Part Four
The lone house was tucked away by the trees, the other residents on the street not wanting to look at the wrecked building. It held too many memories of the father and his son who had died due to a poorly installed smoke alarm. Belle remembered the night that Andrew Gold and his son Ben had burned alive. Of course it was all lies - the boy had died on the battlefield, and the father had been murdered by the man in the back of the van. But when Belle stepped onto the pavement, her heart felt raw.
Hidden by the trees, Belle reached into the back of the van and pulled out Jeremy Horder. His hands were tied, his mouth taped. Not that it would matter anyway. Kids played regularly in the old house. The residents on the deserted street had stopped calling the Sheriff after every little noise long ago. From the front seat of the van she grabbed the noose and her sabre. She pointed it over his heart as he lay on the ground, digging it into his flesh.
"Walk."
Horder stumbled as she pointed him in the direction of the house. She continued to jab him as he walked. The house itself was rotting. It should have been demolished but Belle could never sign the order. It was a death trap, but Belle wasn't afraid of the Fates. They hadn't collected her for over three hundred years now. When they did, she would be glad to go.
She hauled Horder inside the house and shut it quickly, making sure no passersby noticed them enter. The former black knight was on his knees, looking over the wreckage of the house. When she moved around to him, his eyes pleaded with her. He saw what they all saw - a woman with a little bit of power, unwilling to do the dirty work. They all suspected that Jefferson was the real danger. They had no idea what she was capable of.
Belle turned to Horder with a smile on her face, holding the sabre comfortably in her hand. "Mister Horder, so nice of you to accompany me this evening. I think we have some things to discuss." She reached for the noose. "I'd say 'not to worry, Mister Madison won't be joining us', but believe me, Mister Horder. You should be worried."
He started to struggle, to scream. But no one would hear him, and he couldn't escape.
X
Rumpelstiltskin walked through the forest towards the town, his heart growing heavier with every step. His dark cloak weighed on his shoulders, as did his leather breeches and his white shirt. When he had received the clothes and slipped them on for the first time, they had made him feel like a prince. Now...now he was back to his old cowardly self. Running away from the first good thing that had happened to him since Bae was born.
He continued his way along the dirt road, knowing this was for the best despite what his heart was telling him. He couldn't return to the castle, couldn't return with a stack of books and have them all be wrong. The thought of ruining something so special to her with his ineptitude was something he couldn't allow. He would find a place to settle, a place where he could spin and lose himself. Spin to forget. Forget about Bae, forget about Belle. Forget about the brief moments in time when love had replaced grief in his heart.
The sound of a carriage in the distance disturbed his thoughts and Rumpelstiltskin stepped back off the road, unwilling to be run down or to be drawn into any conversation. He turned when the carriage appeared around the trees. It was black as death and the knights flanking it looked like soldiers of the Fates. He waited for it to pass but instead it stopped in the middle of the road. The carriage door opened to reveal a beautiful woman dressed all in black. She smiled at him.
"Did my carriage splash you?"
Rumpelstiltskin shook his head vehemently. "No milady, it did not." Gods forbid he upset her and became tangled with her soldiers. He still had nightmares about the soldiers who had come to claim Bae, who had beaten him and ridiculed him. He didn't want to repeat history with these men.
The woman in the carriage just kept smiling, oblivious to his distress. "I'm tired of riding. I think I'll walk with you and stretch my legs. Just for a little while."
All he could do was nod as the elegant woman stepped out of the carriage and began to walk beside him. She was beautiful, not as beautiful as Belle perhaps but still more than a man like him could dream of. Rumpelstiltskin had no clue why she was walking with him. Everyone in his life had always sidestepped him. Yet a stunning woman, the most beautiful creature he had ever encountered, tolerated and sometimes even enjoyed his presence. Here was another beautiful woman walking beside him. It seemed unreal.
As they started their walk, the woman looked him up and down, smiling all the while. It was unnerving. "You carry very little."
Just the clothes on his back and a satchel for the books that he wouldn't be picking up for Belle. "My needs are small."
"And yet your pace is hurried." He turned his head to the ground. Years of being hindered by his leg meant that the ability to walk at a strong pace was a wonderful option. He was taking it now, to be as far away from the castle he had grown to call his home as he could. "Your master must be a harsh one to have you running from him." She must have seen something in his face as she began laughing. "Mistress? Well now that's interesting."
He was fast becoming tired of their conversation, his stomach tied in knots from worrying about his tongue. He needed to stop. "If you'll excuse me, milady, I may take a rest. Please, continue on your journey."
