Animal

(Day 160: Friday Afternoon)

Ben smiles from the bottom of the stairs, as he sees the four of them come in, "Welcome to my…"

"Humble abode?" Evie finishes.

Ben half laughs, "Uh." before he points to each area. "The room over there is used for meetings. Out back we have the… a table and a pool, and between the two staircases we have the… fire place."

"Still not a hundred percent?" Mal smiles, and he awkwardly smiles in return before pointing, "Let's go up the stairs."

The others follow him, but when they get to the top of the first flight Evie asks, "Is this rug new? I don't remember it."

Ben's smile slowly fades, "Yes. It's new." before he reaches for the back of his head.

"Ben?" Mal concerns.

He turns to her, "My fall, where I cracked my shoulder, it might have been more bad than I first led on." She fails to speak, so he faces the others, "Move back." and then takes Mal's hand to guide her to the stairs. He sits down, wetting his lips, before he hesitates to bend the rug over to reveal the faded red stain on the white marble.

Evie gasps, "Ben." before she places her hands over her mouth.

"That looks bad," Carlos slowly points out.

It takes a minute for Ben to say, "They tried to clean it out, but it wouldn't."

"So, they covered it up?" Jay raises an eyebrow.

Ben folds the rug back down, "You know what they say. Sweep it under the rug. It'll probably be fine."

"Who says that?" Carlos doubts.

Ben thinks, "Some scary videogame. Not so funny now, though."

"Ready?" Ben hears his mother say, before he looks over his shoulder and stands.

He nods, "We're ready."

"And this is—" Belle turns around as she reaches the end of the room, "Well, to be honest, this room has always been more of a decorative piece." She gestures, "But there are places to sit, and the balcony has a nice view."

Mal nods as she attempts to smile, "It's almost as nice as the first time I saw it."

Belle laughs, "Yes. There's not much to it, is there?" She peers over at Evie, as she places her hand carefully over the blank area of wall. "Evie?"

Evie touches the soft canvas of the torn painting, but through the darkness it's hard for her to tell who the painting is of. There's one thing she can see, however, and when she glimpses the light she turns to it. It's the most beautiful thing she's ever seen, and the closer she walks to it the more the red light shapes into a glowing rose. Somehow the glass disappears and she feels compelled to reach for the flower, but when she's inches away from it she feels a hand grasp hard around her arm and spin her around. She shuts her eyes and screams, but when she opens them only Mal is seen. Evie lets out a relieved breath, "Mal. You scared me."

"Clearly." Mal questions, "What were you doing?"

"Oh." Evie smiles, "I was just looking at the rose. It's just so beautiful, isn't it?"

"Ah," Carlos unsurely comments, "Evie." She turns to him. "There is no rose."

"What do you mean?" Evie laughs, before she gestures to the circular table. "It's right—" Her smile drops, "It's not here." She shuts her eyes and shakes her head. "Mal. I— I don't like this room."

Mal places a hand on her shoulder, "It's okay, Eves. Just wait out in the hallway. I'll be out there in a minute."

She nods, "Okay."

After Evie nears the exit Mal looks at Jay and Carlos, "Maybe you two should check on her, make sure she's okay."

"Why?" Carlos questions. "Isn't that your job?"

Mal widens her eyes and points towards the door, "Get out!"

When they finally leave Mal turns back around to Belle. She waits for an explanation, but when there isn't one Mal shakes her head. "Come on. I know you know what a witch is. Your village accused you of being a sorceress when you came back with the enchanted mirror."

"That was quite a ridiculous assumption," Belle evenly replies. "I mean, do I look like a fairy witch?"

Mal frowns, "Just tell me what she saw."

Belle's smile falters as she looks down at her folded hands for a moment, "When Adam was the beast he spent a lot of time in here." She looks back up at her, "It's possible that all of the anger and confusion he was feeling at the time is still imprinted in this space somehow." Mal doesn't speak. "I'm sure that's all it was."

Mal shakes her head, "No. She saw something. I know she saw something." She takes a step towards Belle. "Right before I got her out of it, she saw something and she screamed."

"Hey." Mal turns to the door and sees Ben. "What's going on?"

Belle gives him a look, "I was just telling Mal about how sad and angry your father was back when he was the beast."

"Awe." Ben takes a few steps forward, "Yes. My father has always been a little…" He smiles at Mal, before he says a word in French.

Mal furrows her brows in confusion, "Meaning what?"

"Meaning that I think you should maybe join the others in the hall." She crosses her arms. "Please," he frowns. "I need to talk to her."

"Why can't I be here when you do?" He fails to speak, and she nods, "Right. You need your private time with Mommy. I get it." and Ben listens as her boots stomp away.

After she's gone Ben looks back at his mother and walks towards her, "I heard Evie scream. What happened?"

"She didn't tell you?" Belle asks.

"No." Ben shakes his head, "All she said is that she saw a torn portrait and a rose." She looks away for a moment. "It was the enchanted rose, wasn't it? She saw something that happened back then." His mother doesn't speak. "What was it?"

"I'm not sure."

"You must have some kind of idea," Ben insists. "She screamed, so maybe it was a time you were scared. What could that have been?"

