Disclaimer- Disney rules the world. End of.
Bella found the lamp switch after much searching and clicked it on. The light it gave out was small but adequate, and illuminated the chaise-longue where the figure of the beat now lay awkwardly so Bella could tend his wounds. Initially, upon briefly surveying the damage, Bella had wanted to call an ambulance but the beast had used the little strength he had left to shake his head furiously and state matter-of-factly that if an ambulance and paramedics were to come to the house, they would have no-one to treat as he would disappear. He knew places that no-one else could fins, he had said, between breaths each word requiring more effort from his winded chest.
Bella had resisted the temptation to protest, feeling his icy-green stare on her skin till she was too weary to argue.
Now he was trying to sit upright on the chaise-longue and succeeding, to Bella's surprise. Maybe he was just badly bruised more than anything else. The area around his left eye was now puffy and swollen, and turning a reddish-purple colour which tried to engulf the green-ness of his iris but just ended up making it all the more startling. His other eye was rid-rimmed but otherwise untouched. A muddy gash cut his left cheek in two.
His nose was also slightly misshapen and parts of his thin moustache were clumped and sticky with the blood that had oozed in rivulets from his nostrils a few moments before. Bella couldn't see any other wounds so far, and luckily she felt she knew enough about First Aid to at least clean him up a bit. She asked whether he had First Aid supplies in the house and he pointed in the direction of the kitchen whilst muttering something about shelves in cupboards.
Bella was on auto-pilot. She did not want to think about possible actions and consequences, only that she could finally use the basic skills her father had taught her over and over until she could recite them like her times tables. He had always wanted to ensure that she knew what to do if anything were to happen to him. She had never wanted to remember, and now she reluctantly let thoughts of her father temporarily leave her. For now, she just wanted to focus on more immediate problems. Her out-stretched hand finally found an old ice-cream tub right at the top of one cupboard and filled with lots of packets and bottles as well as dust and a few dead insects. Bella also filled a saucepan with hot water, and then carried it along with the tub into the room that the guessed was intended to be a living-room of some sort. It contained several cluttered tables and chairs as well as a long-cold fireplace and the chaise-longue that her patient was sitting on whilst running his dirty fingers gingerly over his eyes and nose.
"Don't do that!" said Bella, maybe a little too sharply, as he suddenly jerked his head and grimaced. Quieter she added
"It might get infected."
She set the pan and tub down on the floor, and then went through the tub looking for anything useful and still in-date. The beast watched her with silent curiosity as she picked out bandages and antiseptic. The low lamp light played upon her hair, bringing out tones of warm copper and red amongst the mousy-brown. Her head seemed alive with colour, although messy and strewn with mud and grass from the forest floor. Without thinking, the beast reached out and gently removed a tiny twig from her hair, and she jumped as if he had yanked out one of her hairs. This made him jerk backwards suddenly and wince as he accidentally hit his arm on the back of the chaise-longue.
Bella flushed slightly red as she realised he had merely removed a twig and not a clump of anything that was actually attached to her. She heard him wince but could not think of anything to say that wouldn't sound stupid, so instead she tried to read the different languages on the back of the box of antiseptic. Her eyes finally focussed on the English between the French and German instructions, even though she already knew how to use the cream.
The room was uncomfortably silent. Even the rain that had started to fall outside the window seemed to making a special effort to drip as quietly as it could down the glass and on to the sill. Bella wrung a cloth out above the pan of hot water, then submerged it and wrung it out again, feeling the water warm her hands just a little. She wrung it out one last time and then turned to face the beast. He had obviously been watching her intently as now he suddenly stared down at his lap as though something of great interest lay atop his thighs. Bella carefully pressed the cloth to the cut on his cheek and began to wipe out the dirt that was in it. She bit her lip as she did this because she felt certain that he would react violently to the pain, but instead he hardly flinched. She looked and noticed that he was also biting his lip, although she couldn't tell whether he was doing it from pain or from anxiety, like she was.
