Sunshine and Yellow Lilies

by An Undercover Changeling

Beauty and the Beast/Fairytale AU. A crumbling castle, a cursed prince...and a cheerful young comedienne, approaching a strange kingdom with her family in their traveling performing show, who will play a much more pivotal role than she thinks. A heavy Luan/Benny focus with shameless fluff and shameless puns, but also some darker parts with slight angst. Rated T for some violence.

14. ChapterXIV:ClosedDoors and Fading Lights

Chapter XIV: Closed Doors and Fading Lights

It only took an instant for everything to change.

Stepping into the room was like stepping into her worst nightmare. As Luan looked around in horror, her heart raced faster and faster, threatening to explode right out of her body and leave nothing but ashes in its wake. All that she knew how to do was stand frozen in shock, dropping the wooden dummy she'd still carried with her right onto the floor.

A few of her sisters were huddled against the wall on the far end of the room, Luna and Leni having instinctively moved to cover the terrified, trembling bodies of Lola, Lana, and Lily. Lincoln had grabbed one of Lisa's thick books, holding it in front of Lisa and Lucy like a protective shield. Lori gripped a broom and Lynn brandished her hockey stick, and both were slowly edging towards the back wall, ready to strike. Her parents, meanwhile, had raced down the hallway just as fast as she had done, and now stood just as stunned and still. A burning smell coming from the kitchen assaulted her nose, though that seemed to her the least urgent matter to take care of right now.

The room had gone completely silent…and it was easy to see why. A hissing, snarling creature paced the floor on all fours, brown fur bristling and ears pinned flat against its head. Its movements seemed completely animalistic, simply a beast on the prowl for its next victim. No traces left of the sweet, funny boy that had once been buried deep inside.

This was not the Benny she knew. This was not her prince.

This was something completely different.

Luan watched in pure terror as it stalked towards Luna with a growl. As the twins whimpered in fear, holding an absolutely flabbergasted Lily close while Leni looked on with a similarly shocked expression, Luna pulled a sharp, gleaming object out of the pocket of her trousers. While Luan's mind could scarcely manage a coherent thought, even she had to wonder…where and when had Luna gotten hold of such a thing?

Luna held the dagger out in front of the transformed prince, her arm visibly shaking as the creature drew closer, its muscles tensed and prepared to pounce. Did it even understand how much danger it was in?

Every muscle in Luan's body wanted to snatch that dagger right out of her sister's hand. If there was even a chance that the Benny she knew and that creature in front of her were still one and the same and Luna was about to do something absolutely terrible, then she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she let anything happen. But her feet wouldn't move an inch from where they stood.

However, they didn't have to. Luna wasn't using her weapon. All she did was hold it out in front of her, murmuring something forlornly to herself that Luan was only barely able to make out.

"Way harsh, dude…way harsh…"

A storm of emotions washed through Luna's dark eyes–pity, fear, confusion, sorrow–and in an instant, the silver blade slipped from her grasp and hit the stone floor with a piercing clatter.

The fur on the creature's neck and tail puffed up, and it darted several paces back, startled by the sudden noise the way Benny always used to be whenever one of Lisa's explosions went off.

Taking her eyes off Benny for the first time, Leni's fearful, pale blue eyes locked right onto Luan's. "Luan, what's wrong with him?" she asked, her voice shaking.

Luan tried to speak, but her throat had gone painfully dry and no words came to her tongue. The most she could manage was to shake her head again and again and again, trying to tell them this was not him. That he could never, would never, be anything like this.

Her eyes turned back to the creature, desperately trying to discern if there was any pattern to its movements. No, not 'it,' she reprimanded herself. 'Him.' My Benny has to be inside there somewhere. If I can only find a way to bring him back out, the way I did once, maybe we can still be saved.

She kept her eyes on him, following his footsteps as he slowly backed away from Luna, and soon realized that they didn't really look much like the predatory movements she'd seen the wolves make as they'd stalked her in the woods. They actually looked more like a confused, disoriented stumble. And his tail wasn't alert and erect, it was pressed tight between his legs. He's scared.

As her siblings and parents all suddenly found their voices, their hollers and shouts echoed around the room, reverberating off the stone walls. Lynn Sr and Rita rushed towards Lily, and Rita took the baby in her arms while Lynn Sr moved to cover Lola and Lana.

Their noise made everything at least a thousand times more confusing and overwhelming. She tried to picture what all of this would look and sound like from Benny's perspective. Of course he would be scared. He probably had no memory of who her family was, not in a state like this. All he knew about them was that they were intruding into his space, and that they were very, very loud. He was just a spooked creature trying to defend himself from something that, much like he did, looked scary on the surface but was actually harmless deep down.

"Everyone, please!" she demanded. "Don't shout! You'll scare him!"

But her protests, it seemed, were in vain, swallowed right up into the hurricane of ceaseless noise. It was hopeless.

So she rushed across the room, hoping she could get to Benny before things got any worse and he did something that her Benny would come to deeply regret.

