A Dark Crest Novel

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Everly is the next "bride of the beast," she is taken up the manor, and expects to be sacrificed, she survives, but meets a much worse fate the she had ever imagined.

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A wild beast had begun to attack our town, once every full moon, after it had its fill, it would calmly walk back up the hill, to the infamous Whitlock manor. It was rumored to be haunted. No one quite knew who had started the rumor, and no one had bothered to ask. It had been known forever, and everyone treated it as fact. Anyone ventured up to the manor, we’re said to be cursed. So no one in town dared to step foot inside, the seemingly empty manor. 


 One night, the town had agreed to try and stop the attacks. The beast would come down, and hunt soon, but what if we brought the hunt to the beast? What if we brought it a bride? A midnight snack? Would that quench its thirst? Would it still come down from Whitlock Manor? Those questions ran through all of our minds, as Ophelia Drillscoll, the first bride, was forced up the mountain by a few curious villagers, and left bound, at the foot of the manor. The village was not attacked that night. 

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The Beast Of Whitlock Manor

 I had spent the next thirty days locked within the manor's walls. We’ll ‘locked’ is a strong word. The truth is I didn’t try to leave the manor, not once. Those first thirty days were bliss. I spent my days wandering its halls or reading in the massive library, with mountains of books that seemed to be endless. Before coming to the manor I couldn’t read very well, but as time went on, it seemed as though I had been all my life. New words flooded my mind, and as if it was magic, I instantly knew the meaning. 


 Every day the dining room would have a new feast prepared for me, every morning, noon, and night I would find new flavors, new dishes; some I had never even seen prior to arriving. And no meal was ever alike. 


 There was never any housework to do, the bed would seemingly make itself, the dirty dishes would disappear, and be replaced with new ones, as would the laundry. A bath would be prepared for me, at just the right temperature, every night before bed. Life was peaceful then. Serene even, Oh how I long for those first thirty days. 


 On the night of the twenty-fifth everything changed. 


 With supper time, came an insatiable hunger. That night I had well more than my fill, yet nothing I ate could stop the cravings. As time went on, the more it grew. The more it grew, the more I ate, the more I ate, the hungrier I got. 


 I then began to notice some changes that had started to occur. At first, the hair on my arms stood up and began to grow. I hadn’t taken notice of it, till the hair was nearly a foot long. And my teeth grew sharper longer. I was able to tear through the chewy steak with ease. My jaw unhooked, and stretched itself outward, as my bones began to crack and realine. That part was especially painful. Before I knew it, my body had taken a new shape altogether. 


 I can’t recall much of that night after that. It’s all a blur really. A knock. Screams. Oh, the screams still ring through my ears, till this day. And of course, there was blood. I drank every last drop of it, as I tore through her flesh, till only bones remained. 


 I woke up outside the manor, along with a corpse. The corpse of a "bride." The corpse of my first "bride." The voices didn't have to beacon me back into the manor. I knew where I belonged. I knew what I had become. 


 Looking back on those first thirty days, I was truly ignorant. How stupid it was of me to think that I could have killed the beast. I had not. I could not kill the beast. No. I had in fact become him.


Chapter Two