Chapter One

It seemed like the forest went on forever. Le Fou's feet ached from his long trek from the village. It had definitely not taken this long to reach the castle when Gaston and the rest of the villagers had attacked it five years ago. He groaned and stopped walking, looking around for a place to rest for a while. He spied a large rock nearby and began to walk over to it before a loud thunder clap put the thought out of his mind and made him decide to venture onwards. Hopefully he could get to the castle before it began to rain. Looking up and seeing the clouds darken in the sky, he began to regret his decision. Maybe he should just forget about his whole plan and leave Belle and her husband alone. Remembering Gaston's mangled, blood-covered body, Le Fou reluctantly decided to continue with his plan and put his doubt filled thoughts out of his mind.

Since the attack on the mysterious castle five years previously, the quiet little town of Villemont had become no stranger to visits from the inhabitants of the home of Prince Étienne and his bride. The servants often came to buy food and other goods for the castle, as well to socialize with the townspeople they had formed friendships with, or just to spend the day there when they had some time off. Sometimes the prince and princess came along with them. They even came on their own on occasion. Although they had never really seen eye-to-eye, the princess would greet her former fellow denizens as if they were her old friends while her husband smiled and gazed at her proudly as he stood behind her..

That summer, however, the visits from the servants became more rapid and increasingly bizarrely timed, while the prince and princess stopped coming to the village altogether. It wasn't unusual for Henri, the baker, to be woken at three in the morning by Prince Étienne's personal butler pleading for bread "for the mistress".

For the past five years, Le Fou had been living in a room above Guillaume's tavern where he had also been working. Le Fou did not like working for the man who had replaced Gaston in the town's affections, but it was the only way he could get by. It was not easy living with Guillaume. He stayed up entertaining the young women of the village until late into the night. In fact there had been many a morning where Le Fou had been jolted awake by the noise of one of Guillaume's lady friends. This had been one of those mornings. To get away from Brigitte's (or was it Suzette?) incessant moaning, Le Fou had gone out for a walk to clear his head early that morning. Walking through town that early in the day, he had been surprised to find the bakery already open. As he drew closer he noticed a tall dark blonde-haired man speaking to Marie, Henri the baker's daughter, with a strong Parisian accent. Le Fou recognised him as one of Prince Étienne's senior servants. Filled with morbid curiosity and with nothing else to do, he walked closer to the bakery and attempted to remain out of sight by hiding in the doorway of one of the neighbouring shops partly behind a potted plant.

"You have been buying a lot of Papa's bread lately, monsieur," Marie said as she counted out a large stack of coins.

"It is all the mistress can stomach right now," the man replied winking at her "We have people to bake for her at the castle, but she says that the only thing she wants right now is the bread that she ate when she lived here."

The man leaned on the table in a flirtatious manner, inadvertently knocking several coins off in the process. Marie giggled.

"So do you ever bake the bread?"

"Oui, sometimes I do."

"You know, the master is very willing to hire new staff members. I'm sure if you asked him he would hire you. You could come and live in the castle and then we would not have to come all the way out here whenever the mistress is hungry!"

"Oh monsieur, that would be nice but I'm afraid Papa would never allow me."

"Lumiere!"

Their conversation was interrupted by rotund, red-haired man who walked briskly up to the bakery, not noticing Le Fou as he past him.

"Lumiere! You were meant to be buying baguettes and I find you here flirting with a girl! Need I remind you that you are a married man?"

"Mon ami, I was just having a bit of fun. It is not easy getting up this early in the morning."

"Marie, get back to work! Can I help you gentlemen?"

The baker had arrived with a tray of bread rolls in hand. He placed them down on the counter and turned to the two men.

"The usual bread for Belle - I mean - the princess?"

"Oui monsieur."

"And please make it quick. We're very busy today."

"How is she?" Henri asked, piling baguettes into a basket.

"Who? The mistress? Right now she is well. Her illness has begun to subside, but she still can't eat anything but your bread. She won't eat any other kind. She won't touch any of the baguettes our bakers make for her." The red-haired man said, sounding rather annoyed about it.

"I am honoured to hear that she enjoys my bread so much," the baker replied, looking thoughtful. "She was always a bit shy when she lived here. She was a nice girl, very pretty. Just a bit strange. Never really interested in anything except for her books."