Not a smart move.

If anything, her quick, abrupt movements only riled him up even more. The second she started to sprint, his head snapped in her direction. His path and target changed in an instant. To her.

He lunged at her and she flinched, immediately pressing herself against the stone wall. Fearful images flashed through her head of that night when, right after he'd saved her life, the curse had backfired, causing him to lose his mind and try to attack the very thing he'd fought so hard to protect. The only moment in which she'd ever been truly scared of him. But it's not him. This isn't him.

Although she was terrified out of her wits, Luan was determined to stand her ground. If she could get him away from her family, maybe she could find a way to calm him down and help him out of this state. Please, let me save him. Let there be a way for everything to be okay again.

"It's alright," she offered in a soft voice as he came closer, teeth bared. She tried to keep the tremble out of her voice and posture; she knew a lot of forest creatures could sense fear and she wasn't quite sure what would happen if he somehow got ahold of hers. "Everything's alright. Benny, it's me. It's Luan."

Her gaze locked with his, and as she looked deep into his eyes, she realized with a painful stab of emotion that she had been right–he really was just as terrified as everyone else. Perhaps even more so.

"Do you remember who I am?"

She knelt to the floor and reached out a pale, trembling hand, praying he'd recognize her scent and realize that she wasn't a threat. Time came to a standstill as he studied it, the quizzical look on his face so achingly, hauntingly familiar. Gently, her fingers brushed against the tip of his nose, and she had to force steel chains around her heart when she saw that his only reaction was to wince and back away.

"Let me know you're here," she begged him, raising her voice to make sure he could hear her over her family's chaos. "Please, my prince, just give me a sign."

His back raised in a threatening arch, like a cornered street cat, and his jaws snapped at her fingertips. If Luan's reflexes had been a little slower, she could've lost a few. Just the thought sent icy shivers down her spine. He's not himself at all.

Still, she found within her a shred of courage to keep trying. Though by now she'd lost all hope of appearing brave and fearless, she managed to whisper in a horrifyingly shaky voice: "Knock-knock, are you in there?"

With a frightening, catlike yowl, Benny reached out a paw and swiped, his sharp claws tearing right through the fabric of her cloak. It wasn't until she felt needles of stabbing pain and saw the thin lines of blood run down her arm did she fully realize what exactly the boy had done.

The same soft, gentle paws that had caressed her cheek, held her hands, and swept back her hair only moments before had torn their claws right through her skin and made her bleed.

And things were about to get even worse.

Tail lashing and claws at the ready, Benny advanced closer and closer, until the tip of his nose pressed roughly against hers. Though this gesture was somehow reminiscent of some of the sweeter, intimate moments they'd shared, the challenging look in his eyes and the way he snarled, exposing each and every pointed tooth in his mouth, was decidedly not. She couldn't even tell where one of her trembling heartbeats ended and the next began, they were pulsing so deafeningly fast. It was as though she were nothing but a field mouse caught between a lion's jaws, waiting for the crushing blow of death. All she could smell was the scent of blood, her blood.

Can't think…don't think…don't even breathe…

"LITERALLY NO ONE HURTS MY SISTER!" A voice boomed across the lobby, breaking right through the sounds of screams and wails. Blue shoes raced across the stone floor, and before Luan could even register what was happening, her dear prince was sprawled on the ground, wincing in visible, heartbreaking pain. Lori had kicked him.

Though her expression was rough, her blue eyes were wide with concern. "Luan, are you oka–"

She didn't even have time to finish her sentence before Benny was back on his paws, ready for a rematch.

But Lori was even quicker. Before Luan could even think to stop her, she raised the broom she was holding high in the air and brought it down hard on his head. A perfect hit.

The yelp that escaped Benny's throat tore her chest apart and shattered her heart into a thousand little shards. Because, for a second, she could've sworn she'd heard his voice in there somewhere. She'd heard him.

Sharp tears pricked at the corners of Luan's eyes like tiny pieces of glass. She got to her feet, stubbornly ignoring the throbbing pain in her bleeding arm, and whirled to face her older sister. "Stop! Please! Don't hurt him!"

Lori's face was devoid of all emotion, but her eyes burned with fury. "He hurt you," she snapped, lifting her broom high for another blow.

"Don't do it!" Luan screamed as tears flooded her eyes, turning the whole world into a blazing, bleeding blur. She reached out a hand to stop Lori, to shield her prince, but it wasn't enough. She was too late, too late…

Everything was too late.

Another agonizing smack, then a whimper, much weaker and frailer this time, then the sound of Lori's voice shouting, "Everyone, get out!" Thunderous footsteps, a door flung open, Rita and Lynn Sr's clipped voices, Lily's piercing wails. Her siblings desperately screaming at her to go, leave, run away.

But to Luan, none of it mattered. The sounds went right over her head. Her eyes still drowned in tears, she dropped to her knees. Desperate thoughts pummeled against her skull.

