Belle, Jasmine, and Ariel's age: 24 (Just in case anyone's curious)

Chapter 1: The Town

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"It was a dark and stormy night…"

"Hm…no. Definitely not."

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Tap, tap.

"Aurora whimpered as she clung her body to the stone cold wall behind her…"

"Eh…maybe not."

Backspace.

Belle sighed as she stared at the screen of her laptop. The digital paper that was part of Microsoft Word was blank—completely blank. There wasn't even a title page or anything. No matter how long she had sat in front of that screen (an hour and a half), no words would form inside her head. The young woman pouted at the blank screen for a few more minutes before finally releasing a frustrated scream that bounced off the walls of her apartment, probably disturbing her neighbors on her floor, but she didn't care. Then, with a low moan, Belle dropped her head on her desk, bringing pain to her forehead, but again she didn't care.

"I hate writer's block," she whimpered sadly.

At the sound of her human's head hitting the desk, a female American Cocker Spaniel with beige fur and a blue collar lifted her head from her paws and tilted her head at Belle, her puppy dog eyes glittering with concern. She lifted herself off her small bed and walked over to Belle, looking up at her. The small dog whined in the back of its throat and nuzzled her human's leg.

Belle turned her head so she was able to look back down at her dog, and then put on a small smile. She reached down and stroked the dog's head comfortingly.

"Sorry about that Lady," she said. "I'm just having a little trouble right now."

Lady let out a sound that reflected her confusion. Belle laughed, sat up, and bent down to lift her onto her lap. While gently stroking Lady's head Belle pointed at her laptop, with a sardonic smile.

"See that? That's the reason why Mommy is so upset," she said, dryly. "Mr. Dell has wiped my mind of my entire day. I swear, I had the introduction and first few chapters in my head, then I turned this baby on, and—ZAP!" Belle made her eyes go comically wide. "My mind went blank. Nothing, nada, zippo. And it was all this things fault!"

Lady whined, tilting her head in confusion. Then she shifted her gaze to Belle, who looked like she had finally gone mad, if the accusatory glare she directed towards her computer was any indication. Belle caught Lady's look and burst out laughing.

"Yeah, that probably sounds crazier than when I said it inside my head." She suddenly rolled her eyes to the ceiling, looking forlorn. "Oh, this whole thing is crazy. What was I thinking?"

Lady stood on Belle's lap with her hind legs, and each paw on her human's shoulders to stand properly. She barked up at the young woman, looking happy and encouraging. Belle chuckled softly, her blue eyes twinkling at her dog fondly. As a reward, she gently scratched behind Lady's right ear, knowing right where she liked it.

"Thanks Lady. Your support always helps." Belle's brown eyes narrowed somewhat, as she mused. "Still, I can't help but think that I'm way in over my head with this…"

Her thoughts were abruptly cut off there when she heard her apartment door slam open. When Belle looked to see who it was she beamed when she saw it was two of her best friends, Ariel and Jasmine.

"Hey guys, what's up?" she waved at them.

Ariel, dressed in a white shirt and a flowing blue skirt, pranced inside towards her friend, smiling and sea colored eyes glittering with glee. Jasmine, adorning a pair of jeans and a blue shirt, followed right after with a mellow smile on her face.

"Belle, you will never guess where my next gig is," Ariel jumped up and down in front of Belle, her loose red hair bouncing.

"Uh, Broadway? Radio City Music Hall?" Belle asked, her eyes going up and down as her friend jumped.

Her bubbly friend shook her head at both guesses; smile still plastered to her face.

"Try Denmark's royal palace!" she squealed, grabbing Belle's hands to lift her friend up to spin her around. Right before Belle stood up, Lady luckily jumped down to the floor to watch the spectacle.

Belle's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets, not so much because she was lifted up and spun around by her friend, but at the answer. Sure, Ariel was a phenomenal singer, possibly the greatest that Belle had ever met, but a royal palace? In Denmark? That still had some need to be taken in.

"No way," she said, after the brief spinning. "That's too incredible to be true." Belle looked to Jasmine, who was more levelheaded. "Jazz, tell me it isn't true."

Jasmine laughed. "Oh it's true all right," at Belle's gape she added, "I know, I almost didn't believe it either."

