It was a rainy autumn night, and a girl sat beside the open window, staring out with a vacant expression, unaware or uncaring of the rain that splattered her face and the wind that promised she would have a hard time ridding herself of the knots forming in her hair. She couldn't remember how long she had been sitting there but it didn't matter. It's not like she really had anything left to do. Not since that stormy night, when Gaston, accompanied by people she had once considered friends, stormed the castle. That night, so long ago, when she realized the true value of a few short minutes.

Years passed, but Belle could still remember every vivid detail of that night. The wind rushing through her hair, the rain pouring down her face and mixing with her tears, erasing almost all evidence of her despair, though her bloodshot eyes gave her away.

She sat beside his body long after the rain stopped pouring. She hadn't noticed the cold then, either. She thought about how it was funny, the way he'd spent the end of his life trying desperately to break the curse that plagued him for ten years. And it had broken. Just, too late.

As much as she tried to forget it, Belle couldn't stop going over what happened that night. The way she had knelt by his body, watched his eyes close and muscles go lax, whispering those three words over and over against his chest.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

She sat up when his body started to shift, and she stared in awe as he transformed back into the man he once was. She hoped and prayed that whatever magic was changing him back, would also somehow save him. But then the transformation ended, his body fell back to the ground, and the Beast lay still.

Now, she sat by the window of a beautiful castle. It, too, had the curse lifted from it, as did the people of the castle. One by one, they left. Serving a commoner was not the reason they had been hired, and with the Prince gone, there was no reason for them to stay. Among the few that decided to stay were Cogsworths, Lumiere, Ms Potts, and Chip, who couldn't find it in their hearts to leave the girl they had grown to love.

Slowly, the castle fell apart. Not in the way it would if it were physically abandoned, but in the way it would if it were emotionally abandoned by the people who inhabited it. Soon, it returned to the state it had been in under the curse.

But Belle didn't care. She didn't care what the castle looked like, or what she looked like. There was only one thought that occupied her mind for more than a mere moment, and it was the worst kind of thought; the kind that, if dwelled on, had the capacity to destroy a person.

What if?

The questions haunted her dreams and her reality. What if she had been able to act sooner? What if Gaston had fallen off the roof before he could attack? What if she had known about the way to end the curse before he had died?

What if?