A Spirit Resides In All Things
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Hidden in cupboards or creeping through the shadows of dim-lit hallways, are the servants and house-keepers of the castle. Once human, they were transformed the day their Master, a Prince Adam, had refused to let an ugly, witch-like woman into his castle...
The hour was late, and a storm wrecked havoc outside in the darkness. A knock on the door drew the Master from his studies, and he went to the door. When he opened it, he saw the ugly woman and was disgusted by her apperance.
When he demanded what she wanted, she asked that she be allowed to stay for the night, to be out of the rain. But Prince Adam refused.
They had watched from the stairs, from the hall, or while cleaning the floor, the servants watched and listened as the Prince delt with the intruder.
The old woman, when turned down, took out a single red rose, and offered it to the Master as payment for the night. But the Prince refused, more bluntly.
Holding up a finger, the old woman gave him one more chance to allow her to rest, warning him not to be decieved by looks, for beauty lives within.
But the Master turned her down and started to go back into his castle.
A spark a light drew his eyes back to the old woman, and what he saw made him fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness.
What stood before him now was a beautiful woman who had transformed herself with magic. To teach the man a lesson, she withdrew a wand and tapped his head, turning him into a hideous beast. This was a curse that contaminated the entire castle and all who dwelt within it, turning the castle from white, to black, and his servants from human, to objects.
The beautiful woman explained that he was doomed to live in that form unless he learned to love someone, and have that love returned.
But there was a deadline; she gave him the rose to prove it.
If he could not learn to love another before his twenty-first birthday- before the last pedal fell- it was over. He and the entire castle, would stay as they were. Forever.
Years had passed, and the objects within the castle moved like ghosts from room to room, while their Master stayed isolated in his shame, preffering to stand in his tower of the Westwing than engage with his fellow-prisoners.
The Prince had always been selfish and bitter. But who could blame him, now that he was unlovable? The spirit-filled objects sighed sadly; they, too, had lost hope that someone would come to the castle- a girl, no least.
But even if one did, who could ever love a beast?
It was one of these sad, hopeless days in winter, that two certain objects made their rounds through the castle, talking quietly. One was a clock, and the other was a three-holder- brass candle-stick.
Then the door opened, and they saw the girl known as Cossette fall into the doorway. After talking brieftly aboutt he situation, the two objects followed the girl into the living room, where the girl went to sleep in the Master's chair.
This upset the clock most of all, since the Prince would not be pleased to hear that some wet little girl had made herself comfortable in his own chair.
But the candle-stick was more welcoming. To him, she was their guest.
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