She stays quiet with an even expression, before she comments, "You didn't tell me Evie is a witch."

Ben shifts in his stance, "I didn't think it was important."

His mother sternly eyes him, "You should have known it was."

Ben look away for a mere second, "Come on, Mother. What were the chances that she'd pick up on the one or two times that he's hurt you?" She doesn't respond, leaving Ben to frown in concern. "Mother?"

"Witches don't just pick up on violence. They can pick up on any strong, unpleasant feeling or situation." Her lips stay parted before she continues, "And your father." She shakes her head. "Your father used to yell a lot."

Ben tries to smile, "Hasn't he always been like that?"

It takes a minute for her to say, "It used to be worse." and there's momentary silence before she continues. "I just don't want his image tarnished by anything she may sense."

Ben frowns, "I mean, they'll be staying in the East Wing. That's good, right?"

"This is your father's castle," she pointedly reminds him. "He's been everywhere."

He looks down, "Mother." before he meets her brown eyes. They're colder, sadder, than he remembers, "How bad was it? Really."

"It's the small things that bothers me the most," she admits. "Like how loudly he would knock or when he'd become so… well, overly protective."

Ben watches her attempt to smile, before he quietly says, "Mother."'

"Just make sure she doesn't get my old room," she solves. "It will be okay."

She still looks so sad. "Mom."

"And don't breathe a word of this to your father," her eyebrows raise, and Ben notices her eyes gleam in the light. "Do you understand?"

"Yes," he frowns, but when he opens his mouth again to raise his concerns she steps closer to him. He whispers, "Why didn't you leave him when Mr. Droit said you could?"

Her smile slips, but she strains another as she lifts her hand to his cheek, "I love you."

He opens his mouth to point out that she didn't answer him, but then he sees the tears drop from her eyes. He quietly comments, "I love you too."

She lets her hand fall back to her side, "Why don't you show your friends to the library? I'll be right with you."

Ben can't help but notice her shake slightly, "You're sure?"

"Yes. I'll be right there." She looks down as she places her hand on the marble table, "I just need a minute."

"Okay." Ben takes a step back, "I'll see you in the library." before he turns to leave.

Belle stares down at the vase of flowers, which has taken place of the enchanted rose and spell jar that was once there. She remembers how she'd taken the jar off of the flower, before she had moved her hand in to touch it; however, she never got the chance. Her arm was snatched by the beast's paw, and when she had been turned to face him she screamed. Up close he had looked even more intimidating than he had from the distance, and when he yelled, "What are you doing here?" she could barely speak. "I told you never to come here!" He'd pushed her away, resulting in her having fallen to the cold floor, and when he hovered over her, telling her to leave, she didn't have to be told twice. Immediately, she got to her feet, and she ran.

She turns away from the scene and looks out at the balcony. It had been the perfect night, the best night she had had in a long while, so at the end of it when he asked, "Are you happy here with me?" she had to say yes. She had to say yes, because it was true. He even released her from the castle prison that night, just so she could go and find the one thing she'd been missing: her father.

Belle turns again, as she remembers the argument, "Why can't you just give him a chance?"

"I gave him a chance," her father sternly responded. "I did nothing but support you both and the love you shared for each other for years, but I've seen too much now and I can't stay quiet any longer." He let out a sad breath, "He's not a good man, Belle."

She'd shook her head, "He's been nothing but kind and gentle to me."

His jaw dropped, before he exasperated, "I know you're not talking about that monster."

"He's not a monster," she had insisted. "He's the best man I could have ever asked for."

"He's hurt you, Belle."

"That's not his fault," she yelled.

"No. It isn't," her father nodded in acknowledgement. "It's yours for marrying that animal in the first place." He frowned with so much sadness held in his eyes. "I thought I raised you better than that."

"Wow." She widened her eyes and crossed her arms, "Now tell me what you really think."

He shut his eyes for a moment, "I know you love him darling, but you have to leave. You can't stay here with him."

She laughed at the absurdity, "I can't just leave. We have a child."

"Even more of a reason for you to leave him," her father reasoned. "Do you really want your son to experience what you've gone through?"

Belle remembers how the tears started to fall from her eyes, "You don't get it. Our son is the heir to the throne. Adam has a complete legal right to him. Even if I wanted to leave, I couldn't." Her father was motionless, stunned, his face paled before he could shake his head.

"This isn't right."

All Belle could do was try to smile as she walked up to her father and placed her hands on his shoulders, "It's fine. I'm happy here. We have a good life… and, sure, Adam can be a little temperamental at times, but that doesn't make him love me any less. You have to believe me, Papa. He would never hurt me intentionally."

"Maybe," her father sniffled. "But that doesn't make him any less dangerous."

- The videogame Ben is quoting is actually a fangame called Dayshift at Freddy's made for the Five Nights at Freddy's (FNAF) fanbase. Not nearly as scary as the actual FNAF franchise— pretty comedic, in fact— but a very good game for those who are a wuss like me and can't play scary games... Scary movies don't bother me, though. Maybe it's the interactive aspect... I thought I would be okay in a scary situation. Now, I'm not too sure.