Somehow, someday, they’d try the right something else and break the curse. She’d be fully human again and able to leave the manor in human form. All the others would be able to leave the manor, as well. They’d turn back into people from objects and…

The others!

She’d been crushed when she realized that her curse hadn’t been lifted, but now, realizing that Eva, Mrs. Pulse, and all the others were still locked in their cursed forms, too, she was torn apart all over again. No wonder she hadn’t seen any of them since she’d gotten up. They were probably staying hidden, since there was someone new in the house.

There hadn’t been anyone but her in the manor since the night this all began. They knew Gastard, of course. From the time before the curse. But it would be completely understandable for none of them to want to make their presence known how they were now any more than she did.

She bowed her head again as a new wave of defeat hit her. She’d failed them too. And sitting out here in the grass wasn’t doing anything for anyone, either.

She shook herself off, pulling her determination to fix this, not just for herself but for everyone, around her like a cape, and started to get up.

Gastard must’ve taken all of her exhalations and snorts of setting herself right for more self-pity instead, cause she heard him say something comforting in her direction.

She tried to reassure him that she was fine, and she was getting up to come inside, but she couldn’t make herself understood with her beast noises. She looked over at him and signaled with one paw in an I’m coming inside gesture, just to see him start to move toward her.

“I know you’re uncomfortable with me seeing you like this, Belle, but that’s too bad. I can’t leave you just sitting there any longer. I’m coming to hug you and hold you, whether you like it or not,” he said.

“I’m going to hold you close,” he continued. “Until you stop hurting so much. And then we’ll come back insid

e and deal with…”

She smiled at him as best she could, as a beast, watching him as he charged through the front door. He looked full of bravado and was aiming straight for her, but when he stepped outside his words were cut short.

His mouth hung open for a heartbeat and it looked like he was choking on everything he’d been trying to say. His eyes went wide and then everything started to stretch and pull.

His body grew both up and out and his facial features warped.

It happened almost in slow motion as Belle stared on in horror.

He tilted forward, his center of gravity shifting. At the same time, he sprouted thick tufts of hair where even he hadn’t had hair before.

She tried to close her eyes, to block out what was happening to him, but she couldn’t. She stared at him aghast, taking in every rapid change in bone structure, every sudden shift in his normal dimensions, until it was done.

He was like her!

His shifter form was similar to hers, but different as well. He also seemed to be oddly pieced together from wolf and bear, but she saw boar in there, too. Gorilla even, maybe. He was as piecemeal as she was. He, too, was a beast!

Oh, no! Her mind screamed out the words but only agitated sounds could be heard.

What have I done?

His curse hadn’t been lifted, it had just morphed into hers.

He came here with me, he slid through dad’s magic with me. He kissed me, he laid with me, he loved me again in the same bed we’d been caught in before. This is all me, this is all my fault!

Her guttural sounds just got more and more agitated and desperate as every last bit of hope that she’d been holding onto died in that moment. It was all over. Not only was she and her staff doomed to this life, but she’d doomed him to it, as well.

Gastard’s beast made noises back at her, but she couldn’t understand him any more than he’d been able to understand her.

Finally, he stopped trying to be heard and grew silent instead. He stood there before her, seeming to gain calmness as he did so.

She let his calm reach out to her, and as she stood there, catching her breath, she looked him over.

Since she was human indoors, she’d never really seen herself in any reflections. She’d only seen the parts of herself that she could look at directly, looking down. So she took that time to not only see him, but to also translate it to how she’d probably see her beast self in a mirror indoors, if she could.

She could see Gastard in the beast, and at the same time, she could see the beast in Gastard.

No wonder he recognized me, she thought. If he saw me the same way that I can see him, I understand now how he knew who I was when everyone else was yelling and pointing. I’d recognize him anywhere, in any form.

Tags: Alyse Zaftig Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net