Chapter Thirteen

The Black Forest: even after the spell was broken, it had remained a forbidden land during the nightly hours to everyone who lived at the palace in the Chateau Mountains. Without the light of day, no one dared to step foot there unless it was positively necessary for travel purposes. Wolves continued to hunt the wooded area at night, looking for any prey; whatever, or whoever, dared to wander into their territory was fair game in their ferocious eyes.

Despite the encouragement from Lumière and Cogsworth to move on, Lina and Etienne halted their run, exhausted and having not yet seen anyone following them. They had exerted themselves more than they could withstand, and brave as they were, Etienne had still been beaten and Lina had been drugged. It was a miracle that they had made it this far and stopped only once.

"Right then!" Cogsworth pleaded, "Break over! Do you realize how close we are to home!"

Lina smothered her hand over his mouth. "I know that!" she whispered breathlessly. "Just…one more second! Please, just one more!"

The all too familiar sound of determined hoofbeats turned Lumière's attentions behind them. "A second is far too long! They are catching up to us!"

Without thinking twice, Lina and Etienne glanced back only once before breaking into another run. Their legs ached, their lungs felt ready to collapse, but they were determined to live. Behind them, Jacques and Arnaud drove their horses faster and faster until they were inches from their targets.

Drawing his sword, Jacques focused on Etienne first, taking a deadly swipe at his arm where he held the stolen blades. It was a simple strategy: destroy the weaponry leaving your victims with no means of fighting back. His aim was true, unfortunately, and with a scream of pain, the boy went down, gripping his already bruised arm tightly. The blades and the candelabra he held crashed to the ground a few feet away. Satisfied with his victory, Jacques pulled his horse to a standstill, shouting orders to Arnaud.

"I will deal with this one; do not let the girl get away!"

Having placed Cogsworth down in safety, Lina ran to grab one of the swords, but Arnaud beat her to them. Directing his horse to blockade her path, forcing her to turn around, he leapt down to grab her into a strangle hold. Without a second thought, Lina threw her hands onto his arm, intensely scorching it. He cried out in anguishing pain releasing her, but not without striking her with a backhanded smack to her face

Seeing her fall, Etienne glared at Arnaud, using whatever muscle he had to crawl to Lina's side. Distracted, he did not see Jacques' boot make harsh contact with his back from behind.

Grabbing Etienne by the hair, Jacques drew his ever-present dagger from its sheath, holding the blade dangerously against his throat. "First a liar, then a traitor, now a thief; just like your father before you! Ungrateful guttersnipe, you have been nothing but a thorn in my side ever since you were a child! It is about time I obliged your request to see your father again; it is long overdue!"

"Jacques?" Arnaud interrupted.

"Shut up!" he answered, but not turning around. "I want to enjoy this."

Arnaud only continued nervously. "Jacques."

"I said shut up!"

"Jacques, I mean it! I would turn around if I were you!"

"What is so God damn…?"

Jacques turned angrily, but could not finish his sentence as he froze, petrified at what he saw.

Behind the two young men, four massive paws hammered against the ground as the most hideous, unimaginable creature came towards them. Jacques' eyes grew wide and fearful, and he fell on his backside trying to scramble backwards as he looked up into the animal's face. The horrific Beast towered over him as it rose on its hind legs, a good ten feet tall from the tip of his horns to his tiniest toe. Two gigantic boar-like teeth jutted out from his bottom lip, perfectly framing the smaller, sharper ones that were revealed as it snarled at both men. Even Etienne darted for a weapon, feeling threatened by this monster, but Lina held him back.

"Don't," she said, helping him to his feet. "He is on our side."

Fear shaking his voice, Arnaud could hardly believe he was able to speak at all. "Oh mon Dieu…it-it can't be."

"No, it was a myth," Jacques trembled. "You told me it was all a myth!"

"As you can see, he lied," the Beast growled in a deep, animalistic form of Vincent's voice, confirming both their fears. "And from what I have been told, it is a talent that he has perfected quite well!"

"M-m-master," Arnaud begged, falling to his knees. "I-I do not know this man; believe me, I beg you!"

"Silence!" Vincent roared. "As one of our own, you know that I am not the man I was; that does not mean I will excuse treason and betrayal. You will both suffer the consequences for your actions, I assure you."

As he spoke, Vincent failed to notice Jacques gather a tiny bit of gravel and dust in his hand, and the sinister fiend flung the natural blinding weapon into the Beast's eyes before jumping to his feet to run into the woods. Arnaud started to follow, but the two younger men, Chip and Alexandre, tackled him, striving and succeeding to bring the traitor to his knees.

Lumière and Cogsworth, returning to their human forms, rushed to their master's side. The Beast façade melted away, revealing their prince once more.

"Master? Are you all right?" Cogsworth asked worriedly.

"Yes, just a minute," Vincent replied, allowing his eyes to tear and focus.

"But they will get away!"

When he could see again, Vincent spoke, reassuring him. "No one can find their way out of the forest the first time they travel in it at night." Surveying the situation at hand, he continued. "First things first, we must get Lina and Etienne back to the castle; they need to be tended to. The captain as well, but he shall wait for anything that he needs, for a long time in the towers. Let's go."

Lumière stared for a moment in the direction where Jacques had escaped, before turning to the prince. "Master, what about Jacques? He is still out there."

"Let him run," he replied. "There is nothing that either of us can do at present but get everyone home." As the group began to move, Vincent glanced over his shoulder to see that Lumière had not joined them. "He is not our primary concern right now. When all is settled at the castle, I shall send the guards out to find him."

