THE evening of the Duke's arrival was rather dull and grievous, the clouds in the sky looking to promise a snowstorm, though Belle was thankful for the cover of darkness. It provided her a means of escape to slip away, and this knowledge should have given her a sense of relief in knowing that the Prince would likely be so preoccupied with the Duke's visit that she prayed he would not notice her missing, even for a day or two. Belle sighed and tucked away the copy of the book Nevermore the Prince had let her take, the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach worsening as she ensured her place was marked.

The Prince had been right in that this book was not for the faint of heart. It was one of the more brutal stories she had read. Some things in the main character's life were good, but most, sadly, were not.

The story was about a young Prince named Adam who suffered greatly at the hands of his father following an accident. It was particularly heart-wrenching, especially the segments that pertained to his childhood. She began to wonder as she had read the story if perhaps this was another cruel trick of the witch who had cast this curse upon him, if Nevermore was in fact, a book about the Prince himself.

But she had no time to dwell on it, for the sun was cresting below the horizon, the evenings shorter and shorter as winter waged war upon the land, and she would need to leave soon if she hoped to leave the castle undetected. She knew now was her best chance to return to the village.

It hurt at the idea that she might not ever see LeFou again, and she felt a strange nagging pull at her chest. Belle slid out of her reading chair by the fire in her room and headed towards the servants' wing, making sure that the new coat Mrs. Potts and Laure had given her was pulled tightly around herself.

The brown jacquard pattern reminded her of a traveling coat Mama had owned once, and the garment was quickly becoming one of her most prized possessions. Not only did the coat keep her warm, but even now, as she'd worn it to keep warm and also as part of her disguise, she felt as though Mama were with her somehow. Or at least ensuring that she found the right companions to keep by her side.

Belle found Monsieur Lumiere and Laure easily enough in one of the corridors, though they were not happy to see her up and walking around so freely, as the Prince had given everyone vehement instructions not to allow her to wander and to avoid his father. The guards on the other side of the hall glanced at her, interested, and she saw them stiffen, but Belle only leaned in to speak to Laure.

The two liked her well enough, she hoped by now, and she was pleased to see that Laure seemed to be holding Lumiere's hand, which meant her friend must have taken her advice to heart and spoken with Lumiere about their relationship and agreed to try again.

She was happy for her friend and wanted only Laure's happiness.

It had been Laure and Lumiere who had ventured to her room earlier this morning at breakfast and had told her she was to stay holed up in her room, making no noise and pretending she did not exist.

"Hello, Laure. Lumiere," Belle nervously tried to smile as she rested her back against the wall and tried to adapt a rather relaxed pose.

"Hello, Belle," the new couple greeted her warmly but with disappointing shakes of their head as they told her she should not be out of her rooms and to disobey the master as she so blatantly was, was to disrespect him. She shrugged nonchalantly and gave her friends a nervous, albeit lopsided half-grin.

"I-I was hoping to ask you both for a favor, as there's no one else I trust more. I did not want to burden Mrs. Potts with this," she told them, and her friend leaned in, eager to hear, while Lumiere merely looked suspicious and on his guard. "I need to leave to return to my village. Just for a few hours, that's all. I made a promise to a dear friend of mine to attend his wedding. Please."

Both Lumiere and Laure were looking at Belle as though she had lost her mind, and perhaps she had by coming to them for such an odd request, but nor did they outright refuse her plea for help, and she had some hope. She glanced down at her boots and fidgeted with her fingers for a moment as she struggled to collect her thoughts. She knew she wanted to phrase her request in such a way that her friends would be inclined to help her of their own will, though she knew what she was asking would be too much.

But honestly, she knew of no other way to be able to go out.

"Please. I made a promise. I will go home for the wedding and be back before the sun rises. And if anyone should discover me missing, the Prince won't know that you had anything to do with it. If anyone gets into trouble, it will be me. Not you, I will make sure of that. Please, will you help me? I have to go…"Belle trailed off hesitantly. Laure and Lumiere exchanged a worried look with one another but nodded.

"Go back into your room and we'll lure the guards away. Go down the south corridor steps and out the back," Laure told her and Belle thanked them as she quickly made her way to her room.

She waited nervously by the door. Thankfully, the servants' wing of the castle was lodged in a quiet part of the castle where everyone minded their own business for the most part.

