Page 2 of Isabel and the Werewolf Beast

“At least I’ll be free, unlike you.”

“When I get out of this, and I will, I’ll be coming for you.”

“Such scary words from a vampire ghost,” he mocked with an evil chuckle.

Silas turned on his well-booted heel and walked out of the door. I ran after him, outside into the fresh night air. The coolness hit my cheeks like the slap of a winter kiss. Silas jumped on a murky brown horse, kicked it in the ribs, and raced from the castle grounds. I gave chase,my legs straining against the long fabric of my dress. I contemplated ripping it, but the second my body hit the gate, I slammed into what felt like an invisible wall. Silas reined the horse to a halt and watched me, slamming my fists into the invisible force field. The ground groaned in an unearthly howl. The castle and the grounds within the walls lifted off the ground and hovered in the air. A prison. He’d cursed us all to a magical prison, too. I yelled curse words at him, but I was no warlock with the power to curse souls. My curse words were just that. Profanity instead of magic.

The castle hovered in the air. I imagined it looked like a snow globe. Pretty. Magical. Untouchable. As we would be inside the cursed land. A long time later, the shifting castle landed. The ground rocked against the earth for a moment, as though settling into its new position and finding the perfect place. Once it stopped moving, I walked toward the open gate, but yet again I couldn’t pass through it. The invisible wall still held. I walked to the stone wall on the side of the gate and tried climbing the walls. My fingers dug into the gray bricks, and my toes too. Black mortar crumbled, but the more I climbed the bricks, the more they felt like they extended to the moon, as though I’d climb forever and get nowhere. I dropped back to the ground, my feet thudding on the soft green grass beneath me.

Trapped.

As a ghost.

For eternity.

My head and shoulders slumped as I walked back to the castle. How would I tell everyone in the ballroom a curse had trapped them inside? A curse aimed at me, but Silas had cursed them too. Now they were all a form of incorporeal being. For who knew how long? Or how to end the curse.

My dejected steps carried me through the front door. The ballroom doors were closed. My fingers closed over the doorknob as I turned it. The music exploded inside, as though cocooned inside. My feet carried me into the ballroom toward my friends and my family. To the ones I’d hurt by denying Silas. I shook my head. This wasn’t my fault. I hadn’t made Silas curse me. He’d performed his dark magic by himself, under his evil scheme.

A hand caught my hand. Fingers curled with mine. The grip was comforting. Familiar. I glanced down as shock barreled through me. Had I imagined what Silas had done? The curse? Was it a figment of my imagination?

“Dance with me,” Anton, a vampire friend for the last fifty years, said.

I stepped into his arms and let him lead me around the dance floor. His steps were as familiar as my own. We’d been friends for so long that the years blended into each other. If I told him of my dream, would he laugh, though? Curses and ghosts didn’t make sense.

“Where did you go?”

“Outside for fresh air,” I said, frowning the entire time.

“These parties get a bit much sometimes.”

“Yes, I must be tired. I thought I saw something.”

“What?”

“Silas…” I shook my head. “Never mind. Thank you for the dance, but I think I’ll retire to my room now.”

He kissed the back of my hand. “Alone?”

“Yes.”

He was an atrocious flirt, but he always knew I’d say no. It was one reason he persisted in flirting with me, knowing I’d never break the boundaries of our friendship.

“Very well. I shall dance with more beautiful women.”

I left Anton and the ballroom. The music faded with each step further away from the ballroom doors. Myfootsteps faltered. What if it was real? The curse? Silas? I turned back. The doorway to the ballroom shimmered an iridescent rainbow, as though the room inside was in a bubble. Maybe I hadn’t imagined Silas. Instead of heading to my bedroom, I walked back outside. The fresh air was cool on my cheeks. A breeze ruffled my long white dress and slithered up my legs under the folds of the material. My feet padded along the path to the main gate, mocking my dainty shoes. But the gate… pausing, I noticed the forest beyond was different. Beneath the pale moonlight, tall trees reached for the sky. The castle should be located outside a different forest. I lifted my foot, ready to walk through the gate, but it was as though a wall was there when there was none. The invisible barrier was real.

Silas had been real.

His curse was real.

My friends and family were stuck inside the ballroom with no knowledge anything was wrong. They didn’t realize Silas had cursed us. Didn’t realize he’d doomed us to this prison of a castle. Would they stay not knowing forever? Were they cursed in an endless loop of dancing, partying, being happy? While Silas cursed me to remain in this castle and grounds? To know we couldn’t escape. That I would never be truly happy.

Would the vampires get hungry and eat the humans? Murder everyone in a bloody spray inside the beauty of the ballroom amongst the pretty dresses, the tailored suits, the intricate masks.

How would we all survive?

The only thing I understood was if I saw Silas ever again, I’d rip his throat from his body and find a witch to curse him for eternity.

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