But the woman ignored him, instead linking arms with him as they continued down the road. Her touch was cold, unlike Belle's. She was warm to him, like a summer's day. "So you're running away from your mistress...I take it she doesn't feel the same way you do?"
Rumpelstiltskin had intended not to answer, but something inside him felt he needed to explain. "No, she doesn't. Sometimes she looks at me like I'm something but..."
"But?" the woman coaxed, squeezing his arm.
His eyes fell to the ground. "Despite the looks and the smiles, when I touch her she flinches. There's a coldness in her soul that's clamped on. It won't let any warmth in."
They continued to walk, the woman looking more and more intrigued by his dilemma. "Hmm...sounds like a curse to me. You know, all curses can be broken. Like in the stories - all you need is True Love's Kiss. Of course it probably wouldn't work. You ran away to escape your pain, it's not as if she sent you away so she could escape hers."
The woman laughed, but Rumpelstiltskin stopped. "But she did send me away! She sent me to get her books...I was just too scared to return." Rumpelstiltskin bowed his head, feeling more the pitiful fool than ever. He was such a coward. He couldn't even return to the woman he loved!
"You shouldn't be. If she feels the same way, then you could be happy. Don't let station stop you from getting what you want." He could see a shadow fall over the woman's face. "True Love has no boundaries."
Rumpelstiltskin smiled, hope welling up inside his chest. It all made sense now. She was scared of her feelings, of letting him in. He needed to be brave, for both of them. "So a kiss, that'll break the curse? We could be together then, properly?"
The woman smiled at him, baring her teeth. "Together forever."
They continued to walk a little way down the road, his smile bursting from his face. He and Belle could be together. She wouldn't have to cover all her mirrors and she wouldn't have to flinch from his touch, thinking that she was ugly. He could love her, love her like she deserved. Maybe they could even start a family, and he could be a father again.
Lost in his daydreams of sweet little girls and boys, Rumpelstiltskin didn't notice the growing smile on the woman's face.
X
Belle didn't know why she waited. She didn't expect him to return. All her plans had been made for him not to, for him to leave her alone so she could continue on her work. She knew Rumpelstiltskin so very well, knew the cowardice that twisted like thorns around his heart. After her fool's errand he would be long gone from her lands. As much as she had once longed to fall in love, she had a purpose now, a vendetta to carry out. She couldn't put that all aside for her spinner.
She had changed into her blue autumn dress for something to keep her occupied, one of the few clothes she had kept from her days as a young maiden. The skirt was the lightest blue, the bodice gold and modest. She had removed the pins from her curls and let them spill out onto her shoulders. She dared not look in the mirror to see her appearance; after all she did not know who was watching. But her reflection in the window pane showed more a woman than a witch.
Years ago, she had stood in that very window and watched as the soldiers went off to fight the Ogres. Then, after the war, she had stood in the shadows and watched the celebrations from afar; her snow white hands clutching the sill, her favourite mirror cracked. Her father hadn't looked upon her differently, had loved her all the same. He had loved her up until the moment he had been taken from her, until the moment Gaston had plunged a knife into his heart.
So lost in her own grief, Belle almost missed the sight of a lone figure coming up the road to the castle. She didn't get visitors, so the single glimmer drew her attention. She watched, entranced, as the figure opened the cast-iron gate covered in thick roses. She watched as his features became apparent in the growing moonlight. Rumpelstiltskin! He had come back! Belle couldn't believe it. He had come back.
She raced through the castle and out the door to greet her manservant, not caring about propriety or failed plans. She needed to see him. She ran through the doors to the castle, forcing them open with her hands. She stepped out onto the pathway and met his gaze. His satchel was bursting with books but Belle didn't concern herself with them. She was too busy looking over his tussled brown hair, his warm gaze. He watched her looking over him, his smile so welcoming.
Belle ran to him without thinking and hurled herself against him, her arms wrapped tight around his shoulders. She dug her face into the curve of his neck to breathe him in, to thank the Gods that the man she loved had returned to her. He wouldn't shy away from her, wouldn't consider her broken or damaged. He wasn't like that. He would accept her, curse and all. She knew that now.
Rumpelstiltskin's arms wrapped around her waist and spun her in a circle, the first time he had held her since that day they had played with the sabres. He had wanted to hold her, touch her, several times and now she wanted nothing more than to feel his hands all over her. Eventually he dropped her to her feet and grinned at her, not quite believing her reaction.
"What did I do to deserve such a wonderful welcome home, milady?"
Belle grinned. "I'm just happy to have you back."
She bit her lip as he reached down for her hand, pressing his lips to it. "I'm happy to return."
Suddenly she was reaching for his hand and dragging him back into the castle: out of the cold and into their home. "Tea and my books, please! As quick as you can."
