What is MY Destiny?

When Belle was led to her new room, Michelle worriedly stared at her former friend. How could this be? Why was Belle hardly older than ten years ago?

After the Beast left Belle alone, Michelle slipped into the brunette's room.

"B…Belle?" she asked softly. The crying girl turned to the talking brush. She raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?"

"Don't you remember, Belle? I lived only a few minutes away from you!" Michelle said.

Belle shook her head. "What are you talking about? You lived in the village? But you're a paint brush…wait! How can a paint brush talk anyway?"

"We all can talk!"

Belle turned to the wardrobe, but no one was there. "Huh?" Suddenly she spotted a face on it. "What the-?" Belle almost fainted, when Mrs. Potts jumped into the room, greeting her.

"Oh, dear. It's a long story, child." Mrs. Pott said. "It all started ten years ago and…"

"No!" Michelle said. "Look when I left the village I was seventeen! Belle was only two years younger than me. Fifteen!" Michelle gulped. "Belle, how old are you now?"

"Eighteen…" Belle answered. "Mi…Michelle? Is that you?"

The paint brush nodded. "That means…We didn't get cursed ten years ago, but three years ago." Michelle stated.

Belle gave her old friend confused looks. "What curse? What is going on? What's with this monster!"

Michelle looked at Mrs. Potts, who nodded, then she took a deep breath. "Well, I'll start with the day, when the "accident" happened…"

"Well, we'd like to hear about that as well." It was Cogsworth. He and Lumiere stood at the door, watching the girls.

"Well, that's okay I guess…" Michelle didn't mind Cogsworth at all, he was one of her closest friends. But Lumiere? Michelle sighed. "Okay, let me start. It was three years ago, on March 13th…."

"Pierre?" Mrs. Blanchard, my mother, was furious. "Pierre, where are you?" She shook her head and turned to me, her younger daughter, who sat at the table, eating my breakfast. "Michelle, have you seen your brother?"

"No, mother!" I admitted. "But yesterday he mentioned how he'd love to go fishing today. Of course, I didn't thought he meant the early morning."

Mother groaned. "That boy! He is supposed to help your father at work!" My father was the resident butcher. And he was obsessed with the idea, that my father Pierre should become his successor. But my brother had different interests, slaughtering animals was a nasty job in his opinion. But for some reason, fishing was alright to him.

Pierre was a young, nineteen years old boy, with very short blonde hair, and dark, brown eyes. He was tall, skinny and his long, slender face was full of freckles. He was by far not the most attractive boy, especially compared to Gaston. Gaston was the handsome, twenty years old son of the village hunter. His father had died a few months ago, because of a bear attacking him.

Now, Gaston was certainly good looking, no doubt. But he wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Yet, my mother pretty much prayed, that he'd propose to me soon. And unfortunately, he had shown some interest in me. If he'd really ask me to marry him…I wasn't sure what to do. I'd either disappoint my parents or live in an unhappy marriage.

"Well, he's certainly go for you, rather than those blond triplets." my mother said. True, I wasn't bad looking, but that didn't make us a match made in heaven. I had back length, dark brown hair, with greyish-green eyes. My skin was extremely pale, with dark pink lips.

"No, Gaston is a brute! I'd rather go out with…" Suddenly, my brother entered the house. His hands were full of fish.

"Young man, you'll go and help your father at once!"

"Look, mother! We can sell them!" Pierre yelled. "Why do I have to be a-"

"Because your father is! It's your destiny!"

Destiny…yes, that was something I often thought about. What could be my destiny? My place in life. In my parents eyes, my destiny was to become Gastons bride. In my brothers eyes, it was never marrying at all, but instead keep helping him with the work. But to be quite honest, there was only one person in this village, whose opinions I really gave a damn about.

I stood up, leaving my arguing relatives alone and went to a small cottage, a bit away from town.

When I was halfway there, a huge shadow suddenly fell on me. "Hello, Michelle!" It was Gaston. He stretched his arms, showing off his musceles.

"What the hell do you want Gaston?"

"Well, I thought, maybe you want to go with me to my house."

"Why'd I want to do that?" I asked him coldly.

"Well, I shot a duck, and thought maybe you'd like a bite?"

"Aston, stop bothering me! How often do I have to tell you, that I'm not interested?"

Gaston took out his shotgun, probably to impress me. "You know, Michelle, you should never try and offend a hunter. That could end badly."

"Are you…trying to threaten me?" Michelle laughed. "As if that could scare me, you rude moron!"

Gaston grunted. "You'll regret that!" He stormed of.

"I hope hell stop bothering me!"

I made my way to Maurices cottage. Politely, I knocked at the door.

"Who's there?" a soft and gentle voice asked.

"Michelle Blanchard!" I answered. I couldn't help to see Belles kind face. Despite being two years younger than me, she was the most mature and intelligent person I knew. Aside from myself, of course. Yes, I might seem arrogant, however if you had lived in a town like that, you'd understand.

Belle opened with a kind smile. "Oh, hello. How are you?"

I entered the house. "Meh, could be better. Gaston was harassing me again."

"Is he really that bad?" Belle asked. "He seems alright. He's very brave and handsome, isn't he?"

"Believe me, sweaty. You'll soon realize what an idiot he is. I'm sure."

Maurice entered the room. The old man Was stained with oil. I guessed, he was working on another invention."

"Hello, Maurice. How are you?"

"Hello, Michelle. I'm fine. More than that, actually. My newest invention will make me famous and us rich. Then Bell and I will move back to Paris. "I frowned. I didn't want Belle to leave. She was my best and only friend.

"But why? We might never meet again…" I said.

"Hey, it's fine." Belle answered. "You can come with us!" Maurice nodded.

"Really? But…" I turned to the old man. "I'm not your daughter, so…"

"Well, we might not be related by blood, but Belle loves you! So, we decided you can live with us."

"Yeah, besides, we know you want to get away from your parents and Gaston." Belle added.

"True." I said excitedly. I'd miss Pierre a lot, but Belle was right. I needed a life of my own!

Then I sighed. "No, guys, look. I can't just leave my parents. They need me and would be heartbroken if I left."

"We understand that." Maurice said.

Suddenly we heart a loud sound from the village. We all jumped up and ran outside. "What happened?" Maurice asked.

A few minutes later the Backer came running at us.

"Micherlle! Michelle! Your parents and your brother…they are…they got shot! They're dead!"