The wing at this hour of the evening was small and nearly empty, as most of the servants were likely sitting down to supper now. It would not be difficult to sneak out and into the woods without anyone noticing, Belle tried to tell herself. She had no idea what Laure said but the two guards hurried away with her at once, running down the corridor with looks of utter panic all over their faces. Belle shot Lumiere a grateful smile when the man came to knock on her door to tell her to leave, and she wasted no time in leaving her room and moving down the wing that Laure had told her to. She was utterly terrified as she moved down the darkened, barely-lit hallway, her heart pounding in her chest hard.

She was horrified at the thought of possibly having to encounter Gaston, though it was almost a given as the man was Monsieur LeFou's only friend, to the best of her knowledge. She made a mental note to repay the favor owed to both Laure and Lumiere when she returned to the castle later on tonight.

The cold pinked Belle's cheeks and she let out a gasp as the wind hit her face upon stepping outside. She wasted no time in raising the hood of her new coat to protect her exposed neck from the chill of the winter winds as they whipped around her and exposed the bottom half of her dress just slightly.

Belle shivered and made a beeline for the dark forest, hating the thought of going in there amongst such creatures as bears and wolves, creatures that could rip her apart easily, but it was the fastest way home.

She knew Gaston would be angry with her for fleeing, but she also wondered if there was anything she might be able to do or say to put the man from wanting to marry her once and for all. She tried to wrack her mind for any ideas to come to her, but nothing came to mind.

She huffed, frustrated, her breath making a vapor of cold air in front of her barely cracked walks as she walked at a frantic and hurried pace. And what would she say to the Prince when she made it home and the Beast-Prince was sure to have discovered her missing? What would she say, then?

A chill went through her imagining the murderous look in the creature's icy blue eyes, but she could not let herself dwell on that just yet. She would cross that bridge when she came to it and returned home.

Home. Belle paused and stopped dead in her tracks as she realized this was the first time she had thought of the Prince's castle as her new home and the one place she wanted to return to the most instead of that of her former village. She furrowed her brows as she picked up on the sound of a twig snapping underfoot. She froze in her tracks as her ears perked up at the sound of something muffled.

Someone was…talking? Yes, somebody was talking, she was sure of that. It came from her right. Alarmed, she turned around and looked to her right and felt the blood drain from her face to spot a figure kneeling on the ground. Very silently and carefully, Belle inched her way forward to get a closer look, careful to make as much noise as possible to as to alert the man to her presence.

She did not want to be hurt or stabbed through the stomach by approaching the man and catching him off-guard, Belle realized with a jolt. She wanted to comfort the fellow who looked to be on the last vestiges of his strength when she noticed something peculiar about the man's coat.

She knew this coat. She had seen it before. Mustering her courage and squeezing her eyes shut, she gingerly outstretched her arm and called to him, praying that he was not nearby.

"Monsieur LeFou…why are you here?"

Monsieur LeFou, on his knees in the snow, exhausted and lost, cold and hungry and with nowhere to go, could not hear her. It was not until he felt a hand on his shoulder did the short and stout man turn around, suddenly causing the inventor's daughter to jump back in surprise.

The dim light from the moonlight just barely peeking in through the forest's canopy gave him a twisted grimace, despite how truly surprised LeFou was to see Belle out in the middle of the forest.

"B-Belle, what in God's name are you doing out here...?" he exclaimed as he shielded his face from her and bolted upright to his feet, glancing around wildly with red and wild eyes. He had left Gaston a while back, mumbling something under his breath about needing a moment alone to relieve himself.

Gaston was in a right foul mood and had been for days as LeFou had purposefully led him round in circles through the woods, hoping to lay a false trail, had assented, and was somewhere within the trees, probably watching them now, which meant Belle wasn't safe. He wouldn't have long now before Gaston could come looking for him, which meant she needed to leave or she would risk seeing him.

His body heaved as he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself.

Oh, God, today could not possibly get any worse, he realized. Why was she here?

Belle should not be here! Oooh! She was risking everything by being out here and to be seen with him would put her in danger, more so than she already was.

The man clumsily fell onto his rump as he struggled to stand upright in snow that came up to his knees, very nearly succeeding in burying him under it completely. Belle suddenly darted forward and gave LeFou her hand and he took it hesitantly. Her hand, even in the chill of winter, was soft. Warm, even.

Belle quickly let go of Gaston's hand and she backed away and brushed at the skirts of her dress and coat a bit. There was a part of Belle that wanted nothing more than to run away from LeFou so badly, everything about this was both frightening and painfully awkward.

She suspected that Gaston was not too far behind from LeFou, and judging by the skittish way the man was behaving and refusing to meet her eyes, she suspected this was the case.

