Tessa And The Beast

04

Tessa could not bring herself to face the man she had just offended. She bit her lips and fell on her knees immediately “I'm so sorry please, I didn't mean to bump into you”, she pleaded.

She continued pleading but there was no reply from the man, not even an attempt to move, which scared Tessa more.

Finally, the strong masculine voice came to her ears and it sounded so melodious with his kind words, she was sure she must have heard his voice somewhere before.

“You don't need to apologize, miss, we both weren't looking, so apologies should be exchanged,” he said.

With that, Tessa slowly lifted her face, looking as adorable and innocent as ever, her beauty was everywhere in part of her body.

She recognized the face to be the mighty vampire prince Derek that everyone loves and adores. The people prefer him over his brother and complain to him directly instead of their problems.

She covered her mouth with both of her palms in surprise and fear of anyone seeing what she had done to the prince.

She quickly went on her knees to wipe his dirty shoe with the sleeves on her dress, but Derek seemed to be lost in another world.

He went down to her level and raised her up, his eyes brimming with tears and anguish. He raised her chin with his finger as if he could not get a closer look and by now, passing students had started becoming onlookers.

“Zelina?” he voiced out.

“Uh... Your highness... I I I'm sorry, my name is Tessa.” she said with uncertainty, almost forgetting her name with the tension she was feeling.

Faye and Lola heard the news about the prince attending school with them and they were having their happy party with other girls when some people came to inform them of his arrival but a poor girl stained his shoe.

Everyone rushed to the scene with the aim of teaching the anonymous girl a lesson, but the sight they met gave off a different story entirely.

They saw the prince staring at the unknown girl affectionately.

Tessa rolled her eyes almost 360 so that she could feel all eyes on her. She pleaded with gritted teeth because the prince refused to let go of her chin and if she wanted to free herself, the prince might look attacked, so she said “Your highness, can you please let go of me? People are watching”

Prince Derek was immediately smacked back to reality with the realization.

He saw Zelina but the young girl in front of her was not Zelina and she was human.

He did not take his eyes off Tessa the whole time she was apologizing and even till now.

People thought he went into shock as a result of touching a poor girl, funny how rich people behave. Some of the heavily dressed ladies attacked Tessa by pulling her hair and hersisters laughed at her from where they stood.

“Stop you all “ Derek’s voice resonated with authority and the ladies paused with fear.

“Get your hands off her right now,” he said.

They immediately stepped away from Tessa. His lips set in a line but his brows drew together in anger.

This scared the girls and they started mumbling their reasons for attacking her.

“She didn’t try to hurt me, I was the one that wasn’t careful” he stated.

The girls cooed and whined melodiously, totally in love with his charming look and how he started his words.

While he was conversing with them, Tessa had managed to sneak out of the crowd unnoticed.

That shows how much they love and cherish the prince. They didn’t even see her sneaking away, the girl they were desperate to kill a few seconds back.

Tessa didn’t know where she was going but she continued running and strength was departing from her. She reached a big building with bushy green hedges out the front and vines that grew along the stone walls to the roof.

A visible inscription on the entrance reads “Main building “

She heaved a sigh of relief as she waited to catch her breath. Soon, she heard an approaching footstep, but she was too lazy to hide from another group of girls that wanted her dead for messing with the vampire prince.

Amongst the girls are vampires too, so she’s so scared they might come after her later.

Her eyes glistened and welled up with tears when Bonnie came running to her from the hallway.

She cried out “What took you so long? I almost got killed on my first day “

She threw herself into Bonnie’s waiting hands for a hug and she wrapped her hands securely around her.

She loves her best friend so much that sometimes she thinks about her mother’s offer to train her powers and take over the family tradition, but she hates magic with passion.

She was always told by her mother that a day would come when she would feel the need to protect her loved ones but she would be powerless and it would hurt her badly.

Those thoughts seeped into her head, seeing Tessa’s state which requires protection, but she soon dismissed it and pat her friend's back.

“I heard everything already.”

Tessa sniffled her tears and Bonnie flashed her a smile.

“By the way, why do you always have this necklace on? It was glowing earlier...” she said.

“It was?” Tessa asked, puzzled.

“It’s the last thing I got from my father. That’s why I never take it off” she replied.

Bonnie stared intently at the necklace, she was so spaced out that she didn’t hear Tessa calling her up like 4 times already.

“Bonnie? Are you there?” Tessa asked.

“Uh? Yeah sure, I’m sorry “ she said.

Bonnie had been having strange dreams about her friend, she would see her necklace breaking and the beads rolling off to the feet of a dangerous man that smelled like death and then followed by Tessa’s dead body on the floor with her lips purple and eyes all black.