There's No Question

Beauty and the Beast 2017

Disney owns Beauty and the Beast and its characters.

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Chapter 1- The Morning After

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"Stanley, haven't you washed that stuff off your mouth yet?"

Dick's voice interrupted my people-watching as I tried to wipe off the previous night's lipstick from my face. My elaborate pink dress and powdered wig had oddly, magically disappeared. Tom, Dick, and I were back in our normal clothes.

Around us, forgotten family members were reappearing to some of my fellow Villeneuve residents. For me, all of this was too odd, too surreal to talk about. So I just went along with Dick and Tom, as usual. Good old easygoing Stanley.

I had to admit to enjoying some of it, though. A party atmosphere was beginning to come around the fine castle grounds on this summer day. The Lost Prince was back. People from our pasts- who'd gone long ago to serve at the castle- had returned to our lives.

"Thomas!" screeched the high-pitched voice of a girl. At first I assumed it was one of the triplets, but instead it was a different young mademoiselle, in a maid's apron and bonnet. She ran up to Tom and embraced my friend.

"Therese? Ma petit! My baby sister isn't a dream? You're alive?" Tom asked her in amazement, his eyes wide.

"Oui! Tom, you look good for one so old now!" Therese teased, poking Tom in his paunchy middle. She had left to work at the castle as a maid for the Prince when she was only fifteen years old, ten years before. Being poor peasants of Villeneuve, as Tom, my elder brother Dick, and I were, it was often necessary.

Tom and his long-lost sister embraced and laughed, along with Dick and me. They began to discuss all of the strange occurrences of the previous night- including the fact that Dick had a bruise on his arm from where Therese- formerly an enchanted soup ladle- had hit him during the battle.

"I'm terribly sorry, Richard. If I'd known it was you-" she said with a slightly amused look.

"It's okay, Therese. What I'd like to know is, what was it like to be...well, a soup ladle?" Dick asked her with his toothy grin.

"It was a dull, boring existence. Except for the evening we were able to put on a show for Belle! Oh, it was grand! Fireworks, fine food, dancing, and Lumiere sang a wonderful song! Though Belle barely touched the food we prepared," Therese explained.

"She's always been kind of odd," Dick remarked.

"Don't talk like that about Belle! If it weren't for her, we all would have died!" she said to him in Belle's defense.

Dick raised his hands apologetically. "I'm sorry. We owe her a lot. We have you back! We want to invite you over to Villeneuve, to my house. Can you come down today? You've never met your nephews!"

"I have nephews and nieces?" Therese asked Tom, overjoyed.

"Two little nephews. And Dick has a little girl," Tom replied.

Therese beamed, and at that moment her cute face pinkened as she turned her attention and gaze...to me.

"Stanley...do-do you have a..."

She was stammering. It was adorable. But it did nothing for me. A vice of guilt and shame clenched my heart.

I shook my head and gave her a polite smile. "Non. No wife." I said quietly. And just as I suspected, Tom's sister blushed even harder. I could practically see the hearts explode within her eyes.

I sighed as I felt six pairs of eyes boring into mine. Here we go again, I thought. Another 'prospect.'

Tom would be beyond thrilled to have me as a brother-in-law. Therese was a downright pretty mademoiselle, too. Short and curvy, with blue eyes and light brown curls tucked beneath her bonnet. Her Cupid's-bow lips were the kind that most men would be thrilled to kiss.

But unfortunately, not me.

I began lapsing into my vintage-Stanley, girl-envying fashion musings. In other words, I was wondering what her ruffled white bonnet with peach rosettes would look like on my own head.

"Have you heard the whole story of the breaking of the curse?" Therese asked us then.

"Not everything, no," said Tom, shaking his head. "So the Beast must have been slaughtered after all. Gaston did it! He killed the Beast and set the demonic forces on the castle free!"

"Non! No, Thomas, dear brother! You have it all wrong. The Beast is our Prince! He is free from the spell!" Therese continued to explain everything to Tom, Dick and me. She said that Belle was the true heroine, for her love had broken the curse and saved them all from certain death.

"But what about Gaston?" I cut in. "Where is he? Did he know the Beast was the Prince?"