I have to stay with him. I have to save him. Dear God, let me save him.

A brown shape tore through the fog of her vision, and despite everything and everyone that told her she shouldn't, still something inside her wanted to believe there was hope for him. For them.

"Benny, please," she whispered, her heart pounding against her chest with every word. "Come back to me. I'm serious, I…"

"Luan, come on! We have to go!" Suddenly, Leni was at her side, looking into her eyes with an urgent intensity that Luan hadn't known she was capable of possessing. Luan blinked back tears, looking at Benny, crouched low against the floor and cringing in pain, then up at Leni.

"I'm not leaving him."

She was determined to stay. No matter what happened to her, no matter if it put her life in terrible danger, she wasn't going to leave him alone. Not ever.

"Mom! Dad! She won't move!" Leni shouted. She tugged on Luan's arm, but Luan refused to give her even an inch. I meant what I said. I'm not leaving.

"Luan, you listen to your sister!" Lynn Sr stood in the doorway, his shadow tall and imposing. "Back away slowly and come to me. You don't know what that beast's capable of."

"He's not a beast," Luan snapped at him. "He's my friend." She glanced down at Benny, his face awash with pure tension, confusion and fear. Not a monster–never a monster–but a poor, frightened puppy. She lowered her voice as she spoke to him, praying that now that all the noise and chaos was gone, she had a chance of calming him down and letting him know that he was safe.

"Shh. Benny, Benny, Benny, it's okay. They're all gone now." He let out a soft, pained whimper and she couldn't keep herself from choking up. How could she have ever let anyone harm him? This is all my fault. I should have stopped him. I should have noticed he wasn't feeling well. I never should've let him go downstairs. And now we're both going to pay the price. "And I'm here."

She attempted to reach out a hand to him again, but Leni grabbed it and pulled it away. "Luan, I don't think you should–"

"No!" Luan tugged hard, trying to wrench her hand free. "I can fix him! I can fix all of this!"

She was caught off guard when Benny snarled, lashing out a paw. His sharp claws grazed against the skin on Leni's wrist, leaving bleeding scratches in their wake.

With a gasp, Leni stared at the marks, her eyes as wide as plates. She looked as though she'd just watched the entire world split in two.

"That's enough!" Lynn Sr shouted. He raced across the room and Benny leapt to meet him, letting loose a warning growl. "Stay away from my daughters!" He tore off a shoe and lobbed it at Benny's head, smacking the boy hard on the nose and causing him to cringe and recoil. Luan immediately sprang up from the floor, rushing to make sure he was okay. But the sound of her father's sharp whistle made her hesitate.

"Leni, Luan, come here," Lynn Sr demanded. "Now."

She heard Leni stumble to her feet, taking her place at their father's side, but Luan kept her eyes on the prince. The way he trembled under the wrath of her father's frame, the frightened look in his eyes, broke her.

Oh, my prince…what have we done?

I've ruined everything.

Powerful hands locked around her shoulders, lifting her right off her feet. Luan writhed and squirmed, but Lynn refused to yield. She was bound tight.

Sharp, urgent fear flashed through every vein in her body. I can't let him take me away!

Fighting with all her might, she twisted, kicked and screamed, biting at the hands that grasped her in frantic, blind fury. But Lynn, having been accustomed to years of brawls and temper tantrums, only held her tighter, all but dragging her towards the door.

"Leni, help me!" Luan gasped, looking at her sister with pleading eyes. But the costume designer only walked beside them in silence, cradling her injured hand. She refused to even look at either of them, keeping her gaze trained on the floor.

Luan knew she was being reckless, knew certain that she wasn't thinking straight at all, but she didn't care. Her mind whirled with terrified thoughts, flashed with images of an uncertain future. How shocked she was by what was happening to him. How much she feared he'd never recognize her again, that he would be gone for good. And how frightened she was for what might happen to him if she wasn't there. All of her muscles screamed and begged to break free of her confines and dash right back to his side forever.

"Let me go!" she screamed as her father dragged her out the doorway. She caught a glimpse of dark, beautiful, terrified eyes and stretched out a hand in vain. Trying one last, desperate time to reach him. To set him free. "Benny!"

But if he understood her, he gave her no sign. He just watched her go, crouched on all fours in the shadows. His head was cocked in a puzzled way that was so like Benny and yet so not Benny, never Benny, that it pulverized whatever broken shards were left of her heart.

Only when Lynn Sr slammed the door shut, the wooden surface mere inches from her face, did it fully hit Luan that the boy she knew might be gone from her forever.

When he dropped her onto the doorstep, she immediately lunged for the doorknob, shouting Benny's name again, but her father seized her hand in his. His eyes were a raging storm of emotion. Fear, confusion, disbelief…even traces of anger.

"Luan," he said in a tone more serious than she'd ever heard from him. He looked her straight in the eyes. "What were you doing? Explain this."

Her voice quivered as she forced back another sob. Summoning up every shred of courage she could find in her trembling body, she forced herself to stand tall and meet her father's gaze.

