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Chapter 11
Belle stopped worrying after the first week.
Her crying had diminished significantly after the second, and by the beginning of the third week she had even begun to eat again.
She was fairly certain that Rumpelstiltskin was nowhere in Dark Castle.
The coward had truly left her all alone.
As she explored the dark corridors by day and read by the fire at night; there was no sign of the Dark One.
No hint that he may be avoiding her or perhaps even hiding from her, nothing but silence and cold.
Even with the fire blazing, and Belle's perpetual stoking, it was always bitterly cold.
And so quiet...almost deafening at times...
Tonight however, in her attempt to fight the quiet and loneliness, she was huddled up in the library with her nose buried deep in an adventure novel; the ever present fire roaring in the massive fireplace.
Pirates, sword fights, and faraway lands painted vivid pictures in Belle's mind.
She had always found solace in her imagination.
She tucked her feet underneath her and flipped the thick parchment page to an illustration of a treasure map and followed the black dotted line with her finger.
Belle sighed and laid her book in her lap.
She looked around the library idly, and instinctively her eyes were drawn to the plaque placed above the mantel.
She had read the engraving a million times.
"We may sit in our library and yet be in all corners of the earth."
And every time she read it, she heard Rumpelstiltskin's voice reciting it to her with the same fluency as when he first unlocked the library as a 'gift' for her.
He haunted her.
Every minute of every hour he consumed her tormented mind.
The mind that she had given so blindly.
It was supposed to have been Happily Ever After.
From the moment her lips met his it was supposed to be the ending of that black curse he clung to with such fervor.
But it wasn't.
And for the life of her, Belle could not fathom why Rumpelstiltskin wanted to remain the "Dark One."
To wield this infinite power that cloaks him in loneliness and misery.
He loathed deal-making, yet he also seemed to so eager; as if he couldn't not resist the urge to con a poor, unfortunate soul.
He was bound to them.
But he was a man once, an ordinary man.
Tell me about your son…
Belle's fingers curled against her scalp as she tried to hold onto the memory of their first kiss.
How his sickly green-gold skin seemed to melt away to reveal a normal, human complexion.
And his how his eyes faded into a warm chocolate brown, not the dilated, searching reptilian eyes that she had grown accustomed to; leering at her and reflecting the rot of his curse.
"He was…..beautiful."
Belle whispered as she hugged her knees to her chest; she hadn't even bothered to change from her nightclothes.
She had no modesty anymore and neither did she care.
Her russet braid hung limply over her shoulder, tied off with a pale blue ribbon; because he always loved her in blue.
Belle took the end of it in her hand and stroked her fingers over the silk, letting herself slowly remember….
When suddenly, a mighty gust of wind blew open the balcony doors with such ferocity, it was a wonder the glass didn't shatter against the stone walls.
Belle jumped, her head whipped around and she moaned.
"Oh nooo…"
She hopped up from the chair and scurried over to the French doors.
"Damn, bloody mountain top…" she mumbled as she pushed the doors closed and latched the lock, and something caught her eye.
A light was burning in the window of Rumpelstiltskin's alchemy.
But he's gone…
"He's come back."
She whispered, blinking several times to make sure it wasn't her imagination, "He's come back!"
"Rumpelstiltskin." She breathed as the smile stretched across her face.
And, as always, her pride lost.
Pulling up the lace-laden hem of her gown Belle ran from the library.
Through the main foyer, up the stairs, and down the labyrinth of neglected corridors that lead to the west wing.
To the highest room of the tallest tower.
Where she had been specifically told not to go inside of…
But, it was calling her.
And after climbing the winding wooden stairs, magically illuminated by torches Belle knew she most definitely did not light, she came to the door that had a wide band of lamp light at the bottom.
Her True Love; the coward.
Belle was panting.
Sweating even, but despite it she thrust out a trembling hand, turned the golden knob, and walked inside.