Hearing the growling noise approaching, the servants had no choice but to hide as a means to avoid being on the receiving end of their mistress's ferocious anger.

Lila jumped off Madeleine's lap and crawled away with Sultan not too far behind. Chip hid behind his mother who was trembling in fear. Cogsworth was tempted to say 'I told you so,' at this moment but fearing the worst, decided to hide like a coward under a rug.

Madeleine stayed in the chair but was unaware and confused at why the objects, who had been so kind to her, offered her food and a place to stay the night and became her friends in a few short minutes, were now hiding in fear, like what they had done was wrong.

'What's going on? Why are you hiding?' she said but the servants didn't answer her, as they continued looking for hiding places.

Sophie, who was normally so brave, hid behind her parents, scared about what was happening, while Raymond was shaking violently, scared out of his wits and had gone deathly white, his teeth chattering loudly.

Katrine was trying to find a place where she wouldn't be seen so easily, but couldn't since she was tall and had to put her back against the wall (literally), standing still and hoping that she wouldn't be found.

Rebecca, having rejected Remy's offer to hide with him, hid under a chair and Remy realised that he was fast running out of options.

'Oh, no! George, quick, hide me!' he said.

'Hide yourself!' was George's reply. Not to be deterred, Remy jumped onto his brother. George threw him off but relented and the two hid behind the chair where Rebecca was, to her dismay and Remy's joy.

'Well, what do you know, Becks? You chose to hide with me after all!' he said, excited.

'This is my hiding place, Remy and you just happened to barge in! So, just shut up and don't get close to me!' hissed Rebecca, batting Remy away.

'Careful Becks, you don't want to rip yourself on me!' he said.

'Shut up,' Rebecca said.

'Mama, Papa, I'm scared. What's going to happen? What will the mistress do?' said Sophie, trembling.

'It's alright, darling, just keep calm, it'll be all over soon,' said Amelie, reassuring her daughter, for she knew it wouldn't be too long before Sophie wouldn't be immune from the mistress's anger.

The growling got louder, as the Beast entered, walking on all fours, her mane sticking up and with a ferocious look on her face, with her teeth bare and gnashing.

Dressed in a white shirt, black silk trousers and a wine-red cape, with a pink bow in her mane, she growled and sniffed as she saw the strange woman in her chair.

Seeing this monster, who was partially hidden in the dark and circling around, like the wolves did in the forest, Madeleine realised why the objects were hiding and what had made the little clock so wound up before and became scared but stayed firmly in the chair.

Could this be the beast that had made everyone in the village afraid to go in the forest? It seemed to be and the rumours had proved to be true after all.

Madeleine couldn't see if the beast was male or female because if she had, she wouldn't have made a costly mistake later on.

The Beast sniffed around while crawling, looking for her disobedient servants who had let an intruder in and had given her food and shelter from what she had heard and saw from the staircase and were hiding like cowards from her.

It was not acceptable in her books and she was going to let them know it and deal with the uninvited guest.

'Looks like a nice little party you have going on here,' she said, her tone strangely calm but still animal-like, 'but it's such a pity that you had to make so much noise to disturb me and you know better not to do that!'

No one was answering which irked her and having seen Madeleine in her chair, she then said,

'I see a stranger in here,'

'No duh,' Remy whispered behind the chair he was hiding in.

'Who let her in? Who?' the Beast said, 'COME OUT AND EXPLAIN YOURSELVES NOW!'

Hearing their mistress call them, the servants were forced to obey and come out of their hiding places, terrified and faced her even though she was angry beyond belief.

'I won't ask you again,' she said, 'WHO LET THIS WOMAN IN THE DEN AND WHY IS SHE SITTING IN MY CHAIR? DID YOU GIVE HER FOOD AND SHELTER BEHIND MY BACK? DID YOU?'

Too terrified to speak, the servants said nothing, which only make the Beast angrier.

'ANSWER ME WHEN I AM TALKING TO YOU!' she roared. Despite this, there was still no reply. Eventually Remy broke the silence.

'Lumiere did,' he said, trying to sound muffled but his voice wouldn't allow it and it was loud enough for the Beast to hear.

Lumiere gasped at hearing that Remy had ratted him out.

'Squealer!' he hissed to Remy.

With that confirmed, the Beast turned to Lumiere who was sweating nervously, as wax dripped down him.

'Is this true, Uncle Lumiere?' she hissed.

