I was watching Beauty and the Beast, and well Chuck and Blair came to my mind, like always. I thought it was a perfect Chuck and Blair comparison. The only problem was, I couldn't picture Chuck being all beastly like that because he's just too breathtaking as a human.
So this is based off of Beauty and the Beast. It's not exactly like it. But there are many similarities between them, and I also make references to a lot of other classic fairytales. And this does not take place during the present time. There's no technology and what not, they're not in Manhattan. Enjoy!
Once upon a time, in a far away land, a young prince lived in a shining castle.
Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was spoiled, selfish, and unkind.
If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell then the spell would be broken.
If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time.
He fell into despair, and lost all hope.
For who could ever learn to love a beast?
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Blair was perched atop her windowsill, looking out across at the scenery. It was marvelous and stretched out over many hills and valleys, but to her, it was boring. She'd seen it too many times to find it beautiful now.
She watched one of the maids throw out some seeds to the hovering birds.
The maid was singing a cheerful song. Whistling and letting her voice cascade out all of the open windows. It reminded Blair of all the very same fairytale stories she'd heard. Each beautiful princess had a beautiful singing voice to match. This maid could be the next Cinderella or Snow White.
Blair was an envious girl. She could not help but to be jealous of the maid's talent. She herself, had no musical rhythm, she was just stuck looking pretty.
And Blair was gorgeous. With her brown curls and bright eyes. A real beauty. She was thin and not very tall, a man was able to feel masculine around her because of these feminine features. Her lips were always red; she'd always heard a beautiful girl's lips were as red as a rose.
But she was no princess. Her life was not a fairytale.
She lived in a nice house, but it was no castle. She was courted by many men, but they were not her prince.
She dreamed of one day when a knight in shining armor would come and whisk her away from her dusty old room. He would take her as his wife and they would live together in a grand palace. The servants would worship her as the queen she was. And they would live happily ever after.
She doubted this dream would come true. She had been taught by her mother not to wish for such ridiculous things.
Eleanor made sure that Blair new she had to fight for what she wanted. Not everything can be handed to you. No matter how much money and power you have.
But she knew that wasn't entirely true. All the royally rich people could have whatever they wanted. The snap of a finger could bring all the delicious foods and drinks they desired.
The life of a princess was what she wanted.
"Blair!" Her mother called to her from downstairs. "I told you not to just sit around all day! Do something useful!"
She hated that her mother was so bossy. She was less of a mother and more of a wicked stepmother.
Blair held her head high remembering that those old hags always lost in the end.
She sighed and looked out the window one last time. If only something better would come her way soon.
She skipped down her stairs, gracefully. She spun around in front of her mother. Sometimes she liked to flaunt her young beauty to the woman who always criticized her.
Eleanor wasn't all bad, but she didn't make much of an effort to win her daughter's affections. This made Blair angry and attention hungry.
"What are you so happy about?" Eleanor asked her too giddy daughter.
"Nothing." She smirked.
She wished that her mother would find someone to fall in love with. She was so lonely ever since Blair's father had left.
Blair often thought of her father, she missed him too much not to. But she was also resentful of him. He hadn't just left Eleanor, he had left her too.
"Why don't you stop being such a bother, and go into town or something?" Eleanor shooed her away from where she was working.
Working as a seamstress did not pay a lot, usually. But she was a mighty good one. She sewed for the richest families, and in turn got special privileges.
"Fine." Blair pouted. Seeing her mother didn't want her around put a damper on her spirits.
She left her home, thinking she would just go to Serena's.
Now, Serena. She was a fairytale princess. Her flowing blonde hair could be like Rapunzel's. Many people said she couldn't be compared to anyone because of her astounding beauty. Blair knew she was pretty, but she had never felt Serena was lovelier than she. Not until the day she had become engaged.
Serena had found her knight to sweep her off her feet. Blair didn't find him to be anything special. Certainly not the type for her. But Serena was happy, and that's what Blair was jealous of.
In the fairytales it wasn't the riches and the beauty that was important at the end. What was important was that they lived happily ever after.
And Serena was happy even though she was engaged to someone of the Humphrey family. He had no money and, in Blair's opinion, no good looks. Yet, Serena still chose to marry him because she would be happy.
Leaving the house she caught sight of the maid again. Maids weren't meant to better than the people they worked for in any way. Sure you could say she was only singing, but Blair saw it as flaunting her talents.
