Belle gasped in horror as she saw the condition of the castle. The whole place was ransacked, like a storm of the worst kind just hit. All the enchanted servants were in pieces, some even barely recognizable, and the rest who seemed to have survived the attack suffered great damage, some of them beyond repair. The village mob had really done a number on them.
Though as much as it pained her to see her friends turned into collateral damage and casualties of war, the only thought that was racing through her mind right now was The Beast.
She quickly made her way to the West Wing where The Beast's sanctuary was. There, the bruised and battered trio Lumiere, Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth were standing just right at the door of the verandah. Chip, who had followed her along with Maurice, hopped excitedly towards his mother only to freeze in mutual horror at what they were looking at.
"Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts! Where is The…"
Her words were caught in her throat as she, too, froze at the sight before her. The Beast, or what was left of his body, was lying in his own pool of blood, soaked by the falling rain and macabrely immobile. His head was gone, looped off clean from his neck. His body showed signs of stab wounds everywhere, and the fatal blow seemed to be directly at his heart.
But that was not the worst part.
The worst part was Gaston, the man who riled up the village to storm the castle and devastated this place, was there, standing before The Beast's body in all his full gloating glory as he held the head of her Beast she had come to see as a dear friend after the few short months of staying with him with one hand and the offending weapon that struck the final blow with the other.
"G…Gaston…" Belle looked like she had just remembered to breathe. "W…What have you done…?"
"You should ask that question yourself, Marion Belle," Gaston replied with a triumphant grin as he stepped over The Beast's body and advanced towards her.
"You…You killed him…" Belle whimpered, her knees shaking from the shock.
"You have only yourself to blame," Gaston kicked aside the enchanted servants and shoved The Beast's head at her face. "You brought this upon yourself. You should've been sensible and chose me. Instead, you chose this monster over me! What do you see in this abomination that I don't have?"
"I told you, Gaston!" Belle snapped as she glared back up at him with teary eyes, as if that could intimidate the brawny man. "He's not a monster! You are! You are rude and conceited and care about nothing but yourself! You don't love me! You just want to own me! I will never love you! Never!"
"How dare you?" Gaston threw the hunting knife aside and grabbed her by the collar, raising her a few inches off the ground like a rag doll, kicking harshly at the trio who tried to free her from his grasp. "Are you saying that you would rather love this…this creature than me?"
As soon as he said that, something in Belle's mind finally clicked. It all made sense now: the flutter of her heart whenever she saw The Beast's gentle side, the way her face warmed up whenever The Beast spoke to her instead of roaring at her, the way she sighed quietly in content whenever The Beast touched her or caressed her, the smile she returned whenever The Beast does so without trying to scare her with his fangs…everything. It was the undeniable truth that she had only discovered too late.
"Yes," Belle replied indignantly. "Yes, I love him. I love The Beast. I love him more than I could ever even think of considering you!"
Gaston looked like he had just been slapped on the face before his eyes narrowed into jilted anger, the same eyes he had when Belle rejected his marriage proposal the first time.
"You will regret ever saying this, Belle."
-:-
Belle curled on the bed at the corner of her cell with her back against the wall and her arms around her knees as she stared blankly into the darkness. She didn't need to calculate the days to know that tonight would be the night Gaston comes over for his monthly "visits".
Her first few months in Asylum de Loon were torture. She and her father Maurice were diagnosed with post-traumatic diminished capacity thanks to the manipulative words of the village hero Gaston who so-called saved his people from the terrifying Beast. He managed to convince the people that due to being held captive for so long by The Beast, they have been brainwashed into thinking that The Beast was anything but dangerous, and must be cured of this insanity. The medication, shock therapy, cold water treatment and counseling quickly drove the agitated old Maurice into real craziness and was now nothing but a shell of his former self as he walked about staring into space like a drooling madman and could only utter Belle's name like a mantra.
Belle was no better off as she was always dreading the mid-month when Gaston pays a visit to her, in addition to her daily "healing" by the asylum staff. Every month he would visit her in her cell, taunting her and constantly reminding her how everything was her fault and that he could take this all away if she would just admit that she loved him and not The Beast, and agree to marry him. And every time she said no, he would pin her down and have his way with her, raping her until she was sore and raw before the cycle continued again the very next month.