"I—I didn't mean to startle you, LeFou, I-I heard you…talking to yourself and I wanted to make sure you were alright," Belle stammered as LeFou blushed bright pink, embarrassed. She looked around in concern and worry. "Where is Gaston, LeFou?" she asked, though before LeFou could respond, the sound of another snapping twig nearby snatched Belle from her senses and she whirled around to find the tip of death itself now winking at her. Gaston had notched an arrow and was pointing it directly at her heart.

She swallowed, blinking back tears. She was sure that Gaston was going to snap and finally make good on his threat to kill them both and leave them out here to freeze to death or even worse, be food for the wolves and bears that might stumble upon them. Gaston would surely not forgive her for trying to leave him. Belle began to scramble backward, taking LeFou with her as she did so, desperate to provide whatever feeble protection for the man that she could, but she made no attempts to beg him.

She knew from the murderous look in the hunter's pale grey eyes that it was over for her.

She was surely about to die. Belle had always thought that in the past, it might be calming to know that she was about to meet her end and there was nothing more that could be done to stop it, but she knew that was not the case now. She was panicked and terrified.

Nearly frozen tears began to cascade down her cheeks and Gaston only glared ruefully down at her as he calmly approached her, still keeping the arrow pointed directly at her heart.

The hunter's body was taut, and Gaston was little more than a dark silhouette. She had the strange thought that she did not want to die in the dark. She wanted to die in the warm sunlight. Gaston took a step towards her and Monsieur LeFou, who was blubbering and saying Gaston's name in the hopes it would supplicate his friend's temper somewhat, but Belle knew the look in Gaston's eyes.

He was well past the point of being able to be reasoned with.

Gaston's lips curled up into a feral snarl as he took another step and then stopped. Belle amazingly enough did not feel any sense of betrayal as he walked towards her with the loaded bow in his hands.

But she did feel guilt though, and the sadness that one experiences when one suffered a deep loss. She knew that Gaston could have such potential to be a good man if he would change his arrogant ways.

But she was beginning to suspect that Gaston could not do so, and feared that for him to change, it would take a miracle or another witch's awful curse. Her lower lip trembled, and she blubbered as Gaston raised his arms. She waited for the inevitable feeling of the cold steel arrow tip to pierce her skin and her heart, but that moment for her never came. She squeezed her eyes shut hard and felt the rough bark of the wood of the tree that she had backed herself against digging into her skin through the thick fabric of her dress and coat. She took a deep breath but nothing.

Confused, slowly, Belle opened her eyes and looked up at Gaston in amazement and awe.

"Did you truly think you could get away with this, Belle?" Gaston snarled hoarsely in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, Gaston," she whispered, shamefaced. "I had to. I-I cannot marry you, I don't love you."

Belle watched, both amazed and horrified, as Gaston's angular jaw clenched. There was more emotion on his face than she had ever seen before. His dominant hand began to shake.

His lip curled up into an even wider snarl and Belle watched in awe. It was rage and confusion on the man's handsome features, but it was emotion on the man's face. More than she had seen in years.

Visible on his face, unmistakable anger, hurt, and betrayal, she was sure of it, yes, she was sure. Her lips parted in amazement. She was about to speak to him, to plead with him, when Gaston lowered his bow and arrow and instead brought the edge of his bow down across the top of Monsieur LeFou's head.

"LeFou!" Belle cried in shock and alarm and would have darted forward to help the man whom Gaston had always considered his best friend as he slumped into an unconscious heap by the man's black leather boots. She hurried to kneel into a crouch at LeFou's side but was halted by the sound of a growl coming from somewhere behind Gaston, a wolfish sound she was sure no human man could ever make.

A yell left her throat as Gaston whirled on his heels to see what had stalked his path and when Belle's eyes first landed on the hulking silhouette and the horns, at first, she couldn't process the information.

But then her mouth went dry as she realized it was the Prince that Gaston was now seeing in his Changeling-Beast form, and just that thought alone was enough to cause her chest to cave in terror as fear seized her entire body and rendered her unable to move, not even to help poor LeFou.

As she watched the Beast-Prince stalk forward with a look of cold rage in his icy blue eyes, she felt a swell of happiness rush up inside of her.

They were saved, she was sure of that much. The Prince had sworn to protect her as long as she remained in his employment, and she hoped, even now, that the man meant his words.

Though her surge of triumph quickly began to fade as she watched Gaston fumble with his bow and arrow, swearing under his breath and calling the Beast an accursed wretch and a demon.

