Chapter 8: True Self

"Hello." he said as he saw an old lady standing at the door, soaking wet from the pouring rain.

When she didn't reply he spoke up once again, "May I help you mam?"

"Would an old lady such as myself be welcome into the home of a young man like yourself? I need shelter from the wretched weather we're having." She answered questioningly.

"But of course…come right in and make yourself at home. No one should be out in this weather." He replied politely.

"Why thank you my child." She thanked gratefully, as she stepped into the warm home of his.

She limped over to the chair in the far corner of the room, which was situated near a burning fireplace and rubbed her hands together in front of it.

Mr B. stood at the door and closed it, not realising that the storm had passed and that it was merely raining now. He walked over to a chair, which sat a few metres away from the one she was in. There was an awkward silence that followed, until the old woman finally spoke up.

"You are very kind to welcome me into your home young man." She said with a rather crackly voice, which should have scared him, if she wasn't so pleasant.

"You are most welcome…may I get you anything? A blanket…or tea…or…" he began but was shortly interrupted by the woman.

"No, no I'm fine really. I am quite content with the fire for now." She replied not taking her gaze off the fire.

Another awkward silence followed yet again, but it was he who broke it this time.

"May I ask…how is it you came to find your way out here? There isn't a town for miles and you didn't appear to have arrived by horse or carriage." He asked curiously.

She was quiet for a moment and then answered his question.

"You are much more wise and courteous since the last time I met you my child." She said with a smile forming on her crooked mouth, as she turned to face him.

He stared at her with confusion, "What do you mean? I do not recall a first meeting."

""Well no of course you wouldn't. That's my doing." She whispered looking away.

"What do you mean?" he repeated as he rose from his position in the chair.

"My child, I have done something that I will live to regret forever. I have…done something terrible." She said also rising from her chair, but with great difficulty.

"What is it? Tell me this wrongdoing so that I may understand what you are talking about." He demanded, letting a hint of anger slip into his voice.

"I shall…but first I must reveal my true self." She replied turning her back.

The prince was about to question her reply, but was unable to as he gasped at her sudden transformation, from an old, frail woman into a young, beautiful lady.

She turned to face him, with her long blonde hair falling at her sides, her beautiful green dress brought out her emerald green eyes and what mystified him even more was the rod like object she held in her right hand. It was in fact a wand.

He stared at her with his eyes bulging out from the sudden alteration of this woman's appearance.

"What…who are you?" he finally got out, with his mouth returning to its 'O' like shape, the same as before.

"I am the Enchantress, who first laid eyes upon you when you were only sixteen years old. Back then you were a rude, conceited young man. But now you have indeed changed and I was so foolish as to ruin everything you had, for fear that you would soon turn back to your old ways. I should have taken more notice of your progress and yet..." she was cut off by Mr B. who cut in rather confused.

He held his hand to his head and rubbed it frustratingly as he said, "Let me get this straight, you're an Enchantress…and that's where you've lost me. I don't recall ever meeting you before. You must have the wrong person, I'm sorry."

"I think I would know a prince when I see him young man, and you are in fact a prince who must return to your duties."

He shot his head up abruptly to stare at the lady in disbelief, "Woah, stop right there. Are you seriously telling me that I'm a…a prince?"

"Precisely…now…" the Enchantress was cut off yet again.

"Please…just back up…I am but a distant traveller. I came to this place over three years ago from a faraway land. I am no one." He argued.

She looked at him oddly.

"Hmm…I didn't think I cast too heavy a spell upon you…where is this land you supposedly travelled from?" she questioned.

But the prince was occupied with her statement about the part where she talked about casting a spell upon him.

"Wait…you cast a spell upon me?" he asked with disbelief.

"Yes it's true. Twice in fact." She said sadly.

"What…twice…" he asked still staring at her with widened eyes.

"Yes. Although the first spell was done intentionally and was appropriate for the situation at hand." She said becoming more confident.

"However when I cast the second one upon you…I thought that you had gone back to your old ways and…I can't believe my own brother had me fooled." She said growing angry and looking away, lost deep in thought.

Mr B. was utterly confused and decided that this woman must be a wondering lunatic, although he couldn't exactly explain how she had transformed.

"Look…I don't know who you are or what you want…but I can assure that I have been under no such spell…or spells for that matter…so you can stay here as long as you wish…but there is to be no more talk of this spell nonsense." He instructed.

