What stood before her was a sight to behold, and a scary sight too, for it was a tall and dark, looming castle up ahead, standing tall and majestic in its own spooky way. It looked really sinister, like someone or something was lurking in the bowels of the castle and it towered above her like a giant—an evil giant at that—and it seemed as if it has been there for a very, very long time indeed. The lightning and thunder in the background contributed more towards its sinister structure.
That’s when she realized that it was starting to rain. She quickly shielded her head and ran straight into the castle regardless of how sinister and scary it looked. She had to find shelter and she couldn’t risk getting sick. She went to the huge front door and pounded it, hoping someone would open. The door did open, but it opened by itself and there was no one there to greet her. She took a peek inside before the rain outside began to force her to let herself in the castle.
“Hello? Hello~?” Virginia tried to call out for anyone. She thought she heard some distant whispering but couldn’t see anyone. She tried her luck again. “Is someone there? I don’t mean to intrude but…I was shipwrecked and got stranded here…and, err, I need a place to stay for the night.”
“Virgil, come on, have a heart,” she thought heard a voice whispered, then a hush followed by a loud scream of pain before hearing the voice clearer, “Of course, madam, you’re welcome here.”
“Who said that?” Virginia muttered as she grabbed a candelabra which had a figurine of a lady holding out the candles.
“Over here!” the voice replied. Virginia turned around towards the voice but still couldn’t see anyone. She felt a sudden tinkle on her head and she turned around to see the candelabra figurine she was holding was actually smiling at her and greeted, “Hello.”
Virginia gasped and let go of the candelabra. The candelabra figurine groaned and slowly sat up on her own, rubbing her aching golden head. Suddenly a clock the shape of a chicken in robes came out of nowhere and started grumbling at the candelabra.
“Now, you’ve done it, Rusty! Splendid! Just peachy! Yagh!”
The clock let out a yelp as Virginia picked him up with much curiosity. She shook and rattled the clock, trying to figure out what made him move so animatedly. The candelabra, whose name’s Rusty, giggled. The clock finally groaned in exasperation and said, “Madam, put me down at once, do you mind?”
“I…I’m sorry,” Virginia apologized. “It’s just that I’ve never seen someth…”
Virginia didn’t get to finish her words as she found herself sneezing loudly at the clock’s face, as in literally his face (the face that shows the time was on his belly). Rusty sighed in pity.
“Oh, you are soaked to the bone, madam. Come, warm yourself by the fire.”
“Thank you,” Virginia replied gratefully.
The clock had horror struck on his face as he protested on and on behind them towards the master living room, “No, no, no, you are not going to be taking her into the living room. That’s the Mistress’s private quarters and I demand you to stop that at once! Oh no, no, not the Mistress’s chair!”
More animated objects came barging in to help Virginia make her feel more comfortable, despite the clock’s protests of “I’m not seeing this! I’m not seeing this!” A footrest that barked like a dog came and propped her feet. A coat hanger came to life and wrapped her in blanket. The clock stood up and grumbled loudly.
“Alright! This has gone far enough! I’m in charge her and I’m…”
His words were stopped short when a trolley came zooming in ridden by a talking coffeepot and coffee cup, saying, “How would you like to have a cup of coffee, dear? It’ll warm you up in no time.”
“No, no coffee!” the clock said in a muffle before lifting his flat face off the carpet and yelled, “No coffee!”
No one seemed to pay much attention to this obsessive, over-bearing chicken clock. As they chit-chatted merrily, the door of the living room suddenly banged open. All the animated objects’ faces switched from hospitable to horror, as if shocked yet half-expecting this to happen. The fire extinguished itself out of fear. The coffee cup jumped out of Virginia’s hand and hid behind the trembling coffeepot. Virginia heard some sniffing sounds, like a dog sniffing a scent and a sort of deep rumbling, like a tiger or a lion’s purr. She didn’t dare to turn around. She sat on the chair trembling.
“There’s a stranger here,” Virginia heard a rumbling voice behind here. It sounded like a female voice, only deeper.
“Mistress, allow me to explain,” Rusty immediately tried to clear things up. “You see, this woman was shipwrecked, stranded in this place and got lost in the woods and so we were thinking…”
A loud roar was heard. This creature didn’t seem to be in a mood to listening to excuses.
“Mistress, I would like to have this moment to say,” the clock said timidly. “I was against it from the start. It was all her fault, I tried to stop her, but no, she wouldn’t listen…”
Another roar stopped his explanation short.
