Rose, by Tanya

October 2011

They were, as the Beast called them, human-made roses. Their cheeks were suffused and plump, and they sweltered, moaning and sobbing; though their bodies were gossamer-wraith thin, their heads were like poppies, large and red. Their skeletal necks bowed beneath the weight, and some resorted to lying on the ground, pressing their over-warm cheeks to the cool floors for a measure of comfort. Belle's heart ached to look at them.

Once, she asked the Beast why he tortured them so. He had only laughed, teeth glinting in the candlelight.

"A Beast needs to eat somehow, does he not?" he replied. Then, he patted her cheek and sent her off to their bedroom. But she did not want his delicacy or care, not when there were those suffering, and wept in her rooms until moonset. He had sent her back to her rooms that morning, instructing her to imbibe some strange herb. After that, everything was dark and forgotten.

A few days later, when she cradled a young Rose to her breast, trying to sooth its stifled cries, the Beast found her.

He snorted, batting the child-Rose away from her hold, and it screamed, curling into itself; the others cowered, fear darkening their reddened eyes. "Does it matter?" Her eyes darted away from his gruesome form to the youngling on the floor. It struggled to rise, its head too low, too heavy. "It is nothing. It is only alive by magic, and only exists for one purpose. It doesn't feel or think, not the way you and I do."

Her arms were leaden; she was immobile, her mouth filled with the bitterness of blood and bile. The Beast hoisted her into his arms, and her head was pressed against his furry chest. His scent—feral and spicy, like a wolf or a wild cat or brazen creature undiscovered—misted her thoughts. Her head lolled.

The Beast spoke again, his grumbling voice soothing her into reluctant sleep. "It is nothing, Belle, but mindless bone and blood. Do not concern yourself with those things."And then, when everything was soft and still and dim: "Indeed, I don't believe that you will join them any time soon."

FIN