Belle sighed as dinner finally finished, she was exhausted after the long day. She and her two sisters walked back to their quarters together. Belle was the youngest of the three sisters. The eldest was named Gabrielle, she was twenty and had the same dark golden brown hair as Belle, except with stunning green eyes paired with them. She was kind and loving, but naive in a way that Belle had never been. The middle sister was named Suzanne, she was nineteen and just as beautiful as the others but with creamy blond hair and the same bright green eyes as the eldest. She was just as kind as Gabrielle but very sharp and clever, her greatest joy was reading and so she spent many hours in the huge library. Arguably the most beautiful of the sisters, seventeen year old Belle loved reading books too, but she preferred the world of fantasy whereas Suzanne lived in world filled with factual histories and biographies. The three princess where the pride of their parents, as well as the kingdom.

They said goodnight to each other and Belle headed to her own room, where she flopped onto her bed, fully clothed and reached under it to where she kept a little book of the names of people she had yet to get rid of. She crossed of the Jailer and surveyed the list. The baker of the western gates who had been putting chalk in his bread to save money, selling it at a slightly cheaper price and poisoning over twenty people. He sounded promising. She would get him tomorrow. Belle smiled as she drifted of to sleep.

Belle woke up to many delicious smells that morning, she strained to remember if it was someone's birthday today because the whole house seemed to be preparing for some sort of grand feast. Belle went to her sisters and asked them, worriedly, if she should run into town to get some sort of last minute present. They laughed and Suzanne said,

"No silly! We only just found out but the old king of Blackcastle is visisting today with his four sons. The eldest is Prince Adam who is 23, then Prince Charles who is 22, Prince Fredrick who is 20 and finally the youngest Prince Thomas who is your age."

"And father wants you on your best behaviour because none of the princes are married, but I don't really see why the fact that they are not married has anything to do with it..."

Belle and Suzanne turned and looked with slight disbelief at their older sister. Belle turned and faced Suzanne again.

"When are we meeting them?"

"We shall be presented to them at the ball tonight, which starts at ten, but you should begin to get ready at eight."

Belle groaned but nodded and turned to go, hopefully the Baker of the western gate would have less thugs guarding his shop.

Adam glanced around and the filthy streets as he rode past them on his huge black stallion. He was angry with his father for dragging him along to this filthy place, for asking him to be on his best behaviour. His brothers had certainly been captured by the beauty of the three princesses. Certainly, they had their merits but their where many beautiful women in this world, the three famed princesses looked just as boring as all the others. A homeless man ran up to him and grabbed the hem of his black cloak babbling some pathetic nonsense about a sick wife and starving child, disgusted, he kicked the man to the floor.

He was just about to ride on when something hit him square in the back, he was catapulted off his horse and landed with a thud in the muddy ground. He got up, snarling, only to be knocked down again by a person dressed all in black. Big brown eyes flashed at him and he felt a fist collide with his jaw. People where laughing now and he furiously stood up as the figure ran off again holding a heavy, gold trimmed, black leather bag. His heavy, gold trimmed, black leather bag.

Snarling he jumped to his feet and sprinted after the figure.

Belle was once again being chased down alleys. That horrid, evil snake of a man had deserved more than she had had time to give him, but now he was chasing her, and catching up too. Belle sprinted a bit longer, unwilling to stop and look back until she felt something hit her square in the back, she fell and skidded along the ground. Looking up she saw a huge figure looming above her. Rough hands pulled the bag away from her and she was left lying on the floor, feeling completely terrified. The figure placed his foot delicately on top of her right ankle and put as much force on it as he could muster, crushing it into the dirt. Belle heard it crack and stars popped up in front of her eyes as she let out a low, muffled scream.

The figure straddled her and looked down into her eyes, chocolate brown meeting ice grey.

"And that, is what you get when you humiliate me, you little shit."

He grabbed a dagger out of his boot and placed it at the side of her throat, where it tore through the fabric and left a thin red line, no thicker than a spiders thread. Belle could barely move because she was so frightened, but realised that she had to do something.

With a last burst of strength she kicked up and smashed him right in the crotch. He howled in pain and she shoved him of her. She staggered to her feet and ran, trying to ignore the pain in her broken ankle.

Belle reached the castle in a terrible state, but managed to find the way back to her room without running into anyone. She tried binding her ankle herself, but to no avail. She had no idea what to do when the servants arrived to help prepare her for the ball.