Contrary to popular belief... I didn't abandon this fic... I got side tracked, distracted, started a new fic and when I tried to return to this fic... It was to late, my school released a slew of essays in my direction... Sigh... Sorry guys... Well on the bright side I'm back and this is the longest chapter I wrote... EVER so please don't hate me for taking so long to update... Also... For you Frozen fans... The new fic I wrote is Frozen... Its not Jelsa but I will get to that... It was kinda a mini idea I had but people liked it so much, I continued it... Check it out, its called a sister's love... Thank you all you lovely people who reviewed and favourited and followed... I love you all... ENJOY...
"What the hell?" Angela muttered while Chip looked at her fearfully as another series of poundings shook the castle walls...
"Angela?" he whimpered as he watched his mistress look around wildly like a panicked wolf being cornered.
"Angela?" he tried again only to stop when she shushed him and sniffed the air.
"Stay here." she whispered while setting him back on the ground carefully, before shakily getting onto her legs.
As quietly as she could, Angela opened the doors of her balcony... Decidedly uninterested in attracting the attention of whatever or whoever that was causing such an unholy ruckus outside her doors, she plastered herself to the wall, padding noiselessly across the stone walls and blending in with the gargoyles that lined the roof and hiding within the deep shadows that the castle's crenellations cast.
From her vantage point, she stifled a gasp at what she saw and had to lean forward over the railing, to ensure the rain or her mind wasn't playing tricks on her, figuring that anyone who saw her would probably just assume she was one of the castle's grotesque carvings. A mob of armed villagers, forty, no... fifty of them all carrying pitchforks and weapons trying to knock the front door open with a large tree as a batting ram...
"Kill the Beast! Kill the Beast! THE MONSTER DIES TONIGHT!"
Monster... Although she often called herself that, the word never failed to make her body crumble and shiver... To rip her soul to shreds...
Angela clutched her chest as a jolt of pain shot through her chest, a mixture of fear and hurt overwhelming her senses...
"Monster... They think I'm a monster..." she whispered as her knees started to buckle.
"Kill the beast! Kill the beast! KILL THE BEAST!" those words echoed around her, deafening her. Angela whimpered as the pain in her chest became too much and she collapsed, just managing to catch onto a gargoyle to stop herself from falling over the roof completely.
"Why?! Why are you people trying to hurt me?" she thought fearfully almost close to tears as her claws dug into the stone, the pressure in her chest building up so brutally fast, it almost becoming unbearable...
"Monster...Monster... Monster..."
Those words were just too familiar... Angela closed her eyes.
"Monster... I'm a monster..." she whimpered as the memory came flooding back to her.
She had hid when she heard the door creak open, stumbling over her new feet and tail but determined not to walk on all fours like some animal.
"Angela!" came the deep baritone voice of her father followed by the silky voice of her mother, threatening to punish her if she didn't show herself... Angela remembered whimpering at that as she cowered uncontrollably behind the closet shivering as the remains of her torn nightgown, now tattered rags on her larger body failed to protect her from the cold ...
"Angela! Enough of thi... WHAT THE DEVIL?!" and the next thing she felt was somebody grabbing her by the scruff of her neck and hurling her to a side and her screaming in pain as she crashed painfully into a bookshelf... The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes, was her father rushing towards her, sword in hand.
"Papa No! NO!" she had begged but only a sound fit for an animal escaped her.
"Die Monster!"
"Aghh!" Angela stifled a scream at the memory of her father's blade, her paw finding its way to the aching scar on her arm... She snarled in pain as her eyes travelled back to the mob... Eyeing their torches, they're spears and they're knives...
"They're... They're so afraid of me..." she thought miserably as she watched the mob show no intention of stopping or giving up for that matter...They all looked so eager to see her dead...
"I am nothing more than an animal to them... A monster... A beast... Something to be feared hunted and killed..." Angela held in her agony... They're fear... Her fear... Her pain... IT WAS TOO MUCH TO BEAR... Maybe... Maybe it'd be better to just submit to her faith... After all... She had nothing left to lose anyway... A strange sort of painful chill surged through her, her will to live slowly draining away... Though terror made Angela wanted to do nothing more than beg pathetically for her life... What was the point? She WAS a monster and they were afraid of her... Terrified of her... and they had every right to be...
With a low whimper, Angela stood back up...
