Hi everyone! This chapter was shorter than intended but all that means is that i get more chapters to write. Yay! (can you tell i don't want to finish this story?) I watched BatB whilst drunk last night, it was great fun, me and my friends, all twenty-somethings, singing along to all the songs whilst getting strange looks from my relatives lol Great fun! Anyway...your next chapter is below. Enjoy! (And...er...please don't hate me for what you know is coming! lol!)

Disclaimer:- Basic plot belongs to Disney. Words and waffle belong to me


The slam of the door was so strong that the whole conservatory seems to shake. Bella gulped down the lump that had appeared in her throat. Something told her Bastian wasn't in the mood for the magical reunion that she had envisaged. With one last glance at the shattered face of Tristan, she opened the door and stepped out into the night.

The fist thing that hit her was the rain. She gasped as the cold water soaked her hair and ran down her bare shoulders. It started to run down her face like the tears that wouldn't flow as she peered into the darkness. The acrid smell of smoke filled her nostrils and she looked back to see that house she had just stepped out of in flames behind her. Even the rain that fell so determinedly around her fell in vain on the burning roof and walls as the fire raged on. Driven by the human instinct to preserve and rescue, Bella ran back into the conservatory to save Tristan, only to find herself confronted with an empty room.

Tristan had vanished.

There was nothing she could do except go outside and find Bastian. Part of her, she realised with dismay, just wanted to go back home and forget everything. This was all too surreal, too strange, too much for her to cope with. Just days earlier, she had longed for a situation like this—a chance to escape from the mundanity of her life into the world of fantasy that she so loved to explore in books and movies. Now here it was; excitement, adventure, love….and she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted it. Fantasies were supposed to stay hidden in the realm of imagination, not intrude into real life. It would be so easy to walk away back to the town, back to her father, back to normality. All it took was one step in the other direction…but now was not the time for the maddening indecision that had plagued her ever since she encountered the strange house in the woods and its even stranger occupant.

He had had a knife to Tristan's throat. One swift movement and it would have all been over. What would have happened if she had not arrived when she did? She had seen the dangerous emerald-coloured flame beneath Bastian's eyes and it had almost rendered her speechless. Almost. If she hadn't have shouted out, what then? She didn't want to think about it but once she found Bastian, she knew she would have to.

She continued to make her way shivering through the rain to where she thought he might be, trying to ignore how cold her toes were becoming as she walked through the sodden grass. Her hair now hung limply round her face if it wasn't plastered to her forehead and the once-beautiful dress was now soaked through. Bella sneezed.

Great she thought, wryly. On top of everything, I'm going to get pneumonia. He'd better be worth it.

She hoped he was. Less than a few hours ago, she thought he was. Now she was not so sure. After all, she still didn't know whether he had murdered his parents or not. Tristan's rash act of overly-masculine heroism had achieved nothing except a blade hovering inches from his jugular. The image was doing nothing for Bella's resolve as she continued on towards the graves of Bastian's family.

A sharp pain in the ball of her foot told her that she had reached the gravel at the edge of the small memorial garden. She looked up and sure enough, there was the oak tree she had admired from the window and there was the bench but Bastian was not sitting on it.

Oh………shit! thought Bella as she bit her lip. If he wasn't here, she didn't know where he would be. The rain had lightened slightly but it still fell and in every direction around Bella it was black except for the eerie orange glow behind her in the distance. A thin wind blew the rain so it struck the ground at an angle.

Where was he?

"Bastian?"

His name was cruelly flung back at her by the wind. There was no answer.

"BASTIAN!"

Still no answer. Bella shivered again. She didn't want to give up.

"BA…" was as far as she got the third time before she noticed a faint shimmer of something white in the darkness. It was him! He was standing with his back to her about fifty metres away partially obscured by some bushes and apparently suffering from temporary deafness.

"Bastian" she whispered as she walked towards him. He stayed still. She reached him and placed her hand on the soaked shirt on his back. He turned to face her, expressionless.

"You came back…

"Of course I came back. I….

"…and you brought him."

A great deal of emphasis was placed on the word 'him'.

"I didn't bring him. If anything, he brought me. He said he was going to kill you."

Silence whistles through the air making the raindrops louder than they should have been.

"Were you…were you going to kill him?"

Bastian laughed, a strange disembodied laugh, but as he spoke, his face showed no discernible emotion once more. He started directly into her eyes.

"Do you think I would have killed him?" he said softly but menacingly.

The sob that had been waiting to emerge from Bella all evening chose that moment to make an appearance.

"I don't know. I don't know anything anymore…and it scares me."

"Do I scare you, Bella?" His eyes never left hers.

She nodded slowly and with her eyes shut.

"Yes you do."

A pause.

"You scare me, but I'm not afraid of you. I'm afraid for you."

"You're not afraid of me? You don't worry about what I could do to you?"

He was closer now, so close that she could hear his struggle to breathe between each sentence. She could see the weary strain in his eyes as he fought to retain control.

"I know you wouldn't hurt me."

"Do you? Really?"

