CHAPTER SIX
"Look, I'm sorry but I'm no beauty; and while your behavior might be beastly you're from being what the original fairy tale described as beastly." Lizzie informed him.
"You will see." was Will's sullen response. "Now can you please explain how your hair managed to grow six inches over night."
Lizzie briefly wondered if he had multiple personality disorder, before grinning at him impishly; remembering feeling wary at the sight of the twisted black twig Mrs. Bell had claimed was her magic wand. But when Lizzie's hair started to grow she had instantly become a believer.
"Mrs. Bell." Lizzie responded.
"I suppose; she's decided just to throw all the skeletons out of the closet." Will commented, with a sigh as if he was resigned to the fact Lizzie was in on his family's dirty laundry.
They both fell into silence; lost in their own thoughts; when a thought occurred to Lizzie.
"Will, what's going to happen to Sterling and Flynn; at midnight?" Lizzie asked, feeling alarmed.
"Don't say my name-" he started; Lizzie's statement taking a few seconds to sink in. "I-I'm not sure." Will said jerking his head up; fear coloring draining the color out of his face. "The children have always been with their mother; when this happened."
"Has any ever died when the estate switched to the land of In-Between?" Lizzie questioned him, jerking on the sleeve of his jacket.
"Not that has ever been told." Will replied.
"What time is it?" she asked jerking on his sleeve even harder.
"I don't know; I left my phone in my room." Will said; jerking his arm away from her iron grasp.
Lizzie looked at him with total contempt. "You are about useless, with your dramatics and self pity. I'll go protect them myself." she said dramatically lifting her skirts as she began to stride out of the room.
Will was stunned by her contempt, and stupidity, but it didn't stop him from grabbing her elbow as she tried to stride past.
"What now?" She demanded fiercely, her eyes snapping at him in fury.
Will leaned down to get close to her face; hoping to get the seriousness of what the curse could do if she didn't follow the set rules. "Listen, you dainty, silly woman." he growled; hoping to intimidate her, but all his growling seem to do was make her more furious. "You have to stay with me, until after midnight. Mrs. Bell set you up as the beauty in this curse and you have to stay by my side until everything is settled; or anything could happen." Will practically yelled, the stress of everything that had happened so far breaking his icy demeanor.
"Let me get this straight; because you danced with me; I now have the duty to try and break this curse?" she asked looking up at him.
"Yes." he said through clenched teeth.
"Okay." she said shrugging.
"Okay?" he repeated dumbly; relaxing his grip on her elbow, and that was all it took she was off like a shot yelling over her shoulder.
"I dare this damn curse to get between me and those kids."
Will watched her go; and felt a bit of admiration at her moxie, a half smile playing on his lips, but then he remembered who he was; and what she was risking, without any thought at all.
"Idiot!" he growled at himself, taking off like a shot after her; thinking he should have tied her to the bed or at least to his wrist.
Lizzie wasn't entirely sure how she felt about all this Beauty and the Beast curse nonsense, but she wasn't about to let Sterling and Flynn suffer because their parents were complete idiots.
After trying what felt like a million doors; Lizzie found the one that led into the ballroom. The Masque was in full swing; when she entered; everyone was drinking and dancing looking as if the night would never end. She briefly wished she had managed to get Jack's number, but a quick glance at the clock said it was eleven-fifty leaving her a scant ten minutes to get to the nursery, originally she thought it strange the children and hadn't been given their own bedroom, but now she was singing who ever thought of keeping them together's praises.
After elbowing her way through the crowd, and ignoring anyone that called her name; she finally managed to make it out the ballroom's double doors and into the hallway where the main staircase was kept. Lizzie kicked off her heels quickly, before tackling the stairs; the thought of the ticking clock making her rush. She loved those kids, and didn't want to see them come to any harm; even if meant throwing her own life away; or being stuck in the In-Between. Sterling and Flynn deserved to be loved unconditionally, and she was going give that to them.
Will burst through the Ballroom doors to catch the sight of Lizzie running up the slick marble staircase with a fierceness he had witnessed in very few people; with her face being shadowed by the candles lit on the staircase and the way her hair flew out in a flame colored cape; she reminded him of something. It took Will a moment, but when it him he stopped in his tracks. Elizabeth looked like the woman from the colored glass mural in the bathhouse.
He decided to process this later after he caught up with her, but then the whispering started.
"Power sought"
"Power given"
"A Beastly curse for a Beastly character"
The ground began to rumble and shake unforgiving.
"To save the villain"
"A statement of true love most be given."
"A beauty"
"There is no beauty for me!" Will howled. "Kill me. End this." he sobbed, but his cries were lost in the whispering that was growing louder.
"A Beast."
"Redemption,"
"When Beauty Rescues the Beast!" The voices screamed, and a furious wind began to blow throw the mansion; picking Will up and slamming him against the stone walls. He didn't fight he knew from past experience it only made it worse; the beating continued until at last it rendered Will unconscious.