Making her way off the roof and back into the castle, Angela was surprised to see majority of her staff crammed into her room looking nervously at her. She narrowed her eyes... She had no desire to face them... their presence alone was already making her the guilt in system too much to bear... First she had condemn them with the curse and now they were all going to die...She sighed... What the hell...
"What are you all doing here?" she mumbled gruffly, not daring to look any of them in the eye...
A very nervous Cogsworth slowly made his towards her, after being shoved forward by one of the coatracks...
"Um your grace... I'm sure you are aware of the... uh... knocking at the front doors... and I... I mean we... As in all of us..."
"Cogsworth. I am well aware from the shaking castle walls that there are intruders outside and trust me, they have long given up on knocking and are now trying to break down my front door with a tree as a battering ram..." Angela snapped coldly before taking notice of the sudden flash of fear that flashed through Cogsworth's eyes... That came out a lot harsher than she had intended...
"Well then...what should we do?" he asked meekly.
There was a long uncomfortable pause...
"I don't know..." Angela admitted helplessly as she sighed and rubbed her aching temples... Oh why did they have to pick now to harass her? There was already a mob outside her front door waiting to kill her... That aside... The thought of what would happen to her servants scared her... She was the mistress of hundreds of people... What would happen to them after she died? She'd hate to think what people would do with living and breathing objects... Sell them? Burn them? Exploit them? The possibilities were endless... No... she couldn't drag them down with her in this mess... Not again... They didn't deserve it... Maybe... Maybe if the mob just killed her... they would leave the castle alone... Maybe it might even reverse the enchantment on her servants with her out of their way... Angela clenched her fist and held in her tears...
"I was well and truly damned anyway..." she reminded herself before taking a step forward...
"I need you all to promise me something..." She chocked although it came off as blunt.
There were uneasy glances exchanged from person to person..
"Anything you say your grace..." came their unanimous reply... Well from those who were capable of speech anyway...Angela stole a quick glance at the window before gathering all her courage.
"I want all of you to stay out of sight. Hide in whatever room necessary and stay together..."
"Your grace..."
"And whatever you do... Don't reveal yourselves... STAY OUT OF SIGHT AND DON'T COME OUT... I'm going to take care of business..." and with that she grabbed her cloak and made her way to meet her untimely fate... her head raised high so none of them could see the fear in her eyes...
Lumiere watched nervously as Angela trudged towards the door... Something was wrong... He couldn't explain it but there was something very odd about the way she had dismissed them..
"Mistress? Where on earth are you going?! " Lumiere blurted out in worry, not at all liking the look on her face as she stormed past him
"To face the mob." came Angela's cool answer...
The servants gaped at her in alarm not sure if they heard her correctly.
"WHAT?!"
"Mistress? Are you feeling alright?"
"Never been better Lumiere... Why?" Angela replied coldly, a hint of harsh bitterness in her voice as she continued forward only stopping in her tracks when members of her staff blocked the doorway she was about to exit from. Angela narrowed her eyes.
"Get .Out. Of. My. Way..." she snarled, her tensed posture indicating she'd barge through her servants if she had to...
"Your grace! Have you gone mad? They'll kill you!" Mrs. Potts exclaimed only to small shrug from Angela.
"Exactly."
There were gasps of outright horror from the servants, all of them certain she had lost her mind.
"Mistress..."
"Look you either do what I SAY or get out of my way." Came Angela's fierce snarl as they all still refused to budge... There was a tensed silence before Lumiere, Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts defiantly made their way in front of Angela and stood with the furniture that was blocking her exit...
"No."
"No?"
"No Mistress... We won't let you do this..."
Angela released a low growl, torn between barging through them forcefully AND ENDING ALL HER TROUBLES ONCE AND FOR ALL or breaking down in front of them... After all this time... And all that she had put them through... They were still willing to help her... Another loud "THUD!" sounded from below and this time, the front doors actually creaked with protest...
"I don't have time for this..." and Angela tensed her body, praying her servants had the reflexes to duck and readied herself to pounce... However, before she could make the leap, she was surprised to feel a very, quick, very powerful and not to mention very painful blow to her head... and the next thing she knew, she passed out...
"Damn it Madame, you could have been a little gentler..." Cogsworth pointed out as he eyed as his mistress fell to the ground unconscious... Madame de la Grande Bouche shrugged helplessly.
" I'm sorry I've never done something like this before... Lumiere signaled me to knock her out... So I knocked her out..." she argued before subtly returning her drawers... All three of them back into her chest when Cogsworth opened his mouth to berate her some more.
