My first Rumpelstiltskin/Belle fanfic. Depending on how you all like it I may or may not add more chapters. :)

Enjoy!

Belle shivered in her tower cell. She supposed she should be grateful for the cold, it made the wounds from her torture go numb…

The door creaked open, and Belle groaned inwardly at the sight of the clerics. They came every day… couldn't they see there was nothing wrong with her… no amount of torture would cause a demon to fly in terror from her body. Couldn't they understand that nothing had happened between her and Rumpelstiltskin beyond a simple kiss? Couldn't they see she hadn't been cursed, she was still the same? She wasn't a monster… Rumpelstiltskin wasn't a monster… these clerics who tried to "cleanse" her were the monsters…

She saw they carried whips today. She didn't really care anymore. She just wanted it to end. She looked at the window of her tower. She had often thought of ending her misery by jumping through it, but she had clung to the hope that maybe… maybe… He would come for her.

She heard rather than felt the crack of the whip on her naked body. She heard screams, but didn't realize they were coming from her own throat. If only He would come… but this time he didn't.


Rumpelstiltskin was spinning at his wheel… as usual. The wheel spun… he watched the spokes moving… he tried to get lost in the motion… tried to forget.

It had worked in the past… spinning… it had helped keep his mind off painful memories, but now all he could think of was Belle… this is where she had, in her own way, declared her love for him, and he had shunned her, cast her out…

But she had been working for the Queen… she deserved to be cast out…

But it had been working… and she had seemed so honestly puzzled, she hadn't known what he was talking about…

But it didn't matter anymore, she was gone… she was never coming back; he had made sure of it. She would never want to return to him now…

Hot tears gathered behind his eyes but he willed them away. He wouldn't mourn her absence… he wouldn't allow himself to be tricked further…

He heard the double doors leading into his trophy room creak open. "Flimsy locks!" a voice called out. He turned to see the Queen walking in. He turned away in disgust. It was all her fault! If she hadn't poisoned the mind of his little Belle, they would still be here together… still be happy.

"I'm not dealing today." He said quietly. She wasn't leaving. She was pouring herself a cup of tea.

"Are you angry with me?" she asked.

He ignored her.

She sighed. "What is it this time?"

He turned to her once again. "Your little scheme failed. You will never be more powerful than me. You can keep trying, dearie, but you're never going to defeat me…" The words sounded hollow in his own ears.

"Oh? Is this about that girl I met on the road?" she was mocking him… she knew when she had the upper hand. "What was her name? Margie? Verna?"

He should have let her go on… meaningless words, but her name… that sweet name fell from his lips. "Belle…" and when he whispered her name he knew that he had to go find her. He would apologize, beg her forgiveness… His mind was whirling with his plan, but the Queen's next words stopped him cold. "You can rest assured I had nothing to do with that tragedy."

He turned from his spinning wheel to face her directly, his heart beating wildly in his chest. "What tragedy?" What had happened to his little Belle?

She turned to him in mock astonishment. "You mean you don't know?"

He shook his head. Was she going to make him beg for the information?

She laughed. "Well, after she got home, her fiancé had gone missing…" Rumpelstiltskin tried to force his expression to remain unchanged. That had been his fault…

She continued, "…and after her stay here, her…" she paused, "…association with you, no-one would want her of course."

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. What had they done to her, to his Belle?

"Her father shunned her, cut her off, shut her out." He knew she could see the pain in his face, he knew she was enjoying every moment of this.

His aching heart spoke for his confused mind. "So she needs…" he swallowed, "…a home?"

She laughed, savoring the moment. "He was cruel to her." Rumpelstiltskin flinched as if he'd been physically struck. No… not his Belle!

"He locked her in a tower and sent in clerics to cleanse her soul with scourges and flaying."

No… no… not his Belle! The Queen was wrong… his Belle couldn't have been tortured. Nobody would do such a thing to her…

But no… it didn't matter, he would go rescue her. The Queen's next words stopped him; his heart wrenching within his chest, every fiber of his being denying her words.

"After a while she threw herself off the tower." She smiled cruelly at him. "She died."

It couldn't be true… not his Belle… not his light, his life, his love… his true love. "You're lying." He whispered.

"Am I?" He heard the confidence in her reply, and it broke him. He couldn't deny it… she was gone, forever.

"We're done…" he told the Queen. With a breath of magic he opened the double doors and walked toward them to show her out. He wanted her out of his castle. He wanted to be alone…

No… he just wanted Belle.

She was saying something… something about having other calls to make… but Rumpelstiltskin didn't care. He stood by the door expectantly, refusing to say another word to her.

She followed him, her gloved finger brushing the top of the long table. She examined the dust that had come up onto her glove. She couldn't resist one last stab into his aching heart. "The place is looking dusty, Rumpel," she said, as she brushed past him. She paused in the doorway and leaned in over him. "You should get a new girl."

He flinched at her words and pretended to ignore the triumphant smile on her face. The doors creaked closed behind her and he bowed his head. He might have more power than the Queen, but what was the use? In the end, she had beaten him.

"All you'll have is an empty heart and a chipped cup." Belle's words crept into his mind and he had to bite back a sob. "No, Belle…" he whispered to the memory. "All I have left is a broken heart and a chipped cup."

He walked across the room over to his display case. He opened it and pulled out the teacup that Belle had chipped the first day she had come. An empty heart…

He walked over to a pedestal and removed the glamorous goblet that he kept displayed there. And a chipped cup…

He gently placed the fragile teacup there. Belle…

It was the only thing he had left of hers… as he gazed down at the cup he could no longer hold back the tears. He hadn't cried like this since he lost his son…

His legs couldn't support his weight and he knelt down before the pedestal… the altar… before the teacup, before the memory of Belle and sacrificed the contents of his aching heart. He cried for her, for what he had done to her, for what he had lost, and he swore he would never love again.


The Evil Queen stood before her magic mirror and laughed. Rumpelstiltskin kept all the mirrors in his castle covered up, but had been so distracted by her words he had failed to notice the small mirror she had placed next to his teapot. Through it, she was able to see everything in the room.

"Pathetic," she commented as she listened to the sobs. "Love is weakness, Rumpelstiltskin…" she whispered into the mirror, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "And now you will be the one who will be powerless against me… when the time comes."

After a moment she grew tired of watching him and left the room. She walked down into a dungeon underneath her own castle. There, in a windowless cell that was so tiny the inmate could hardly move, sat her prize. "His little Belle!" she sneered, as she peered in she illuminated the cell briefly. The girl was naked, and the Queen smiled as she counted every bruise and cut on her body. She had told Rumpelstiltskin just enough truth that even if he did search for her, he would not find her.

The girl's father had ordered clerics to cleanse her soul, and they had tortured her to rid her of the demons they were sure Rumpelstiltskin had cursed her with, but Belle had not thrown herself from the tower. She had been rescued by the Queen, and a perfect duplicate made with magic had been thrown to the foot of the tower. The Queen smiled. Everybody thought she was dead. And when the time came… when the Queen revealed her full hand… Rumpelstiltskin would be powerless.

Belle blinked against the sudden light after such intense blackness. She was shivering, and her blue eyes were full of pain, but she lifted her chin and stared back at the Queen. She didn't cower, even though she didn't know where she was or what would happen next.

The Queen cut off the faint illumination. "Soon…" she whispered.