I didn't make to Sterling and Flynn; was the first thought that popped into Lizzie's mind, as she suddenly gained awareness. She couldn't remember why she had not made it the nursery; something had stopped her...What stopped me? Lizzie asked herself; trying to visualize the scene in her mind. She had been at the top of the marble staircase; when the whispering had started. She turned around thinking it was someone trying to be funny; and-and she had seen Will! Lizzie had seen Will chasing her, when the ground started to shake, and he had been screaming and crying. "Kill me." he had howled, and then the wind had blown through and knocked her unconscious.
Unconscious!
Lizzie jerked awake to find herself laying on a mound of pillows in huge dome shaped pavilion. There were no walls only pillars holding up the thatched roof overhead. She sat up slowly to see the floor was completely covered in mismatched rugs, and pillows. Bookcases filled in the left side of the room where a wall should have been; there were tall iron poles that held candles on them strategically placed all over the dome.
"Where am I?" she whispered in awe; slowly coming to her feet. Lizzie walked over to the one of the pillars and looked out to see a sunlit field with a huge lake in the center of it, and across the lake loomed a dark castle; a stone path led from the pavilion the lake; making Lizzie think she needed to go take a look at the lake.
"This must be the In-Between." she muttered; walking out of the pavilion, and towards the lake, only to be stopped by the sound of music. It took her a moment to realize that the music was coming from the yellow sunflowers, and tea cup roses that grew in abundance on either side of the path.
"How odd. I feel like Alice, in Wonderland." Lizzie grinned; as she continued down the path.
Lizzie didn't notice that her appearance had changed until she got to the lake and saw her reflection.
"What on earth." Lizzie gasped, as she leaned closer to the lake to get a better view. Her once human almond shaped eyes, were turned up on the ends making her look like one of the characters from the fantasy games Lizzie had a past time of enjoying. Her magically produced locks were once again sheared short; and her arms were covered in silver vines, briers and swirls, and her ears were pointed just like an elf.
"What happened to me?" she whispered tugging on the points of ears.
"You're back to your base form." a woman said, popping out of the lake.
Lizzie screamed, and fell onto her butt; to see a dark head woman leaning out of the pond and onto the bank.
"Mrs. Bell?" Lizzie asked confusedly.
"The same." She nodded.
Lizzie was awestruck, the other Mrs Bell had been beautiful; in a elegant fading flower sort of way; this Mrs Bell couldn't be over forty, and looked as if she had just walked out of a heavily doctored cosplay photo.
"Mrs. Bell, what's going on? Why do I look like a fantasy video game character? How were you breathing underwater?" Lizzie began hyperventilating; this was too much to process.
"Calm down, Elizabeth." Mrs Bell urged her, "Take deep breaths."
Lizzie drew a large breath of fresh air, and exhaled; after a few moments of inhaling and exhaling she no longer felt like she was going to faint or run screaming into the lake.
"Elizabeth, you are in your base form; which means that your families bloodline started with Impish blood; and that's what you've become." Mrs Bell explained. "And the reason I can breath underwater is because my family were originally mermaids, but my great great great grandmother fell in love with a human prince and became human." A smile played on her full lips. "You might have heard the story; it's called the Little Mermaid in your world; though it was that Walt fellow who got the ending right."
"That's incredible!" Lizzie exclaimed unable to keep from bouncing as she said it.
"I feel the same way; now as to what's going on. I noticed Will dragging you from the ball last night, and I suspect he explained the gist of what is going on, am I correct?" Mrs Bell waited for Lizzie to nod before continuing. "Now everyone here plays a different role; because of you being the only young female that Will danced with at the ball; you've been cast as the Beauty to his Beast." she stopped, looking at Lizzie as if measuring her worth. "You have shown great courage so far, but you will be forced to show even more courage here. While everything here is based around fairy tales, the person who brought us here does not want a happy ending for Will. Everything about your character will be tested, and if you prove lacking then at winter's end you will forget all of this."
Lizzie took a deep breath; and tried to imagine forgetting a year and half of her life, but it seemed impossible. How could she forget Mrs. Bell, Georgiana, Charlie, even Caroline, but especially Will, Flynn and Sterling. At the thought of the children, Lizzie's head snapped up.
"Where are Flynn and Sterling?" she demanded, the maternal feeling that had accumulated when she found out about the curse; steadily growing stronger.
Mrs Bell smiled at the protectiveness in Lizzie's voice. "The children are perfectly fine. If you will give me a moment; I can in fact take you to them." she said, before continuing in a more thoughtful tone. "I thought you would want to know where your sister was; before your employers children."
"Jane! Oh Jane." Lizzie groaned sinking to the ground. "How could I forget. Do you know if she's okay?"
"She's perfectly fine, for now." Mrs Bell said with a wave of her hand. "Charlie is a veteran when it comes to this curse. Jane's safe for now, but mark my words she will come into this story, and when she does be warned that you will be forced to make a difficult choice." Mrs. Bell paused as if letting her heavy words sink in; before continuing on. "Now turn your back so I can take you to the children."