With her mouth still open in shock, Belle turned back to face Ariel. Then she grabbed Ariel's hands, and the two girls let out victorious squeals in unison. Jasmine smiled at her two friends, putting a congratulatory hand on Ariel's shoulder.

"Ari, how did you manage to land that gig? I mean, it's a royal palace…in Denmark!" Belle exclaimed.

"I know," the redhead said. "I almost didn't believe it when Sebastian told me, but it's true! Apparently, the Prince of Denmark was at my last show, and he liked my singing so much that he chose me as one of the singers at his birthday party."

Jasmine whistled. "Wow, the Prince of Denmark chose you? That's lucky, Ariel."

Curious, Belle asked, "Have you met him before Jasmine?"

"I've glanced at him in passing at some balls, but never talked to him," the Arabian Princess in disguise played with her long, black braid. "I have heard that he is difficult to impress though."

"Wow, I really am lucky," Ariel commented. "I can't wait to meet him." She then turned to Belle, "How are things with you, Bells?"

Belle nearly groaned as she walked back to her laptop, and pointed at it as her answer. Ariel cringed slightly at the blankness at the screen, while Jasmine frowned slightly. It wasn't the blankness of the screen that bothered them. They just knew how Belle got when she had writer's block. It was never really pretty.

"Does this mean we should have brought cookie dough?" Ariel whispered to Jasmine.

"Nah, that's for breakups," Jazz replied. "This might require something much more…powerful."

"Double dark chocolate fudge cake then?"

"Hm—that might do."

"Right."

Jasmine handed Ariel some money and the other woman slipped it into her purse. Then Ariel walked out of the apartment, waving back at her two friends. "Be right back guys!"

Belle raised an eyebrow, gesturing at her door with her thumb. "Where's she going off to?"

Jasmine smiled, "To get you a cure for your writer's block."

"Oh that's so sweet. You guys really didn't have to do that."

"Yeah, well you know Ariel and me. So, what's up?"

Jasmine sat down on Belle's beige couch, looking at her friend with stern brown eyes. Lady jumped up and joined her, sitting on her lap to be cuddled. Belle sighed and sat down beside her leaning her head back against the sofa.

"Jasmine, why didn't you stop me from doing this?" she moaned.

Jasmine raised an eyebrow, amused. " 'Stop you'? Belle, how can I? You're the one who said," she cleared her throat, making her voice a few octaves higher. " 'I want to be taken seriously! No more sappy, lovely romances for me. I want to write something on a serious matter'."

Belle pouted. "Okay, that was a horrible imitation of my voice. I'm not that whiny…Am I?" she added a little worried.

Her friend threw her head back and laughed. "Of course not, Belle. I'm sure you're not the only romance writer out there who goes through this kind of transition. I mean it's not really easy," Jasmine paused, scrunching up her eyebrows in thought. "Though I do wonder what got you interested in doing this in the first place."

Belle blew a piece of her brown hair out of her face. "I don't know. I guess I want to branch out, away from my innocent image, I guess."

"Is that really all though?"

"…Maybe not," she shrugged. "It could be that I'm just bored with happy endings and lying to my readers."

Jasmine propped her arm on the sofa's arm and leaned her cheek on her palm. "But it's not really lies, is it? I mean happy endings do exist."

"Yeah, but not everything is sugary sweet," Belle explained. "I want to be a little realistic with my books from now on, adding in a mixture of both the dark and light aspects of life, not one over the other. But…"

"But…?"

Sigh. "My childhood wasn't exactly bad. Actually, now that I think about it, I was pretty sheltered compared to my peers. Not to mention that my hometown was like a place of complete perfection and happiness. Nothing bad happened to anyone—nothing that gained news anyway—and people were friendly to each other."

"And that matters because…?"

Belle grasped her hair in frustration. "Because of my great childhood, I can't get a good feel of a dark kind of atmosphere that I would need to realistically depict in my new book!"

Jasmine raised an eyebrow. "So, basically you're saying that because of your fabulous childhood, you can't find something to reference back to for inspiration for your mystery book?"

"…Yeah, pretty much."

"…That's pretty messed up Bells…"

Groan. "I know."

"When did Lumierre (Belle's editor) say that he wanted your manuscript?"

Another groan. "In about a month from now."

