The gardens laid in complete ruin, the once beautiful roses having been scattered and trampled upon. The statues that stood tall and proud were smashed into rubble, adding to the warlike scenario. I came to a stop, gasping for breath in front of the once massive gates. Looking up, I gasped in horror at the mangles metal that stood in front of him. They looked like as if they had been rammed down and beyond laid nothing better. I carefully picked my way through the fragments of stone and almost slipped on one. Throwing his hands out, I stopped myself just in time from my face's rather deadly love but ended up with a deep gash in my hand. I stared at the crimson liquid that bubbles up and started to run down my hand with a sigh. That would need some medical attention, or chances were, I would faint.

I had just decided to look for a piece of clean fabric to close the wound when a shout startled me.

"Beau, my boy!"

It sounded awfully familiar. Chilling running down my spine, I looked up to the patio and lo, there stood the man who had the balls to stand with a smile on his face for the very child of his own blood he had decided to abandon in the middle of a winter night in middle of nowhere. Next to him stood the she Devil who I had been forced for years to called stepmother with a handful of villages. They all were armed to the boot I realised, the man I was related to as father, carrying a club.

"There he is. I told ya!" He turned back and shouted at the villagers and picked his way to me while I stood shock still.

"Beau, my son. I'm so happy to see you. We thought you were dead! We thought that the monster here had kidnapped you. He must have made you his slave right?" he cried and threw out his hands as if to hug me. That pulled me out of my daze and I scrambled back to avoid those meaty hands that threatened to pull away my sanity. The words that he had said came back to me.

'My son' He had said.

'His boy'?

'Thought you were dead'?

How dare he? His act infuriated me as his words disgusted me. We he had said like I wasnt a part of his family anymore and that b*tch was. Feeling his hands on me, trying to hug me had me pushing him away violently. Taken by surprise, he stumbled over a loose piece of rock and went down. The villagers and the she devil looked at me with shock. A low groan of pain shattered the shocked silence and laid heavily on the tense air.

"How could you?" I bursted out in anger.

"Lost? Dead? How dare you act innocent when you left me all alone to die. And the worst was that you said, you wanted to tell me something about mom!"

Tears rolled down my face, although I tried hard to keep them at bay.

"And now, you are here to destroy the only place that I was accepted, loved? Monster? He is more than you will ever be! Why cant you leave me in peace!"

"Look at him.- " The nasally voice of dear Cruella sounded.

"Poor boy! Just look at him. He has been enslaved by the wicked creature. He doesnt even remember us!" She cried out to the villagers, sniffing to add the dramatic effect to her acting.

"No, I havent been enslaved! I am conscious. Stop telling lies, woman!" I shouted affronted.

Then she had to say something more outlandish.

"Look my dear friends. He doesnt even know what he is talking! He is enslaved by magic to talk nice about that... that vile creature!"

They looked at each other muttering in agreement while I looked at the scene with a strange detachment. How had things gone so wrong? I thought dizzily. The villagers approached me with sympathy in their eyes and I tired backing away.

"Stay away!" I stumbled on the uneven ground as the dizziness hit me hard, the blood having made the cool rock that I was holding slippery. Before, I could do anything else, I was captured, my struggling doing nothing for the villagers. They were surprisingly gentle with me, with one lady even removing her medical supplies and started cleaning my wounds with the bitter smelling medicine.

I was dragged down the various corridors that made up Adam's home, before the collection of turns and stairs had my already dizzy mind in a queasy state. We came to stop in front of one of the few guest lounge rooms in the wing. While this was nothing new to me, I could see the pure astonishment on the villagers faces. They had never seen anything so extravagant. It was large enough to fit the entire encampment and still have some more space. It looked like all the abled people from the village had been brought here. From the cacophony of the noise, came a loud roar.

"Silence!"

The entire room fell into pin drop silence as the crowd in from of him parted before a huge mans shadow fell over him. Mason looked at me with naked disgust in his eyes.

"Where is she? Where is my Martha?!" He roared, spittle flying all over my face.

"Why should I tell you?" I asked him with the strongest voice I possed though it ended up coming out in a feeble warble, my strength all but gone.

"Where. Is. My. Wife?!" The butcherer all but yelled as he grabbed me by my collar. I laid in his hands like a puppet whose strings had been cut. 'Wife'? All of them were fucking hypocrites. First my so-called parents and next him. How dare they assume that we belonged to them? Angry and delirious beyond belief, with all the common-sense having flown out of my head, I did the only thing that I could. I spit on his face, grinning maniacally feeling a bit sad for the saliva that had gone for waste, leaving me thirsty. The room that had already been quiet, became deadly still looking at me in horror.

Mason was nothing less than an animal on a good day, had a temper that rivalled to none in the village and I had done just the thing to set him off. So it came as no surprise to me when he raised his hand and shouted, words frothing at his mouth. I closed my eyes waiting for the invariable to happen as after a few seconds, an intense burst of pain hit my temple before everything went black.

***

The humans had come without any warning. They had barged in, destroying everything in their path. Adam looked at his place is dismay. They had been able to stop the humans in the second floor. They believed that the place was haunted with occasionally inanimate objects coming to life. It had only fuelled their desire to find the source and kill it. They did believe that there was a monster lurking in the castle and that was what Adam couldnt understand. How had the villagers come to know anything about him?

He looked down the window into his beloved garden. Each and every rose that he had spent his time and sweat on had been trampled regardless. 'Humans!' He thought with contempt but then something struck him. Since when had he considered them to be human and himself different?

The howl of wind was more like a wail as if it too mourned his pain. All those broken doors and windows. Year's of proud history smashed into wood pulp and shards of glass.

Adam trodded the carpet bare in worry for Beau and his female friend. Truth to be said, he was out of his mind with worry for Beau. He couldn't send anyone out to search for him with all that was happening her. It would be safer out if he dare say. The stormy clouds were closing in making the evening come to and early end.

"Master, the humans may move again soon if we don't do anything." Clok looked at him in worry with James right behind him blowing out and relighting his candles in worry.

Adam sighed and looked at the rose behind him. It casted a faint glow upon the room, only a petal remaining, hanging on for its dear life. He would fight till it was time. Till he was hanging onto his last breath.

"Let them come." He said with new resolution burning in his eyes.

"We shall take them by surprise."

❤️