Virginia decided to turn around and see who this bad-tempered creature was and the first thing that came across her eyes was a pair of copper-brown eyes. Virginia yelped in horror and staggered back, falling off the chair on the process.
“Who are you?!” the ‘Mistress’ demanded. “What are you doing here?!”
“I…I was lost in the woods and…” Virginia couldn’t help trying to look how this creature looked like—it was too dark for her to see its real form. Her staring eyes obviously offended the ogress-like creature as she towered over her with her flaming copper-brown eyes.
“What are you staring at?!”
“No…Nothing…”
“So, you’ve come to stare at The Beastess, have you?!”
“I-I-I beg your pardon, miss, but…I-I-I just needed a place to stay…”
“I’ll give you a place to stay!!” The Beastess growled and grabbed the collar of her blouse. In the midst of her protests, The Beastess carried her with one hand out of the living room and slammed the door with the other, leaving the cowering animated objects in the dark.
Max sat in the food compartment, being careful not to be seen. He had stowed away on the boat as soon as it was about to leave and was lucky to wriggle his way into the food compartment of the boat. So far throughout the journey for goodness knows how long it was, he had full access to food and was able to eat whenever he wanted (of course, he had to save some for the crew of the boat) and he had only just eaten a few pickles and some raw turtle eggs. He dug his pockets and took out his late father’s compass. Ever since his father passed away, he had been carrying the compass around everywhere he went, like a lucky charm or something. He checked the bearings and remembered Norman saying that the legendary Beastess’s lair was at the north-east of the Earth, following Venus the Evening Star, and so as long as he continued going north-east, he should be there.
He looked out of the window and into the vast blue sea. He had never venture further away from home than this, only deeper, literally. This was the first time he ventured away from his provincial village out into the sea. The only time he ever got on a boat was his father’s ship, and that was only for fun. He was never taken out to voyages, until now, that is.
Soon he saw that the boat was straying away from the Evening Star towards the south. That was his cue to get off the boat and venture towards his destination on his own. He wriggled out of the window of the food compartment and held on, moving cautiously towards the small rowing boats that were hanging at the side of the big boat. Luckily it was hung on his side, or he had to climb a long way to the other side and might risk falling into the sea. He climbed into one of the rowing boats, lowered himself down to the sea and undid the cord that connected his boat with the main boat. Taking one last look at his compass and mentally thanking the big boat that took him all the way this far, he rowed slowly towards the north-east once more, following the Evening Star.
After about a few hours of rowing, when the sun began to set and the moon began to rise, he finally reached his destination. Hiding the boat inside a dense bush and covering it with a few dead branches thick with leaves, he took a deep breath and started trudging through the heavily thick forest which loomed over him like a gloomy, cold and sinister gateway to the scary, unknown world he was going to encounter. To release his tension and anxiety over this place, he started talking to himself, giving himself some mental encouragement.
“OK, so here we are in this dense place and I’ll soon be moving towards The Beastess’s lair…Alright, this is suicidal, but I’m willing to do anything to be with Phoebe…ahh, my Phoebe, how I long to be in your embrace…Get a grip on yourself, Max, you are way beyond the boundaries of civilization…! What? Am I scared? Am I afraid of danger? That’s not me! I laugh at the face of danger—”
His words stopped short when he finally found himself standing in front of the dark and menacing 15-feet gate.
“Couldn’t keep our mouths shut, could we? Just have to invite her to stay, didn’t we? Serve him coffee, sit in the Mistress’s chair, pet the pooch…”
Rusty the candelabra and the clock, whose name was Virgil, were having a heated discussion about Virginia’s incident. Virgil obviously didn’t want Rusty to forget about this mistake so easily, although it had already been two days since the incident.
“I was trying to be hospitable!” Rusty tried to make her point but Virgil wouldn’t hear of it.
“I don’t know what you were thinking. You are so slack-jawed that I bet you can’t even keep your mouth shut even if I stuffed a whole glass of paraffin inside your mouth…”
“Hello? Anyone here?”
Rusty and Virgil’s argument stopped short when they heard Max’s voice echoing down the castle. They got off the table and took a peek. They soon saw Max with his T-shirt, red cap, jeans and all walking down the hallway as if looking for someone. Rusty gasped in awe.
“It’s a boy!”
“I know it’s a boy, woman! Duh!” Virgil snorted in frustration.
“Don’t you see? He’s the one! The one we have been waiting for!” Rusty hissed excitedly. “He has come to break the spell!”
Without hesitation, Rusty clattered down the hall, deliberately making herself heard. Virgil followed behind anxiously. The clattering of their bodies attracted Max’s attention. Max soon found himself being led by their scurrying down to the dungeons of the castle. He tried to call out but of course, they didn’t answer.
