Death.

Death is all that awaits me at the castle. Hedges are rotting corpses of the beautiful plants they once were, statues crumble underneath a mere glance, and roses wilt into ash upon the most faint breath of wind.

Whatever lively vigor that was instilled within the mare upon our departure immediately dissipates once we reach the castle's front step, and is replaced by a more worried demeanor.

Comprehending her desire to search for her own companions, I waste no time in sliding off the saddle and starting up the steps with great haste. No magic opens the doors for me, forcing me to pry open the great, heavy oaken things on my own, nor does magic light any candles, bathing everything in a sickening shade of grey. The entrance room decays before me, thickly layered by black dust and cobwebs that masks every statue, chandelier, and portrait.

"Beast?" The dilapidated state I've returned to finally forces a pit to gnaw away in my gut. I must be too late! No, I can't be! Sprinting to the dining room, skirts bunched in my fist, I desperately cry out, "My Beast! Where are you? Speak to me!"

I can't feel his presence anywhere in the castle. Not in his favorite chair in the library… not in the halls… not in the gardens littered with the corpses of his animal court being helplessly nudged by Crookshanks's paws and the mare's muzzle...

I kick and slap and burst through every possible door to every possible room, calling out for the Beast with determination until the hope sizzles away from my heart and my lips release a despairing, "Severus, speak to me! Please, where are you?"

Then, I come to my old chambers, slamming the door open and immediately releasing a bereaved scream with the scene that awaits me: the Beast in a crumpled heap upon my chamber floor with my fur bedspread clutched against his chest.

"Severus!" I wail and drop before the Beast's slumped figure. "My dear Severus, answer me!"

A relieved gasp rushes from my lips when his eyes part, but only just enough for me to see the death has already consumed them.

"I… I thought you've forgotten… me…" he wheezes such harsh, quiet whispers filled with a tone of despair that pierces my heart.

"No! I could never forget you!" I cup his face in both my hands, tracing my thumbs along the small feathers underneath his eyes. Tears slither down my cheeks like burning snakes when his eyes only darken further. "I'm the monster for not having returned when I promised… But I'm here now! Everything will be fine! Come on," I circle my arms around his midsection and try to lift him onto his feet. However, it's useless; he's dead weight and barely moves despite my best efforts. "Come on, you must get up!"

With a movement so minute that I would have missed it if tears blinded me further, the Beast shakes his head and lifts a claw, reaching up towards me with quivering talons.

Eagerly, I take his talon and gratefully press them against my cheek. His skin is deathly cold and grows colder with every passing moment.

"Mademoiselle… look at me…" He croaks, and I swiftly obey, staring intently into those mirthless pools of black, and he looks into mine with the same, though dying, fervor. His talons suddenly tighten, his claws lacing through my hair while his thumb swipes my tears away with a tenderness that makes me release a strangled sob. A small smile then teases his lips, showing me his proud fangs for one final time. His lips part slightly, as if he is to say more, and I lean in, intent on listening to whatever is to be said.

However, he says nothing more. A cold, groaning sigh tickles my cheek as his hand laxes and his eyes begin to stare at something beyond me.

"Severus?" I whimper and lightly shake him, only to have his head loll out of my palms and his claws fall away from my face and hit the floor with a sickengly dull clack. "Severus? Severus, please! Please don't leave me!" Everything around me crumbles, darkens, then finally shatters as his cheek grows even colder underneath my fingertips.

"I love you…" I press a chaste series of kisses all along his cheeks and brow, and finally a prolonged one against his slightly parted lips. A harsh sob finally rattles through me as I collapse into his body, hugging it close and pressing my face into a chest colder than the most frostbitten stone. "If you can hear me, my answer is yes… I will marry you… just, please, wake up…"

But he doesn't wake up. There isn't even the faintest twitch that'd indicate any signs of life.