'Mistress, before you jump to any conclusions, allow me to explain,' he said.

'I'm listening,' she replied.

'The lady got lost in the forest and was cold and wet and she needed a place to stay and..'

The Beast gave out a terrible roar in response, putting out Lumiere's candles.

'Mistress!' came the voice of Babette who came out of nowhere, 'How could you do this? It is very rude to roar in people's faces!'

She too had her face sprayed by the Beast's roar, getting louder each time, as Lumiere comforted her.

'And Mrs Potts and I gave her food and tea, we thought it was the right thing to..' said Rebecca, only for the Beast to roar again in her face and she felt her foul-smelling breath.

'Uggh, her breath smells of animal carcasses!' she exclaimed in disgust.

'Don't even mention she needs mouthwash!' said Katrine.

'Mistress, I would just like to say, it was all Lumiere's fault, just like it was the last time. He didn't learn anything from that and he didn't listen to me, no, no and the others helped as well.' Cogsworth said.

'SILENCE!' the Beast roared, which make the poor clock whimper.

With the servants dealt with, she turned to the main focus of her anger and irritation- the poor, defenceless woman in her chair who had done nothing wrong other than entering her castle.

'Oh boy, her goose is cooked now,' said Katrine.

'Madame, if you ever want to take my advice, take it now, run away.' Remy said to Madeleine.

'Remy, be quiet!' snapped Rebecca, 'Haven't you said enough already?'

Now Madeleine found herself face to face with the terrifying creature who looked like some sort of wolf with bits of lion and buffalo and goodness knows what, her fangs bared and growling ferociously and she felt her hot, smelly breath on her face, like the wolves did to her.

'Who are you? Why did you come here?' the Beast said, circling around the chair with Madeleine squirming in fear.

'I-I got lost in the forest and I needed a place to stay..' she managed to stammer.

'YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!' the Beast roared.

Then Madeleine, having not already been aware of the Beast's gender, mistakenly said,

'Please sir, I can explain,'

'Sir?' the Beast said, clearly offended, ' How dare you address me as 'sir'? That is pure insolence! Are you blind to see that I am indeed female? And I don't tolerate intruders in my castle, especially those who can't get my gender right!'

Madeleine took another look and saw clearly that under the loose shirt and trousers that she did indeed have feminine features and curves and the pink bow in her mane put any doubts about her gender to rest, that she was indeed female.

'I'm sorry, I didn't know!' she said, but the Beast was having none of it.

'LIAR!' she shouted. Madeleine was still looking at this monstrous creature and wondered how on earth she was ever created, as a pair of piercing sapphire blue eyes, very much like a human's started menacingly at her.

'STOP STARING AT ME!' the Beast roared, 'IS THAT WHY YOU ARE HERE? DID YOU COME HERE TO STARE AT THE BEAST? THE HIDEOUS, MONSTROUS BEAST IN FRONT OF YOU? DID YOU?' as a tear rolled down her cheek.

'No, I didn't, I swear! Please madame, I didn't mean you any harm,' Madeleine said, trembling, ' I just wanted a place to stay! Is that too much to ask?'

'You trespassed into my castle and now you must pay for it!' the Beast said, as two inhuman arms with sharp claws reached out and grabbed Madeleine, lifting her off the chair and she struggled like her life depended on it.

'No, please! Please let me go!' she said desperately, but it fell on deaf ears as the servants could only watch helplessly as the poor woman was dragged off to what they could only assume was the dungeon which hadn't been used for years.

The servants were in shock at seeing that their kindness and hospitality and their duty had to end with their guest, the first one that they had in ten years being thrown into the dungeon for her pains and couldn't help but feel responsible for her misfortune.

'What a sad sight,' said Mrs Potts, 'That poor woman, all she wanted was shelter and food and we were happy to give it to her and it had to end like it did.'

'She didn't even get the chance to eat the hearty meal I made for her which wasn't easy since I lack fingers and my arms are all floppy and I had to call on Nathalie to help me, even though I didn't want to and now it'll go to waste!' said Rebecca, as she hated it when she made a meal only for the person to either not eat it, finish it or turn it down.

'It was a lovely meal dear, I'm sure it would've been delicious,' Mrs Potts said.

'Thank you, Mrs Potts, I did try,' said Rebecca.

'It was getting to be such a great party,' Lumiere said, 'Ten years we've not had a single guest and when one does come..'

'The mistress just HAD to ruin it! Didn't she, Lumsie?' Remy interrupted him.