"I remember that name!" Therese exclaimed, her eyes widened. "I haven't seen him in ages! Handsome boy who went off to the war long ago? Oh, we all had such a crush on him, Elise and Eliana and..."

"Therese!" Tom interrupted sternly. The girl looked hurt, until he patted his younger sister's shoulder. "This is serious, Yes, Gaston was here last night. He led us all to the castle and disappeared up the tower! Have you heard what became of him?"

"No, I haven't." She shook her head in confusion.

I frowned, and asked her another question. "Around the time we were...dressed up by your wardrobe friend, I saw Gaston abandon his best friend, who's my friend as well. Lefou. You remember him?"

"Yes!" Therese said, nodding. "How could I forget the boy who used to follow Gaston like a lost puppy? I saw Lefou this morning and he looked so unhappy and upset, I was curious. He was running to the stairs leading to the courtyard. He's barely changed, hardly any taller. He was wearing a blue coat, and he looked so, so...devastated. I saw Belle speaking to him in the parlor before that, and it looked as if she had told him someone was...dead!"

The three of us hung our heads in sorrow. This could mean only one thing. The great Gaston, the war hero, had perished in the battle. His ego had driven him to regicide, but he was no match for a Prince in the form of a monster. The news pained us, though it was a bittersweet feeling.

Gaston had brought this all upon himself.

"He's dead. That's...so hard to believe," Dick said in a tense whisper.

She nodded, her face concerned. Her bubbly giddiness seemed to deflate as the grim news of a casualty overcame her. "He was an unforgettable man...I'm sorry."

"Did you see where Lefou went after Belle told him?" I asked her.

"He was running really fast to the stone staircase from those gardens." She pointed to the west side of the castle. "That doorway you see? It leads to the old courtyard. A bridge collapsed high above it from the tower floors, and if Gaston was up there, he could have fallen!"

"Guys...Therese, can you excuse me for awhile?" I apologized. I turned away from my brother, Tom, and Therese, and rushed through the gardens she had pointed to until I came to an arched dooway. I walked through it and found a flight of dark stone steps inside, lit by torches along the wall. I descended the musty steps to another arched doorway, which led back outside to a courtyard, bordered on each side by the high walls of the castle.

Near a mess of broken stones and boulders- the remains of a crumbled castle bridge- sat a lone figure of a man. The short and stout form, blue coat, and messed, windblown dark curls were clearly recognizable as the friend I had always wanted to be closer to...but could not, because his attention had always been monopolized by the tall hunter.

Lefou stood up slowly and turned around to face me. He looked exhausted; he could barely stand up straight.

"Stanley?"

"Lefou!" I called out, running down to stand at Lefou's side, extending a hand out to him in an awkward gesture of reconciliation. Last night, Lefou had switched sides against us and went after some of my fellow Villeneuve townsmen, armed with a scalding pot of tea as a weapon.

"Have...have you found him?" I asked him, gently and tentatively.

Lefou's face broke my heart. Shock, confusion, and grief which I have never seen the merry boy express before, and with that I felt a guilty pang of annoyance towards the dead man. His forehead glistened with sweat, and he was nearly panting from physical exertion.

A scattering of stones and broken masonry lay near him, separate from the rest of the remains of the bridge. It was apparent that he had been trying to move the stones, to find what he believed was the dead man beneath the rubble. The stones were now thrown apart; none were piled enough to cover a body.

"N-no. She...Belle...she said he fell here," he said between gasps. "The Prince...he said so too. I've been digging. But he's not here!" Lefou heaved a loud intake of breath, turning into sobs that he immediately tried to hide with his sleeve.

"We'll do everything we can. You need to rest. I'm so sorry," I blurted out. I pried one hand from his reddened face, damp with tears, and squeezed it. His hand was freezing cold.

"Stanley, don't. I have to keep look-"

His words were muffled as I pulled Lefou into a tight embrace. His head came only up to the top of my chest, something else I secretly adored about the man. I felt him relax against me after a moment of tension. All I wanted to do was get him away from here, to let him grieve Gaston in privacy.

The place was empty, desolate, without flowers or gardens. There were only a few marble statues and a gate. The courtyard was surrounded by high walls, blocking the sun. I did not like this place. It made me think of stories where people who had offended the King had been executed. This was likely the old venue used for that very purpose.