However, before Belle could feel the inevitable terror that would soon flood through her, the Beast bounded forward and clamped his jaw around Gaston's arm.

The hair-raising scream the hunter let out as the Beast's jaws were a vice on his arm caused the fine hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end as the details etched on Belle's mind. She was sure the fleeting and brief images of the skirmish that now ensued would haunt her nightmares for weeks to come. The ground around them was quickly turning crimson with the blood that poured from the gaping hole now in Gaston's right arm, and the Beast-Prince still refused to let go of him. Belle's terror grew as the Beast let out a ferocious roar that seemed to cut right through her and shake the trees.

Scrambling to find a loose rock under her hand, Belle frantically threw it at Gaston, hoping the whack to the head would break the man's concentration long enough to stop him from pulling the knife out from his belt on the Prince. But her actions only made Gaston angrier, as surges of adrenaline surged through the man's body as he delivered blow after blow to the Beast's chest, trying to pry the creature's jaws off him.

"Gaston, stop! Put down your weapons, he won't hurt you! Please!" Belle screamed hysterically as the Beast began to writhe and twist, flinging Gaston to the left.

But her desperate pleas went ignored by Gaston. Belle pressed herself even tighter against the trees to avoid the thrashing Changeling Prince as the Beast was still locked in ferocious combat with Gaston.

Belle quickly lost sight of the Beast and Gaston, and she feared one or both of them were succumbing to their various wounds from the skirmish. Belle wasn't sure what to do.

Spotting a large fallen branch near her feet, she thought that sufficient enough and grabbed it, wielding it in front of her with both hands as she tried to pretend it was a sword and would do to defend herself.

"Belle!" she heard the Beast-Prince's hoarse voice call to her, and she felt a surge of relief in her heart that the Prince was still alive, after all. "Hit him over the head—something, anything!" he shouted over the wind. Hearing the Beast's gruff voice stopped Belle's indecision then and there.

She turned upon hearing the splintering of wood and she gasped.

The Beast-Prince was struggling against Gaston, despite the gaping hole now oozing blood out of his arm. He was managing to keep the hunter's knife away. But just barely.

"Belle! Do it now!" the Beast roared, desperate.

Belle raised her stick high above her head and then hesitated. She had never killed a man before.

She wasn't sure she could do it. Belle let out a desperate cry as she tightly closed her eyes and brought her fallen branch down over Gaston's back as hard as she could. She heard a sickening thud and she opened her eyes at the sound of Gaston screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs.

It took Belle a moment to realize what was going on, what had happened.

The blood, there was so much blood. She nearly screamed and shuddered away from the massacre as she tasted bile as it rose in the back of her throat, and then she spotted it. Somehow, she had managed to hit Gaston in the back just hard enough for the hunter to stagger backward and accidentally step into one of his traps that he had set to trap game as food while out here. It had closed in on Gaston's leg.

There was a lot of blood, but the hunter was still waving his knife wildly, a look of murder in his eyes.

The Beast let out another ferocious roar worthy of the monster he had transformed into as he rushed Gaston and head-butted him with his horns as hard as he could. Gaston fell back, unconscious.

Belle let out a sigh of relief and nearly wanted to weep.

The Beast was panting heavily and holding his wounded arm that looked as though Gaston had managed to slice a superficial gash in his arm, deep enough that it was not life-threatening, not yet, but it very well could be if the bleeding were not stopped. The Beast let out a deep growl from the back of his throat as he and Belle locked eyes with one another and exchanged a dark look.

If either one of them had acted a moment later, one of them would most assuredly be dead.

Belle cast her gaze down towards Gaston. Out of the corner of her eyes, she thought she could see Monsieur LeFou beginning to stir and was relieved he wasn't hurt. But it was Gaston she feared for. He was pale from the blood loss, his lips starting to tinge blue from cold, and his leg was bleeding rather badly. She had never seen him so vulnerable, and she felt a stab of pity worm its way through her heart.

"Oh, no, you're hurt," she bemoaned as she spotted the blood dripping from his nearly-mauled arm by his feet. She shivered, and then flicked her gaze back to Gaston, who was wounded even worse than the Prince was. She frowned, lost in thought. "We can't leave him like this, sir, we can't," she started to say.

"For once, I'm inclined to agree with you, Belle," the Beast growled as he rushed forward and rose a paw that looked like it could kill Gaston.

