I heard him walk away and I crossed my arms and stared at the snow falling outside of my window.

I heard a knock on the door a few minutes later.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Mrs. Kettle dear," said the voice.

I opened the door and a short stout woman smiled at me. She was older with white hair pulled back in a bun. She wore a long skirt and a blouse. She also had a tray of delicious looking food in her hands and a large shopping bag on her arm.

"Your name is Izabelle right?" she asked.

I nodded and turned and sat on my bed. "You can call me Belle."

"I'm Mrs. Kettle. I'm the house keeper," she said and put the tray on the nightstand. "That's for when you get hungry later. It's ham."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"For what dear?" she asked.

"For living here…with…with him," I said and looked down.

"He's really not so bad once you get to know him," said Mrs. Kettle.

"I somehow find that hard to believe," I said. "I'm sorry. You probably know him much better than I do."

"Yes, well, it takes time. Here, why don't we get you out of those clothes? We have plenty of dresses for you to wear," said Mrs. Kettle.

"Dresses?" I asked.

"Yes, when I went to the store earlier to buy you clothes, I didn't know your size, so I only got you dresses. But don't worry, I think they will fit you nicely," said Mrs. Kettle. She handed me the bag.

I opened it and found cute and pretty dresses for me to wear.

I pulled out a pretty blue one. It had white flowers stitched onto the hem of it and stopped just above my knees. I could wear it with the leggings I had on under my jeans.

"I like that one," said Mrs. Kettle.

"Me too," I said and smiled a little.

"I'll wash the clothes you have now," she said.

"Thank you," I said.

"It's not a problem."

I undressed and slipped the blue dress on. It looked even better on. It had sleeves that only went down to my elbows but it was warm enough.

"You look beautiful," said Mrs. Kettle.

"Thanks," I replied and gave her a small smile.

I heard the door open and Chandler and Clogs walked into my room.

"Oh my God," I cried and I ran up to Chandler and I hugged him.

"Hey Belle," said Chandler.

"Did he get you guys too?" I asked.

"Not really," said Chandler. "He got us a long time ago. But not like he got you."

"What do you mean?" I asked

"Well we sort of work for him," said Clogs.

"Doing what?" I asked.

"It's complicated. But we have more freedom than you do. But don't worry. We come here after school every day so you'll still see us."

I looked down.

"Don't worry Belle, everything's gonna be okay," said Clogs.

"How do you know?" I asked. "My life is over. I will never go to school again. I won't graduate, I won't go to college. I won't…I won't get married. I won't have kids." Fresh tears poured out of my eyes.

"Everything will work out I promise Belle," said Chandler and he wiped the tears away with his thumb.

I smiled a little at him and Clogs smiled at me. "I have an idea. Do you want a tour of this place? It's huge! I'll be able to show you a bunch of stuff," he said eagerly.

I laughed a little and wiped my eyes. Then I nodded.

"Excellent," said Chandler.

I slipped on some combat boots that I found in the wardrobe. Then we slowly walked out of the room.

"Maybe it's best if he doesn't know that you are out of your room," said Chandler.

I nodded.

We walked through almost the whole house. It was huge and magnificent and of course Clogs knew everything about the house and where everything was.

"What's up there?" I asked and pointed up to a set of stairs that seemed to lead to an abyss.

"That's his room. You don't want to go up there," said Chandler.

"Why? What's he hiding?" I asked.

"Just don't go up there Belle," said Chandler again.

He kept saying that but it just made me want to go up there even more.

"Hey Belle, did you know that there is a library here?" asked Clogs.

"Really?" I asked and I was genuinely excited…but this mysterious tower was still nagging me.

"Yeah and it's full of books like all sorts of books," said Chandler.

"Come on," said Clogs and the two of them started to walk towards the library. They were talking about all of the books and resources the library had. I stayed behind.

I looked up and then looked over at Clogs and Chandler who were still oblivious to my absence.

I put my hand on the banister and began the long trip up the stairs. It progressively became dustier and darker the further I went up.

I finally made it to the landing.

It was cold and dark up here. Perfect for a cruel man I guess. I saw a set of double doors ahead of me. I tiptoed towards the door and pressed my ear against it. I couldn't hear anything. I slowly opened the door and walked into a room full of feathers and chunks of wood scattered everywhere.

I looked around and the man was nowhere in sight. I walked in and slowly closed the door behind me. I looked around and rubbed my arms. It was completely dreadful in the room. It seemed to suck the life right out of me.

Suddenly something started to glow behind me. I spun around and saw the only thing that was bright and pleasant to look at in the room.

It was a red rose. It seemed to glow and sparkle. I slowly walked up to it and looked at it closely. Then I slowly reached a finger out to touch it.

I gasped and looked up as the man charged in from outside on the balcony.

He looked at me then at the rose. He pounced forward and grabbed the vase and growled at me.