"Good morning, Miss Blair." The maid said with a cheerful smile.
Blair gave her a dirty look, then smirked after an idea came to her. She was the maid after all. She was able to put her in her place. "Good morning, my mother wanted me to tell you she has a couple extra things for you to do today."
"Okay." She replied still seeming cheery.
Blair put on a fake smile, knowing that this girl wouldn't be so happy after she had to clean the entire house. "Alright, wash all the windows. They're filthy; someone hasn't been doing a very good job lately. Scrub the floors…in the whole house. See if you can make these hedges and flowers out in garden better. They look a little scraggly." She tapped her chin and looked like she was trying to remember another thing, "Oh, and sweep the chimney."
"But- but-"
"It all must be done today. My mother insisted. She said if you can't do it she can surely find someone else who can."
The maid shoulders shrunk, she didn't want to lose her job. Blair knew someone like her would need this job. She turned to leave again, but stopped and looked at the maid from over her shoulder. "And one more thing," The maid appeared even more disappointed and letdown, "I don't like your singing." She told her seriously, making sure she got the point across.
She then turned her head back to the direction she was walking and left her house and the heartbroken maid behind her.
Blair walked along the path into town, the trees covering the dirt road made it shady. She was sure she was picture perfect with this landscape and her baby blue dress made especially for her.
She didn't like being 'in town' so much, it was such a commoners place and she didn't feel like a commoner.
Sure, her family wasn't the wealthiest, but they had money. But when she was thrown in with the rest of the people with no money, she felt like them. She felt ordinary and bland.
And she wanted to be anything but ordinary and bland. The fabled tales she read weren't.
The stories where princes would risk their lives to defeat the dragon and save the fair maiden by true love's first kiss could not be explained as ordinary and bland.
Her flat shoe hit the cobblestone pathway that was all over the town. She looked up to see lots of people, as much as there usually was during mid-day. She observed some of there faces as she walked passed. They appeared…happy. Was she the only one left that was seemingly unhappy?
She stopped scanning their faces. The amount of smiling people was absurd.
She glided through town; she meant to get to the library. Dan worked there and she only assumed Serena would not be far away. But she couldn't make it passed the tavern without a man grabbing her arm.
She was about to turn around and smack the grimy scum for touching her, but then the man spoke. "Where are you in a hurry to be, Ms. Waldorf? Maybe I could take you there."
Nate Archibald.
He was a prince. But Blair didn't think he was her prince. He should wait outside the tavern another day and look for a different girl.
"Mr. Archibald." She greeted with a smile.
"Please, call me Nathaniel. Or Nate if you would like." He kissed her hand softly before letting it go.
Blair only smiled, she wanted to walk away, but was afraid that would be rude.
After a second of silence the Archibald proceeded, "I would like to see you sometime."
Blair thought of how pleased her mother would be if she had told her Nathaniel Archibald, the richest boy she knew, had asked her to marry him.
She knew that's what he was heading to. Marriage. His family most likely wanted him to take a wife and begin carrying on their legacy. After all, they were practically considered royalty. Nate's grandfather was the mayor of the town.
Not wanting to reject him, but not wanting to say yes, Blair answered by saying, "I'm seeing you now." She giggled like dumb girl. She could possibly scare him away by acting stupid. Neither the Vanderbilt's nor the Archibald's wanted bad genes running in their family.
He laughed too, "No, I mean a dinner sometime."
"Oh, that sounds…nice." She gritted through her teeth. "But I'm sure you're much to busy to have dinner with me!"
"I can make time."
This was more difficult than she had expected. She could just dash off and avoid him whenever she saw him again? He would think she despised him, which would keep him away.
She tilted her head, perplexed about why she was thinking this way.
He was rich. He was handsome. He was charming. He screamed fairytale prince!
Why should she turn him down? Just because she hadn't fallen head over heals the first time she'd seen him didn't mean they weren't meant for each other. She reminded herself of how her mother would always say you had to work for things, it's not handed to you.
"I'd love to." She smiled, cutely.
"Wonderful." He grinned. "I'll have one of the carriages sent to your house tomorrow evening."
She tugged her lips into another sweet smile. Without agreeing to this she waved a goodbye.
Something still didn't settle right with her, but she pushed the feeling aside. You have to work for everything. She started repeating a mantra in her head while she went on to the library. Even love must be worked for.
