-Belle-
"I can just take you home Belle." said the man who had found her at the gate.
They had been informed that her father was busy drinking at the nearby tavern, but she didn't care. She wanted to see her father more than anything else.
"Thank you for your concern, but I think I can handle it from here."
"Suit yourself!" He called out, leaving as she pushed open the door of the tavern. Usually she'd follow the wall to the bar, stepping over the drunk men slouched against the wall until she made it to the bar, and asked the bartender for assistance in locating her father, but today when she opened the door the entire tavern was washed over with silence.
Belle stepped in, letting the door close behind her as whispers erupted around her and without warning, a hand grabbed her and pulled her off balance and she fell into the chest of her father, who she could identify through the thick smell of wine and home. He wrapped her into a hug and she felt his face press into her neck as tears ran down his cheeks.
"I'm dreaming. I must be dreaming. I'm not drunk enough to start seeing visions yet, so that must mean that you're really back!"
She couldn't help but smile and hug him back. She was surprised when tears came to her eyes and she burried her head into his shoulder. Despite everything, it was good to see her father.
"I'm sorry." He croaked out, pulling back from her. "I'm so sorry Belle. You'll never forgive me. I'll never forgive myself."
"Let's go home." She said to him before they made an even bigger scene.
He ushered her to their house on the edge of town with desperate apologies between more drunken tears. When they entered the small house Belle relaxed and moved her father to his chair.
"I had to sell your chair." He said miserably. "There hasn't been any work since you left, and I've been barely getting by."
"That's ok." She said. It was a horrible chair anyways.
"Where have you been Belle? The forest? Did you manage it all yourself?" He asked.
"Tomorrow." She told him. If she told him anything while he was in this state he wouldn't remember annything by morning time.
"Yes, tomorrow. You must be tired." He said, with a large exagerated yawn.
She went to the back of the house to find a blanket, but there was nothing. She looked, but she couldn't find any blankets anywhere in the house. Her own mattress was stripped bare.
She gave up and curled up on her matress. She wondered quietly what else was different, and exactly what else had happened to her father while she was gone.
She was at home. This is what she was supposed to want, but an uneasy feeling settled in her very center. She felt more alone than she had ever felt before.
-The Beast-
He didn't return to the castle that night. He couldn't. He turned around and decided to track the last wolfman who escaped his earlier fight, but it didn't lead anywhere. He turned tail and ran straight back to their territory. Even standing at the border to the land that was claimed by them, he didn't see any sign of movement. None of them crawled out of the forests to defend their territory. It was unusual, but he didn't spend long dwelling on it.
It became hard to even stand as his eyes began to burn from the strain of remaining upright and alert. He only really started to head back to the castle when his vision began fading in and out.
He landed at the foot of the steps, and let out the ragged breath that he had been holding, and finally exhaustion managed to grab a hold of him. When he opened the doors and headed up the stairs he was, thankfully, alone. He didn't know where Polly and Vandy had gone off to, but he didn't care. He couldn't even try to care about anything.
He collapsed on his bed, not bothering with the wound on his chest, nor the aching hunger that stabbed at him. He wanted to sleep because sleep was the only thing that could help him escape the emptiness he felt.
-Vandy-
"He didn't kill her Polly!" Vandy said, exasperated. The King Beast was not in good shape, his wounds needed someone who was more skilled, but there wasn't anyone else.
The Beast had come through the door in a daze and didn't even acknowledge them as he somehow dragged himself up the stairs, not even realizing that he was being followed by both Polly and Vandy. Once he made it up to his bed he collapsed and wouldn't wake up. After a short inspection Vandy found that he was feverish, and the wound on his chest was torn back open, and it was now was an angry red and warm to the touch. Vandy worked best in silence, but that didn't work best for Polly's nerves.
"Well I know THAT, there's plenty of different types of 'getting rid of' people" She said. "He was gone for a while and I don't know if he left her to fend for herself, took her home, or gave her to the werewolves to get her off of his hands!"
Vandy tried to still his shaking hands as he finished leaning out the wound and went for the needle to stitch it together. "He took her home Polly." Vandy said more calmly than he felt.
"You can't know that! What if she said something to make him mad, you know how short his temper is!"
Vandy shook his head, he stopped working and took a deep breath, trying to relieve his anxiety. Magic was something Vandy knew very much about. The Beast King's castle was a home for the cursed in one way or another and after being here for nearly his entire life there was nothing so visceral and distinctive than the feel of magic.