"Let me go to him."

"Are you crazy? He just tried to–"

"It's not him!" She tried to wrench her hand free from her father's grip, but it was tight, too tight, and she hated it and she hated him. "He's sick and confused, and that curse is doing awful things to him, but I promise I can fix him! Please, just let me–"

"Luan Marie Loud." Her mother, who had been checking the scrapes on Leni's arms and whispering soothing words to the little ones, gave her a serious glare. "I don't know what's going through that boy's head right now, but I am not sending you back in there. You could have died."

"He's not dangerous," she continued to argue, well aware that she must sound absolutely out of her mind to her family. "Not to me."

"Look at this." Rita swept a hand across the clearing, where her siblings were huddled, shivering and shaking on the grass like soldiers returned from a battlefield. "Look at what he's done."

And so Luan looked…and it was like her broken heart had been stepped on, crushed, and obliterated all over again.

Luna seemed absolutely devastated, the look on her face betraying her sheer disbelief. Lori had her eyes trained on one of the windows, Lynn Jr on her heels, both of them staring through the glass with expressions as hard as stone…though both of their faces glistened with moisture. Whatever hints of color Lucy's face contained had completely vanished, leaving her as white and frail as a wrung-out dish towel. Lily wailed–her cries a sound of pure, unmistakable fear–and was comforted by a trembling Lisa, the edges of her glasses stained with wet droplets. Leni stared at the wounds on her arm, completely dumbfounded. Lincoln watched over his sisters, pacing around like he wanted to help, but had no idea what to do or who to go to first. And the sobbing twins seemed even more shaken than anyone else, clinging to each other so tightly that it was hard to say for sure which of them was supporting the weight of the other.

Luan wasn't the only one who had just been utterly destroyed. In one way or another, this had ruined all of them.

And not even the funniest jokes or silliest pranks could pull any of this back together.

"He…he said he'd never hurt any of us," Lana whispered in a small, trembling voice that really didn't sound much like Lana at all. "Benny broke his promise."

"It's all bogus, dudes," Luna added, her voice no louder or stronger than Lana's. "That's what it is. Bogus."

"Indeed, sibling." Holding a still inconsolable Lily carefully in her lap, Lisa removed her glasses, cleaned them off, and set them back atop her nose with a sniff. "It…seems to me preposterous that such an amicable and honorable creature would ever do something like…"

"...Like becoming the one thing I never thought he could be." Lucy supplied, her voice coming out as a hoarse, barely-there rasp. "A monster."

Those words seemed to fill the air, settling deep into everyone's chests.

They all think he's a monster.

What if he is now? Luan fretted, worried thoughts continuing to tumble through her brain. What if he's completely lost his mind? What if he never comes back?

What's going to happen to him now? Just the thought of it all, to know that the kindest, sweetest boy she'd ever met in her life was going to suffer a fate like this…

Suddenly, nothing in the world seemed good and right anymore.

"Lori, can you see anything in there?" Rita called, her stern voice still charged with emotion.

"Um…no," Lori replied, refusing to turn away from the window for even a second. "I don't see him."

"Did he escape?" Lynn Sr demanded. Still holding Luan's hand in his, he looked warily up at the door.

"No, I don't think so, but–"

"But you don't know for sure." Rita snapped her fingers, drawing the attention of each and every tear-streaked face. "Come on. We have to go, now. As fast and far away as possible."

The mere thought of leaving now, when Benny was clearly at his worst and just needed someone around to keep him company, was too much for her to handle.

"Please don't make me leave!" Luan immediately cried out, desperate to find her way back to the prince–or whatever he was now–and keep trying to remind him of who he was and how much she cared for him. She'd sit outside his doorstep for a thousand years if only there was a chance she could still save him. "I have to stay with him. I have to–"

"You're acting hysterical," Rita snapped. "Do you even know how dangerous that was? How much fear I felt for you? You could have been killed."

"I don't have to go back in!" she said, though she knew full well that she was going to try to anyway, no matter what happened to her if she did. "I only want to stay by the door and see if I can…"

"The answer is no. I don't want any of you setting foot anywhere near this castle ever again." She looked over at Luan's father. "Lynn, take the girls and Lincoln and start moving. I'm right behind you."

Lynn Sr did as Rita instructed, letting go of Luan and herding all of the other children around like a flock of lost sheep. Picking up Lily and gripping Lisa's hand, he led them all on a solemn march into the distance, each of them caught up in their own little tangled web of misery.

"Luan, come on," Rita ordered. "You can't stay here."

"You're just going to leave him alone? By himself?" Luan hissed, feeling a growl rise up in her throat that had to have been just as powerful as the ones that had come out of Benny. "Mom, he's sick. The spell on him is causing him to lose himself. He can't control any of this. I don't even think he remembers–"

"This isn't the time for this!" Rita shouted back. "I have to protect the family! I have to protect you. And you're ridiculous if you think I'm going to let you risk your life all over again."

