Present Day
Kairos, the enchantress, sat in her tower watching her latest Beauty and Beast. Her mirror could show her anything, past or present. It couldn't show her the future though, but that was no problem as she knew exactly how this would turn out; she had done it enough times. She never used to let them get close to each other- she would do as she did with Patrick, make them the offer straight away. But lately, well, speaking in terms of generations, she had begun to grow bored at how simple it was. She had decided to make it more difficult for herself, more of a challenge. So, for the past few generations, she would even let them live together and fall ever so close to love... and then she would strike, splitting them up for good and getting another soul for her master's wishes. She said master, although she still wasn't sure whether the voice was male or female, or even if it was human. Every time she made the deal she would return to the place where there was no light, and discuss her triumph with the voice. Then she would leave and it would be the next generation already. Occasionally, while there, she could hear whispered voices that sounded extremely familiar... but she tried not to think of that.
She flicked her hand and her mirror changed its scene. Now it showed, not Adam and Calla, but Patrick, as he had been before the curse. She smiled. He had been very good looking but, she had been a fool to fall for that quality alone. It was his fault she was stuck here. But soon, tantalisingly soon, she would be free.
Then Kairos noticed something in Patrick's laughing face. His eyes. They were shining and merry. But there was something else. Patrick had the darkest black hair, and Adam had such bright hair... but their eyes were almost identical. The same emerald colour, the same expressions. How could it be, thirteen generations down the line, that those eyes would come up again?
Adam and Calla were sitting in silence, eating breakfast. Each had had equally disturbed nights, although for different reasons. For Adam, it was impossible for him to be comfortable in his new form; he didn't know where to lie. He had finally gotten to sleep after he rolled out of bed and onto the floor. The bare flagstones were strangely comforting to the aches that continued to course through his entire body.
Calla on the other hand, had been plagued with nightmares. She saw her grandmother, lying ill in bed, and the rest of her family in their funeral wear. She also saw her father. He was sitting on the window seat of her room at the castle, looking out at the moonlight. Then he turned to look at her, and shook his head, disapprovingly. Then he began to grow fainter and fainter until she woke up, screaming for him.
That morning she had dressed in another blue dress. This one was lighter than the one she had worn yesterday, almost grey, and was more like the colour of her eyes. Her eyes had always been the colour of a winter sky, a cold blue, but her expression was what made anyone who saw them know that Calla herself wasn't cold. This was what made her eyes differ from Kairos', although the colours were nearly exactly the same. Her ruby red curls had always been the butt of jokes in her school, but they seemed to suit the style of the dresses, and the period of time that the castle seemed to be stuck in.
"Beast... what are you doing today?" She surprised herself by taking completely to this boy's chosen name. She had thought to probe him more, to try to find out what he was like before the curse, but she understood why he wanted the secrecy.
"I don't know," Adam snapped. He instantly regretted it, but he couldn't take it back, so there was nothing he could do. Calla glared at him, then pushed her chair back.
"Fine." she said, flouncing out of the room and slamming the door behind her, leaving a resonating bang.
Adam sighed. He always got treated like that. Just because he didn't see the point in apologising, people always assumed he was extremely rude. He wasn't, but in his family no-one ever apologised- there was no point, you would just do something wrong again. He had grown up around parents who were constantly fighting, then making up passionately. His dad was always away, with his lady friends according to his mother. It was only when Adam was sixteen that they had decided to finally get divorced. He had been pleased. Anyone could see they weren't suited, and at least there wouldn't be so many arguments.
But that was his old life. He was no longer Adam Smith, a seventeen-year-old senior, the most popular guy in school. Now he was a monster, now he was Beast. Calla had easily accepted him as such, and he decided then to do the same, to think of himself as Beast, and never as Adam.
Calla stormed from the room. "How dare he!" she thought. She had given up everything to come here and he was rude and well... beastly to her. She strode along the corridor of the castle, waves of anger roiling off her, sending the few servants she passed scurrying into alcoves.
Then she stopped suddenly. She realised she hadn't given up everything at all- because there wasn't anything to give up. She had no friends at school, and certainly never a boyfriend. She had always thought the people in her classes trivial and a bit stupid, and they had thought her weird. As for her family, except maybe Daniel, she wouldn't miss any of them. Her dad was gone- the one person in the world she had been close to, and her mum and grandmother, well they had lived a lie and forced her to do the same. It was their fault she was here.
She carried on walking, slightly slower but still just as angry- although now it was at her mother and Gran, not Beast. Calla had just realised what this curse really meant. It meant her Gran wasn't meant for her granddad, but worse than that- her mum wasn't meant for her dad. The only love she had ever thought was real had been proven to be totally fake. Calla believed in soul mates, she believed that everybody had one true love- perhaps she had read too many Fairy Tales when she was younger. So if it had been fate for her mother to fall for the previous Beast, her mum couldn't have loved her dad. She wasn't angry now, she was sad. Her dad had died thinking he was loved and he wasn't. His memory was tarnished and Calla's childhood memories were ruined and stained. She pause at a small arched double door, peering closely at the engravings- but that wasn't what she was seeing.