I backed away slowly.

"Why are you here?" he demanded.

"I-I'm sorry, I-I was just-," I stuttered.

"I told you, you weren't allowed in my room!"

"I'm sorry," I pleaded and backed up even more but I tripped over a piece of his headboard.

"Do you even know what you could have done?" he yelled.

I scrambled to get up.

"Get out! Get out!" he yelled and it turned into an animalistic roar.

I yanked the door open and ran as fast as I could down the stairs. Tears burned my eyes and I passed Chandler and Clogs.

"Belle where are you going?" they asked.

"Away, I can't stay here!" I cried and I grabbed my cover-up. It was the only warm thing I could find in my hurry.

"You can't leave Belle!" yelled Clogs.

"Promise or no promise. I can't stay here with that beast!" I cried and opened the front door.

"Belle wait!" yelled Chandler.

I slammed the door behind me and ran as fast as I could away from that house. I struggled with the deep snow. It was dark too so I couldn't see very well.

I ran right into a forest. The trees grabbed at my hair and dress and I struggled to get out of them.

Then I heard the howl of wolves.

I gasped and looked up at a hill. About a dozen yellow eyes stared down at me.

"No!" I yelled and ran. The wolves pursued and I knew I couldn't outrun them. I grabbed a tree branch and held it in front of me. I was back against a tree and the wolves surrounded me. They licked their lips and growled.

One pounced and I hit it with my branch. The others came after me and one almost got my leg before I swatted him away too. One of the wolves bit down on the branch and yanked it away from me.

I gave a cry and I fell back. The wolves licked their lips then pounced. I ducked and waited for the teeth but they never came. Instead a roar rang out.

I looked up with wide eyes and the man had grabbed one of the wolves and threw it against a tree.

He crouched down beside me and growled.

The wolves seemed pleased with the competition. The beast and the wolves pounced and started to fight in the snow. I scrambled up and hid behind the tree watching the fight. The man had a sort of animalistic trait to him.

The beast threw another wolf against a tree. One of the wolves' jaws clamped down on the man's arm. He roared in pain and tossed that wolf into a tree breaking its neck and killing it. The other wolves started to whimper then they all ran off.

I breathed deeply and looked at the man. He had blood dripping from his arm onto the white snow. He looked over at me then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out.

Now was my chance. I could escape and never look back. But then he would die due to the cold or his blood loss. I looked out into the forest and then looked back at the man.

I took off my cover-up and shivered. I wrapped the beast's arm. That's when I looked at him. I mean really looked at him. He wasn't a man at all. He was just a boy. He couldn't have been but a year older than myself. I got him conscious enough for me to help him back to the mansion.


I wrung out a hot cloth and looked at the boy. He was sitting in his chair looking down at the wound.

"This might sting a little," I said and was about to put the cloth down on his arm when he moved it. "Hold still." I pressed the cloth down on his arm and he yelled.

Mrs. Kettle, Chandler, and Clogs all winced.

"That hurts!" he yelled

"Then hold still!" I yelled back. "The wound needs to be cleaned!"

"If you hadn't run off then this wouldn't have even happened," growled the boy.

"If you hadn't scared the living crap out of me then I wouldn't have run off!" I yelled.

"Well I told you not to go in my room!" he yelled.

"Well you need to control your anger management!" I yelled back.

He seemed to have given up with our banter.

"Now hold still," I said a little more calmly.

I slowly put the cloth on his injured arm.

He growled unhappily.

"By the way…thanks for, you know, saving my life," I said and looked up at him.

He looked down at me his eyes looked surprised.

"You're welcome," he grumbled.

I smiled a little.

"You're not so bad when you control your temper," I said and smiled again.

He didn't respond.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Izabelle, but I prefer Belle." I said and dabbed at his wound with the cloth.

"I'm…uh," he started.

I looked up at him. He was looking over at Chandler and Clogs and then he looked at me. "Christopher. But just call me Chris."

I smiled. "Okay…Chris."

He smiled a little at me too. "What do you like to do?" he asked me.

I was a little taken aback by the question. I looked up at him then looked back down and noticed that his wound was almost completely clean. I smiled a little and told him what I liked to do. "I love to read. It is one of my most favorite things in the world. I also love writing. I'm probably the only person who loves school."

Chris smiled a little.

I took off the cloth and took out some gauze. I slowly and carefully wrapped his wound in the gauze.

"What's your favorite subject?" he asked.

I thought about this for a bit and I tied the gauze off.

"I think my favorite is English. Probably predictable but I genuinely love participating in group discussions about the things we read or write about," I said.

"My favorite subject was Math," he said. "I'm actually good at Math. Not a lot of people would think so. But I am."

"I admit Math isn't my greatest subject, but I happen to be good as well," I said and smiled.

"Well, I guess we should test that then," said Chris with his eyebrow raised.

I smiled. "You're on."