Chapter 2

Belle was relieved when the screaming finally stopped. She had tried to distract herself all morning from the sounds coming from down the hall by busying herself with her duties as house keeper. Every time she had thought she had succeeded though, a new shriek would pierce her thoughts. Belle didn't like this one bit.

Many people came to visit the Dark One, pleading for him to grant their wishes. Some begged for him to save the life of a loved one, others asked for aid in winning the heart of the ones they pined for. Most were genuine in their requests, but by far the worst were those that waltzed through the castle door and demanded fame, glory, and riches. Those were the people Belle couldn't stand. The Dark One only helped a small handful of the hundreds of people that came to see him. Only the most desperate visitors who were willing to accept any and all terms Rumpelstiltskin requested received his help. Most of the people he turned down left the castle sobbing quietly. Some stayed for a while and begged until, exhausted, they left hopeless. A few became violent when the Dark One refused to help them. They were the ones that their families never saw again. Belle used to despise Rumpelstiltskin for being so heartless. Most of the people who came to him were only trying to help their loved ones. However, after answering the door fifty times in her first twenty four hours as housekeeper, she began to understand his apathy. Belle didn't agree with it, but she understood. Torture, however, Belle neither understood nor would tolerate. She made up her mind then to free the prisoner.

Before entering the thief's cell, Belle prepared herself for the worst. His screams over the past several hours had been truly blood curling and after Rumpelstiltskin had revealed his intentions to skin his prisoner, Belle walked into the torture chamber fully expecting the thief to be missing a few fingers or toes. She was completely shocked to find the man intact except for some blood dripping from his mouth, nose, and one of his ears.

Maybe Rumpelstiltskin mentally tortured him using magic?

Belle wondered what sort of horrors Rumpelstiltskin must have instilled inside the poor man's head to make him cry out in such pain. She could see the hurt and fear as she looked into his eyes. He was afraid for his life and afraid of being put through anymore unnecessary pain. Belle felt a surge of compassion for the man before her. He was a human being and no matter how he had wronged Rumpelstiltskin, he did not deserve to die. Deciding that the poor man had been punished more than enough for his crime, Belle released the prisoner and ushered him out the door. The thief pleaded for her to come with him and escape, but Belle refused. She had come to this castle for a purpose and she shuddered to think what the Dark One might do to her family if he found out that she had run off with his prisoner. Besides, Belle wasn't afraid of Rumpelstiltskin. He thought that just because he was powerful, that gave him the right to toy with other people's lives. When it all boiled down, he was really just a bully and Belle was not going to tolerate him beating up on those less powerful than he.

As the hours wore on while Belle waited for Rumpelstiltskin's return though, she became less and less confident in her position. Despite being so brave in front of the prisoner, she was beginning to feel a good bit anxious about how the Dark One would react when he found out that she had released his prey. Maybe he would decide that she would take the place of the prisoner and be skinned for betraying him. Belle knew that these thoughts were doing her no good and tried to distract herself with a book that she had found lying around the castle several days ago. When Rumpelstiltskin had finally returned from whatever it was he had been doing, Belle had to fight to keep her breathing steady and her pulse from shooting through the roof. He hadn't even discovered that the prisoner was gone yet and already her body was initiating the flight or fight response.

Breathe. Just breathe slowly. You did what you had to do. Rumpelstiltskin had no right to that man's life and he had already more than paid for his crime. You did the right thing and Rumpelstiltskin will just have to be content with that.

Despite her own reassurances, Belle still almost jumped out of the chair when Rumpelstiltskin called her name from what used to be the thief's cell. He stomped into the room demanding to know what had happened to his latest prisoner. When Belle told him what she had done and why, he was absolutely furious.

"Oh, let me guess. You think he's a hero, stealing from me for some noble cause! You read too many books dearie!"

Belle briefly wondered if Rumpelstiltskin and Gaston attended the same club against literate women as her book disappeared from her lap in a puff of purple smoke. Books planting poisonous thoughts in her head? It sounded to Belle something more along the lines of what the current company she kept would do.

"I didn't free him because of what I read in my books! I saw good in him. That man only wanted to escape with his life!"

"Oh, is that what you thought? Our thief escaped with more than his life!"

Rumpelstiltskin gestured to the empty case where the wand had been displayed that morning. No. I freed him. I saved his life! Surely he wouldn't have endangered mine by stealing the wand again! Belle felt the anger and frustration she had been running off of up until this point suddenly deflate as the truth set in. I'm such a fool! The man was desperate enough to try and steal from the Dark One once, of course he would try to do so again! I should have kept a better eye on him when he left!

"Th—there has to be another explanation," Belle stuttered. "We—we don't know why he needed that wand!"

"He took the wand because he wanted magic! People who steal magic never have good intentions!"

Know that from personal experience, do you? Belle thought bitterly. She wouldn't give in, she knew the thief had had a very good reason for taking that wand. Someone desperate and foolish enough to risk their own life to steal from the Dark One in the way this thief had done did not do so for purely selfish reasons. No, the thief was not stealing magic in order to conquer the world, he was doing it because he was in a situation where he felt he had no other choice.

"No. No. You can't tell what's in a person's heart until you truly know them."

"Oh, we'll see what's in his heart all right when I shoot an arrow through it! And because I am a showman, it'll be with his bow! And because this is your fault, you get to come with me and watch, and know that as the blood drips from his carcass, it'll be your rags to wipe it up!" Rumpelstiltskin all but exploded.

Belle began to seriously doubt the glimpse of what she had thought was kindness when he had given her the pillow the previous night.

He really is a monster. Surely someone who would be willing to hunt down and torture a thief for a stolen object that they won't even miss is full of nothing but evil.

However, the more Belle tried to convince herself of this, the more she found that there was a small part of her that couldn't fully prescribe to the notion of a person being fully evil. Not even the Dark One. As Belle grabbed her cloak and followed Rumpelstiltskin out of the castle, she desperately hoped for the sake of the thief that this small part of her was right.