For all she knew Cinderella didn't even like the prince the first five minutes of dancing with him. Or maybe Sleeping Beauty's first kiss was too slobbery.
Maybe they worked at it just like she had to.
Once she reached the library, she was so glad she was going to see Serena; she needed her best friend right now. She hopped onto the step and pulled on the door. It didn't open. She pulled again. Still didn't open.
She saw the sign in the window that read, 'Closed'. Blair hit her tiny fist against the door in frustration. For all she knew, Dan and Serena were in there doing the dirty deed.
She leaned her back against the door and slid to the stone floor. Resting her elbows on her knees and then her head in her hands. She put on the perfect pouting face. Maybe someone walking by would ask what was wrong with poor Blair Waldorf.
She loved when people cared how she was feeling.
Blair was still sulking when Tom Francy began walking near with some stranger. That boy always loved to flirt with her. He would ask what was wrong.
She pulled the sides of her mouth down into an even bigger frown. They were walking closer to her, but he still hadn't noticed her.
The pair of men stopped only a few feet away from Blair. She glared at Tom Francy, angry at him for not at least saying hello.
Francy looked over the other man's shoulder and said, "Oh, hello, Blair!" Then continued talking.
Well now she couldn't say he was rude enough to ignore her.
She straightened up her back, feeling foolish for having such a fuss over a small problem. She was going to have dinner with a man she didn't even like very much, so what? Her best friend was too busy for her, so what?
"Almost anybody will give you a job around here, everyone's pretty friendly." Blair over heard Tom Francy say to the other man. He must be new in town. Francy would always be the first person to befriend someone new. She was sure he was a little insecure and it made him feel better when everyone liked him.
"And another thing we just tell people out of precaution is to not go in the woods over that hill." He pointed to the west.
"What? Why not?" The man asked out of curiosity.
Blair knew exactly what he would say next. "Because a terrible beast lives there." Francy told in a rather eerily voice so it just sounded corny.
"Sure." The man nodded his head and laughed. He probably thought Francy was a loon or was just trying to scare him with some stupid story.
Blair rolled her eyes, having heard this story a million times. "Here we go again." She muttered, only she was able to hear it.
"This is no joke. Ask anyone in town." Francy went on. "Something terrible lives in that forest."
She did not believe in the old tale everyone knew. Nothing evil was lurking in that forest.
"And how do you know this?"
"Because it's the oldest story of our town! A prince who used to rule this town was cursed into being a beast forever."
"And why was he cursed to being a beast?" The man asked. You could tell he did not believe this.
"Because that's what he really was. On the inside. He was cruel to everyone he knew, he took pity on no one, even though he had everything. So one day a witch came along, and cursed him." Francy told it like he talked about it everyday and this man was an imbecile for not knowing about it.
Blair thought Francy told the story bad anyways. It didn't sound threatening at all the way he told it.
She never really thought the story was meant to scare people away from the forest. It seemed more likely the story had started out as a way parents could scare their children into being good and thankful, for they would fear being turned into beasts.
So, no. She did not believe for one bit there was something obscenely frightening living in the forest. Maybe you could blame it on her naive thinking that everything turned into a fairytale. Because a hideous beast was no fairytale.
She got up from the step she had been pouting on; this talk of the Beast was aggravating her even more.
She didn't know what possessed her to do so, but Blair began walking west. Not sure where she was headed.
"Where are you going, Blair?" Francy suddenly became interested in her.
She shrugged her shoulders. And she really didn't know. Was she walking just to the end of town? Or was she walking over that hill and into the west forest?
"See, she's not scared." The man laughed at Francy. You could tell he was thinking if a little girl would go in that forest than there is really nothing in there.
"Blair, you know that girls, just your age, go disappearing in that forest! You've heard the stories!" He yelled after her in a frightened voice. He was truly frightened for her because he did believe the stories. Most people did.
"Yes, I have. And I'm not scared." She retorted, then in a voice that wasn't loud enough to hear she said, "Nothing's going to happen to me if I walk into that forest."
The man laughed at Francy and walked away from him. "Blair!" Francy called after her again. He was too much of a coward to actually go after her. Everyone kept their own safe distance away from the hill and the forest. Francy's safe distance happened to be miles and miles away from it, and Blair had already crossed it.
She kept walking, she was lucky to be wearing comfortable shoes today. There was nothing better to do, so why not prove to everyone she could walk into that dark forest and come back in one piece? There was no beast to gobble her up.