"Calla-Rose! Dinner time!" her mother's voice floated up the stairs.
"Call Daniel too!" a stubborn five-year-old shouted back
"Daniel's at the cinema with his friend," her mother said, sighing.
Calla stamped her foot and glared out the window at the old oak tree in the garden. "I want to go to the cinema, it isn't fair," she wailed.
"Next time you can go. Why don't you ask Daddy to take you to the new Disney one?"
Calla grinned and ran down the stairs. She hadn't realised her daddy was back from work. She quickly slid into the seat at the the kitchen table and began to eat her mashed potatoes to please him. Maybe then he would take her to the cinema tomorrow.
David smiled at his daughter. "I think our Calla's grown, Annabel."
"You saw me this morning!" Calla pouted.
Annabel pushed her ruby red curls (a family trait) behind her ears as she sat down and began to eat. "I can't believe how busy I've been, organising Daniel's birthday party. It used to be so much easier when I could just get a few games of pass the parcel going!" she sighed, "now he has to spend all his money at the arcades, as well as going bowling or to Lazer Quest."
David laughed, and eventually Annabel joined in. Calla laughed too, although she wasn't sure what her parents were laughing about.
When they had finished eating Calla watched her parents doing the washing-up together, working perfectly co-ordinated as a team. She watched as David used the tea towel to pull Annabel close to him and give her a slobbery kiss. It was yucky but she smiled anyway and left them to get on with their own devices.
The sixteen-year-old Calla shook her head, trying to clear the memories that were interminably rushing through her mind. She pushed open the doors and found herself in a beautiful courtyard bordered by an ugly towering wall that was covered in ivy.
Calla was walking around the outside courtyard when Beast loped up to her. She thought he might apologise, but he simply slumped on the path, looking up at the sky. She raised an eyebrow, but sat on the bench next to him.
"Comfortable?" she asked scathingly.
"Quite," he quipped.
She sighed, shaking her head. What an idiot this guy was, so smug. She almost thought he deserved his fate. She looked at the fountain as it tinkled. The sun made the green-tinged water sparkle, and the pearly white of the stone made the fountain seem even brighter. It was strange: the castle was surrounded by these dark walls, covered in ivy, or so it seemed from this courtyard. But the castle itself was bright, and gleamed with beauty in every way. It seemed so unlikely that the architect would have ruined it with the dark walls. Unless of course they had been added later. She wanted to go and look at them, to check the bricks, but she felt too comfortable to move. She would have easily been able to tell, as her father had been an architect, and he had taught Calla a few things.
She sighed again at the thought of her father. She had been so close to him, and he had been taken so quickly, with no chance to say even say goodbye. Her eyes began to sting and she felt a single tear trail slowly down her cheek.
Beast looked up as Calla sighed again. It was pretty annoying, he was enjoying himself, looking up at the sky and listening to the fountain. Then he saw she was crying.
"Calla?" he asked tentatively, "Are you ok?"
"Just... Leave me alone... I don't want to talk about it... especially not to you."
"Fine." he growled, annoyed that the one time he had tried to be friendly, she had spat it back at him.
"Getting along nicely then are you?" a new voice asked.
Beast growled again. He might have known he couldn't be happy for long, not when that witch was around.
Kairos laughed as the pair glared at her. "Oh, am I interrupting? I am so sorry. I just thought I would tell you I am leaving you again... there is some business I must attend to." She gave them a jaunty wave then disappeared.
"I hate her... I could kill her," Beast muttered, unable to stop from snarling.
"I'll second that," Calla added quietly. Then she wiped her face with the back of her hand and, sniffling slightly, stood up. "I'm going to explore. Are you coming or not?" She sounded so unassuming, as if she didn't care whether he joined her or not, that he got lazily up.
"'Suppose so."
They entered the castle again and began to walk along the corridor. Well Calla walked, while Beast prowled on four paws, which was easier for him than walking as he had used to.
"This may seem rude but... I don't quite understand, why are you even here?" Beast said, looking surprisingly puzzled. "I'm here because I have no choice. But you?"
"I..." it was an odd question, Calla thought, "My mum told me about the curse, how our families were tied and how I was the person fated to break the curse."
Beast wasn't sure what she meant about their families being tied, nor how fate came into this curse, "I'm not sure I understand... but you came because you think you are the only person who can break this curse?"
"Yes. I would have felt guilty if I hadn't came," Calla said, nodding.
"But you swore not to love, and therefore not to break the curse?"
"Yes," Calla said again, only this time a little more uncertainly.
"And that actually makes sense to you?" Calla could see him metaphorically raising an eyebrow as he looked at her, then he carried on walking, leaving her standing. It didn't make any sense at all. Shaking her head she carried on after him until she saw a spiral staircase.
"Hey Beast, how about exploring up here?" She said, starting up the stairs.