"What's ridiculous is abandoning someone who clearly needs help!"

"We need help! This whole family could've died because you refused to let that mon–"

"Don't ever call him that!" Luan shrieked, her hands balled into fists.

Her mind was a furious red fog. She couldn't believe her mother was just going to give up on Benny. Benny, who had won their hearts…her heart…in a million small ways, and was struggling with horrific things that none of them had ever had to experience. He was losing all of the things that had made him human.

And without his mind–without his senses and smarts and rationality and everything that made him him–the world was a very dangerous place. If he'd escaped, knowing nothing about the village that would undoubtedly shoot him on sight, he would surely die. And if he hadn't yet, how soon would it be before he did?

Leaving Benny alone was not only extremely difficult for her. It was downright wrong.

"I'm not going with you," she said firmly, planting her feet as strongly and solidly as she could into the ground. She grabbed the doorknob and turned it in her hand. "I'm staying right here with him, and that's final!"

"No, you're not!" Rita grabbed Luan's hand, pulling her away from the door and the poor, sweet boy she'd given her heart to. Even as Luan gripped the doorknob in her other hand with all her might, Rita's strength easily overpowered hers, tugging her several feet forward.

Still, Luan fought hard, digging her shoes into the ground and trying in vain to yank her hand away from her mother's grip. Once again, she shouted out Benny's name as loudly as she could, praying he'd hear her, snap out of it, and rescue her.

"Stop acting so foolish!" Rita scolded. "I know how much you care about him, but it's over, honey. He's gone."

"You don't know him like I do!" she cried. Why wouldn't her mother just listen to her? Why did her parents have to be so thoughtless and stubborn? Why couldn't they leave her alone so she could focus all her attention on the only thing that mattered to her?

In that moment, she despised them both. More than she'd ever hated anyone before in her entire life.

"Benny would never do such a thing if he could help it! The last time this happened, I was able to–"

As soon as she spoke the words, she bit down hard on her tongue. That had clearly not been the right thing to say.

Rita's eyes grew large and dark. Her face held a bizarre expression: half-betrayed, as though Luan had just stabbed her in the back, and half-outraged, as though she wanted to stab Luan herself. "The last time this happened? You knew?"

"Mom, please. I–"

"No, no. Let me get this straight. You knew that boy was dangerous–knew there was something wrong in his head–and you kept going into his house? And you let your siblings go into his house?" She lifted a hand to rub at her temple. "I can't believe this. This whole time, you were…why would you do such a thing? What could possibly be worth it?"

"Because I…" she started to say, but her throat was dry, preventing her from getting any more words out.

"I can't believe it. I just don't believe it," Rita repeated, her voice rising. "Risking not only your life but all of your siblings' lives as well? Are you aware of what could have happened? I'm just so…I don't even know the words for how I feel right now!"

This is it. My greatest nightmare. I've let my entire family down. She could hardly stand to meet her mother's eyes, seeing all of the pain and hurt within their depths. It was all her fault. Everyone's suffering…it was all her fault.

It's the worst pain I've ever felt.

And yet, somehow I feel like there's something I fear even more.

"Pick up your feet and start moving right now, young lady!"

"No!" Luan insisted. "You'll never take him from me!"

"I didn't want to have to do this, but you're leaving me no choice!" Rita looped her arms around Luan's waist, and with a strained grunt, lifted her off the ground and slung her over her shoulder.

Again, Luan kicked, screamed, and punched, even sinking her teeth into her mother's shoulder, though just as before, she soon realized it was completely pointless–Rita had hardly flinched.

Everything was hopeless now.

I'm so sorry, Benny. I did everything I could. But that spell keeps taking you away from me and turning you into something you're not. And I have no idea how to make anything better.

It was all she could do to sob into her mother's shoulder as Rita tore her away from the very creature who needed her care and comfort more than anyone else she knew. As all of her hope…every last ray of her light…faded into blackness.

Eventually, her mother caught up to the rest of their family, though Luan couldn't bear to look at them for even a moment. She could hear her siblings' sniffles and dragging footsteps, and the sound of her father's distraught murmurs.

"Putting everyone in danger…but that poor boy…should have known better than to trust…and now I need a new ding-dang pair of shoes…"

"Dad, stop," Lori's voice suddenly snapped. "Be quiet. Luan's upset enough already."
"She'll be okay," Rita assured her. Luan wanted to shout at her because how dare anyone assume she'd ever be okay again after Benny had given himself up like that. She wiped at the tears on her face, but they kept flowing, making her eyes wet and sore.

"Let's go home and put all of this behind us," Rita finished.

But deep down, Luan knew in her heart she would never.

…

The atmosphere in the room was different from any that Luna had ever seen before.