"How about I explain myself from the beginning of when it all began?" she insisted.

"Well that would be a lot more helpful." He shouted throwing his hands up into the air.

"All right. Well eight years ago…when you were only sixteen years old, I came to your castle as an old beggar woman, who desperately needed shelter from the bitter cold as it was raining that night. You however were still your young arrogant self and turned me away. I gave you a second warning, to not be deceived by appearances, that beauty was found from within. However when you turned me away once again, I transformed into my Enchantress state and you pleaded for mercy. I however cast a spell upon you…a spell that would keep you a beast forever until your twenty-first year. I handed you a rose and said that if you learned to love and earn someone else's love in return before the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not…you would be doomed to remain a beast forever." She stopped there for the moment and gazed at his bewildered expression.

"But…if what you say is true…then that means I must have found my true love and that means if I was a beast, then the spell was broken…" he babbled, still trying to register the conversation into his distraught mind.

"Yes that is true." She simply said.

He looked up and said, "Hang on…where is this person now then? Why am I not with them now? If I found the person…then why am I all alone?" he asked demandingly.

"That's where the next spell comes in." She answered.

"What do you mean?" he asked glaring at her.

"Well…you see…only a few months after you and your true love were married…a dark man came to the castle in the middle of the night. He was my twin brother, a dark sorcerer only after one thing. Your bride. You see I had made a deal with him that he would check up on you and then leave it at that. Then I would repay him with a favour. However that was not the plan according to him. He decided that he would bring havoc into your lives for his own benefit. Which is unfortunately one of his best talents. I myself have spent a lifetime picking up the pieces of his many paths of destruction." She said looking away with a rather angry look in her green eyes. She looked back at him and continued on, "But because he wanted your bride for his own, he decided that the only way of winning her heart, would be to turn you back into the beast inside, knowing that once he proved to me that you had in fact gone back to your old ways, that I would punish you once more. Removing you from Belle's life forever."

"Wait…what did he do?" he asked beginning to believe the lady's words.

"He told me that you had turned back into a beast on the inside and that you were leaving your position as prince in the castle. However he failed to fill me in on the fact that this was all his evil doing. So I met you a few hours later, just after you left the castle and cast yet another spell upon you. A spell which would make you forget your life…so that you would not go back to the castle ever again, and that was when my brother took over and informed me that he was in fact taking charge of the castle and that Belle was his. He called in the favour which I had promised him and said that if I was to tell anyone of his evildoings that he would make my situation worse." She finished.

As soon as he heard Belle he felt everything fall into place.

"Did you just say…Belle?" he questioned as he walked towards the lady.

"Yes…she was your love…the one who broke the spell…the one who…" she started but was suddenly cut off.

"…was in my dreams…the one I heard the men in the pub talking about. The beast they talked of…that was me." He finished off for her.

He raised his right hand to his forehead and leaned on the head of his chair with his left hand for support. He felt rather faintish.

"So…what happened to her?" He said waiting for an answer.

"Well…because I cast the memory spell upon you, it also affected Belle's memory as well. I couldn't have her coming after you. So she's been living in the castle with my brother for quite some time now." She replied.

He felt like fainting, hoping that this was some sort of nightmare. None of this made any sense to him. He may have known this 'Belle' once before, but he had been living without her for the last three years, having no memories at all. He didn't know her anymore. So it was perfectly normal for him to not be fuming at the thought of Belle in the arms of someone else. To be living with someone else who seemed to love her, as much he might have a long time ago.

"I'm sorry…I…I don't know what to say to any of this. I was just a normal man a few minutes ago and now you are trying to convince me, that I was in love with this girl that I've been dreaming about and that she's living with some psycho…and that I am to return to my duties because I'm a prince. " He said in a rush as he paced the room.

"I know that it's somewhat of a shock…" she trailed off, only to be cut off by him.

"Somewhat of a shock...this is absolutely ridiculous…if any of this is true, where have you been for the last three years? Why did you decide to come back now?" he questioned, growing angry and confused.

He may have had some dreams of this girl, who may have never even existed at all. But that didn't mean it had anything to do with him. This Enchantress could possibly have made him have the dreams and was going to use him for God knows what. He didn't know what her game was but he did know that she was obviously after him for a reason.