Belle left him in the foyer and ran up towards the library. She couldn't believe he was home, she couldn't believe he was being so bold with her! But she loved it so. She twirled in her dress in the middle of the library, feeling quite unlike herself. As she sat down on her usual chaise, she realised she felt human. She didn't feel like a witch, she didn't feel like a siren. She felt like a young woman in love with a man who made her feel the most incredible things.
She beamed as her love joined her in the library, bearing a fresh pot of tea. He laid it out neatly before reaching for his satchel. He got out about eight books and stacked them neatly on the table in front of her. She waited patiently for him to sit beside her before reaching over to look through them. There were two books about matters of the world - what to do with cut roses and the best ways to make jam - and the rest were all story books. She took herself off the chaise and went down on her knees to examine them closer. They were stories about dragons and princesses and demons and witches and they were perfect.
As she investigated inside the covers, Belle felt Rumpelstiltskin's hand move over her shoulders, catching a curl between his fingers. She looked over at him and watched him twirl it in his hands before he dropped it to her frame. Smiling, Belle patted the space next to her on the floor. There was not an inch of daylight between them as he sat beside her.
She looked him over, not quite believing that he had come back to her. Belle fiddled with his hair, taming out the tangles with her fingers. She watched his eyes flutter shut and his breathing slow as she touched him. He was so handsome. He was the sort of man she had always hoped to fall in love with when she had been normal. Now she had.
"They're perfect, Rumpelstiltskin," Belle whispered, smiling at him when he finally opened his eyes. "Absolutely perfect." Like you.
He nodded and bowed his head. "I'm glad, Belle." It was the first time he had used her name without anything attached to it, no measure of status at all. She found herself whimpering from the way he spoke her name. "You know I was worried that I would come back with the wrong ones. I almost didn't come back because I was so afraid."
She didn't say anything. The magic crawling under her skin seemed happy that her plan would have worked had Rumpelstiltskin not gathered up the courage to return to her. It didn't matter that they could have been apart. They were together now. "I'm glad you did."
"So am I."
Belle turned to look back at her books, gazing over the pretty covers. She couldn't wait to begin reading one. She just had to choose which. Before she could, she felt Rumpelstiltskin's hesitant fingertips under her chin. He turned her to look at him, to watch the love that shone through in his eyes. Then he closed them, leaning in to her slightly. She followed suit and placed a hand on the side of his neck, guiding him to her mouth.
Their lips met, so suddenly and so softly that if it wasn't for the sigh she heard from his mouth she would have almost imagined it. Rumpelstiltskin parted their lips, taking her top one for himself. The gentle touch made her quiver, made her long for more, made her want his mouth on places that no man had touched in decades. But then she felt him press a tiny kiss to her top lip before pulling away. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, her chest heaving. She had never been kissed like that before. Her whole body was tingling.
"You're blushing," Belle said, laughing quietly.
One of Rumpelstiltskin's hands reached out and cupped her cheek, tenderly stroking her skin."So are you."
It took a single heartbeat for Belle to realise that something was wrong. Rushing to her feet and out of Rumpelstiltskin's touch, she ran to the corner of the library where a single mirror stood, covered from view. She tore the sheet off and, ignoring the cracks in the glass, looked at her reflection. She could see colour blooming under her cheeks, her lips the colour of rouge for the first time in three centuries. She looked at her hands, looked at them becoming pink.
"I don't understand."
Belle watched from her mirror as Rumpelstiltskin stood up, smiling at her. "True Love's Kiss can break any curse."
Her moment was over. She watched the colour in her hands fade, watched it drain from her face. The lips that Rumpelstiltskin had kissed only moments before returned to their normal hue. Once more she was a witch. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them. "How do you know about that?" she asked, her hands starting to shake.
"She-there was a woman, on the road into town. She told me about how to break..." He bowed his head. He looked upset, as if realising his plan had failed. "Belle, I-"
She raised a hand, signalling for him to stop talking. Belle looked back to her mirror, watched it crack and splinter around the edges, creating spider webs in the glass. She hoped that bitch was watching; she hoped she was enjoying every shred of agony Belle felt. "Well this is a new low for you, darling. You've tired of playing with your own toys so you decided to play with mine? You'll pay for your moment of playtime, Regina. Every second will come back on you tenfold!"
"Belle, who are you talking to..." Rumpelstiltskin started, one of his hands reaching up to touch her shoulder. She flinched back, tossing him to the ground like a doll. She looked at him, looked at his hurt expression. Why was he looking hurt? He had betrayed her. "Belle, I'm sorry..."
