When Bellamy awoke the next morning and checked his phone, he realized he hadn’t heard from his father since Maurice had left the previous morning. Bellamy frowned and put on his glasses. He pulled up his father’s name in his contacts and immediately hit call. He waited for a few rings, listening impatiently. He chewed on the corner of his thumbnail. Bellamy let out a loud groan when he heard his father’s outgoing voicemail message.
“Merde,” he whispered.
He wasn’t sure what happened to Maurice, but he was positive it was his father’s own doing. Either he was lost or… Well, Bellamy didn’t want to think about it. He decided to put together a go-bag and travel west into foret de bouconne. A lot of people liked to head into the forest. There were hiking trails and cabins. It was a beautiful place, but Bellamy wondered what his father had gotten into. Was he hurt? Was he lost?
Bellamy wanted to swear again, but instead he threw on a sweater, jeans, and his favorite pair of sneakers. He slung his bag over his shoulder, pocketed his phone, and made his way toward the door. He leaned out into the hallway of his apartment. He didn’t see Leo anywhere, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t hiding somewhere. Bellamy was absolutely sick of being pursued by this man. He didn’t like Leo, didn’t want to have anything to do with Leo, and yet Leo was bound and determined to court him. If one could call it courting.
Bellamy grabbed his bike on the way out the door. He slipped out quietly and closed the door as gently as possible. Down the stairs he went and out the apartment building door. Thankfully, he still didn’t see Leo anywhere. He pulled out his phone and looked up his father’s location, but Maurice’s icon was nowhere to be seen. Bellamy sighed and looked up the location of the forest from where he was at in Toulouse. It would take about an hour and a half on his bike, but that was okay. It was important to find Maurice.
As he mounted his bike, he heard a loud car horn.
“Mon ami,” Leo purred as he leaned out of the side of the car.
Bellamy swallowed thickly, but put on a brave face. “I’m not in the mood.”
“You’re never in the mood,” Leo feigned sadness and sighed.
Bellamy rolled his eyes and started to bike away. In the exact opposite direction that Leo was facing. He biked quickly as Leo yelled and whipped his car around nearly causing a wreck. Bellamy stayed on the right side avoiding Leo who was on the left. He turned down an alleyway and completely avoided dealing with Leo anymore.
He let out a soft breath and looked down at his phone. He was going the wrong direction, but he just had to reroute. He meandered through the city, taking different routes so that he wouldn’t get caught by Leo. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure that he was still looking for him, but he had to be safe.
It took longer for him to find his way out of Toulouse, but he managed to get to the forest without another incident. He biked on the path. There were plenty of people hiking or biking as well. Bellamy looked down at his phone in his little basket, but it couldn’t tell him where his father was. All he could do was keep looking. He should have asked yesterday what the location was, but he hadn’t thought of it. He sniffed a little and hoped he would find Maurice.
He biked different paths. On his way past a particularly dark path he felt a cold chill. A literal cold breeze blew into him. He looked around because it was a fairly decent 14 degrees celsius outside. He glanced around and no one else seemed to notice the chilly breeze or the dark path for that matter. Bellamy looked down at the ground and found tire tracks. He frowned and decided this must be the right direction.
He followed the tire tracks into the darkness. It wasn’t so dark that he couldn’t see, but dark enough to be eerie. The temperature continued to drop. It actually started to snow. He frowned further, but kept going. He was determined to find his father. After a few twists and turns he found himself in front of a cabin. Though one could say it was more like a mansion than a cabin. He looked at the boarded up windows and the dilapidated wood all over the building. There was something in front of the cabin that was covered in snow.
Bellamy hopped off his bike and let it crash to the ground. He walked through the snow and to the shape of what appeared to be a snow covered car. He held his breath as he started to brush it off.
“Merde,” he whispered. It was Maurice’s car.
He wasn’t inside, so that was one thing. At least he wasn’t outside freezing his butt off. Or worse. Bellamy looked up at the cabin and shook his head. What had his father gotten into? He made his way up to the cabin. The door opened, seemingly, on its own. He peaked inside and the lights flickered on. They were dim, making it difficult to see too much of what was going on inside.
Bellamy stepped inside and the door slammed shut behind him. He swallowed thickly, but he refused to be scared.
“Father?” he called out, but his voice didn’t seem to reach past the entryway. Even to him it sounded muffled.
There was a staircase to the right of him. It curved slightly and led up to a second floor. To the left was another staircase that did the same. Directly in front of him was a table covered in dust. A vase with flowers that had long since been dead sat on top of the table. Directly beside the table was a statue of a woman who looked like she was dusting the table with a stone feather duster in her hand. Bellamy thought it was one of the weirdest pieces of art he had ever seen.
