Chapter 39

Together At Last

The Enchantress smiled softly and nodded. She silently glided to where the young girl lay. Then touched the girls face. Calostire suddenly felt as though a part of him was being torn away. It was not and uncomfortable feeling, in fact in made Calostire smile. He felt as though he was being covered in a warm blanket.

Then, the Enchantress was gone. Her light faded slowly and silent, almost as if she was never there.

"Well…did it work?" Axel asked. Both men walked over to where Rose lay. Calostire, almost too afraid to see if it did, softly called out, "Rose?"

Both men waited silently, hearts beating hard in there chests like a bird trying to break free from a cage. Calostire still wouldn't look away from the girls face. Looking for any sign of her waking up, or at least the slightest hint that the Enchantress kept her word.

"Rose…hey come on you silly girl time to wake up." Axel called as he silent by Calostires side. All of a sudden the girl's eyes fluttered open and looked up at the two men, looking as though she had just woken up from a very long nap like Axel had.

"Whass goin on?" Rose asked, somewhat softly when her eyes grew larger and then she grasped her neck.

"What happened!? The last thing I can remember is when Calostire was attacking Gaston," she looked towards the body lying on the floor, like a toy long forgotten and left to lay forever in that one spot. "And then-." She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Calostire with tears threatening to overflow.

Calostire looked at her with such guilt that Rose immediately understood that there was something he had to say that was very important.

"Rose…when I got this body, my anger, my rage, suddenly grew into another part of me. It's like I have another person inside of me. It just wants to break out and attack! To lash out at the world and never lets anybody resist it!"

Axel looked at his old friend and realized how serious he was about his anger. He had seen it first hand in the library. How quickly Calostire could be so gentle and caring, then the next, Axel is sitting in the wall with blood dripping down his head. Calostire continued.

"So when I saw that…that man shoot Axel, and then strike at you, there was no holding back. That other side of me just wanted to kill, to make Gaston beg for death, to make him pay in the most grueling way." He looked at Rose; with a look in his eyes with a begging plead inside of them to understand. "When you suddenly came up and tried to stop it from causing pain, then…then it turned on you. Rose, I never intended for any harm to come to you! I would rather beg for death than see any harm to come to you."

The beast was now on his knees in front of the astounded girl. "Rose, please I beg of you…please forgive me."

Rose looked at Calostire for a silent moment. Every second a heart stopper for the beast. Then of all things, Rose smiled. She smiled a genuine smile and then hugged Calostire.

"Calostire, I knew something about you wasn't right. When I looked at you, your eyes were the most evil things I ever saw. That's what gave you away. They weren't the blue that I knew, they were a crimson red. There was something about you, even when I encountered you in the castle, that you had a spilt personality. It scared me. But I knew deep down that that anger wasn't you, it was just something you had to keep inside."

Rose stopped and looked lovingly at the beast before her.

She then stood up and walked up to Axel. "I'm so glad your okay! When we saw you come through the door, I thought for sure that you were going to…" Rose stopped again to wipe away her unshed tears.

Axel laughed and embraced the girl in a friendly and comforting embrace. "It'll take more that a few bullets to stop me from protecting you two. I mean come on! Who else could keep this big guy under control?" He nodded his head in Calostires direction with a sly grin on his face. Rose laughed, still in the red heads arms.

All of a sudden, Rose noticed the dead rose inside of its glass case. Its petals lying on the table, dry and pale.

"Calostire," She franticly looked at the beast beside her, "your rose, it's dead! What about the curse?"

The man/beast looked at Rose, his eyes held an untold sadness and confusion about them. "How do you know about the curse? I never told you."

Rose looked down at her feet, almost as if she were a young child again. "Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts told me."

A silence beheld them all, Rose still looking at her feet, Axel looking at the dead flower, and Calostire looking at Rose. "When…when I attacked you, and you said that you loved me…it was too late when I told you that I loved you in return. So when the Enchantress came, she gave me an offer." Calostire was still gazing at Rose, but she was no longer staring at her feet. When he told of how she expressed her love for him, she blushed. But when he told her of when he expressed it back and it was too late, she felt iciness inside of her. Something troubling was coming.

"She told me…that to bring you back; I would have to give up my humanity to have you back. That I would have to remain a monster so that you could come back to me."

Rose gasped, "Calostire! Y-you gave up becoming a human all because of me?"

Calostire laughed, it was still the deep and thundering laugh that would remain that way forever. "Rose, I would give up my life for you, let alone the chance to become human. I…I worried though, that if I remained a beast, that you would no longer care for me." His voice faltered.

A loud 'SMACK' rang throughout the room. Calostire face, once was holding a sad expression, now only held shock. Roses' hand was still raised from her hit upon the man.

"Calostire how many times do I have to tell you? I don't care if you look like a monster! You are still the man I met many months ago, the same caring, sweet, smart man that protected me from Gaston." Anger apparent on Roses face, Axel took a hesitant step back. Not wanting to feel the wrath of the young woman. But as her tone was starting to rise, he swiftly came beside her and hugged her from behind, trying to pin her arms to her side before she could slap his friend again.

"Rose," Axel said soothingly, "darling calm down. I know that he can be a bone head sometimes but he truly does care about you, and was only thinking of you at the moment."

The girl took a deep breath and her shoulders relaxed.

"There, now doesn't that feel much better? I mean come on; the guy just gave up his humanity for the only girl that could ever love him. That's gotta mean something."

All the tension in the room left, as the three stood in the middle of the room. Calostire, who noticed that Rose suddenly looked at Gaston, knew what she was going to say the second she saw him.

"Calostire, Axel, what are we going to do with Gaston? He can't stay here, and we can't just dump him in the woods."

"Well we could do that…" Axel mumbled, not forgetting all the bullets that were logged inside of him. Calostire laughed, and then seriousness crept up. Rose was right. As much as Calostire longed to kill the man, he couldn't. Not after what happened to Rose. He vowed that he would do whatever it takes to keep his anger under control.

"Well, we could take him to the village." The beast finally said. "We could take his body; put it somewhere where someone will find him."

Axel and Rose nodded; they were going to the village.