"Never mind that..." Lumiere interrupted hastily as another loud knock shook the castle walls.
"We have more important things to worry about and I have a..."
"YOU have an idea? I suppose your idea involves all of us tiny household objects to go down there and declare war on those ruffians..." Cogsworth huffed sarcastically.
Lumiere smiled enthusiastically.
"Right you are my friend!"
There was a sudden unexpected uproar by the other servants, even from those who couldn't talk... They simply resorted to stamping on the ground to show their objection or enthusiasm to Lumiere's ludicrous plan...
"Lumiere! Have you lost your senses completely?!" Cogsworth exclaimed, his moustache twitching in fear at the very thought of battling a mob.
"We are powerless out there!" Madame agreed.
"Some of us would be shattered!" Mrs. Potts pointed out.
"Stamp!" a cloak rack chipped in... Although nobody knew what he just said...
"No we won't! Listen to me... They may be bigger but they're not expecting a fight..."
"Lumiere what in God's name are you talking about?" Cogsworth grumbled.
"They think we are mere objects not people... For example, one of them may grab me, but they won't expect me to set them on fire... We have an advantage... We have the element of surprise... Now listen..."
Cogsworth's eyes widened with realization, as Lumiere revealed more and more of his plan... Maybe they did have an edge after all... When the candlestick was done, he clapped his hands loudly and for once, everybody listened.
"Alright everybody, you've heard Lumiere! TO YOUR PLACES!"
Minutes later... Everyone in the castle was ready. They had split up into three flanks, divided primarily by size... The smallest objects, like cups, forks, spoons, hairbrushes Lumiere and Cogsworth were the rearguard and responsible for the hallways and sitting rooms. Ready to ambush anyone who made it that far into the castle... The larger and largest objects were slightly in front of them, waiting behind doors and by entrances to leap out at any of the invaders who would try to get further into the castle and hopeful crush them before they could do so... The plan was simple. To seal the mob off from the main entry hall and force them back out through the front door. As the door gave a protesting creak, Lumiere gave his comrades a hearty nod and eyed them all with an eagle eye...
"Mon amis... You all know what to do, right?" The objects nodded, before gathering their nerves as the door gave a final moan before bursting open... The mob has arrived...
Guinevere could barely restrain her shout of glee as the castle doors FINALLY shuddered one last time and with a haunting creak finally swing open under the force of her followers' blows. There was an almost unanimous groan of relief from the poor men and being unable to control their shaking knees and limbs, quickly dropped the makeshift battering ram as swiftly as they had dared. That first attack had taken them far longer than they had expected and they were now tired, in a foul mood and most importantly questioning themselves how'd they got themselves into this ridiculous situation.
However, their first glimpse of the castle more than made up for it... The yellow moonlight filtered into the cavernous stone halls of the dark castle showing off the grotesque stone gargoyles that grinned devilishly at them. Nervously, the mob took nervous steps across the long red carpet that flowed over the floor and up the stairs, which promptly led them deeper into the castle. The hall itself consisted of rows of stone arches, each one packed with all sorts of random furniture, candles, chairs, tables, even a dresser or two stacked messily in every corner of the room.
Guinevere, along with her companions, peered around in the gloom. This wasn't what they were expecting at all... In Guinevere's mind, she had hoped the beast would have lunged at them immediately and her soldiers could have just killed it and the whole grisly deed would have ended... just like that.
"Well?" Genevieve said, glaring around.
"What are you all waiting for? Get me a light and we'll begin our explorations to kill the unholy creature..."
The men, always ready to oblige, started to look around. One of them reached for a three-armed candlestick, waving it around erratically trying to illuminate the room... There was silence... and then...
"Now!" shouted the candlestick, bursting into flames in the man's hand. He dropped it with a high scream and ran to hide behind Guinevere who with the rest of the villagers stared open-mouthed as every single piece of furniture in the room came to life and descended on them. The battle was on...
3000 words and still no battle scene... I am GOD AWFUL... SORRY... THE NEXT ONE WILL BE! I PROMISE! Look, since all my important essays are out of the way, if I get ten reviews for this fic... I promise I'll update within the next week... I know that used to be the deal and I'll update within a day but I'm still really really busy... But hey its an improvement from updating every month and five days...Anyway... I hoped you enjoyed this chapter...
REVIEWS ARE YOUR FRIENDS :)
