Loveless: Day 6

Word Count: 36,003

Summary of Events:

Thérèse stayed cloistered in her room, terrified by the noises of groaning and thudding she'd been hearing of late. Le Démon, who had been drinking wine to alleviate the pain in his shoulder, found the wine cellar locked and exploded into a rage that involved chasing Thérèse around the castle. After getting away, Thérèse thought about how she might just let Évrard kill Le Démon, and then got onto thinking about marriage. Le Démon, feeling cold due to the recent frosts, wished he could make someone suffer for having made him suffer this nightmare. Thérèse, also feeling cold, decided to go look for the keys to warm herself up. Henri, cold and frustrated, got word that his eldest daughter and her husband were coming to visit, and then told everyone to quit searching because it was too cold.

Excerpt of the Day:

"In pained fury he roared again and leapt into the cool room, where he found a side of beef that he raked his claws over until all of the flesh hung in ribbons.

He surged out of the room again and then all the way through the kitchen, heading for her room. He'd never dealt with her about escaping yet, he'd just remembered when he'd seen the little bit of residual blood oozing on the beef.

Bursting into her room, he made sure to shut the door behind himself as she shrieked a high-pitched cry.

With all the air and power his lungs had, he roared at her several times before moving in to catch her.

She scrambled away from him quickly, and it didn't take her long to have popped out of the room.

He followed after her, despite a dull pain he was starting to feel in his hind paw, and followed her into the ballroom and up the stairs, toward the balcony.

The leftover fabric she hadn't used for her escape was still there, but he could tell she was frightened to find the rest of the fabric was forty feet down at the slope.

Quickly she headed off in another direction and he followed her, no matter where she went, even as they worked their way up to the third floor, then the fourth, the fifth, and finally the sixth again.

She scrambled up into the attic and he powered himself up in after her.

In such confined quarters her shriek was deafening. He roared at her savagely to get her to shut up and then slashed at her, still scrambling for places to put his hind paws while trying to fit himself into the rather cramped space that was the small attic.

Her fists struck at his head and his mouth, and even his arms and hands, as he struggled to push himself in.

He could hear a bit of creaking despite the noises of their scuffling as he tried to get into the attic and she tried to get him out, or somehow otherwise get away from him.

Suddenly there was a loud crack and her full body slammed against him, striking his wounded shoulder.

In pain he bellowed to the ceiling before the attic floor gave way and they both fell down.

There was more pain, but she was also scrambling toward one of the surveillance platform doors. He seized her skirts with his hand as he struggled to free himself from the debris, pulling her back onto himself.

She beat at him viciously, even kicking him.

He caught her one hand in his mouth, but she dragged a fingernail over the roof of his mouth that incited him to bellow, which released her hand.

Instantly she popped up and scrambled down the stairs, out of his reach before he could catch her."