LA BELLA E LA BESTIA
*Gideon*
“It is better to be feared than loved,
if you cannot be both.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
“It seems as if your fake friendship with Abigail is working,” Tristan said a few moments after Abigail walked out of the classroom with her friends. “Are you going to ask her to the dance?” I looked around the empty classroom.
“Oh,” I said. “You’re talking to me.”
“Yes. Are you planning on asking her to the dance so you can keep pretending to be her friend?” Why was he talking to me?
“You give me the creeps, you know that?” Everything about Tristan made me nauseous.
“I figured.” He walked over to where I sat, smiling as if he’d just won the lottery. “So?”
“Why would I ask that stupid human girl to a useless human event?” I asked, quite annoyed. I spend some earthly time with him, and all of a sudden we were friends? “You know that the only reason I’m entertaining her is so that I can—”
“Abigail!” Tristan blurted, and I turned to the door just in time to see Abigail run out into the hall.
“Abby.” I couldn’t explain what came over me, but I ran out the door after her. “Abby, wait!” I shouted. “Stop!” With a little magic, I caught up with her. “Stop,” I said again, taking her hand and stopping her in the middle of the hallway.
“Why? So you can call me stupid and…” She tried to hold back her tears. “I came to ask you if you wanted to go to the dance with me, but now I know your answer.” She freed herself from my grasp.
I hated hearing the pain in her voice, hated the way I felt seeing her sad. Really? Now? Couldn’t she have asked me sooner? Wait, wasn’t I the one who was supposed to ask her? Was this a human trick or something? Was this one of those female things? Was I having a female problem now?
“I didn’t…I wasn’t…” I didn’t know what to say, and seeing anger and sadness in Abby’s beautiful eyes was…I just used the word beautiful—again. I was seriously sick! “Tristan is just so annoying, and…” My voice trailed off. Why was I stressing myself over this?
“Joke’s on me, huh? This past week has been…I thought there was…” Tears streamed down her cheeks now. “Forget it.” She wiped at her tears and then turned around and walked away from me.
I made Abigail cry. I should be happy, but all I felt was—what was it that I was feeling? I didn’t know because it was a new feeling.
Seeing Abigail walk away and knowing how I made her feel made me angry—so angry that before I knew what I was doing, I punched the locker beside me. Not only that locker, but also all the other lockers in the hall exploded. The hallway filled with flying pages of books, broken locker doors, pens and pencils, pictures, and other items.
Abigail turned around and gaped at me. Her face filled with shock as her eyes traveled over the mess and then back to me. How was I going to explain that?
“How—how did you—” Abigail stuttered.
I didn’t blame her. I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to say or why I had allowed myself to be so careless. Abigail stood still, frozen in place by her shock. Papers floated to the floor.
“Abigail, I didn’t…”
Abigail backed away and fearfully whispered, “It’s you. You’re the Gideon from my nightmare.”
And then she ran.
I didn’t understand why she was scared. I was about to follow her when the school principal walked into the hallway.
“What happened here?” he asked.
I didn’t have time for him. I started thinking of how to get rid of him, but Valoel already had my hand.
“Just play along,” she ordered. “You just ruined his school. You don’t have to kill him, too.” Where the hell did she come from?
I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to hear her talk. My mind was filled with thoughts of Abigail.
“I don’t know, I…”
The principal walked over to me. “Are you all right?” he asked me.
I nodded, and then he told me to follow him to the nurse. He left the moment he dropped me off at the nurse’s office, and since Valoel was breathing down my neck and telling me to act normal, I had to stay and have the school nurse check me out.
I sat in the nurse’s office, angry at myself for what I said about Abigail. I shouldn’t have let what’s-his-face get to me. And now, I had hurt Abigail.
“You almost exposed us! What’s going on?” Valoel asked the moment I stepped out of the nurse’s office.
I didn’t have time for her. “I need to see Abigail.” I snapped my fingers and found myself inside Abigail’s bedroom.
Abigail stood in front of a mirror inside her walk-in closet. She held a gun in her hand, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. She wore a skintight leather jumpsuit, with a belt buckle and gun holsters. Her reflection looked sad and distant.
Where the hell was she going? I looked around for Tristan, but for some reason, he wasn’t there.
“You look dangerous.” The moment I said this, Abigail whipped around, startled.
The second her eyes met mine, she pointed her gun at me.
“Gideon, what are you doing here?” Her voice was shaky, and the hand holding the gun trembled.
“Abigail.” I stepped toward her, and she took a step back.
“What do you want?” I hated hearing the fear in her voice. “Did you come to ask for a ride so you can kill me?”
What the hell was she talking about?
“I don’t know what you mean, but no, I didn’t come here to kill you. So, you can put that thing away now.” I pointed to the gun.
She raised her arm, pointing the gun straight at my forehead.
Great, now she was going to end up killing me, although a gun actually wouldn’t kill me.
“You’re not here to kill me?” She sounded like she wanted to believe my words. Almost.
“I don’t know why you’re scared of me,” I said, my voice not sounding like mine because it was a sad representation of my normal bravado. “I know you’re mad at me and—”
Abigail angrily cut me off. “What gave that away?” I could hear her heart racing, but her voice sounded stronger, angrier. “You called me stupid.”
“And I’m trying to tell you I didn’t mean it!”
“Didn’t mean it?” she asked in disbelief. The gun still pointed at me. “You made me feel something, and then you called me stupid. I thought we—”
“Just stop!” I shouted. I couldn’t bear listening to her say that whatever we felt wasn’t real. “This isn’t my scene. I hate this—feeling so…so human. I don’t do feeling guilty or thinking about a girl. And I certainly don’t do longing for someone to talk to me, so stop making me feel this way because you’re making me angry! And I hate getting angry at you because I—I want to be…to be with you, and…be—be happy…with you!” I had no idea why I said this. Abigail lowered her gun for a second, and then she lifted it up again.
“If you wanted to be with me, then why did you call me stupid?” I was never going to live that down. “I wanted to be—” she started, but I couldn’t let her say anything more. I didn’t even give her a second to blink before I appeared right in front of her.
“Don’t finish that sentence,” I whispered. I knew what she was going to say—that she wanted to be with me, too, but now she didn’t.
“How did—you were…”
No human could do what I just did, but I didn’t care if she learned of our existence. I just wanted to make her not hate me.
Abigail’s gun pointed straight at my chest. If she wanted, she could send a bullet right through me—not that it could hurt me.
“Abigail, put that thing away before you hurt yourself,” I said calmly. I wasn’t scared for my life, but I was for hers. I came to Earth to kill her, and now I wanted to protect her?
“But you…” Abigail’s shock lingered. “How did you do that?” she asked.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I promised.
Abigail didn’t look like she believed me, and I wasn’t sure I believed me either.