He watches her from the shadows of the ruins. But he can never let her see him, the cursed beast that he has become. But when he falls in love with her, he thinks just maybe she will accept him as he is.
A twist on an old fairy tale, The Beast in the Mirror is a short, sweet love story between a beautiful young woman and a beast that has been cursed by a witch to be ugly forever.
This is a short story and is .99 at Amazon and free everywhere else.
Excerpt:
From the shadows he watched her. She was exquisite…perfect. He knew he would only be able to watch her from afar. She was beautiful and he was a beast. So he would watch her, admire her, but he would never speak to her or even let himself be seen by her. Her delicate senses didn’t deserve to look upon such ugliness as his.
He watched as she got out her canvas and placed it on the easel she had set up. She mixed her paint, a little furrow between her brows as she concentrated on the colors she wanted to use. Why she had chosen these ruins…his ruins…as the place to paint, he would never know. Did she see beauty in these old stones? Could she possibly see any beauty in him? But, no, that was wishful thinking.
The beast had never let another human lay eyes on him since the witch had cursed him, three years ago. The witch had been beautiful and had enticed him to want her. But he had soon seen the evil that lay deep in her heart and had rejected her. In a fit of rage, she had cursed him to be ugly forever. In an act of cruelty, she had left him a beautiful ornate mirror so he could always be reminded of his ugliness. He had once been a happy go lucky playboy. Now he was this.
He looked at his hands. They were just as handsome as they had always been. His body was fit and lean, as appealing as it had always been. But when he viewed his face in the mirror, he saw where the true ugliness lay. The large ridged forehead, the pig-like snout, the large teeth with oversized canines, the sparse hair on his head. Where there had once been a handsome, almost perfect face, there was now the visage of true revulsion. As much as he longed to speak with the beautiful creature before him, he would never subject her to the horror of his face. The beast would just content himself with admiring her and making up fantasies in his mind.
Talk to me!