The beauty is a beast

Pandora's curse

The Howls that night made the hair on his neck stand up. It was the worst sound in the world, worse than his mother's cries when he had transformed into a monster, or his sister's screams when he left town. They were utterly horrifying. He tried with all his might to ignore them, and not go find the source, but in the end, he couldn't help it: They were calling out to him like a child for their mother. He stormed through the castle down to the ground level, where he knew he would find the door. There was no Archer this time to interrupt him, so he threw the door open and climbed the stairs down to the basement. It was dark down there, but his animalistic eyes could handle the dark. Finally, he found his way into a large room with a rounded ceiling. There was a long hall leading to a kind of gallery where large paintings covered the walls. He looked around curiously: They were portraits of royal men and women in expensive clothing and strict poses. Most of them were cut up, mostly through the faces. In the middle of the room was a figure slumped down on the stone floor in a large puddle of fabric. Damien immediately went over and kneeled next to the figure, only to find the origin of the howls. 

The princess's face was contracted in a grimace of pain and anger as she bared her teeth at him. "Argh!!!?!?" She screamed, then cried as tears flooded down her cheeks. "Aaaaahhhh!!!!"

"Shhh," he tried to comfort her. "Shhh."

She tried to fight him at first, but eventually, she gave in and let him hug her. Her arms looped around his as he whispered to her quietly. "It is okay. It is okay. I got you. You are safe," he muttered in her ear and held her.

"No," she whispered. "No, I will never be safe." She didn't elaborate, and he felt it wasn't the right time to ask. Eventually, she calmed down and relaxed into his embrace enough that he felt it was safe to let her go.

"What is this place?" He asked her and looked around again. The pictures, he realized, were all recent. She was even in a few of them. Must be of her parents, he thought.

"My dungeon," she sniffed and pulled her knees to her chest. "Don't tell anyone."

"Don't tell anyone what?"

"That I am crazy," she whispered.

"You are not crazy," he told her and brushed her hair back from her tear-streaked face.

She snickered. "I am the monster under the castle... Sometimes in the castle too..."

"Pandora..." he whispered to her painfully. "What happened?"

"I..." she bit her lip. "My father loves me," she spoke confidently.

He furrowed his brows and reached for her again. "I don't understand?"

"Anhtimos loves Pandora," she repeated and looked at him with big puffy eyes. "He loves Pandora..."

"Pandora this might not be my place, but maybe you need to talk to your father-"

"NO!" She exclaimed, wide-eyed. "No no... I cannot..."

She was so tiny and scared, it was difficult to believe she had been a terrifying goddess only hours ago. He felt his heart soften. "Let me take you to your chambers. A warm bed must surely be better than this cold room," he insisted. She looked about to resist but nodded slightly and let him help her stand. She was wobbly on her legs, so he helped her walk up the stairs.

He didn't know where to go from there, but she guided him to her room. Big white doors lead into marvelous chambers where a big kingsized bed stood untouched with blue velvet covers and a bunch of pillows. He didn't know what was appropriate, so he sat her on top of the covers and turned away to leave. "Wait!" She called after him. "Thank you."

He stood for a quiet moment, not knowing what to do, then offered her what he hoped to be a smile. "You are welcome, your highness." And then he left.

He closed the french doors behind him to go back to his own room, then he turned only to stand face to face with Archer Hastings.

"Where did you find her?" Archer asked calmly, hands behind his back.

"Uhm, in the basement. I am sorry. I know I wasn't supposed to go there, but the howls-"

"Follow me," Archer ordered and turned around on his heel. 

He marched them to the library, where he lit a lamp and closed the doors behind them. "I suppose we better lay the cards on the table," he admitted and turned around to face Damien. "No one here except you and her seems to know about these howls that you keep mentioning. No one else can hear them," he hissed. "So why can you?"

"I-" he didn't have an answer. The howls were so loud, there was no way anyone could overhear them. "I don't know. They are so loud, I just... I cannot ignore them! It is like an animal being tortured."

"And it comes from the basement?" Archer questioned, demanding but also excited.

"No... It comes from her. She is the one howling," Damien explained.

Archer looked at him for a long time without blinking before he turned his gaze away. "She is troubled, you know. Brilliant but troubled."

"Because of what happened with her mother?" Damien couldn't help but ask.

Archer's gaze whipped up again as he regarded him cautiously. "What do you know about that?"

"That the queen was murdered, and the princess was the one to find her," he disclosed, figuring it wasn't a secret.

Archer paused and tensed, then started pacing down the bookshelves. "That is almost true..." He grumbled. "She didn't find her... Well she did, but before the attack. She witnessed it," he disclosed.

"What?" Damien felt the new information hit him in the gut. She had witnessed her mother getting murdered?

"She witnessed it," Archer repeated. "Thank God she wasn't murdered too... After that everything happened in a rush. Loukas left in the middle of the night. Anhtimos demanded the entire kingdom to search for the murderer, but they never found him. Eventually, everything calmed down. We were taught, me and her, to rule this kingdom in case we ever needed to. A few years later, Anthimos went to war, and she was forced to take the throne."

"God she must be so traumatized," Damien muttered.

"You could say," Archer snorted but straightened up. "But you: You make her calm. I have seen it. She likes you, and she doesn't usually like anyone. Keep doing what you are doing, but one more thing," he warned lowly. "The king is not going to like you. Pandora doesn't believe in monsters, but Anthimos does. She doesn't care about her advisors' opinions, but Anthimos does, so you be careful. Be there for her, but make sure he doesn't see you!" Archer insisted, his eyes starring and demanding.

Damien nodded seriously, sensing Archer for some reason seemed to be helping him.