He decided to go further into the house instead of going upstairs. He walked past the table in the entryway and into a great room. It should have been bright and beautiful, but the massive windows were all covered leaving it in darkness. The light above the room was off and instead there were a few dim lamps on the floor. Also covered in dust. Bellamy noticed another weird statue. It was a man this time. He seemed to be a butler. He had a suit and stood at attention by another door.
Bellamy decided that whoever owned this place had a weird fascination with the idea of servants. But he also thought the statues were really well made. They looked as if they were a real person frozen in time. Maybe not as cool as the marble statues in Greece, but still…
He shook his head and walked further into the mysterious home. He went down a hallway that led to a grand kitchen, but again everything was covered in dust. If anyone lived here they didn’t use the kitchen very often. Bellamy glanced down and saw foot prints in the dust that led to the fridge, but they weren’t human feet. They looked like hooves. But if they were hooves they were fairly big. A horse? But what the heck was a horse doing in the cabin… mansion? Whatever one would call this place.
He leaned down to compare his hand to the hoof prints. The prints were rather large. He started to straighten up when he heard a hideous growl coming from behind him. It was deep and insinuated that whatever was making the noise was big. Bellamy stood straight and took in a deep, but shaky breath.
“What are you doing in my house!” The creature, if it was a creature, shouted.
“I uh…”
“Spit. It. Out.”
“I’m looking for my father.”
“That little connard that ruined my roses?” They snarled.
Bellamy was afraid to turn around and face whatever was screaming at him. “Where is he?”
“He is staying here and will for the rest of his life.”
Bellamy whipped around ready to yell back when he got sight of the beast in front of him. He was tall, stood on cloven hooves. His legs were that of a goat, but further up he became more sleek. Still furry, but more like a cat, but his fingers were elongated and pointed with dark claws. He also had the sharpest teeth Bellamy had ever seen. His ears were back in an angry manner. Instead of a goat’s tail it was a swinging cat’s tail.
“Go ahead and stare!” he screamed. “You’re not getting your father back.”
“Give him back, I’ll do anything! I’ll uh… I’ll take his place,” Bellamy said softly.
The beast frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Let him leave and I’ll take his place.”
The beast turned and walked away from Bellamy.
“Wait!’ Bellamy yelled as he followed. “Wait, where are you going?”
The beast ignored him. His hooves made clacking noises against the wood as he made his way down a corridor. He stopped at a door and pressed a clawed hand against it. A bright light appeared around the door, followed by the click of a lock. The beast moved out of the way and let Bellamy open the door. His father lay in a large dusty bed. His skin was covered in rose thorns, dried blood all over his body. Maurice moaned in pain.
“Father!” Bellamy rushed to his side.
“Bellamy?”
“What happened to you?” he asked.
“He stole from me and he is facing the consequences!” The beast shouted.
“You did this to him?” Bellamy cried out. “Wait… you said he ruined a rose bush? You did this over some roses?” He got to his feet and rushed the beast.
Bellamy pushed him in the chest, though he was much larger. The beast barely stumbled. He snatched Bellamy’s wrist in his hand. He squeezed tightly until Bellamy went down on his knees in front of him.
“He stole from me and he is facing the consequences,” the beast growled.
Bellamy grabbed onto the beast’s wrist with his free hand. “Let me go.”
“Oh… absolutely not. You are mine now. Your father may leave, but you are to stay here for the rest of your life. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Bellamy nodded. “Yes.”
The beast let go of Bellamy’s wrist. “You, old man, get out.”
Maurice didn’t move.
The beast pushed Bellamy out of the way and rushed the bedroom. He grabbed onto Maurice’s shirt from the back and tore him from the bed.
“Get out,” he spat the words in his face.
Maurice nodded. “Bellamy, I’m sorry,” he cried.
“Go, just get out of here.”
The beast let him go and Maurice scrambled away. He stopped to give Bellamy one last hug before he stumbled out of the cabin and into the snow.
Bellamy ran to the door to say goodbye, but the door slammed in his face before he could reach it. He heard the distinctive click of a lock.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I just wanted to say goodbye one last time.”
“Too bad.”
“Ta gueule,” Bellamy whispered.
The beast growled. “Go back to your room…. you will join me for dinner.”
“Or?”
“You won’t eat.”
**
Maurice stumbled out into the snow. His body was on fire from every little thrown pushing through his skin. It was a burn he couldn’t even begin to describe. He pushed himself off the ground, crying out in pain as he pressed his palms into the ground for leverage. The pain from pushing on the thorns was incredible. He sobbed as he trudged toward his car. It was covered in snow. He didn’t even know if it was going to start. Merde.
He was either going to have to walk or… he spotted Bellamy’s bike. That would do. It would be a painful trip back home, but at least he was getting out of there.
Beverly Anne Michel 
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