Yet there was no body to be found. It should be here! I hoped someone could recover the body of our fallen village hero.

The other man's sobs brought me back out of my confused thoughts. I was holding him in my arms, something I've always secretly longed to do. His dark curls were just below my chin, and I instinctively began to caress them with my right hand.

"I have to find him," Lefou's muffled voice came in hot breaths in my chest. "Stanley, you have to help me! Gaston did terrible things, but I can't let his body be abandoned-"

Lefou pulled his face from my chest and looked me in the eyes. He was a literal mess of tears and distressed babbling.

"She told me the Beast was the Prince, but I don't get it! I don't know what she meant, I don't know what that thing Belle had in the mirror was, but...I...I just know Gaston lied, Stanley! He promised he'd always be there for me, back in the war and all, but he abandoned me, he...Why? Why did I ever believe-"

"Shh...just sit here. Please, mon ami. Sit down..."

When I was able to get him seated upon a flat boulder, he squeezed his eyes shut in despair. A big tear fell to his left sideburn. I wiped it away with my palm.

"Will you keep helping me search, Stanley?"

"Yes. I will help," I replied, but it seemed rather difficult.

"If it wasn't this courtyard, then...he could still be on a rooftop..." His words dissolved into sobs again, and I let him cry in my arms.

After several moments, he quieted. I could still feel his soft sniffles and gasps, warm against my shirt. I felt awkward, not knowing what to say. I could not speak ill of the dead, and I couldn't give him any hope that Gaston could be alive, either.

After a while, he raised his head up from my shoulder. "Stanley...do you think he might've survived if he's not here? Maybe...maybe he's still alive!"

It was almost déja vu, to hear him say that. I glanced up at the dizzyingly high castle walls that surrounded us on all sides. "I'm sorry. No one could have survived a fall from here. And if he did, he'd be lying here, barely alive and dying, Lefou," I said as gently as I could.

"But Stanley! There's all this magic happening! With all of the haunted objects...they were all people! So...the Prince was the Beast! He'd been shot by Gaston, but the magic brought him back to life! So...maybe it brought Gaston back to life, too!"

"Lefou...but, you see..." It was hard to tell him the honest truth- everything I'd heard from Tom's sister just earlier. "The Prince was brought back to life...because Belle told him she loved him. It was all part of his enchantment. Gaston wasn't part of this like they are, you see? He only came here to kill, and he brought his own fate upon him."

His face fell; a hint of anger and bitterness coming over his expression. "I know. But...the last thing I wanted to tell him was that our...our friendship was over. No more 'Le Duo.' That I'm 'Le Single' now. But I never even got to tell him that!" Lefou's voice was shrill in the cool morning air; his despair seemed to echo through the lonely courtyard.

"I wish...I wish I could turn back time and try harder! Try to make Gaston control his temper...help him to be better somehow. I wish-"

I clutched his shoulder firmly. "Lefou! Stop it! You were never meant to change Gaston! It was HIS jealousy and madness that killed him! You couldn't change this no matter how hard you tried!"

"But...he depended on me to..."

He shook his head, eyes scrunched shut. Another tear coursed down his reddened cheek. I wiped it away with my finger, and caressed the side of his face.

"You're trying to play 'God,' mon ami. You're only human. No one has the power to change another person."

Lefou nodded. He was somehow comforted by my words. I guess I'd said the right thing.

"Belle told me that Agathe's power was how the Prince survived and changed. It was all her doing," he blurted out.

"Agathe? The beggar lady? What power could she have?" I was shocked by this. Therese had only made reference to an 'Enchantress.' I had pictured some great, celestial being. Not the old ragged lady who panhandled around Villeneuve.

Lefou nodded. "Yes! It was her all along! She made the Beast. Or more accurately, um, she turned His Highness into that monster long ago. To help change him, but she needed Belle's help. She's a powerful, magical person. And I'm...not." He slumped down and put his face in his hands in exhaustion.

"Should we go back to Villeneuve, ami?" I decided to ask after a moment. "We can come back here tomorrow. You need some rest."

The grieving man let out a long ragged sigh, and he gave a little nod. "Yeah. Okay," he whispered.

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