Cliffies... Don't we hate them... Yeah I did leave the last chapter hanging, I'm sorry... ;( Im really sorry... Hey, a writer has to ensure ways so her readers stick around... But on a more serious note, to those readers panicking, thinking that I'd abandon this story like I did with my other ones... I'm not going to... In fact I didn't abandon my older stories either... I'm still writing them... Sentences at a time :P Anyway... Thank you Princess of the forgotten, FireFlare211,Zerocchi, joriholic73, Water Flower 2009, Autumnmissa, chikadeborahike, Lizi Rose, KJAX89, lindz4567 and Kitty Cat for all your reviews and patience... How you put up with my time in between updates elude me but thanks... Enjoy...
Time itself seemed to slow down as the ever so familiar flash of green emanated from the mirror blinding any idiot (Guinevere and D'Arque) who decided to stand too close... Something in Beau contracted painfully when he heard someone in the crowd scream out in terror as Angela's face appeared. There was another scream as Angela 's lip suddenly curled, revealing her large fangs as she cried out in... Anger? Pain? Regret? Beau couldn't tell... He just knew she was hurting and that it was his entire damn fault... To the villagers however, staring at Angela was like staring at the devil himself... A terrifying, heartless being calling out savagely for blood... Cautiously, they backed away from Beau some even going as far as running off the Chevalier property all together...
Guinevere 's eyes widened as the beast in the mirror whipped around to suddenly face her. She shivered. Those human eyes seemed to look at her and beyond her simultaneously...
"It's hideous!" she finally spluttered pointing accusingly at the mirror while Gaston nodded in agreement.
"No she isn't!" Beau insisted angrily only to freeze when he noticed the strange look everybody was giving him, disgust and caution written all over their faces. Lowering his arms in defeat, he sighed.
"Look... I know she looks... vicious but..."
"SHE? You mean that horrible thing... is a GIRL?" Guinevere screeched. Beau clenched his fists as he felt his blood boil to critical levels. Gritting his teeth, he managed to continue without hurling colorful obscenities at Guinevere.
"Please... I know all of you might be afraid..."
"OF COURSE WE ARE! IT'S A MONSTER!" came an angry shout followed by mummers of approval. Beau narrowed his eyes at that word.
"She is not a monster... She is just as human as any of us and most importantly, SHE IS MY FRIEND!" Beau announced fiercely ending the last few words a little louder than he had intended too, causing people from the mob to shrink back with shock and Guinevere to bare her teeth in anger...
"That thing... Is his friend?" she thought in disbelief. How on earth did that... animal gain his friendship when she... the almighty Guinevere couldn't even get him to engage with her in a decent conversation? Guinevere shook her head in confusion before proceeding to give the beast in the mirror her most poisonous glare... Angry at it for even existing. Angry at it for ruining her brilliant scheme... Angry at it for killing her chances with Beau... In fact she was so furious she hardly heard the whispers circulating around her...
"He's as crazy as the old men..." someone muttered.
"Exactly... How can anything like that be human?"
"Why isn't Gaston doing anything? Monsieur LeFier would have!"
Something in Guinevere's mind clicked when she heard that last sentence... Yes...Why wasn't her brother doing anything? Didn't he swear to uphold their "father's legacy" and he had promised " he'd would keep the village safe to his dying day"...Guinevere grinned; her oaf of a brother might have some use after all...
"You talk like you have feelings for this animal Beau..." she said icily while bravely advancing towards the mirror despite the many, many protests from her beloved admirers.
"More feelings than I'll ever have for you." Beau spat, his eyes blazing. There were gasps of outright terror from the mob, even Gaston looked a little furious but Guinevere only smiled.
"So this mirror? Did your friend the beast give this to you?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice.
"She did."
"How quaint... Can I borrow it?"
Beau immediately brought the mirror closer to himself.
"No." he said firmly.
"Give it to me!"
"No!"
The two glared at each other, tension crackling between them both ready to strangle the other. Minutes flew by before Guinevere finally snapped.
"You will regret this." She snarled through gritted teeth.
With a quick turn, her long thick hair slapping him in the face, Beau heard Guinevere suddenly screech to the mob.
"My friends, Beau here is hiding something! He's in cahoots with this... beast and who knows what kind of unholy things it wants to do to us?!"
Beau's eyes widened when he realized what Guinevere was doing.
"No it's not like that!" he protested, but it was too late, there were shouts of agreement while some people followed in Guinevere's lead, bravely advancing towards him despite their previous thoughts against it.
Beau backed away, surprised by the sudden backlash.
"She's not dangerous! I swear! She wouldn't hurt anyone! She's..."
"See? He's still protecting this monster, a threat to this village!" Guinevere screamed pointing at the beast in the mirror as it chose the most convenient of times to bare its teeth.
"No don't listen to her! "
"Look at it! This thing will make off with your children! It'll come for them in the night! I say we kill the..."
Guinevere didn't even get the chance to finish her sentence when she heard Beau lunge for her, he didn't get far though... Before he could even get halfway to her, he was grabbed and restrained by Guinevere's suitors.
"Let me go!" Beau demanded as he struggled against the ironed grips of five young men, grips which only seemed to get impossibly tighter with every move he made. Beau cried out in anger when one of the admirers snatched the mirror from him and handed it to Guinevere. She patted his head condescendingly before proceeding to blow a kiss at Beau, a sinister glint in those icy blue eyes. He watched in horror as Guinevere slowly approached Gaston, mirror in hand, pointing at it accusingly, making exaggerated faces of fear and worry before asking him candidly.