"Oh believe me she hasn't changed," the shorter of the two men said. "I cannot imagine how hard it will be to tear her away from her library to care for the baby when he arrives."

Le Fou took a moment to process this. Belle was having a child. This felt like a slap to the face of Gaston's already faded memory. He wondered if this was just some kind of God's sick joke.

He watched the prince's two servants climb into the royal carriage along with a full basket of baguettes and walked off lost in thought. He knew he was overreacting to this news. Belle and Étienne were married. They'd no doubt conceive a child at some point. It seemed unreasonable for Le Fou to care so much about it. But he felt as if Étienne had stolen Gaston's future. He was married to the woman that Gaston himself had died for, and now he was fulfilling Gaston's dream of having a family with Belle. It just didn't seem fair that Étienne and Belle were so happy, when Le Fou himself was so miserable because of what they had done.

It was at that moment that Le Fou had noticed that he had subconsciously walked out of the main village and into the graveyard of the village's church and was now standing at Gaston's grave. He looked down and stared at fancy marble gravestone. The townspeople had all chipped in to give Gaston a grand and expensive gravestone so that his greatness could live on in some respect. Now it was all that remained of him.

"Gee Gaston. I don't know. It seems like I'm the only one who still remembers you."

Looking around and seeing no one watching him, he continued to speak to gravestone.

"That guy just makes me feel so angry, you know. I wish there was some way I could get back at him."

"Kill her."

Le Fou whipped around. There wasn't anyone standing behind him. His heart raced. For a second he thought Gaston had risen from the dead. Calming down, he reasoned with himself. That was impossible. People could not come back to life, no matter how great they are. The voice rang out in his head again.

"Kill her. Make him suffer."

Was it Gaston's ghost haunting his subconscious? Or was it his own brain telling him what to do? Le Fou groaned, his head aching. He definitely had too much to drink last night. He thought about what the mysterious voice in his head was telling him to do. Was it really trying to tell him to kill Belle and her unborn child to make Étienne feel the same pain he felt when Gaston died? Le Fou had to admit, it did seem harsh, but then the prince had taken Gaston's life, stolen his woman and was now living out his dreams in seemingly blissful harmony while Le Fou suffered. He needed to be punished and Le Fou had been trying to find a way to do just that for years and now an opportunity had presented itself.

"Okay Gaston. I'll do it. I-"

What he was about to say made him hate himself more than he had ever before

"I'll-I'll kill her."

But how? He couldn't just walk into the castle and murder the princess. He'd have to be careful and underhanded. Remembering something one of the prince's servants had said, an idea struck him. He looked back to Gaston's grave and tried to smile.

"Don't worry Gaston. You and Belle will be together soon, just like you've always wanted."

Seeing the castle's large foreboding stone walls finally come into sight, Le Fou breathed a sigh of relief. After he had left the cemetery, he immediately went back to the tavern, informed Guillaume of his resignation, proceeded to his room to pack up his meager belongings and headed out on his journey to the castle, eager to get started on his plan. It was an exhaustive journey, taking far longer than Le Fou had expected.

He heard another peal of thunder. Just as he reached the castle gates heavy rain began pouring down. Le Fou ran desperately through the castle gates, across the bridge over the ravine and pounded on the castle's enormous wooden doors. After a few moments, the door was opened by the same rotund red-haired man he had seen in the village that morning. He seemed to recognise Le Fou, even though he had been sure that the man had not seen him when he had been eavesdropping on their conversation that day.

"May I help you, sir?" He said, looking down at Le Fou.

"Oh. Err. Yes. M-m-may I please speak to the prince?" Le Fou stuttered nervously.

The man frowned.

"Why do wish to speak to the master?"

"Well I- "

"Cogsworth! Is someone at the door?"

The other man who had been in the village today appeared.

"This man wants to speak to the master."

"Then take him to the master."

"I can't just let anyone speak to the master, Lumiere. Besides he's busy."

"He's only in the library. Remember the last time we wouldn't let someone in from the cold Cogsworth?"

"Lumiere, I highly doubt that this man is here to do that."

Lumiere ignored him. He turned to Le Fou.

"I'll take you to the master, monsieur. Follow me."