“That’s strange, I’m sure that there was someone,” Max muttered to himself before raising his voice, “Is anyone there?”
“Max?” Virginia’s surprised voice came from one of the dungeon doors. Max was taken aback. He rushed towards the dungeon door and found his mother in it, practically frozen and shivering with extreme cold.
“Mom? What are you doing here? I thought you’ve gone to…oh God, your hands are like ice!”
“How did you…never mind. Listen to me, Max,” Virginia said anxiously. “You have to get out of here. It’s really dangerous!”
“Who’s done this to you, Mom?” Max demanded.
“No time to explain. You must go now!”
“But I can’t leave you—”
“What are you doing here?!”
A loud booming voice rang through the dungeons and a sharp tug on his hand forced Max to let go of the torch he was holding and it extinguished in one of the puddle on the rocky floor, leaving only a small ray of light from the seam of the ceiling. Max looked around and saw a huge figure in front of him that stood at about 10 feet tall. It looked frightening and its copper-brown eyes that gleamed under the dim light contributed more to its menacing form.
“Who…Who is it? Who are you?” Max asked, trembling.
“The Mistress of this castle,” the figure replied.
“Please, I beg you, let my Mom go. Can’t you see she’s freezing to death here?”
“Then she shouldn’t have trespassed here! And neither should you!!”
“But she could die here. Please, I’ll do anything…” Though the grudge over her still hang, Max didn’t have the heart to leave her here to die a cold and horrible death.
“There’s nothing you can do,” the figure said, turning away. “She’s my prisoner.”
“Oh, there must be some way I can…” Max wracked his brains to think, then suddenly came up with a plan. He called out to the figure, stopping it at its tracks. “Wait!”
The figure turned around, looking at him sideways. Max took a deep breath and blurted it out.
“Take me instead.”
“You?!” the figure snorted at first, then turned to max with a surprised look in its eyes. “You will…take his place?”
“No, Max! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Virginia yelled in horror, but Max ignored her.
“If I did,” Max asked, “will you let her go?”
“Yes,” the figure replied. “But…you must promise to stay here forever.”
Max stared at the figure for a while. He was curious at the way the figure kept itself in the dark, as if trying to hide what it looked like. Could it be that this is…? Max had to know.
“Come into the light.”
The figure hesitated a little, then obliged. Slowly it moved closer and closer towards the ray of light that came from the seam of the ceiling. Max widened his eyes when the figure came into full view: it was a female and had red flaming hair, like fire itself. Her eyes, which were copper-brown, shone under the light. She stood about 10 feet tall and her skin was quite scaly, with the sickly colour of green. She looked so menacingly tall, scary and evil that Max couldn’t help thinking that she had ascended from hell. He couldn’t suppress the gasp in his throat as he come to realize that she was the legendary Beastess.
“No, Max, I won’t let you do this!” Virginia’s urging voice rang behind him. Max opened his eyes, a determined look on his face. It’s about time she stopped telling him what to do and not to do if she wants to live and if she knows what’s good for her. Besides, he had a mission to accomplish, and he would do anything to complete it. He walked up to The Beastess and stared straight at her copper-brown eyes.
“You have my word.”
“Done!” The Beastess boomed and walked towards the dungeon door, opening the prison that kept Virginia from freedom. Max fell onto his knees, going weak all over. He couldn’t believe that he actually traded his freedom for his mother’s life just like that. That’s something he had never done before in his whole life.
“Please, Max, listen to me. I’ve lost your father at sea, and I cannot let you die out here in this hellish place covered by this forest and…”
Virginia couldn’t finish her words as she was tugged and dragged away by The Beastess out of the dungeons. Max wanted to say his side of his last words but he had half-expected this to happen. He could tell that this Beastess was not someone who would let nonsense get in the way. He watched sadly as his mother disappeared slowly out of sight.
“Please, I beg of you, miss,” Virginia said tearfully as her cold limp body dangled over The Beastess’s shoulder as she slung the mother across her shoulders and trudged through the forest out towards the open sea. “Please spare my son. He’s all I’ve got now…”
“He’s no longer your concern, woman,” The Beastess growled as she whistled out loud. Soon an oar-less boat moved slowly up shore towards its mistress. The Beastess threw Virginia onto the boat and ordered, “Take her back to where she came from.”
From the castle, Max could hear his mother protesting loudly and ordering the boat to stop as the boat took her further and further away from the island where The Beastess’s lair lay.
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