The clock on the mantelpiece ticked disdainfully as Bella tended to his visible wounds, applying antiseptic and bandages where necessary. While this was happening, he hardly moved, keeping his eyes focused elsewhere except when she inspected his black eye, where he had no choice but to see him reflected in her gaze, No sound passed between them.
When Bella was finished with his face, she inspected her handiwork. It was by no means perfectly neat or tidy but she was fairly confident it would suffice. She was just about to clear everything away when she noticed a dark red stain on his shirt underneath his right arm. She hadn't spoken for a while so her voice came slightly choked as she requested that he take off his shirt so she could see what had caused the stain.
Somewhat reluctantly, the beast did as he was told and slowly pulled the shirt over his head, being careful not to catch his dressings, and Bella's eyes suddenly bulged slightly out of her head. The slash on his side was only small and not too deep; the stain had been misleading. Bella hardly noticed it-she was too bust staring at his torso. No wonder he had been able to withstand all the punishment he had taken. He was in very good shape; muscular and lean. Not the bodybuilder-style physique that Tristan had (and took every available opportunity to show off) but the more functional, toned build you would normally expect to see on an athlete. He obviously took some care of his health and fitness.
'Well...' Bella thought to herself '….what else would he have to do all day, being as alone as he clearly was.'
Working out no doubt kept his mind active as well as his body. She found herself pitying him as she pondered the reasons behind his well-maintained body. She didn't realise she was till staring at him, lost in thought, and not sensing how self-conscious she was making him feel. He squirmed uneasily as he was not used to people noticing him, let alone staring at him as the girl seemed to be doing now. Flustered, he reached for his shirt and made as if to put it back on, which snapped Bella out of her distraction.
"Oh god...sorry…I…" her cheeks flushed a deep red as she realised what he must be thinking.
"Your cut…erm…just needs a plaster. I…erm…didn't mean to…er…"
Whilst she was jabbering, she managed to hurriedly dig out a plaster and place it rather haphazardly over his cut, trying her best not to touch his skin. She cleared her throat.
"Well…erm…that should do for now. You will need to...er...change the dressings every day but…er…you should be ok."
Inexplicably and somewhat angrily, Bella felt her eyes start to itch. With great effort, she managed to stop the awkwardness of the situation making her cry. At times she hated how sensitive she was. If she let him see her cry, it would just make the situation even worse, so she subtly wiped her hands over her eyes and started to pack everything back into the ice-cream tub.
Suddenly he spoke,
"Why didn't you escape before?"
Bella was so startled at the sound of his voice that she could only manage a strangled..."Huh?"
He started again.
"Before…I left your door unlocked. I thought you would go."
He looked directly into her eyes, and for the first time, it occurred to Bella that he might be human. His eyes, which seemed to fluctuate between emotions so quickly, were now filled with confusion and curiosity.
Bella gave the only answer she could.
"I don't know."
He paused as if contemplating this.
"When I saw you in the attic, I was surprised more than anything. I didn't expect you to be there…"
Bella interrupted.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to….well…you scared me. It just…." She swallowed quickly. "…fell."
"It's ok. The photo's fine, just the frame….er…..I'm sorry if I scared you."
He said these last few words quickly, and while lowering his eyes as if he was afraid to meet her gaze.
"I'm still sorry. I had no right to go through your things…I was just…well….curious."
Anger suddenly bubbled up from somewhere inside Bella.
"Actually…no. I'm not gonna apologise. What else did you expect me to do? You'd just taken my father away from me and……"
"I expected you to leave me."
Bella frowned, puzzled. That was an odd way of putting it. He continued, as if in explanation.
"Everyone leaves me."
His eyes were full of sorrow and pain, yet he did not shed a tear, which somehow was worse. Emotion is meant to be poured out, not tightly constricted within you, devouring your soul.
