Beast lit a cigarette, the last of the thugs lay dead, their entrails splattered all over the walls. The rage overtook him as they fought in this last chamber of deathly, forbidden secrets. "C'mon, Belle, we've been at this already. We—"
He stopped when Belle, his boss and master, lifted her porcelain-colored hand for silence while studying the ancient book opened before her. She sitting there in the middle of this blood-stained cellar looked so out of place along with desiccated bodies hanging from giant meat hooks. "Fascinating, yet so vile. So evil," she whispered, her eyes lighting up as she absorbed every foul word from the text.
She lost her breath. "Everything...everything. The unanswered questions now revealed."
"Yeah, yeah. Really swell, boss," he said as he grabbed one of the goons' handkerchiefs, wiping their gore from his claws.
He plucked the cigarette out of his black-colored lips, careful not to flick any ashes into his thick, honey-mead fur and his marred blood-stained suit. "What have you found?" he asked, his voice carrying an edge as those dried husks stared at him with lifeless eyes.
"A convergence of realities. Time, space, and dimensions humankind was never meant to know. We are all in grave danger. The Awakening is being summoned, and powerful beings from other dimensions will come to this world and consume it. It will be a glorious and wondrous death."
"Don't talk that way, Belle!"
"Don't talk what way?" she asked, barely glancing up to meet his scowling face.
He snatched the book from her.
She snarled and said, "You dare! Remember your oath, Beast. Your soul is mine, willingly given to me!"
"Yes, but never would I have imagined you—"
"Imagine what?" she howled, her lips quivering in frothing anger. She pointed at the book while withdrawing a long, serrated knife from her back. "That I would succumb to the madness contained within foul works? I am a Reader, a Diviner. I study the secrets these wretched worms that call themselves Mankind was NEVER meant to know."
She laughed, at first growing from a chuckle to a maniacal howl as she threw her head back.
Beast stepped back, his eyes on the blade. One touch, one prick would all that was needed for Belle to deal with him. He'd seen her pushed too far from fools who thought they could take advantage of a mere damsel. Her former partners turned betrayers—Gaston, LeFou, suffered worst. But there'd been others who merely displeased her, stood in her way of ultimate knowledge. Even Beast's own servants paid the heavy price—Lumiere, and poor Cogsworth.
Yet, so much maddening evil dwelled out there. Beast needed her. He needed that Belle who was confident, sure of herself, but the knowledge has taken its toll.
"Belle, calm yourself, beloved. Here is the tome. Take it, but please. Your mind is…"
Her faced changed as if Beast's soft words stabbed her. "Yes, yes. I am...coming undone. It is the price I've paid, but.." She sheathed her knife and hesitantly took the book. "Let's depart. We must find the others. Prepare for the end times."
The end times. So, it finally has come.
Beast adjusted his long trench coat, his clawed hand reaching for the hard steel revolver within. It was all he knew as Belle's loyal servant and bodyguard, bound to her by an ensorcelled rose. All he could do in situations like this was to rage, claw, or shoot his way out. Oftentimes, the horrors they faced, the monsters that lurked beneath blood-soaked ground, turned his efforts futile.
In a flick of time, Beast's hand emerged, pistol in hand as he pointed it at the broken-brick wall behind Belle.
"What's the matter?" she asked, her eyes following to the wall behind her.
"Something comes this way." He growled, the fur on his back rose, his dark, curving horns lowered.
The lone metal headlamp swayed slightly as silence fell between them, both staring at those old bricks, splattered with brown stains and crude pentagram symbols.
Belle snapped her book shut, tucking it into her satchel. "I sense it too. I can sense its hunger."
Click..click..click...click…
"From behind the wall!" cried Beast, raising his pistol with both hands.
Belle joined him as she drew her .45. With her free hand, she spread out her fingers as if ready to claw her own gun. She chanted, "Guide this weapon, grant it my will. May I invoke upon the power of the Six Demons of Infernus. I ensorcell this weapon to destroy my enemies!"
The woman's firearm glowed a soft amber as the clicking sound gave way to thumping.
Your spell is but a pittance compared to my power, mortal, said the voice from behind the wall, a dark feminine whisper that emanated waves of fear into Beast.
"I have waited a long time for you, Dweller of the Foul Abyss! Come at me and test my magic!" Belle laughed maniacally, the pistol shaking in her hand.
Ah, prey that thinks it can defeat me. I welcome such defiance as drinking the marrow from your bones will make the meal so much sweeter.
The worn bricks began falling away as a heavy body thudded against the wall from the other side, the hanging bodies swinging wildly along with the single lamp in the chamber. Belle continued to laugh, cocking back the pistol's hammer.
Beast roared.
Gunfire rang out.