Belle was disgusted and rushed to stop him, nearly tripping over Gaston's unconscious body as she reached for one of the Beast's arms and fought to try to pull him away.

"No! We can't kill him!" Belle cried.

"Belle, do you hear yourself?" the Beast snarled, bearing his fangs at her. "Your hunter would kill us."

Belle shook her head. "That's not the point, Your Highness, he's helpless!" she cried, nearly stomping her foot in frustration at his view.

"Exactly why I should kill him." The Beast started to bring his paw down and Belle had a horrifying image of Gaston being beheaded with just one swift strike of his paw.

"Beast, no!" Belle screamed.

"But he'll come after me! After you! You'd want that, Belle?" the Beast-Prince roared in his anger.

"I don't care, we're not killing him! We have to leave him here!" Belle fired back without missing a beat, reaching up her hand to tuck a wisp of her hair that had flown haphazardly in front of her face as the harsh winds had blown the hood of her coat down. She did not think she could stand it at all.

Belle knew that Gaston was not an innocent man and certainly not a man who was easy or could be loved, but the hunter could no longer defend himself, either. She knew, from all that Papa had tried to teach her growing up, that killing a defenseless man was very, very wrong, and heavily frowned upon.

After a moment, Belle heard the Beast-Prince let out another wolfish growl of frustration. Then he looked away from his maid and down at the unconscious figure of the hunter and the short stout little man who had been accompanying him, stalking his Belle and likely would have killed her had he not followed.

Then the Beast looked back at Belle and she saw something in the creature's haunted blue eyes that she had not seen yet before in the time she had interacted with the Prince.

Sorrow. A worry. Even…fear. Belle's eyes widened and for a moment, she could only stare at the Beast.

When he spoke, his voice was low and dangerously quiet, though it was his words that stuffed the chills down her throat, and realized perhaps she had made a mistake.

"You'll regret this moment, Belle. Mark my words."

Belle frowned in confusion and was left with no other choice but to leave Monsieur LeFou alone with Gaston for the moment. She silently prayed that her friend would forgive her this transgression, and she vowed to do what she could to see about sending a guard or two from the castle to collect him and get him and his bride away from Gaston's cruel hand and his wicked influence. As she followed the Beast-Prince back towards the castle, forced to listen to the sound of the Changeling Prince's grunts of pain as he cradled his injured arm close to his chest, Belle was stricken with a horrible wave of guilt.

She had never felt so bitterly cold in all of her life.

Before they knew it, they had reached one of the rear doors to the castle, but before the Beast could slip in through the darkness of the entryway as he opened the door, Belle caught him by his good arm and prevented him from entering.

"I—I shouldn't have come out here alone, Your Highness, I…there was…someone back home in the village I wanted to see, not Gaston, b-but the man who was with him, sir. He's getting married. I promised LeFou I would return for his wedding soon," she stammered, heat creeping to her cheeks as the Beast looked at her with such scrutiny in those haunted blue eyes of his, it was all she could do not to look away. But she managed to hold her ground, though her bottom lip quivered when the Beast spoke.

"No, you should not have, what were you thinking? Were you even using the mind inside your head at all? You weren't, were you?" the Beast grunted, though Belle thought the Prince sounded exasperated with her, not angry. "You could have been killed, Belle," he growled, bearing his fangs at her.

Belle shook his head. "No, I would not have, Your Highness, you are wrong," she whispered, nervously flicking her gaze up to meet his. "You protected me. You went up against Gaston even though he could have killed you," she whispered, horrified, ushering him inside, not at all liking the Prince's wounded arm and how much blood he was losing. The bleeding would need to be stopped, and for that, she needed medicines and a clean basin, and water.

"No," he snorted once they were inside, and Belle had shut the door. "It will take more than one hunter to kill me, but I'm going to have to be much more careful with you, Belle," he told her as he led the way.

It took her a moment to realize they were heading toward the library. Why there and not the West Wing for privacy, Belle did not know, but she could only hurry to catch up as best as she could.

As they got to the library doors, the Beast turned and offered Belle a strained little smile. She realized with a jolt and wide eyes then that his words were a vow, a promise, and he meant them.

She had been returned to him unharmed and she knew by the look in the Beast-Prince's blue eyes that he was not going to take any chances of losing her again. She knew the Prince would probably come with her to her former village to attend LeFou's wedding with her if she had asked it of him just then.

Belle shyly smiled as she reached for his uninjured hand and led him into the seclusion of the library, closing the door shut behind her. As she did, Belle was smart enough not to look back behind her once.