Bella did not know what to think. Part of her was still reeling from the events of the past two days. Another part of her wanted her father. The final part of her was the part she recoiled at, yet simultaneously accepted. This part of her told her she belonged here, that she wanted to help him. It was the part of her that her father had often laughingly scolded her for, saying that she was too soft for her own good. She remembered one time when she was little, just after her mother had died, she had found a skinny rat limping and struggling near the kitchen door. Her father had gone to the shed and picked up his shot-gun intending to put it out of its misery, but she had begged him not to, and instead to let her keep it and nurse it back to health. Her father had laughed his head off for about ten minutes before he finally relented. And so the rat had moved in to an old fish tank in Bella's bedroom while she fed it and watched over it. Perky (as she had named him) soon outgrew the fish-tank and Bella had felt her heart-break with happiness as she and her father eventually let it go in a field near their house. Her benevolent nature had never gone away, often to the point where she had let people take unfair advantage of her, but she refused to let it bother her. Her father often said she let her heart rule her head and that one day it would get her into trouble she wouldn't be able to charm her way out of.
But her father wasn't here. Still, she didn't know what to do. It would be madness; utter madness for her to stay here, but then again, maybe the world needed more mad people. Bella suddenly realised how tired she was. The physical exhaustion she should have felt immediately after what had happened in the forest was now catching up with her, and she needed a clear head to decide what to do.
"I'm going to bed." were the carefully selected only words she said.
She stood up and walked to the door, but suddenly let her manners prevent her from having the last word. She turned round to see him still sitting on the chaise-longue, seemingly staring into space.
"I'm Bella, by the way."
There was silence for a few seconds, and then he lifted his head and looked at her.
"I'm Bastian."
Woohoo! Chapter over! And so his name has been revealed. He's named after a character in one of my favourite movies (The Never Ending Story) and I know its not one of the usual names people use on here for the beast, but he's not your normal beast. Hope you guys think this is ok, I know it might be annoying that he's not called Vincent, but I really prefer this name. (It's gonna be short for SEBastian by the way, which is French so it kind of fits!)
I also hope I haven't made this chapter too boring. I was trying to create the right atmosphere after the excitement in the last chapter, and well, I hope it works. I'm sure you guys will tell me if it doesn't. And so we move on to the reviews…
Bellamegs- Lol, swearing is fine. It's the best way to express yourself I reckon! I can't believe I gave you goosebumps, that is so…well….surreal (to steal your adjective!) Yay!
TrudiRose- Thanks! I thought long and hard about the most realistic way to do that scene and I'm so glad it worked! My b/f read it afterwards and picked loads of holes in the fight bit (cos hes mean like that) but I'm writing fanfiction here, not a martial arts manual! Glad you're still enjoying it!
LumBabsFan-Yay! You liked it! And I'm also liking that its not Disney, cos after all the original fairy-tales were a lot darker, and well, you can't really bring them update without making them dark again cos after all we don't live in a world wirh fairies and magic and all that (although I wish we did!) And the Rebecca DeMornay version of the film has arrived! It was one of my faves as a kid as well but I got rid of it for some reason, only just found a copy again (its been deleted in the UK since 1992) so I'm well chuffed
Beautygirl- Sorry for putting Bella in that situation, but I felt it had to be done. Don't worry it won't happen again as far as I can see, she's done her hard bit, its up to the fellas now to do the pain and agony thing! No worries about not previously reviewing the other chapters, I understand how it can get tedious reviewing over and over again. I've already kind of got the ending in my head, and it will be a little different at least cos we have no actual enchantment, but hopefully it should still be interesting. I have a great idea for a twist as well, but that's all to come, Got to get there first!
Anonymous-I prefer to be modest, that's just me. Yeah, its probably irritating but there you go. Like I said, I'm a total beginner at this, I genuinely don't know if this sory is going to be any good, but it seems to be going that way, so I'm happy! And my day was sparkling, thanks to my reviewers!
Asp- Beauty and the Beast is my favourite fairy-tale too, always has been, probably always will be. I haven't heard of the version you've mentioned, but I'll definitely make a note of it and have a look around for it. Thanks for the recommendation.
Everyone! I know I sound like a broken record, but thanks again for all your reviews. You're all so great and encouraging, I just hope I'm as helpful when I review yours.