Her mind wandered to the days she was back in the castle, and if she concentrated hard enough she was practically there, sipping tea through Chip and listening to old tales of the castle told by Mrs. Potts, or be at the garden tending to Phillipe as she laughed at the bickering Lumiere and Cogsworth over petty differences, or in the library as she and Babette would dust and reorganize the books or maybe even at the greenhouse enjoying the scenery with the footrest dog Max circling around her feet.
But most of all, she would be there with The Beast, enjoying a quiet meal at the dining table, throwing snowballs in the front yard, reading a good book by the fire, exchanging stories about each other's past and lives before they met over a cup of hot cocoa, dancing under the chandelier in the ballroom, idle chats at the verandah…everything that she had done with The Beast during her "captivity" was relived again in her mind, and she couldn't help smiling at the memories even though her tears were starting to fall.
Images of seeing The Beast's headless body and the enchanted servants' faces of horror resurfaced again in her mind. Her heart ached at the thought of how she could not save him in time, that she had gotten there too late and even after his death, she continued to betray him by allowing herself to be touched and ravished by the man who murdered him. Despite the relieving fact that she has yet to be knocked up (which may hint to Gaston's impotency despite his brawniness) by him did not make her becoming his sexual outlet any better. She felt so dirty, like a whore, as she was being used again and again with no one to save her from all this.
It's my fault, Belle thought as she buried her face on her knees and cried for the umpteenth time. I couldn't save you, Beast. If only I've gotten there sooner…Gaston's right, it is my…
Her heart started to boil with cold anger at the thought. Gaston was not right. He was never right. He was never right about anything. It's true that she did not come in time to save her beloved Beast, but she did not kill him. Gaston did. He was the one who stormed in and beat The Beast into submission before delivering that fatal blow and cut off his head. It was his fault! He did this to her beloved! Gaston!
"You have a visitor."
Belle looked up to see the old bag of bones leading the ever smug brawn-with-no-brains Gaston. Lefou, his trusty sidekick, did the usual payoff to the old caretaker before ushering him out, taking his leave as well.
"Good evening, Belle. I see you're still holding up."
There he was, standing there.
"It's been 10 months to the letter now."
Gaston. The Beast's murderer.
"Have you come to a decision?"
Her beloved's murderer.
Slowly, her lips creased to display a cold smirk.
-:-
There was no one alive in France who didn't know Belle the Beastess. Every man, woman and child knew that if they saw claw marks the size of a bear and a lipstick mark on a mirror whoever was in there was no longer alive.
Everyone knew that she came from the provincial town of Rosseau, where the terror began. They knew she was a healing patient from Asylum de Loon who was taken in by the town hero Gaston Romppenau as his wife. No one saw a more beautiful bride that day as Belle walked down the aisle and said her vows before becoming Gaston's lawful wedded wife, and no one celebrated the merrier as the festivities lasted 3 days and 3 nights with the richest food and wine Rosseau had to offer.
But no one was more horrified at what happened next. Belle, beautiful as she was deadly, had brutally murdered Gaston in bed, the poor man's limbs tied to the bed posts and was gutted alive like a fish with what seemed to be bear claws that were part of the famed hunter's trophy display. To add insult to injury, he was castrated and decapitated, his genitals shoved into his mouth and mounted on the wall where The Beast's head—his best catch yet—used to be. The Beast's head was nowhere to be found.
Slowly, people in Rosseau started to die one by one in the most brutal manner. Nothing was taken save a few pieces of jewelry, but claw marks were found at the scene of the crime and a lone lipstick mark was left behind on one of the mirrors of the house, and the victims' bodies were in a state that even the most hardened lawmen could not stomach. Everyone lived in terror as they did not know who would be the next victim, and they were in the state of entrapment where they could not leave no matter how they tried, as if some sort of mysterious force was behind their captivity. They all agreed that only one person could do this.
Marion Belle.
A state-wide arrest was issued to the public and the highest reward possible was offered to anyone who could spot or capture this deadly woman. The lawmen had tried to question Maurice of her whereabouts, since she was his daughter, but unfortunately he was too far gone and too damaged of his mind to be of any help, and the only evidence that she had come to visit him was a single rose placed on his bedside table. Because of her MO in killing, she was soon nicknamed "Belle the Beastess" and was feared throughout France for being able to elude the law and continued to kill to satiate her bloodlust. There had been a few near misses, but so far, no one had been able—or dared—to capture her.
