Chapter 38

Choices

A bright light shone from somewhere close by. Calostire looked up, Rose still in his arms, and noticed that the rose had now shed its last petal. It fell slowly as if taunting the beast saying, 'You're too late.' But, yet the petal, as it fell to the other ones that lay at the bottom of the glass, were all glowing a bright red.

What's happening?

All of a sudden a voice rang throughout the room. It was soft, a familiar soft to all of those who had experienced the curse so many years ago. The voice was rich, and sounded as smooth as silk, and it appeared to be coming from the petals of the rose.

"Calostire…"

Calostire's ears seemed to pick up at the sound of the voice.

It was the Enchantress. The one that had condemned him to a life of hell, a life of living in the shadows now, even when he could roam as a human he felt like an outcast. The people would stare; they would stare as if they could see right through him and see the beast that lay inside of him.

"You!" Calostire gently lay Rose on the floor, "Well are you happy now? I found true love…" his voiced died away. He looked at the small flower with mixed emotions. The biggest one was sadness. "Are you happy that I finally found someone that could look at me without revulsion and could touch me without backing away? If so, why did she have to suffer?" He pointed at the girl. "Rose didn't deserve this…she didn't deserve to get hurt. I have a feeling that you knew she was the one, the one to break this curse." Calostire stopped. He could feel the tears threatening to fall again. Seeing Rose on the ground, not moving, was still fresh that it felt as if his very heart was being broken in half.

"Why?!" He roared. "Answer me witch! WHY DOES SHE DESERVE TO BE HARMED? WHY COULDN'T I HAVE DIED INSTEAD, DIED BY THE HANDS OF THE HUNTER OR JUST BECAUSE I COULD NO LONGER FEEL. I DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE AFTER WHAT I DID! JUST KILL ME NOW!"

An eerie silence filled the room until the Enchantress answered.

"Young Calostire, I know that you are going through great pain right now. This was not supposed to occur. The hunter should have never been able to find this castle and disturb what I foresaw. Even young Axel had a place in all of this." By now, a glowing silhouette of a woman was in the room, standing before the beast prince. She went towards the young red haired man lying on the bed. "He was to show you that you had changed and that you could love, love the girl. When the hunter came, he also started to serve a purpose of trying to forgive. Even though you had caused such pain in his life, he still found it in himself to fight for you." She touched the cheek of Axel, earning a light gasp from the young man. All of a sudden Axel rose from the bed slowly, as if all this time he had just been sleeping.

"Calostire?" Axel ruffled his hair lightly. "Wha-what happened? All I can remember is fighting that monstrosity of a man, and then trying to come back to find you…ROSE!" He suddenly jumped off the bed and ran to the girl's body. "Calostire! What happened? What's wrong with Rose, and why isn't…she…moving…?" Axel's gloved fingers found the girls neck and traced the finger lines that lay on her skin. "No…" He looked up at Calostire, his green eyes filled with shock and sadness. "Calostire please tell me that what I'm thinking isn't true!" Hot tears were now pouring down Axels face. Both men that night had cried their first tears in how many years since the day they met.

"I'm sorry Axel…I-I was not myself." It was hard for Calostire to explain that inside of him were two personalities. One was his normal self while the other—the other was monster, a true monster that cared of no one but itself and would hurt anyone that ever stood in its way.

Once he finished explaining it, both men sat in a silence that would make the dead seem loud.

"This should have never happened. I should have been up and able to protect her, or you. But I was too busy dreaming of the past." Axel laughed. A true happy and old self laugh. "The only difference was that Rose was there too. I was dreaming that we were all younger and playing that ball game that me and you used to love to play. Even though I always won, and you would yell and say that I cheated. But, we were all happy and didn't have a care in the world. It was the most cheerful thing I ever felt in a long time."

He sighed and looked at Calostire once more, only this time all of the happiness was gone. "If only the real world was the same."

The Enchantress, being quiet and unnoticed for some time again, spoke once more, only this time her voice had something different in it. It was still smooth and soft, but there was a certain feeling to it that made both men back away.

"Calostire I have come to you, as the last petal has fallen from the rose, with a chance to give you something you care about back."

Calostire, who now seemed dead, looked upon the beautiful witch. He remembered how once he was astounded by her beauty, only now that beauty seemed of nothing compared to Rose. No, now that beauty only made his heart burn with rage. Not at the Enchantress, but at himself.

"And what is that Enchantress? What can you possibly give me that would want to continue living now that the only thing I ever cared about is gone?" Calostire asked, his once hard and deep voice, a soft whisper. Axel looked at his friend with an equal sadness. Even though he had not known Rose for long, he still felt a need to protect her. She was kind to him, even if she didn't know him, and he stole her from Calostire. She was still one to smile in the face of fear. Fear with red hair.

"Young man, do not be so upset. I know that things are still hard for you, as they have been for so many years with you in that form. You once had such hatred to the world that even the most evil of men would back away in fear." She seemed to be looking over at the dead man that was once Gaston. "His heart was so full of jealousy and evil, that your evil tore his apart. That other side of you, which you speak of, is still that part of you many years ago. You can't let ones past go that easily. That is why reaching Rose was so hard in the beginning. It was fighting you, trying to get you to push her away. But your gaining love for her fought that dark side and allowed you to protect her from yourself. Up until now when that darkness was unleashed when your hatred for Gaston couldn't be held. But now, you have the chance to take away that mistake, and make things right once more."

With those words spoken Calostire suddenly seemed to shake. Whether it is from shock or the sudden joy no one could tell.

"D-do you mean that you-"Calostire tried to say the words but somehow couldn't. If what he was thinking turned out to be wrong, then nothing else she said would matter to him. The Enchantress smiled, knowing exactly what the beast before her was thinking.

"I can bring the young girls life back, Calostire. I can return the breath that was stolen from her. With her being the same as she was. Nothing different."

Both men felt as if all of their fears were gone, Rose was going to come back!

"But there is something that you must give me in return for her life, something very important to you Calostire."

"What is it?! I don't care, I'll do anything! Just give me back my Rose!" The man was almost shouting at the witch. He just wanted Rose to come back already. Axel too was almost about to start yelling, for he too wanted to see the young girls smiling face again.

"You, Calostire, must give me your humanity."

The breath almost seemed to flow out of Calostire.

Once chance, one chance to go back to being a human and walking amongst everyone else without suspicious looks, or grim faces directed at him. But, the thought without Rose was even more unbearable to him. He looked up at the Enchantress. Her face, the only visible part of her, showed that she too didn't like the situation that he was put under.

"I'm sorry Calostire but it's the only thing I can do for you. It's either give up the chance to go back to being human, or stay in the form you are now, and bring back the only woman that you have ever loved."

The red haired man standing next to Calostire turned to his friend. "Calostire…what are you going to do?" The beast, knowing long before any of this had happened, turned to face Axel and grinned. Then, facing the Enchantress, said few words.

"Bring Rose back."