"Shut up!" Belle screamed, making a grabbing motion with her hand. Rumpelstiltskin clutched at his throat, unable to speak. He gasped and wheezed, trying to make some noise. She wasn't interested in his pretty words. She used her shoe to lift his eyes to her. How could she have been so blind? She should have seen this coming, should have seen through his deception.
"I thought you better, Rumpelstiltskin. I thought you were a good man. I should have known. What treasures did the Queen offer you to do her dirty work? Or was it just power that interested you?" She used her boot to push him to the floor like a beached turtle. "Did you really think that you could manipulate me so easily? That you would be the first man to attempt it? Cowards always desire power. I should have seen that in you."
Belle turned on her heel, not wanting to look at him any longer. She shouldn't have let herself been so deceived. She should have recognised this when he first looked at her so lovingly and dealt with it then. She had been so foolish. With a wave of her hand he recovered his voice and she heard him gasp and splutter behind her. She heard him suck in a few heavy breathes before he looked up at her.
"Belle, I love you, I never meant to hurt you. Please believe me!" He reached a hand out, grasping at nothing but air. "Why won't you believe me, Belle?"
She turned and looked at him. "Because love is for stories, and I am no princess."
With a wave of her hand, she sent Rumpelstiltskin to his room where he would stay until she could figure out what to do with him. Belle stared out onto the sea, her heart crumbling in her chest. For the first time in her life she had been in love, and it had all been a lie.
X
While she had been tying the noose around one of the roof beams, Horder had sat on the floor and begged through his gag. He had watched her take one of the few remaining kitchen chairs and place it just underneath the noose. With the tip of the sabre she had made him stand on the chair and she had adjusted the noose around his neck. Then she had ripped the tape off his mouth.
"French, I can explain, I can!" Horder choked, his attempts to loosen the noose with his tied hands failing.
Belle smiled, giggling as he struggled. He had to be careful not to fall off that chair. She watched him struggle for a while, playing with the sabre in her hands to draw his attention. She balanced it on one finger, before bouncing it in the air and it landing on another. Belle smiled in his direction, but Horder just spat at her feet. Snarling, she reached over and pressed the metal against Horder's cheek, watching as a tear dripped down to meet the steel.
"I like to keep my blades sharp, Mister Horder."
"You twisted bitch!" Horder hissed, struggling for breath. Belle pressed the metal to just below his ear and flicked, causing a little cut to appear. Slightly larger than your average shaving cut, and twice as painful.
Belle brought the sabre down to her side, not yet ready to inflict any more pain. "You have a deal in front of you, Mister Horder, I advise you take it. If you don't, well...we all know how hangings work, don't we? I only want two things from you, Mister Horder. The location of where you stashed my property and the name of the person who asked you to get it."
Horder looked at her for a moment, his face contorted in anger. "It was only one week you bitch! That was it!"
"That doesn't sound right to me, Mister Horder," Belle hissed, dragging her blade across his cheek. A thin cut appeared, dripping blood down his face. He started to cry out, growling as she made a matching cut on the other side. "Tell me where it is, Mister Horder. Now."
She made another cut on the bridge of his nose when he refused to answer her. "It's just a fucking book!"
Belle stopped for a moment and looked at him. Looked at his bleeding face, his curled in expression. She took the sabre in her hand and didn't even flinch as she began slashing at his arms, his clothes, his legs. "Just a book? Nothing is just anything." She sucked in a breath before continuing to tear him apart with the blade. "You looked down on him. You abused him, treated him like crap because he was just another fucking peasant. He was mine, and you hurt him!" Horder cried out in pain as the slashes became deeper, thicker with blood. "You hurt him and you took him from me!"
She ripped the books down from the shelf; she tore them down and tossed them aside. Books crashed into furniture, into walls, into tea sets. They became torn under her feet, stained from the tea, crumbled against glass. The shelves her father had built with his own bare hands became splinters, covers of books older than herself became damaged and unreadable. Her library was collapsing. Just like her heart.
"You took him, you took him!"
Belle continued to slash at Horder with her sabre until his footing became unsteady. She watched his heel twist off the end of the chair and he began to fall. But then Sheriff Swan grabbed him around the waist and hoisted him back onto the chair, making sure his position was secure. She then turned to Belle. For the first time in the months that Belle had known Emma Swan, she looked scared.
"Put it down, French. Put it down."
She took a book and threw it at the mirror, shattering glass to the floor. Then another, then another until glass was joining torn pages on the ground. She reached for another book and found it to be the tea stained copy of the Princess and the Weaver. Belle looked at the cover, then at the sliver of her reflection she could see in the mirror.
She collapsed to the ground, sobbing. She had finally become the monster she had never wanted to be.