All everyone could do was pray that they weren't next.
-:-
Belle dragged her feet tiredly as she walked into the castle and up towards The West Wing. Lumiere and Mrs. Potts were the first people, or enchanted objects, to see her return but maintained their distance. Neither one of them dared to approach her after seeing the drastic change that had happened to their dear friend.
Belle was still as beautiful as she first came to the castle, but there was something hollow and terrifying about her beauty. Her hair was ragged and taught, matted across her forehead and her neck, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Her eyes were bloodshot and tired, and she seemed to have lost significant weight, yet there was still some form of morbid strength within her arms. Her skin was slightly sallow under the moonlight as she took off the bear claws from her hands and lowered the hood she had fashioned out of The Beast's head she had carefully skinned and sewn.
As she sat at the verandah outside the West Wing, she stared up into the sky, droplets of tears clung on her lashes and brimmed under her eyes, stinging them. She couldn't remember how long it was since she had came here, and she didn't know why she did it, but she came back anyway, after almost years of being out there terrorizing the world with her unimaginable bloodlust. Since the day she made the solemn vow to avenge her beloved Beast, she had not shed a tear. Her bitter sadness had been turned into blinding anger and madness as she tore through the streets of the provincial town she was forced to move into after her mother's death, bent for the kill, destroying those who had destroyed her life.
Gaston was easy to subdue and fool. He was all brawn and no brain, and just a mere suggestion of having kinky sex soon brought the hunter to his knees, allowing her to do whatever she wanted with him. He never saw it coming, and neither did the people of Rosseau. Crying alone was no longer enough for her to quench her thirst for revenge, but their screams of terror and mercy and their blood on her hands were a brief respite from her pain and fury. She did not know how long it was before she wasted the entire village, but she knew by the time she realized it, she was already known to the whole of France as "Belle the Beastess".
She had turned into a Beast.
Just like her beloved, only much worse.
"Beast…" Belle whispered, months of disuse of her vocals making it sound a bit dry and hoarse. "It's so cold…but I feel so much colder inside…I can't carry on anymore…but…but I don't even deserve to die for you…"
Suddenly an owl flew in out of the blue in the midst of her rambling and perched just right beside her. It was a common barn owl, but despite its normality, it had the most piercing black orbs that seemed to twinkle under the moonlight. Belle chuckled bitterly at the sight of it.
"Are you here to claim my soul?" Belle asked in sarcastic dry humour. "Or are you here to return my Beast to me? I don't know who or what you are, or what you're doing here, but I'm sure as I'm sitting here that you are no ordinary bird."
With those words, the owl suddenly transformed with a blinding flash into a tall, beautiful woman with long-flowing forest-green robes and a greenish-gold crown adorned with green jewels. Her golden tresses that ran past her thighs were floating as if constantly blown by the wind despite the lack of wind in the air, and her lips were as red as the enchanted rose Belle saw for the first time in The Beast's room. But her eyes were the same piercing black as she had seen when she was in owl form. Belle was shocked to see the sight before her but her body was too lethargic from her last kill to move.
"I see that you have the gift of sight Adam seemed to lack," the transformed woman broke the ice.
"Who…Who are you…?" Belle finally asked.
"I am the one responsible for Adam's curse," the woman replied. "Or The Beast, as you knew him to be."
"Y…You…!" Belle said as she finally had the strength to lunge forward to grip the ends of the enchantress' robes. "So you're the one behind The Beast's misery! Why? What has he done to deserve this? What cruelty has he done to you to suffer the fate of never again being able to face the outside world? Why did you…?"
"I only meant for him to learn to love," the enchantress replied nonchalantly. "He ruled his country and his people with such tyranny that if I were not to intervene, he would turn into the worst ruler of his dynasty and many will suffer from his sins. But I have to admit, this was not what I have foreseen to end of him…"
"You speak like he was nothing to you!" Belle snapped. "He's everything to me! He had treated me with more love and understanding than any man can ever be! I would want no one else but him! You were wrong about him, you witch! You were wrong! It's all your fault he's dead! You killed him!"
"I did not kill him," the enchantress replied in a matter-of-fact way. "Your husband did, the one you killed."