Luan was seething mad, looking almost as though she had fur, horns, and claws herself. After sobbing the entire trip back to their room in the inn, she'd quickly regained her footing and had started to shout at and argue with their parents all over again. This had continued on for at least a good twenty minutes before Rita had boiled over, sending Luan to the corner of the room for a time-out and ordering her not to speak another word, or else she'd be grounded. Luan had obeyed, albeit by stomping herself across the room and plopping down onto the floor in the most angry, passive-aggressive way in which anyone could've ever possibly walked.

Minutes had passed since then, and now Luan's fiery-hot anger had quieted down into a dull simmer, but the look on her face was so red and hostile that all her siblings made a point of avoiding that corner, for fear that she might try to bite their fingers clean off.

Every now and then, however, Luna would catch her wiping at her eyes, as though her face was still streaked with tears. I know everybody hurts sometimes. But she looks like all the life's been drained right out of her.

During this time, the younger siblings played quietly together, though they seemed on edge, still trembling over what Benny had done to them, and shocked by the sheer rage that had come out of their normally-cheerful comedienne. As for the older ones, they were too unnerved to do much of anything except stay out of their parents' way and keep tabs on the littler Louds. Rita and Lynn, meanwhile, didn't keep Luan out of their sight for a second. It was hard to say which of them was glaring harder: Luan at her parents, or her parents at Luan. Even when her mother checked the scratches on her arms for signs of infection, Luan didn't speak a single word to her. She'd crossed her arms and turned up her nose the moment Rita had approached her.

A strange, unfamiliar sort of hush had fallen over the Loud residence.

Luna sat with Lucy in her coffin, both of them reading in silence, though she doubted neither had any clue what was going on in the books they held in front of them. She was originally planning to have a jam session around this time (she'd actually managed to convince Lynn Jr to fill in on the tambourine), but now she wasn't in the mood at all.

Plus, she'd left her tambourine at Benny's house. Dang it.

When an hour had passed and Luan still hadn't budged from her spot on the floor, suddenly Luna felt a tap on the shoulder. When she looked up, Lori was staring her down.

"Sibling meeting. Now."

Luna looked around. "Are you nuts? Mom and Pops won't let us leave the room. Where on Earth are we going to–"

Lori gestured with one hand at the closet.

"You're dreaming, brah. There's no way we're all going to fit in there."

Turns out, they all did fit in there. But just barely.

It was a very tight squeeze. Luna found herself pressed up against one of the back corners, crouching shoulder-to-shoulder with Lincoln. Strands of black hair tickled her face–obviously belonging to Lucy, who was hanging upside-down beside the girls' nightgowns. Only a tiny thread of light creeped in through the shut door, falling on Lynn Jr's face and illuminating her grumpy frown for all to see.

"You're sitting on my leg, Lana! Scoot over!" Lola snapped.

"If I scoot over any more, I'll be in Lisa's lap!" Lana snarled back.

"And considering I'm already in Leni's lap," Lisa said. "I would strongly advise against that. Lori, get to the point before I grab my radioactive uranium and put us all out of our misery."

"You all know why I've gathered you here," Lori began. She nudged the door open an inch or so more, enough to see Luan, the only one Lori hadn't stuffed into the closet, staring glumly out the window. She didn't even seem to notice or care where her siblings had gone.

They all watched in silence as Luan sniffed, then got up to pace the floor for a minute before settling down onto the floor with her head on Lola's pillow, staring straight up at the ceiling.

"Hey! That's mine!" Lola hissed.

"That's not the hot issue right now," Lori said. "The hot issue is that I'm going to literally snap that boy's kneecaps! Just look at what he did to her!"

"Yeah," Leni agreed forlornly. "She looks totes decapitated."

"Devastated, Leni."

"I told her not to mess with that stuff," Lucy whispered. "Magic, I mean. And I was right. Now this curse is going to be her downfall."

"But that's just it, dudes," Luna piped up. "He's cursed. There's probably some things Lulu's not telling us, but I really don't think it was him that was doing all of that. I mean, it makes no sense."

"Indeed," said Lisa. "And I would know. I psychoanalyzed his brain, and he's as kind and noble as a knight of the Royal Guard."

"Maybe we should…talk to her?" Lana suggested shyly. Luna had a feeling she and Lola had been even more traumatized by what had happened than the rest of them. They love that little beast. I think we all do, in a way. Especially Luan.

"Yeah, I'd like to know what really happened," Lincoln said. He peered out through the crack in the door and shuttered. "But dibs not it!"

"Dibs not it!" all his sisters repeated, touching their fingers to the tips of their noses. Lily's was the last one to make the landing.

"Dang it," she muttered. But, in a manner that was far braver than Luna would've expected from the little tyke, Lily pushed all her siblings aside, opened the closet door, and marched across the floor.

"It's been nice knowing you, Lily!" Lola called after her.

They all held their breaths as Lily tugged on the end of Luan's yellow cloak. Luan sat up and looked at her, her face red and wet with tears.

Ah, dang, maybe I should have volunteered instead, Luna thought to herself. We might have sent our littlest sister straight into a war zone.