Finally fed up with the loudmouth washboard and stinging from his betrayal, Lumiere showed that Cogsworth was not the only one who received burns from him and since Remy was made of wood as well, burned him.

'OWWW!' shouted Remy in pain, 'What was that for, Lumsie?'

' For being a total and complete idiot, blabbermouth and SQUEALER!' said Lumiere, 'You ratted me out to the mistress!'

'Well, how could I not? She terrified me!' said Remy defensively, 'What was I supposed to do, keep quiet?'

'YES!' everyone shouted, like the answer was obvious.

'If you had only done that, the woman wouldn't be going to the dungeon to probably die!' George said, 'but oh no, you just couldn't help yourself and had to open that big mouth of yours and cause trouble yet again!'

'Oh, come on, when have I gotten us into trouble by talking too much?' said Remy.

'Oh, I don't know, LOTS OF TIMES?' said Babette, ' Like when you got mouthy with the Red Enchantress by taunting and trying to fight her or your comment 'what the mistress doesn't know won't hurt her!' and you ratting out poor Lumiere! You just don't know when to keep your mouth shut!'

'And that dribble that comes out of it, it drives us mad! Dribble, dribble, yap, yap, yap! Do us all a favour and JUST STOP TALKING!' screamed George, which stunned Remy.

'But to be fair, Lumiere was the one who actually let her in. Remy didn't really do anything other than being his loudmouth self,' said Katrine.

'Are you defending him, mademoiselle Katrine?' said Lumiere.

'No, I'm just bringing up a good point, that's all.' Katrine replied.

'That is true, Katrine,' said Amelie.

'Yeah, Kitty Kat's right, it was your fault, Lumsie!' said Remy, 'Cogsie said so! And Georgie, how did you know the woman was going to the dungeon?'

'It was a lucky guess!' snapped George.

'It's so sad what has happened to the mistress,' said Mrs Potts, sadly, ' She used to be such a happy, kind, polite and beautiful little girl, but this awful curse has made her just like her father!'

Everyone looked at her confused, for there were those who hadn't known Adam when he was selfish and unkind and the first Beast.

'When he was the first Beast of course,' Mrs Potts then said.

'It's alright, Mama, don't be so down,' said Chip, comforting his mother, ' We all did our best for her but she just kept shutting us out and closed off her heart to us. The more time she has spent as a beast, the more feral she has become.'

'She's not that mean, really,' Sophie piped up, 'All she needs is that nice boy to come and love her. I wonder when that will be.'

'Who knows,' said Amelie, 'Maybe he won't come at all,'

'And the saddest thing about all this is that her parents and grandfather are nothing more than motionless stone statues that can't be there to reassure her and give her the love they had for her.' Lumiere said.

All nodded and agreed sadly at Lumiere's comment. What had made the curse even crueller was that Belle and Adam, who had always been there for their daughter and loved her with all their hearts, were not there to help her adjust to her form and keep on loving her (which they knew they still would, despite her beastly form) and that made her the way she was.

Cogsworth, sad about what had happened and feeling guilty for not having saved Madeleine from her terrible fate, snuck away and walked into the main foyer. He found the small room where the stone statues of Belle, Adam and Maurice were standing, still frozen in an ageless state in the same pose, covered with dust and cobwebs and looked at them sadly.

'Oh, Master and Mistress, forgive me,' he said, 'If only you could see what your sweet darling, your beloved daughter has become.'

To Adam, he said,

'She's become the monstrous beast you once were, Master, everything that you didn't want her to be. Only just now, she has locked a helpless woman in the dungeon who only wanted a place to stay from the cold,' as he shed a tear.

'Just like you did with Monsieur Maurice,' while looking at Maurice.

'But I know you and the mistress still love her, I know you do.' he said and with a heavy heart, walked back to the den.

What a sad ending. But don't worry, the next chapter will be funny!

To clear up some things, in case you were confused:

Rose, having been a beast for so long, didn't want anyone to use her name, so for a few chapters more, she will be known as 'The Beast', 'Mistress' (since her poor parents are trapped in stone, she is in charge of the castle) and 'she'.

Her personality has changed, so she's mean, ill-tempered and reclusive and has become more beastly since the curse took place, henceforth why she acted the way she did, basically all the things her father was before her.

Reviews are welcome, as next chapter, Leon will receive an indecent proposal! How will he react? Stay tuned!