"Well I would have come back sooner, but I was imprisoned the night I cast the memory spell on you. The elders had found out what I had done. I had ruined everything you and Belle had and I had to pay the price." She explained sorrowfully.

"But if you were imprisoned, why is it that your brother wasn't as well? How did he get out of it?" he said eyeing her suspiciously, thinking that if this was all a cruel joke, and she didn't have a logical answer for each question, then he would show her the door and that would be the end of it.

"Because he is much more powerful then I and somehow managed to convince the elders, with one of his mind spells that he was in fact cleaning up the mess that I had created. He even managed to convince them that he was acting as Belle's permanent guardian until she found the next love of her life." She explained as though she had been rehearsing this very meeting with him, in front of a mirror over and over until she got it right. "That's all I found out from the elders before coming here."

"Wouldn't they have known what his game was after that night, seeing as they're obviously more experienced in the field of what you call magic." He asked, not sure if his question had sounded right.

"Well they should have picked up on it but…look I don't even know the full story myself. I was imprisoned since that night onwards. I don't know why the elders didn't pick up on it okay." She said rather frustrated as she held her head in her hand. She looked up, flashing her green eyes in his direction again and said more calmly, "All I know is…that I was told to fix this whole situation up as soon as possible. I was only released from prison, no longer then an hour ago and was told to come here. But I can't help you unless you believe me." She said looking at him pleadingly.

He gave her a look of disbelief, folded his arms and said, "I have no reason at all to believe anything that you have just said."

She gave him a look of defeat but suddenly her green eyes glimmered with hope, "Did you see the girl in your dreams?"

His eyes showed shock, wondering how she could have possibly known about his dreams. But he remembered what he had thought before. Perhaps the dreams were her doing.

"Yes I do…but I don't see why I should believe them either. You could have planted them in my mind, for…God knows why." He shouted, throwing his arms up in the air, walking to lean up against the wall, feeling that the conversation would be going for quite some time.

"I couldn't have…I've been in prison until now." She replied simply.

"Then how did you know about them?" he asked annoyed that he wasn't getting the answers he was looking for.

"I was shown by the elders through a sphere, after leaving prison, before I came here. They gave me a brief look at your current state." She said as she fiddled with her wand.

He nodded as if almost believing her but shook his head in confusion once more. "I don't even know if all this talk of you being in prison and now you've come back to fix my life, 'story', is even the truth." He said becoming tired of her annoying attempts to convince him that he wasn't really just some ordinary man. That he had an enchanting past of magic, romance and evil sorcerers stealing his true love. No. He was just your average Joe that enjoyed living by himself, away from everyone and everything.

"It is the truth. I swear on my position as an Enchantress." She said floating towards him in the air.

He backed up against the wall a bit, startled by this sudden move. He frowned and said, "Where's the proof? Prove to me that what you say is real and I swear on my position as a man, that I will bend down on my knees and beg for forgiveness." He said giving her a look, which clearly said he still wasn't buying her story.

"I'm afraid that the only way I can prove myself to you, is for you to come back with me to the castle you used to live in. When we get there I will show you the girl." She said quite forcefully, as she floated just inches from his face, looking into his blue eyes strangely.

He seemed to consider this for a minute, thinking that maybe it would be wise to do as she said. What if she was to suddenly turn him into a toad or something horrible for the rest of his life, if he didn't do as she said? The look in her green eyes seemed very threatening and yet very longing at the same time.

The Enchantress's gaze seemed to hypnotize him and before he knew what he was doing, he slowly held out a hand to shake. "Deal." He said quietly as he stared into her eyes, feeling his doubtful thoughts leave his mind, quicker then they had arrived.

A/N: Hey everyone. I read over my chapters once more and realised that from this chapter onwards things didn't seem to make sense even to me. I apologise. I've had a lot on my mind lately. It's not an excuse for my chapters being so crazy though. I should have waited until I was fully focused on what I was writing again. I've had my mind spinning with work and TAFE and school, and my nana getting sick and all. But I hope that my alteration to the story makes more sense. If it still is a huge mess, please tell me in a review. At the beginning of this story I really was on the ball, but certain things happening lately have seemed to affect only this story. Don't ask me why. I'm doing fine in my other stories. I don't know why my mind is having spasms about this particular story. Anyway…hope I got my act together in this chap.

Oh and I'm gonna do a disclaimer thing: I don't own anything, but I do own the evil guy. Hehehe!

Yunie Tidus