The Beast was cursed and spent his whole life entrenched in the swamp of magic around him, but no magic was more discernable than the way he looked at Belle. Vandy knew there was nothing on this earth that could break that kind of magic unless the stupid boy did it himself in a half thought through attempt at helping her.
Physical wounds would heal, but the pain of giving up the only thing he ever wanted might kill him.
"The only person he'll ever end up killing after everything is said and done is himself." Vandy said bitterly, and then leaned forward and started to sew.
"Vandy he won't die will he?" Polly asked in a hushed voice leaning over Vandy's shoulder.
"He might if you keep distracting me." Vandy said curtly.
Polly didn't bother with a reply and was silent and watched as Vandy worked.
When he was done with the big wound on his chest, Vandy moved slowly to the rest of the wounds and Polly cleaned off crusted dirt and blood off of him. When they were done they both stood in silence. It was almost as if their work had no effect because nothing had changed.
"What do we do now?" Asked Polly.
"Pray he wakes up, because if he dies and the forest is left without a king, everything will plummet into chaos." Vandy said and turned to leave.
"We can't leave him alone!" Polly said.
"I know, I'm going to go get a better chair, I think we'll be here for a while."
-Belle-
Belle's father was surprisingly awake before she was in the morning. She'd been tossing and turning all night, haunted by nightmares of beasts and the townspeople.
"I'll find you a new chair." Her father said over breakfast at the table.
"Don't worry about it." Belle said. If he had sold off their blankets then he truly had no way of getting her a chair. That was the last thing on her mind anyways. "The stool works perfectly well for me."
Her father ate in silence, and Belle let him. Things were strained between them because of everything that remained unsaid.
Her father was not as talkative when he was sober. She was left to imagining his feelings from the oposite side of the table.
"How did you get out of the forest on your own Belle?" He asked finally.
"I didn't. The Beast dropped me off outside the gates."
He let out a quick short laugh and then grew quiet.
"Go on." He said.
"What do you want to know?" She asked. She ws defensive of her memories in the Beast King's castle. She knew exactly how everyone felt about the beast and she didn't want to listen to his derisive remarks.
"Well, I would start with how your imprisonment in a forest ended with the Beast King cordially dropping you off at the gate." He said.
"We became friends." Belle said.
Her father laughed, "Friends?! You're just telling tall tales now. How does someone become friends with a horrific beast?"
Belle was silent. She shouldn't blame her father for his remarks, but there was something very unfair about hearing his ignorant remarks.
"How does a father leave his only daughter in the forest to die?" She asked.
Finally it was out there. The question that she had been struggling with since he left her alone that night.
There was no more humor in the room. It became so silent that she might've of thought she was sitting alone.
"I was terrified." She added. "I thought I was going to die, and I most likely would have died a horrible death if the King of Beasts had not come across me. I could have died because you left me." She said. Tears sprang to her cheeks and all the rejected feeling came back to her.
"I did it for you." He said hoarsely.
"No. You did it for yourself. You didn't know what to do with your useless blind daughter and when the Blood Moon came along you were excited to gamble and throw me out there to the wolves"
Her accusation rang out in the room and something fell onto the table and her father's sobs shook the table with every deep breath.
"You're right! I was excited. I wasn't thinking clearly because I am so overcome with guilt every day. I leave the house to look for work so that I no longer have to see your face and feel that guilt. I drink at the tavern every night in hopes that the shame will go away. That night the only thing I could think about was that this would finally be my chance to get you a good life. It's a father's job to provide for his family and I have failed at that your whole life."
"You've taken good care of me."
"No, I haven't. You just can't see it. There's holes in the roof. I've dressed you in rags since you were a little girl and I only ever bring home scraps."
Belle didn't need her eyes to know that what her father was saying was true, but she had always known it.
"You lost everything when mom died." She said quietly.
"I lost everything but you, and I've spent every moment since she died feeling sorry for myself and I've neglected you." His voice cut off, drowned out by tears. "She would be so ashamed of me."
Belle stood up and walked arounf the table, wrapping her father in a hug. "I forgive you." She said.
Her father then left after he had ensured that everything between them was alright.
"I'm going to go make some money to get you a chair." He said, with so much enthusiasm that she happily waved him away. If she was going to try and move on maybe a chair wouldn't be such a bad idea.