We are now more than halfway through! Yay! Sorry it's so late, but it's still Monday for another hour. And you still have a whole week to read this until part 10 is posted. If you missed the beginning, fear not! You can find it right here.
“Where is she?” His voice thundered through the halls. Even
the floors could be felt shuddering beneath his wrath. Rebekah cowered in a
shadow behind the door she had just slipped in. She didn’t want to come back,
but where was she to go? She had not been expecting a hunting party. The
painted man had brought his posse, and they were scouring the house for her.
“She’s a
beast, I tell you! A beast!” His
voice screeched with an inhuman passion. A short man behind him laid a hand on
his back.
“Calm down.
We’ll find her.”
“The world
needs to know what she is!” he wasn’t listening. He was drunk with rage.
“Why?” said
a small man in the back of the crowd. The room went silent. Every head turned
to stare at the questioner.
“Because
they deserve the truth!” he yelled
into the man’s face. “The truth is that she is not what she seems. She is a
horrid, ugly creature. And I will not
let her deceive them into thinking she is worthy.”
The painted
man was not used to feeling out of control. He was not used to having his reputation
in danger. But the face the girl now bore could destroy his pretense of having
everything every man ever wanted, and he could not let that happen.
“She must
have run away,” the short man offered. The painted man gathered his emotions.
“Ok,” he
breathed. “Let’s go.”