"What would father do?"
A wrenching sensation overcame Beau when he saw the fiery look of determination cross Gaston's features. He struggled harder trying to break free but to no avail, he could only watch in horror as Gaston lit a torch of his own before mounting his horse and bellowing.
"TO THE BEAST'S CASTLE!"
Back in the castle, Angela lay curled up at the front of her door, a ball of quivering fur as her tail slowly wrapped itself around her legs as if trying to comfort her in its own bizarre way but it only reminded her of her diminishing humanity. Not lost, not stolen but diminishing... Angela whined before wrapping herself in a hug...
"Its always more painful when one has to deal with the mirage of salvation instead of eternal damnation..." she concluded as her eyes wandered to the torn portrait of herself. No. Her old self... Angela Adamina Adelaide Rose, princess de Chambord. Angela glared at those emerald eyes and couldn't help but bare her teeth at the little girl in the painting...
"It's all your fault you know..." she whispered hatefully before burying her face in her clawed paws... Even as a human she had been so undeserving of love... Well it was her own damn fault, she had pushed everyone away but at least she still had a chance unlike now where she will forever be trapped as a... Oh...why hadn't the enchantress cursed her to be a real beast? An actual uncaring savage animal... It sounded cruel... Well crueler than the present situation she was already in but in reality, Angela still thinks it would have made the burden of being trapped as a monster so much easier... and infinitely less painful...
Angela let out another whine as she felt a dull ache tug at her heartstrings and cursed her human vulnerability... Curling into a tighter ball, she tried to recall how she had coped with these kinds of emotional blows the first time around. She cringed, remembering how she hardening her heart to deal with the pain, forcing herself to get lost in books, in other people's dreams so she didn't need to give a damn about her own, so she'd forget about even being human in the first place...
"It had worked so well..." she admitted to herself, so why on earth couldn't she go back to not caring? Angela snarled. Because Beau had stolen that ability away form her...
"Damn it..." Angela growled as she felt tears starting to prickle at the corner of her eyes all over again at the thought of that name. Honestly, she had cried so much in the past few hours she thought it'd be impossible for her tear ducts to produce any more tears. Apparently she never seemed to be right whenever anything concerned Beau. Angela closed her eyes... Beau... Why did he have to leave? Everything was going so perfectly but then... She felt a single tear roll down her face and cringed. What was she doing? Was she honestly still crying?
"Grow up!" she told herself but to her horror the tears still kept flowing.
"Monsters have no weaknesses... Monsters don't feel..." she chided to herself repeatedly only making the ache in her heart grow impossibly more painful and in an instant of absolute hopelessness she pulled herself up and approached the glowing rose.
She eyed the magical plant with a mixture of hate and sorrow... It was slowly dying ... Just like her... It only still had a couple of those magnificent petals barely clinging in place... Soon... Very soon...
"And why not now?!" Angela thought bitterly and before she could stop herself, she lifted the glass casing, her claws itching to rip that cursed flower to shreds.
"I am already well and truly damned... I might as well get over it!" she reasoned and proceeded to lift her paw.. However, a wave of agony rippled all over her as she tensed her muscles... Cursing, she brought her paw down and cracked the table instead.
She couldn't do it... She just couldn't... There was just some... some impossible force stopping her... She would have called it her conscience but it seemed more like the gentle voice of Beau telling her not to give up so easily... Beau...
"You're pathetic... Beau left you remember?" that cold sinister voice mocked.
Angela snarled, how could she forget? How could she ever forget that bone crushing, soul ripping, heart stopping pain that hit her when she saw him leave... She shuddered at the memory and collapsed onto her knees, her eyes never leaving the rose... All this time... She really believed she had no love in her heart... but now... from the looks of it... Beau took away that notion too...
"Beau..." Angela whispered before taking a deep breath...
"Beau...I love you..." she confessed sadly just to see what would happen...
Nothing, no sparks, no bright flashes of magic, not even an answer and Angela watched mournfully as another petal fell gracefully down...
Yes yes yes... It ain't the raid yet but its getting there... please bear with me... I'm more of a character writer rather than a story writer because lets face it... We all know what's going to happen so I might as well take the liberty in exploring the characters I created... Because I knew this chapter was going to be really hard to write without character motivations... Wow... a lot of you despise Guinevere... It touches me... It really does because at least I know I created a decent villain... I always wondered how a gender bent Gaston was going to take on a beast or heck, get a whole town to take her seriously... I did obviously write her as a pretty face desired by men so it really bugged me when I was planning this story ... Thats why I kept Gaston in my story... Except here he is a tool being manipulated... Yeah... so much for character... For him anyway... I'm guessing a lot of you weren't expecting Angela having a chunk of a chapter dedicated to her... Well... Yeah... Its kind of my peeve with the original film that Adam was just shown moping and although we know why... It didn't strike an emotional chord with me... So yeah I wanted to see if I could do it... Besides I felt we lingered around Beau and Guinevere too much... Yup that's my rant over... I hope you enjoyed it and please tell me what you think about the characters cuz I really want to know ... Also... I might want to do a spin off of this... But it depends on whether you readers like these characters enough for me to do that... so... Review and tell me!