Swollen eyes and bright light were never a good combination. My eyes felt like they had been scrubbed raw with sandpaper and then some sand was sprinkled onto them.

In short, it hurt.

Hurt like hell.

Groaning, I turned to bury my head under the pillow and suddenly, neither the pillow nor the bed existed and my face kissed the floor along with my body.

Dear lord, this thing for the floor was getting bad.

"Oh gods! Are you all right?" Came a voice from what I assumed was the door.

I whimpered in pain. This was not a good morning by any definition.

"All right." I mumbled as I tried to sit up, failing rather dramatically.

I felt a brush of something cold on my forehead.

"Not good." Mrs Potts said.

"He has got a fever."

Fever? That made sense to how I was feeling.

A light breeze caressed my heated skin, making me shiver as I realised how cold I was actually feeling and how little I had on me.

Last night's memories had a drunken like quality to it and I groaned again at how I had behaved.

Again, I had let him see me cry. Perhaps he was the only one who had seen me cry so much apart from Martha.

What father... No, what that coward of a man had done still hurt me.

I sighed at my own weakness, closing my eyes, leaning back.

Why did I let it hurt me? Why couldn't I just accept that he had never loved me? Had I really been such a nuisance?

I could feel tears gathering again at that thought, irritating my already swollen eyes.

The floor disappeared from the underneath of me as I was suddenly lifted into air by a pair of strong arms.

I looked up to see Adam just as he started lowering me into the bed.

The curtains were drawn on orders and I was fussed over as I drifted into a feverish haze.

Time passed in a sluggish flow as my fever increased as the day passed staying that high throughout the night showing signs of coming down even the next day.

Three whole days, did I writh on the bed in sweat and derilium as the infection raged it's course.

By the fourth day, I resembled a victim of starvation.

It was cute to see him scampering all around the room in panic every time I coughed or so much as blew my nose.

Yes, it was sadistic of me, but did I mention that he was cute?

"Its lunch time. Can you sit up?" He asked as I woke up. I nodded at him and pushed my body upwards as I sat.

I heard the clattering of pates and I turned to see that he had dumped the tray on the table and hurried by my side to help me sit. As much as it was cute, it was kind off getting a bit annoying. I couldn't help it. I had been cooped up in the same room for around a week and I was totally fine.

"Say ah!" He said as he held the spoon near my mouth.

I spit out the water that I was drinking as I tried to control my laughter.

Oh! he looked ridiculous, with his eyes open wide in expectation and mouth open as he tried to mimic me eating.

"Fine." He said in grouchiness as he set down the spoon in the bowl and sat on the bed with a humph.

Smiling I took the bowl and quickly scarfed down the porridge before setting it down on the table.

"You are done?" He looked at me in suprise.

"Yep, now let's go." I said jumping out of the bed. I was tired of it no matter how heavenly it felt.

"But... Wait!" He scrambled behind me as I quickly changed in to something warmer and ran out of the room.

"Beau dear," Mrs Potts shouted after me as I ran down the stairs.

"You are not supposed be out of the bed yet!"

Like I was going to listen to any of them.

"Beau, stop!" He shouted after me as he chased me to the door.

Stopping at the door, I turned and blew him a raspberry before promptly shutting the door as I skipped out.

Don't ask me why I did it. Apparently I had reverted back into a child.

Just kidding.

I skipped out into the forest as I took in the sweet smell of grass and crisp wind.

It felt nice to be out.

"Beau!" I heard him shout somewhere behind me and the devil on my shoulder made its appearance again.

"Find me!" I shouted as I jogged into the woods.

"Beau! Come here this instant!" His voice was already fading as I ventured further into the woods.

The woods here were more beautiful than back in the town.

All kinds of pretty flowers and trees grew here. Many that I had never seen before.

For example, there was this curious plant that wound itself around trees and climbed higher and higher!

So engrossed that I was in my exporation that I didn't even realise that everything around me had grown silent till I heard a low spine chilling growl.

I froze in horror.

The woods had taught me a thing or two in the years that Martha and I had ventured into it, and I had broken the first and foremost rule.

Never come unarmed.

And I was unarmed and weak in body due to the fever I had.

Basically, I was a sitting duck in boiling water.

Damn.

Slowly, I turned around and almost fainted at what I saw.

A pack of wolves had surrounded me. It would have at least been fine it they had been normal size wolves but nooo!

They had to be abnormally huge, one wolf being almost twice my height.

And, there were five.

Good bye sunshine, hello darkness.

This was my end.

I cringed and covered my ears as the wolf in front of me howled to the sky followed by the others before it crouched.

Quickly spotting a thick branch I grabbed it and braced myself as I stood, ready to fight my way out of die trying, as hopeless it might be as I saw them pounce at me.

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