Beauty and the Beast: The Tale Continues

Chapter 55 - A Final Loss, Part 3

Author's Note: Disney is the rightful owner of this franchise. I just own the story.

"Finally… I finally finished it!"

Maurice let out a sigh of relief, and laid back in his chair as he admired his handiwork, which he'd worked on ever since the day after the celebration dance back in June of last year.

"Now, I just have to test it out, and show-"

"Monsieur Maurice!"

Belle's father looked up from his completed music-box, and saw a terrified Lumiere standing by the doorway. "Lumiere, what… what's wrong?"

"It's Belle, monsieur," replied the former candelabra. "I think she is locked inside the library, and someone has been trying to set all of the books on fire!"

"What?!" exclaimed Maurice, who immediately got out of his chair, and had a look of horror on his face.

Lumiere nodded his head, and cried, "Come with me… Cogsworth is already trying to see which key is the one to open the door."

As he hurried after Lumiere, Maurice cried, "How could he not know what key it is?"

"There are a lot of keys, my friend," admitted Lumiere, with a sheepish smile. "And, um, we did not exactly use them a lot while we were cursed."

A now somewhat-unconcious Belle was currently lying on the desk, while Raphael was simply watching her, as if she were his prey.

As for the books themselves, only one section and a few piles were currently on fire, but the rest would soon suffer the same fate… or, so he presumed.

"You should actually be thanking me for this, Belle," said the sinister arsonist. "I've spared you from the pain of seeing your precious literature novels become ashes… especially your Shakespeare collection."

Obviously, Belle did not respond to him, so the former soldier gave a small shrug, and placed his hand on one side of her soft, beautiful face.

"Since I have you all to myself, for the moment, there is really only one thing that I want from you… but first… let's take away your dreams of traveling the world, shall we?"

He looked at the Enchanted Atlas, which was still in his other hand, and gave a dark chuckle before tossing it into the nearest pile of burning books.

"Also, I do believe that I am owed a rematch with your husband."

Fortunately, Raphael failed to notice the faint stream of gold-colored dust rising out of the fire, and swiftly flying through the nearest window.

"Did you have a good conversation with Him?" wondered Nathaniel, once Adam had returned to him and their horses. "You've been a while…"

Adam nodded his head, and was about to give his uncle a response when, suddenly, he felt like something was wrong… very wrong.

"Are you alright, son?" asked Nathaniel, who watched as his nephew pulled out the Enchanted Mirror from his travel bag.

"Show me my wife," said Adam, praying that he would see her either reading happily in the library, or resting in bed.

WHOOSH!

At first, Adam started to feel relieved when he noticed that Belle was in the library, but then, he found himself taking another look, and his eyes immediately became wide after realizing what the mirror was showing him.

"Nephew, please, what is- oof!"

The young prince, who had taken off his royal coat, handed it to his uncle, and before Nathaniel could ask him again, Adam quickly said, "Belle is in trouble. I have to hurry."

Then, after getting on top of his horse, Adam rode away as fast as he could in the direction of the castle, leaving his uncle by himself.

I am going to kill Raphael if he harms a single hair on her head, thought the young prince, who was currently releasing all of his bottled-up anger that he had ever felt towards the former soldier. If he wants a beast to fight, then I shall give him one!

"Belle? Belle, can you hear me?" shouted Maurice, as he knocked on the doors with all of his strength. "Belle!"

"Perhaps she isn't in the library after all?" suggested Cogsworth, as he continued to quickly go through all of the keys that were attached to one circular keychain. "Nope, not that one either…"

"I'm praying that she isn't," replied Maurice. "But it is still my daughter's library, and we have to get inside in order to stop the fire!"

Cogsworth nodded his head, and went back to look at the multiple keys in his hands. "Come on, you stupid… work with me!"

As he was dealing with that, Maurice looked over at Lumiere, and said, "Take Liliana to a safe place. She does not need to be seeing any of this."

Lumiere nodded his head, and while he took Belle's daughter away, Maurice continued to bang on the doors, praying for his own daughter to be okay.

When Belle finally opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that she someone had strapped her hands and feet to the desk she was currently laying on.

"Ah, the beautiful princess has finally awoken…"

She moved her head up to the left, and found herself looking up at a smiling Raphael.

"You knew this would happen, princess."

Normally, Belle would have been immediately angry with him, but she was mostly confused as to why he was acting this way, compared to how he had been earlier this morning.

"Raphael, why… why are you doing this?" asked Belle, trying to reach out to her friend. "I thought we cared about each other."

The former solider let out a sinister laugh, and looked down at Belle, giving her a devious smile.

"You've been reading too much sappy literature, sweetheart," said Raphael. "Do I look like someone who cares about you at all?"

Looking into his eyes, Belle tried to find any signs of the warmth and kindness that she had once found, but all that she could see was anger and pain.

"Now, then, if you do not mind, Belle, would you please turn your head over to the right, and tell me what you see?"

Belle turned her head as instructed, and her eyes became wide with surprise and fear.

"Y-you're burning... a pile of…"

"Uh-huh, your precious books, all going up into smoke," finished Raphael. "And once the those books over there, they will start to catch on fire, as well… then, the same goes for the other ones, and so on… one by one, section by section, pile by pile… all of these books will become ashes."

Before Belle could say anything else, Raphael added, "And, by the way, madame, I hope you don't mind that I started with burning all of the novels written by Shakespeare… which also happens to be that pile you're looking at right now."

She realized that he was right after taking a closer look, seeing the rapidly-burning cover of Romeo & Juliet, and a few tears began to fall down her face.

"Raphael, please… don't do this," begged Belle, trying one last time to find any sign of kindness inside him. "This isn't you…"

"Of course, it's me, you stupid farm girl," growled Raphael. "And I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer as you see all of your books turn into ashes, along with me killing your husband for what he did to my brother."

"And what about me?" asked Belle. "Are you going to kill me, too?"

The former soldier remained silent, for a moment, and at first, he looked like his regular self as he said, "I would never want to kill you, Belle..."

But then, before she could respond to that, Raphael suddenly got a tight grip onto her face, and smiled while she began to let out cries of pain.

"No, no, no, I'm not going to kill you... because, by the time I kill your husband, you will have already ended up like your precious books... nothing but a pile of ashes."

Not wanting to look anymore at Raphael's face, Belle moved her eyes back over to the piles of burning books, and she started to break down into tears because, once again, she had no idea what could be done to fix this problem.

"Adam…" She tried to whisper, low enough so that her captor could not hear her. "Please… help…"

Even though he only had a few more miles left to go until he reached the castle, Adam was still telling his horse to go as fast as it possibly could.

I've lost my mother… my father… and my childhood… but I am not going to let that ***** take away the love of my life!