"He's not my husband! I will never see him as my husband! He's a monster compared to The Beast! He's the real Beast, not mine! Give him back! Give him back to me! Give me back my Beast!"
"I cannot revive the dead, nor can I change the past. But I can help you come to a compromise."
"A…c…compromise?" Belle looked up with her tear-stained ashen face.
"I have been watching you for the longest time," the enchantress knelt on bended knee to Belle's level. "I have kept watch of this castle since the day I planted this curse upon Adam, waiting to see if he would learn his lesson and find a way to save himself. I watched you too when you showed up, and I was glad that you have shown him the way and have given him hope, but I truly did not expect it to end like this. I must admit, I felt a certain degree of anger for my plans to be ruined in this way. Why do you think you were able to contain all the people of Rosseau from escaping so that you could exact your revenge?
"But I also have not expected that by allowing you your thirst for revenge, this tragedy had given the biggest change in you. In your grief over the loss of your loved one, you have turned into the same creature I have turned Adam into. You have turned you love and loss into a form so distorted that you can no longer love or trust anyone and your bloodlust is too great that I cannot allow you to be out there and massacre the world in order to soothe your own pain. If it weren't for your brief respite and retreat to your sanctuary of pain, you probably would not have noticed who I really am and scorn me just as Adam had. You are a Beast, Marion Belle. A different kind of Beast, but a Beast nonetheless.
"For this, despite the reasons behind your actions, I shall transfer Adam's curse into you. As he had not fulfilled his contract with me, his curse is now permanent, and is now your burden to bear. You are now doomed to remain a Beast for all time. Everything in this castle is now yours and yours alone, and you will live off the remaining years that had ended in Adam, but you will never set foot beyond the gates of this castle. You are a prisoner once more, Belle, until the end of your time. Any last words?"
A long pause ensued before the young woman hug her head in resignation and defeat, "I can never forgive myself for what I've done to my beloved. Please, do as you will to me. This is the least I deserve."
As the enchantress took out her wand and cast the spell onto Belle, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth who were secretly watching the entire time looked at each other and at Belle in despairing defeat.
This was really the end.
The end of all hopes.
-:-
The terror of Belle the Beastess was mysteriously over somehow, and after about a decade, she was soon forgotten. However, a new tale began to spread. A tale that, despite the ambiguity of its origins, soon became many a children's bedtime tale, and a tale many a romantic would swoon over and felt upon its tragedy:
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle. Although he may have everything his heart desired, the prince was spoiled, selfish and unkind. But then, one winter's night, an old beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose in return for the shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince sneered the gift and turned the old woman away, but she warned him not to be deceived by appearances for beauty is found within.
And when he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. The prince tried to apologize but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. As punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell inside the castle and all who lived there. Ashamed of his monstrous form, The Beast concealed himself inside his castle with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world. The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his 21st year. If he could learn to love another and earn their love by the time the last petal fell, then the spell will be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a Beast for all time.
As the years past, he fell into despair, and lost all hope, for who could ever learn to love a Beast?
But, as luck would have it, he found love in the arms of a beautiful village girl who offered herself as prisoner to replace her father who had accidentally trespassed into his home, and as the months went by while the girl became his permanent guest, she, too, began to slowly tame the Beast and learnt to see past his monstrosity and know him for who he truly is inside, and through time, learnt to love him as well, and his enchanted servants were thrilled to see that there is hope for the curse to be broken sooner than they thought.
Unfortunately, the villagers were afraid of the Beast after knowing his existence, and one of the girl's many suitors riled up a mob to set forth to the Beast's castle and killed the Beast. In a fit of rage and despair, the girl killed the suitor and all the villagers to avenge the Beast that she had come to love with all her heart, but the more she killed, the angrier she was, and soon she was killing more and more people to try and bring down that rage to no avail. The enchantress, upon seeing her actions mirroring the prince whom she had turned into a Beast to, appeared once more to stop her from her evildoings and cast the same spell she had cast on the prince on her, trapping her in the castle forever, never to leave and never to harm mankind again.
Till this day, the girl—now the Beastess—remained in the castle, killing anyone who sets foot into the home that she and her beloved shared, as she mourned for her lost love and yearn for the day that one day she would meet him again in another life…