I pray I shall die here, too. I pray that I will rot away within the walls of this castle as punishment for my cruelty. How could I have been so cruel to stay away from my friend for so long? How could I have been so cruel to have killed my friend? My only friend…

"I-I love you…" I whimper again, though it sounds more like a child's desperate plea.

Then, I hear it… the most faint thumping of a heartbeat…

Then I feel it… the blossoming warmth of life coursing through long-dead veins...

A warm, living hand tentatively caresses my hair with a weak "Do not cry, mademoiselle… dry those tears..."

Gasping, I jerk back to look up into the Beast's face and am met with the same hazel-golden eyes from my dreams, only now they are filled with an entrancing tenderness and love that makes me smile. These are no longer the eyes of the Beast.

The beastly features that had twisted his face before are now gone; his sneering mouth of pointed teeth are gentle lips turned into a loving, boyish grin; his sallow cheeks are featherless and no longer ghostly pale; his nose remains hooked, though not to the degree where it resembles a deformed beak; his hair remains midnight black and is soft, like the feathers of a raven's wing. Regardless, his eyes retain the intelligent glimmer, his lips the soft smirk, and his voice the same baritone growl of the beast I've come to love.

Through the windows, newborn sunlight pours into the room, engulfing us in a sea of golden heat, bringing with it the revived scent of our beloved roses and cheered cries ringing out from the gardens as animal howls revert back into the triumphant shout of Severus's court.

I smile, tracing my hands all along his reformed features and through his hair. "It's you…"

His hand, his clawless, featherless, human hand, cups the entirety of my cheek as we bask in each others' pure affection. "It's me," He breathes out with a soft chuckle before pulling my face towards his until our lips collide, sending electrifying heat coursing all through my body.

When we pull away, we realize that our surroundings and attire have changed without our noticing. We are now embracing each other within the revived hedges of the courtyard and underneath the crimson shade of the glowing roses.

Rather than his tattered robes of black, Severus is practically glowing in a coat and cloak of iridescent white. My nightgown and shawl have been replaced by the cream-and-gold wedding gown intended for me to wear my first night at the castle, and I've never felt so happy wearing a single dress. It just feels so right as I run my hands over the mane of lace ruffles adorning Severus's throat, and he traces his own over my pearly bodice.

Surrounding us are the animals-turned humans, all smiling and clapping while wearing noble clothes the same shade of white as Severus's. In their eyes, I can recognize Crookshank's animal companions: the wolfish gleam in the brown eyes of the scarred man and his bold wife, the playful, canine glimmer in the ragged, wigless man, the intelligent feline glint in the stern-faced woman while she cradles Crookshanks against her chest, and the playful shimmer of the mare and hare within the eyes of the red-haired scullery maid linking arms with the eccentrically-dressed, white-blonde haired girl.

They don't seem to be cheering in celebration of Severus's and I's love for each other, however, but rather the fact that a curse has been broken and they're no longer trapped underneath the hides of beasts.

But I don't care, as I cast a smile towards them, and finally towards my dear Severus before he blesses my lips with another deep kiss.

Against the coolness of my now-powdered cheek, Severus whispers, at last, "Will you marry me, mad-?"

I don't even allow him to finish before silencing him with another kiss and whisper against his lips, "Oui, ma Bête…"

As beast and beauty, beauty and beast, we lay within each other's arms, allowing the world around us to fall away into a flurry of golden light, snow-white rose petals, a harmonious, buzzing choir of fairy wings humming a marital hymn, and an embracing, celebratory warmth…

I've heard of happily ever afters only in childrens' fairy stories… Then again, it's only in fairy stories that one encounters fairies that lust for rosebuds, enchanted castles of gold and marble, and beasts with the hearts of men, and men with the hearts of beasts, that can only be transformed by the powers of love…

And here, whilst I lie in Severus's arms, ensnared within the white, silken wings of his cloak, and we only gaze deep into each other's eyes, I realize that such happily afters do exist, and I have just found mine.

*~*Fin*~*