His face was millimetres from hers. He was trying to frighten her the way he had frightened Tristan. It was easier that way.

But she knew what he was doing and so she didn't budge. She stared right back at him. She studied every patch of colour in his irises. She looked right into the dark holes that were his pupils. Her sight locked onto his soul. Only the frantic chewing of her lip gave her away her extreme anxiety. For a moment that seemed out of time altogether they locked eyes, each determined to break the other.

He was the first to look away, although not by choice. The sudden awareness of a sharp pain in his side made him wince. He had made himself numb and oblivious to all physical pain and now, at a moment of weakness, he felt all too well the knife wound that Tristan had given him before they fought. It was not deep, and Bastian would learn later that it had missed all his organs, but it was still there and it was bleeding.

Bella's strange triumph at winning the stare-out was cut short as she noticed the bloody tear in Bastian's shirt.

"You're bleeding!" she gasped and reached for the side of his shirt to examine the cut, but he pulled away.

"It's nothing."

"What do you mean, nothing! You're hurt! Let me see!" she said as she reached for it again, but again he pulled away.

"It doesn't matter now. Just let it bleed."

Silence. Sobs. Then Bastian uttered a single plea.

"Leave me."

His voice broke, tremulous and tender in the night sky.

"It's better that way."

And he turned away from her, his hand over his bleeding side, willing his shaky legs to carry him somewhere far away, but she was in front of him before they had a chance to. Her words were defiantly simple.

"I can't."

Gently, she reached a trembling hand to his face and brushed his hair away from his cheek, and then she looked into his eyes and whispered:

"I love you, Bastian."

A single tear fell from her eye and at that moment, she looked just like the picture that he had drawn of her. Suddenly nothing mattered anymore as she leant in to kiss him, her lips pausing just for a second before they touched his. She didn't know why she paused and neither did she, but perhaps she shouldn't have because at that precise moment, the spell was broken.

A voice, devilishly chilling and crisp, floated towards them out of the darkness.

"Aw, bless! What a touching scene!"

Then, the unmistakable slosh of whisky leaving a bottle to enter somebody's throat.

It was Patrick.


hides her head in her hands to shield herself from angry cliffhanger-haters It'll get worse before it gets better!

Ok, review responses:-

TrudiRose-Just wanted to let you know what a great feeling it is whenyou respond so enthusiastically to my chapters :)I really hope I continue pleasing and surprising you!

RoxyFoxyChick- I have written more so now you will know more, but you will not know everything, not just yet! And please could you not die from curiosity, don't want it on my conscience :p

LumBabsFan- Glad you're enjoying the cliffhangers :p

BlackRosesBorn- Craziness is good! And Bastian is very lovable isn't he? And the best thing is he's all mine! Yay! Glad you spotted the Phantom of the Opera bits, it seems to have influenced this story quite a bit lol I don't think u want Tristan to go thesame way as Buquet cos then you'll have lots of angry Gastonians to deal with! Hmmm if you complained about that cliffhanger, how are u going to feel about this one?

bellamegs- I'm fired? From where? Thats mean! And I didn;t think it was a cliffhanger, not really! Hope you like this one!

vixonl: Lol, sorry bout all the cliffhangers but they just have to happen. Its like a reflex lol

PrincessPersephone- Lol, thanks. Glad you're getting into it :) And of course Bella's gonna get him, hes too gorgeous to get away Heehee! Sorry about the destruction I've caused to your nails :p Think you'd beter wear gloves from now on!

Nuintincowen:- Thanks, glad you liked it! And the twist too, i like twists, i'm a twisty-turny person!

Damian:- Lol! Well compared to this one, i'd say the last wasn't a cliffhanger! Thanks for what you said, it was really nice :) Ypu rock as a writer too, hey maybe we can start a mutual appreciation society? Oh, and Bella went to Tristan first cos shes a good girl and wanted to check he wasn't hurt! Remember, when she walked in Bastian had him pinned to a wall and a knife at his throat! Of course Bastians gonna interpret it differently cos hes a guy lol Ok, grabs Bastian from Bella Here he is, kiss him! lol ...You done? puts him back Don't worry, he won't get confused hes my little puppet lol!

Rosakara- Thank you! Hope you like this one too!

Missyblue- Thank you so much:) I pride myself on the details, i write as i imagine it in my head. Hope you like this one too!

beautygirl-Thanks! For some reason this won't un-bold so sorry! I'm glad...ah thats better...I'm glad you like it cos as you know I really like your work too! It was the scenario that i was most worried about cos if it isn't convincing as something that could happen in real-life then it doesn't work!

AddaLee-Wow, don't know if I'd call myself a genius but theres no harm in u calling me one :p heehee I'm really glad you stumbled acrossit, its always nice to meet new reviewers :) I really hope you like this chapter and the ones after it :)

jrJournalist- .lol thanks a lot! I'd hate to be responsible for making you obsessive though. I'm like that with reviews though! Heres the next chapter especially for you and the next one shouldn't be that long in the making cos I'm dying to write the next bit!