Hemlock Veils

“Very well,” the redhead a

Eustace had never seen a sight so awful, nor had he heard a sound to match the wretchedness so impeccably. The beast’s howl was so deafening it brought every resident of the woods to attention. But it wasn’t just the beast who roared his opposition, for the temptress wailed as well, dropping her knife and watching with hands on her head as Elizabeth’s body fell to the ground. “No!” she cried, deep and gravelly.

Elizabeth lay on her back and looked to the stars, choking on the red that drizzled from her mouth. For some reason, this disturbed Eustace more than the spilling of it from her chest did. Elizabeth bleeding: it was so wrong.

The beast, with a new strength gained by probably nothing but adrenaline, lunged for the witch, and his teeth tore so brutally into her neck that Eustace could actually hear the ripping of flesh. In his rage, he shook her—a dog shaking a chew toy—and after he threw her feminine body against a tree, still she stood, miraculously. She stared at Elizabeth, mouthing no and holding her blood-gushing neck. She bled, yet stood as though unharmed.

Then the beast approached Elizabeth with a gentleness Eustace would have never been able to fathom before. He stood over her as her eyes became glazed and her chest heaved with the final croaks and coughs of death, blood now pooling beneath her as it traveled from the wound, down her ribs. He nudged her with his long, monstrous snout, even licked her a few times—licked away the blood on her chin. The gentleness astounded Eustace. It reminded him again of a dog, this time trying to save his wounded master. The beast communicated with her, because Elizabeth—still unafraid in her dying moments—reached a hand to the monster’s face, grasping his dark fur.

Eustace stepped closer so he could hear. While stroking his fur, in a voice so soft he barely heard, she whispered, “It’s all right, Henry.”

Tilting his ear in their direction, Eustace had to have misunderstood. After all, his hearing had been pretty terrible the past few years.

The beast huffed and howled another agonizing cry, then looked back at her, whimpering from deep within his throat.

“Because,” she said, “you’re free now.” Tears left the corners of her eyes and it seemed her voice was more difficult to come by. “Please don’t cry for me, Henry. This was the only way—”

She gagged, turning her head to the side as she coughed again, and this time Eustace knew he hadn’t misheard. Henry. Henry?

“I…” she added in a strained whisper, a smile lighting her face. “I can be your antidote.”

The beast groaned.

“I love you, always. Never…forget it, Henry.” And with that her eyes closed and her hand fell from his fur, her body going limp. As the beast wailed, his howl the most painful sound Eustace had ever heard, it began to sound more human. The sound of a shouting man. A shout of rage: “Nooooo!” Eustace was about to question his own sanity, but then the earth began to tremble.

He took a step back, absorbing the pulse beneath the rubber soles of his boots, and the beast began vibrating himself, pulsating with a visible heat. He shouted, again that shout of a man, and as he collapsed to the ground beside Elizabeth, it appeared his body had turned inside out, and by the sound of his cries, Eustace would bet it was something agonizing. He wanted to look away, his stomach turning from the gruesome sight, but he couldn’t.

Then all fell still and what lay there wasn’t a beast anymore, but a man. Eustace actually rubbed his eyes, just to make sure he saw correctly.

Then he put everything together. Henry, he thought in awe. Of course.

Henry, body contorted and lying face-against-dirt, pushed himself up; Arne, whom Eustace hadn’t seen arrive, ran to him. He placed a blanket over Henry and helped him sit. At the same time Eustace realized he hadn’t been paying attention to the crowd at all, his eyes welled. He turned to the other faces, the awe-struck expressions and even some tears. Regina’s, for one. Her hands were clasped in front of her and her large chest shook with weeping. Nicole’s arms were still wrapped around herself as she too shed tears. Still, no Brian was in sight.

Then there was Taggart. The awe factor had brought him to his knees, and in the dirt, he stared at the scene as though this moment was his final. Eustace turned back to Arne and Henry, and Henry appeared disoriented as he tied the blanket around his waist. But the disorientation didn’t last, for he stared at his hands, turning them over a couple of times, and then at the stars. He jerked around to Elizabeth’s body, and the sob that shook him made Eustace’s own throat close.

“Elizabeth!” he cried. Arne, with wetness in his own eyes, put a hand on Henry’s shoulder, but Henry shook it off and picked up Elizabeth, bringing her to his chest. “You can’t leave me, not like this,” he mumbled desperately, over and over again, and through tears Eustace hadn’t known he was capable of. He mumbled more pleas, some of which Eustace couldn’t make out, and none of this felt real. The idea of Henry and Elizabeth in love was almost as shocking as the reality that Henry had been the beast all these years, and that Elizabeth had known—and that they’d been sneaking away together at night. Eustace was a damn fool for not seeing it sooner, for not seeing who he was.

He realized then that he was the Henry: his old friend. He saw him now, as clearly as though he’d been thrown back forty years. Henry had been here the whole time, the same man now as he had been then. Eustace fell to his own knees at the wonder of it all. At the heart-wrenching way Henry clung to Elizabeth, the only woman who’d been able to see him for who he was. Eustace’s own heart broke, too, his soul mourning for hers. The soul he shared a kinship with.

There was something excruciatingly humble about a man who had once appeared to have everything in the world but emotions, weeping—begging almost pathetically. And that sound was the only one in the air, the denseness of the nighttime forest insulating his cries. If Henry knew anyone else was there, it didn’t show. He had an audience to his most personal of moments—the sacred moment of mourning—whether he wanted one or not.

Then his eyes, bloodshot, darted to everyone else’s before ending on Doc. “What are you just standing there for? Help me save her!”

“But it’s too late.” It came from the witch. Eustace had forgotten she was here, her form hunched in the shadows. She stepped into the light, her blood gone. But even in her wholeness, there was something different about her, something weaker. Something more human. Her voice sounded drained and her body looked tired. Even her beauty appeared less…hypnotizing. Henry’s expression hardly changed at the sound of her voice. “She’s gone,” she finished. She seemed as distraught as the rest of them.

“No,” Henry replied, his brow still furrowed. “There’s got to be something…” He shook Elizabeth again, stroking her hair. “Please,” he barely managed in a breath. “I need you, Elizabeth. You can’t…leave me alone.” He brought her to his body again, nearly crushing her as he held on, and cried into her neck. She looked so dainty and fragile in his large arms, like nothing more than a ragdoll.

“You fool,” the witch growled, angry and irreverent. “Don’t you see? You’re a worthless man again! That means she’s gone, Monster.”