!"

I moved closer. A little more and my lips would've brushed her's. But before it could, she pulled away and ran. When I turned around, she was gone. I tried going after her, deep into the forest, but I couldn't find my way about. I gave up eventually and returned back.

And I was back today. After another six months, marking a year since I first saw her. Today marks our first anniversary.

My dad found about my going out at night. He had stopped me today. I didn't listen. And here I am.

"You shouldn't go."

"She'll be waiting for me. I can't let her be alone."

"No, Romeo! You're not going," my dad shouted.

"I need to be with her. I love her."

"She's a beast!"

"So what if she is, huh?"

"You have to watch out for yourself Romeo."

"I can do that, thank you!"

"It's the third time."

"I DON'T CARE!"

I had stormed out, leaving my dad staring at my retreating back.

Now I'm sitting at the river bank, and she still hasn't arrived yet.

'It's the third time!'

How did the story go again?

'..... Careful of the girl you find in the woods, close to the river bank. She was once a human, like the rest of us. But, a curse befalls her now. The forest has cursed her for her evildoings. Get away from her before you get close. It's safer that way; both for you and her.....'

It's late. I got up to leave, but stopped short when I turned around.

"Juliet?"

I felt my heart bubbling with happiness. She came. I was scared because the last time, she told me to stay away from her. I was scared she wouldn't come and that I wouldn't see her again. I ran upto her.

"Juliet!" I said again. "You came!"

Something is off. She is silent. Her head is bowed down. She isn't moving. She's still. Still like death itself!

A chill ran down my spine.

"Juliet? Are you okay?" I asked, reaching out to stroke her cheek.

I froze. She looked up. Her crystal green eyes were glowing. She is panting. A thick liquid seeped out from her eyes. Blood?

"Oh my God! Juliet! What in the world happened?"

I moved closer, but froze again as she raised her hands.

I gulped seeing how her tiny, soft and tender hands had changed. Transformed! In its place, she had bulged out hands, nerves running across it in ugly bulged out patterns, with pointed long nails. Longer than coffin nails!

"Juliet?"

"I told y-you to s-stay awa-y!" her voice was broke.

"It's fine Juliet! I'm here now," I said soothing her.

"You don't get it! Don't you know the curse?"

The curse! What about it? What had I missed?

'It's safer that way; both for you and for her... You'll see her the first time, sitting close to the river bank, alone. It will be the same the second time. But you won't find her the third time... She won't be there....'

"What's wrong with it? It's just a curse!"

She smiled like she used to. But, somehow, it seemed evil. Like it isn't her in her body.

She came closer.

"It's the third time Romeo," she whispered, the sorrow in her voice evident. "The third time the curse kills you!"

Before my brain registered it, ten nails dug into my chest. I gasped as the air sucked itself out of me. I stared at her face as she pulled out her nails and I started falling to the ground. Horror laced her features, the trail of blood tumbling out of her eyes, thickening.

"Romeo, I-I-I-" she stammered. She stumbled back a few steps. Before my head hit the ground, I saw my Juliet explode.. each part of her skin, ripping apart from her body, the blood splashing everywhere, a few drops flying to my cheeks.

I began loosing concious as my head finally felt the cold ground. I remember the curse now..

'.....She won't be there... She'll be standing behind you.. Watching you.. Your every move. Then she'll dig her nails into you and leave you there to die. A few seconds later, she'll explode herself.. It means her curse is finally broken.. The victim broke her curse..'

I felt a smile creep onto my lips. I saved my Juliet! I broke her free from the curse. I did what I wanted to do all along, unknowingly. I'm happy!

'What if it's the last thing you do?'

'I don't care! I'll be happy if it's for you."

You were right Juliet about both the things. It was the last thing I did. I ran upto you! And maybe you were right about you being a beast. Dad told me too. I didn't listen to him. Heck, I didn't listen to any of the signs or warnings! All I saw was you.

Well, I really don't care, you know! I don't.

And do you know you were right about something else? Our love story ended pretty much like Romeo and Juliet's, although it isn't as tragic as their's. But if you're out there somewhere and can read my last thoughts, I need you to know and feel my happiness.

You were a beast, Juliet. But you know what? I don't care because you were a beautiful one at that!

Please don't skip:-

Hi guys!

This is another story for the writing contests entry of prompt 'beautiful beast' hoisted by _words_of_a_woman_ . Please do help increase entries with your participation. It'll be a lot of fun if she has more entries.

Take a little time out of your busy schedules to check out her profile and drop in a short story for her contests.

Here's the direct link..

https://my.w.tt/Clw1eUVeDN
_words_of_a_woman_

Thanks😘