Blair reached the edge of town in no time and was on the grassy hill. She'd never gotten this close to the forbidden forest and she found it to be rather exhilarating. She was breaking a rule. She never broke rules.
The tops of the evergreen trees were visible from the top of the hill. Usually she only saw the tips from a long distance. She would even find herself propping her elbows up on her windowsill at night and watching as the sun disappeared behind the woods. But now she was right here, so close to it. All she had to do was walk down the hill.
Unfortunately, the hill was steep. Only a few steps forward caused her to slip on the grass and send her rolling down the long drop.
She landed on her butt, sitting right in front of trees.
The forest was huge. She stared, trying to look into the trees, but all she saw was a pathway, surrounded by loads of trees, that ended in darkness.
Girls probably disappeared because they got lost, she realized. It was really no place for a dumb girl to be roaming around in. Luckily, Blair was a smart girl
Standing up she saw the grass stains on her once perfect dress. It was ruined now and her mother would be furious. But all Blair could do was laugh. She had grass stains on her dress and pine needles in her messy hair. When she went home it would look like she had basically been mauled by the supposed beast. It wasn't helping her case much, so she just laughed.
Blair brushed herself off as best as she could and picked out the pine needles from her hair. She was a perfectionist and looking messy was something she couldn't stand.
She gave up trying to fix her hair and took a deep breath, preparing to enter the forest. "There's nothing to be afraid of." She shrugged off any fear and took a step into the dark woods.
The forest floor was moist, and Blair's foot made no sound when she walked. It was totally silent. She heard no noises. Nothing except for her own heavy breathing.
She craned her neck forward, trying to see passed some trees, but all she saw was the large trunks and green pine needles all around her.
She felt like the only thing living in the forest were the trees. There wasn't a sign of any other life. If she just saw a little squirrel scurry across the path it would make her feel a lot better.
She took small steps. Assessing her surroundings.
It didn't seem dangerous, just really creepy because of the lack of life.
Blair moved further into the forest, losing sight of the hill behind her. From down in the forest you would never know there was a whole town above you.
She wondered if there were people down here told stories about the scary place over the hill. Maybe they explained how it was a hell like city, everyone enslaved by the horned-ruler.
Her imagination grew, like it did often when it came to thinking up a new story.
Blair pictured people who lived in the forest telling their children to lock their doors and windows. The horned-ruler of the city above may come and take them during the night. Making them his slaves for eternity.
She got carried away with her little tale and stopped paying attention to where she was going. She walked further on into the forest. Deeper and deeper it went. It could've gone on forever.
She was looking at her, now dirty, shoes while thinking of the inane plot lines of her imaginary legend. But she wasn't watching her feet where moving too, so the large rock in front of her went unnoticed. Since she was being clumsy today, she tripped over it.
Blair shrieked as she fell to the damp forest floor. She groaned, annoyed with her own obliviousness. She wiped her dirty hands on her grass stained blue dress.
She sighed and stood to her feet again, looking at what was in front of her for the first time.
A dark, looming castle was only ten feet away. It had towers and gargoyles and everything. She half expected to see a bridge and a moat too.
Blair felt like backing away, running back to her small town. This fortress was the largest thing she'd seen. She didn't know how it stayed hidden by the trees.
This was now evidence against her theory about the "no such thing as the Beast". And that frightened her.
She shook her head in disbelief, surely nothing was in there. It looked old and abandoned. No possible way some evil creature lived in there…right?
Suddenly every fairytale she had ever read popped into her head. Princesses, princes, beautiful castles, fairy godmothers.
Then she remembered the rest of those stories. The whole part.
Wicked queens with magic mirrors, witches that turned into dragons…
She could've thought of more, but believed it was best to stop.
Was there really a beast inside the castle?
Blair was scared now; she knew it would be best to turn home. But something pulled her closer. Closer to the gate that stood between her and the fortress.
Something else popped into her mind. Something her father used to tell her when she was young. Only a little girl. She was always snooping. She had wanted to know things.
Her daddy would tilt his head with a grin, then kneel down to her level. He touched her small nose lightly with his finger and said, "Curiosity killed the cat."
And even after she started hearing his voice saying "Curiosity killed the cat" over and over, she still kept stepping forward.
With one push of her hand on the cold metal gate, it creaked open.
What did you think? Please review! I'm trying to write another good story that gets lots of reviews; I become unmotivated to write more if I don't get very many.