"Oh…"

A silence passed between the two friends. Jasmine rolled her eyes to the ceiling, looking thoughtful. Belle just stared up at the ceiling, feeling a sense of shame in her current writing abilities. Lady just swished her head side to side, silently observing both women. Suddenly, Jasmine let out a little "ah-ha," coming up with an idea.

"What you need Belle is quick inspiration," she suggested. "Most likely from a real life crime that happened around here."

Belle picked up her head and stared straight at Jasmine. She scrunched up her eyebrows thoughtfully.

"That might work," she said softly. "But where are we going to find a crime that is bad enough to draw inspiration from?"

"I might know."

Belle, Lady and Jasmine turned their heads to the door of the apartment, seeing Ariel standing there holding a pink box that held the chocolaty treat. Her voice had been so soft that it was almost inaudible, and her face was suddenly sullen. She walked over to Belle's dinner table and put the box on it, already opening it to cut a piece of cake for each of them, minus Lady. She walked to the counter to a knife, three plates and forks, and then walked back to cut the cake. Her two friends blinked as they watched her, bemused at her change of mood.

"Daddy once told me of this case in this small town up in the country," Ariel explained. "It had occurred ten years ago, a few years before he retired from the force, in this town named Fantasia, if I recalled correctly. Apparently, for twelve years the town's children kept disappearing and ending up dead, with no sign of the killer until ten years ago. This case has now been known as the 'Fantasia Murder Cases.'

"There are little details as to how he killed the children, but from what Daddy told me, I can tell you that the bastard had been brutal," she continued with angry, narrow eyes. "He showed them no mercy. He would put them—mere children—through numerous methods of torture. He starved them; kept them tied up, beat them, stabbed them with needles (but taking care not to hit any arteries), and he put them through darkness for hours on end—possibly until they went crazy with fear, for many of the victims seemed to have self-inflicted wounds. And even worse," Ariel shuddered with restrained anger and disgust. "On each child were signs of sexual abuse."

Jasmine's eyes widened as the dirty details sunk in. "Did they ever catch him?"

Ariel breathed in and out, calming herself down. It may have been childish of her, but she couldn't help but get angry at those kinds of cases. She sat down at the table, already taking a bite of the chocolate cake. Eating chocolate always calmed her down. Well, that and singing.

"Yeah, they got him," she said. "He was a local, one who was well-liked by the town and its children, for he was a toy maker. Funny though, his last victim had apparently been his son."

After a silence, Belle and Jasmine walked over to the table to eat their pieces of cake. Lady followed them cuddling Ariel's leg to relieve the woman's tension. Ariel smiled a thanks down at her and turned to her two friends.

"Where exactly is the place again," Belle asked hesitantly.

"Fantasia is just a few miles away from this city, in the country," Ariel answered. "Are you really considering going?"

"Well…it sounds like it could offer something," the writer replied awkwardly. "And since it's so close, it should be okay to check it out."

Jasmine smiled reassuringly at her, patting her shoulder. "I say go for it. Maybe you'll find something interesting about the case."

Ariel smiled at her also, albeit her's was a little smaller. "I don't think the people will mind a curious researcher, so you should go for it. You might have to rent one of their houses though, and to do that you will have to give the mayor a call."

"Do you know the number?"

"Oh, it's on this website that's trying to promote tourism for the town. The website is…"

Soon after, Belle started making preparations for her trip. She packed her clothes into a rolling suitcase, and then she packed some books, toiletries, hair products and some of Lady's things in a black backpack. Within a few days she had a house rented out for her in Fantasia and had bought a ticket to the town.

All the while, she couldn't help but get the feeling that someone (or something?) was watching her every move…

Yet, she shook it off, thinking: What's the worse that could happen?

Note: I'm a little shocked that I actually got a review, but thank you nothing but a dreamer! I still feel a little guilty, but thanks for your support.

Also, about the Denmark thing, I can't remember, but I think Prince Eric came from Denmark. At least I think that's the setting in the original Little Mermaid. Also, I made Ariel's dad a retired cop in this universe because of his protectiveness. As a daughter of a retired officer, I'd know about protective fathers.

Jasmine is still a princess here, but she's also allowed to spend time as a "commoner," as long as she tends to her royal duties.