But instead, Lily simply put her tiny hand into Luan's and pointed towards the closet door. Luan rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand, then nodded and made her way to where the rest of their siblings were gathered.

Luna half-expected Luan to make her usual closet pun ("Mind if I hang out in here?"), but instead, her sister remained quiet. Not even a trace remained of her usual mischievous smile.

Lori nudged Lynn, silently prompting her to move over. Lily plopped herself into Leni's lap alongside Lisa, allowing Luan some space on the floor. Leni closed the door, trapping them all once again in pitch-black darkness, with only the slightest crack of light showing through, which shone across Luan's haunted face.

"How are you doing?" Lori asked their sister. "I know what happened was really hard for you."

"Yeah…but I'm a little better now," Luan said, although judging by the stuffed-up sound of her voice, she was definitely not feeling any better.

"I still can't believe he would do something like that," Leni said. They all knew immediately who and what she was talking about.

That's because it wasn't him," Luan said, glancing down at her feet.

"It's that spell on him, isn't it?" said Lucy softly. "That evil witch's curse."

Luan nodded. "It's doing things to him. Awful things. Taking over his mind and trying to transform him even more into something he's not. But I didn't expect him to turn so suddenly, or so soon…"

Luan paused to wipe her nose on the fabric of her cloak. "I'm so sorry. I should have recognized the signs…or maybe I shouldn't have kept bringing you at all. I never meant to put any of you in danger like that. I mean, if something had happened to any one of you, I don't think I'd ever be able to forgive myself."

"Not to worry, luv. All of us are right as rain," Luna told her. "But maybe you ought to tell us what really happened. Everything you've been hiding from us."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "Some of it's a little scary. And…and painful."

"That's exactly why we should hear it," Leni said. "Because you shouldn't have to go through any of it by yourself. That's what a family is for. We deal with all the scary things together."

"Okay. I'll tell you everything," Luan agreed. She sniffed a few times to clear her nose, then began her story, starting from the very beginning when she'd first noticed the castle and spoken to the shy beast who lived within it.

Luna had heard all of this before, of course, but this time around, Luan mentioned quite a few little details that she'd neglected to bring up before. Luna held her breath while Luan recounted the true story of what had happened out in that forest the night of the wolf attack. How Benny had indeed saved her life from mortal peril, but then something dark and sinister had corrupted his mind, making him forget who she was and attack her himself.

That bite on her wrist hadn't been from the wolves.

"Mom was right," Lana murmured. "That's really not cool."

"No, it's not," Luan agreed. Then, she told them about how strange and disturbed he'd looked whenever she'd watched him sleep–probably dreaming of things scarier than anything she could comprehend. And about how much it hurt her that she couldn't protect him from them the way she could protect her brother and sisters from tears with a single goofy face.

She told them of the conversations she'd had with him, where he'd urged her to take her family and leave, and she'd refused, telling him she'd stay for as long as she could. He'd believed he was dangerous and unworthy of her care, though she'd done everything possible to convince him otherwise.

All of this really does explain a lot, Luna thought. Like the torn bedsheets, and the way he always acted kind of nervous and uneasy around us.

She'd been around Benny for quite a while by now, but she suddenly felt as though she was seeing a brand-new part of him. A dark and scary part. But Luan's seen this the whole time, and she loves him anyway.

And now…Luna couldn't believe what she'd almost done to him. Sure, he'd made it clear to her that it was her responsibility to slay him if he made any kind of attempt to harm her family, but how could anyone have ever expected Luna to slay the boy her sister loved?

That was what had stopped her from thrusting forth that dagger into his heart: the terrified look in his eyes and the half-formed thought that had somehow managed to take shape in her petrified brain: I can't do it, I just can't do it…my sister loves him. That was what had caused her hand to, without any will or volition of her own, drop the sharp blade right onto the floor.

She hoped her sister wasn't upset with her about what she'd almost done, but she kind of felt too afraid to even ask, especially since Luan looked so shattered about everything else that had happened that afternoon. All she could do right now was to make sure Luan knew how loved she was, and how much Luna supported her through everything she was going through.

"Don't be upset with him," Luan begged. "None of this is his fault. None of it."

After a small pause, she continued: "But now everything seems hopeless. I wish I could save him and cure him from this sickness, but I don't know if I ever can. I'm not anyone special or important. I'm just a comedienne."

"Nah, you're way more than that," Luna said. Her hand fumbled around in the darkness for a while before brushing against what she hoped was Luan's shoulder.

"Quite right," said Lisa. "You are also an actress."

"And a killer tightrope-walker," Lynn added.

"No, no." Luna poked Lynn (or at least, she thought it was probably Lynn) in the ribs. "That's not it. What I meant to say was that you've been doing some major-awesome things. I don't know if I'd have the moxie to keep going after dealing with all that!"

"I have to," Luan insisted. "I don't have a choice. Someone has to try for him. He deserves that much. But now…what if he's gone forever? What happens if I never save him?"