"Master, please; that is not enough," Lumière pleaded. "We thought he could do nothing years ago when your uncle had him imprisoned. We assumed he had left us alone after the night of the masque ball, but look at what he has done tonight! I refuse to let that man go about his way any longer. Permit me to find him alone if I must, but I will not rest knowing that he is still out there, free to strike again when he sees an opportunity to do so."

"No!"

Both men turned to find that Etienne had interrupted them.

"Monsieur Lumière, he will destroy you if you go alone. You know as well as I that nothing will stop Jacques de Crochet when he sets his mind to kill what stands in his way. He will take what he wants, and if you find him, he will want your life!"

"He will not stop until someone stops him!" Lumière argued. "What else is there to do?"

"Whatever it is, let me go with you!"

"No."

"Please! This is my fight as well!" Etienne begged. "He murdered my father!"

"He ravaged my wife and nearly killed my daughter, twice to be exact! I have every right to want him dead as much as you do!" Lumière shouted, pausing a moment to calm his tone as the entire group kept silent. Rarely did he raise his voice as he did then, but when he did, all knew that he was adamant about what his mind was set to do. "If I do not come back…both Babette and Lina will need you. Stay with them."

Etienne raised his eyes from where he had lowered his gaze to the ground, staring intently into Lumière's before the older man gathered one of the swords. Their gazes met one more time as Lumière brushed past him, Etienne pleading one last time to allow him to go. Lumière only turned and went about his way.

Etienne closed his eyes tightly in conflicted defeat. In his heart, he knew the man was right. Should anything unfortunate happen to her father, he would be all that Lina and her mother would have left to protect them. At the same time, he knew helping Lumiere stay alive would protect them more, and therefore, his mind was made up.


Where was the way out of this God forsaken forest? Jacques stopped to look around, attempting not to panic; it was not natural for him to feel this way. He had always known what to do, even in the worst situations anyone could imagine. But now, there was nowhere to flee. No one to turn to, no path to run for!

"Lost your way?"

He whirled around, recognizing Lumière's familiar taunting tones, but saw no one.

"Can not escape this time, can you?"

Jacques turned in the opposite direction, still not finding a soul in sight.

"Coward!" he shouted. "That is all you are! You can not even face me like a man!"

Lumière stepped forward from the mist, his fist clenched tightly around the hilt of his sword.

"You? Calling me a coward?" he asked, sickeningly amused. "You obviously did not see the look on your face when the master made his stunning entrance. And then that little trick you pulled with the gravel before you ran, abandoning your friend, the captain? Indeed, such honor, such dignity and bravery…for a hypocrite!"

Jacques snarled in rage as he drew his own sword, instantly showering Lumière with a flurry of thrusts, crushing his back into a tree.

"I do not take criticism from a degraded weakling of a thief," he growled.

Lumière shoved him away before both contenders circled one another, never averting their eyes.

"If you fought half as well as you ridicule, I would admit to admiring such swordsmanship," he provoked.

"Admire this then!" the madman parried verbally and physically. As Jacques thrashed at his opponent, Lumière kept his own sword moving in strong defense. Neither one moved a muscle moments later when they reached a standstill.

"You…" Jacques snarled, "The one thing that was rightfully mine, and you took it from me. A mere servant stole from me!"

Lumière forced his voice to tread carefully. "A man can not claim stolen what was never his in the first place."

Jacques slowly advanced, his preparation to attack growing more obvious with every step. "Her love, her desire, and then her child; everything about her belonged to me!"

Lumière held his sword in front of him, ready for anything his opponent had to offer. "She never loved you, ever, just as you did not love her. The last thing you bestow upon those you care for is pain, and you certainly gave her plenty of that!"

"Believe what you will. She belongs to me, and I will make every attempt to reclaim her as long as I live."

"Well, we can not have you living then, can we?"

"On the contrary; the last person that needs to be living is you!"

Both blades clashed in a deadly fury, so intensely that were spectators present, they would swear they had seen sparks fly. There would be no more pauses, no more conversation; neither challenger would rest until one or the other lay dead. How much time had passed, no one would ever know, but after what felt like an eternity, Jacques could stand the battle no more.

Forcing the hilt of his sword against that of Lumière, Jacques held him at bay while he brought the toe of his boot around, pulling Lumière's foot out from under him. His back slamming against the ground, Lumière cringed in pain from the force of the fall, gasping as the tip of Jacques' blade held him by the throat.

"This little game of yours has gone on for long enough," he hissed viciously. Slowly, he knelt down and rested his knee painfully on Lumière's chest. Still holding the sword in place, Jacques pulled his glove off with his teeth, and reached for his dagger with his scarred hand. The smaller blade then took the place of the larger sword. "None of your precious fire can save you now, fool. I've waited for this moment for so many years; it is positively more glorious than I could have even imagined. Oh yes, and I swear I will properly bid your family farewell in your place."

Before he could retaliate, Lumière heard a shot ring out in the distance, trying to see where it had come from. When he looked at Jacques again, the man was rigid, his white shirt staining a deep red hue.

Swallowing the bitter taste of blood, Jacques weakly turned to look behind him, stumbling a bit, but determined to rise to his feet. Lowering a pistol before him was Etienne.

"You…" Jacques managed before breaking into a coughing fit, gasping for air. In seconds, his legs surrendered to weakness, and he fell heavily on his hands and knees.

Etienne ran to him, grabbed the dagger the dying man still gripped strongly and threw it aside.

"You murdered my father, made an innocent woman's life a living hell," he growled angrily, gripping the man's collar tightly. "You nearly ravaged the lady I love and then attempted to slay her own father. May God have mercy on your vile soul, Jacques de Crochet; you will need it where you are headed."

By the time Etienne released him, Jacques, the final de Crochet son, fell to the ground. Dead.