"You can't give up, dude. Because Louds never quit."

Luan sniffed. "You're right, Luna. I might be the only hope he's got, but he's got me. He'll always have me. And I'm going to give every scrap of myself trying to reverse this spell!"

"And we're with you!" Lola declared. "For Benny!"

The tiny shred of light lit up Luan's solemn frown. "But how am I going to help him if Mom and Dad won't let me leave this room? I need to see him again, let him know I'm not letting him go…"

"Leave that to us," Leni told her. "We're gonna sneak you out of here."

"That's actually not a terrible idea, Leni," Lynn said, sounding impressed.

"Well, there's more in my head than just air, y'know!" she replied.

"Then it's settled," Lori decided. "At one o'clock tonight, we're getting out of here, Luan. Be ready."

"Let's make it official," Luna said. "On three: Louds never quit! One, two…"

"Louds never quit!" the siblings all said together.

"Um, siblings? Might want to speak in a less obstreperous manner. We do not wish to risk the chance of Mother and Father overhearing our plans," Lisa reminded them.
"Louds never quit!" they said again…though much more softly this time.

"Great," said Lynn. "So, if this is all settled, then can we please get out of this closet? I've been sitting here so long that my butt's starting to go numb."

"Yeah, and I lost feeling in my legs five minutes ago," Leni added. "I love you, Lis, but you and Lily are a lot heavier than you look."

"And I'd just started to get comfy, too," Lisa grouched. "But, fine–siblings, out!"

The closet door opened wide and light filled the tiny room. The kids all trundled out, many of them murmuring to each other in hushed tones–possibly plans for how to get Luan out of the house and back to the prince who needed her.

A few of them, however, stayed behind.

Two of these people were the twins. When most of the others had cleared out, Lola reached out to grip Luan's hand in hers. Lana stood by Lola's side, looking up at Luan and Luna with huge blue puppy-dog eyes.

"You…you're still gonna get your happily-ever-after, right?" Lola whispered.

"I don't know." Luan shook her head. "But I'm going to try. Maybe it won't look the way I want it to, or the way you want it to, but he deserves a happy ending and I'll do anything to make sure he gets one."

"I think he will," Lana said. "That's how it goes in Lola's icky fairytales. The prince and his princess always end up happy together."

Luna could see a shadow of skepticism cloud Luan's eyes. "This isn't a fairytale. And I'm not a princess."

The comedienne's fears and doubts were contagious, it seemed. They spread out from her expression and infected both twins' faces in an instant.

"But things are still gonna work out!" Luna assured them quickly. "Luan has everything under control. Totally. For sure." She nudged them both out of the closet, then turned back to face Luan.

The two of them, however, still weren't alone. Lori was standing right outside the door, letting out a small oof! as the twins bumped into her on their way out. As soon as Lola and Lana were gone, she walked back inside, dropping down on one knee to look Luan, who was still sitting on the floor, in the eyes.

"Listen," she said quietly. "I know you're probably mad at me for what I did to Benny, and you're right if you are. That was literally so cruel of me. Especially now that I know he wasn't himself. So what I'm trying to say in my stubborn eldest-sister way is…I'm really sorry."

"I can't blame you," Luan told her. "You were trying to keep me safe. So were Mom and Dad. I don't think I can truly fault anyone for something they did when they weren't thinking straight."

"That's pretty wise of you," Lori said. "But please…when you go to see him, make sure he isn't hurt. I don't like feeling as though I'm responsible for a child's pain. Because that's, like, the exact opposite of what my job's supposed to be."

"Okay," Luan said. "But I'm sure he'll be fine. Benny's gone through a lot worse."

Lori frowned. "I know, and I don't like that. He's too young to have such a tragic life."

"And I won't let him, I promise," Luan said. "I care about him too much to let him have a fate like that."

"I care about him, too." With those words, Lori left the closet and shut the door behind her, leaving Luna and Luan encased in the darkness.

They were silent for a few heartbeats before Luan started to mutter to herself. Had she forgotten that Luna was still in the room?

"I can't promise…what if everything's not fine…what if he's already gone?"

Luna's heart sank. She'd almost never heard Luan express anything other than sheer certitude that everything was going to turn out well in the end. That was her signature slogan, after all: "If the glass looks half-empty, break off the empty half!"

But now, the glass looked as though it was almost completely empty.

Where's that optimistic Luan now that we need her?

"If only I didn't care about him so much. But I like him too much to let him…" Luan was silent for a minute, then sniffed and added. "It's all too much for me!"

Dang it, Luan. You know I'm not nearly as good at this as you are.

But someone's gotta keep her hopeful spirit alive.

Luna fumbled around in the darkness until finally her hand brushed against a set of familiar stray flyaway hairs. Awkwardly, she patted her sister on the head. "You've got this, luv."

"How can you be sure?"

"I know it," Luna said, wishing she was half as certain as her voice sounded. "Every little thing's gonna be alright."

Luan's voice was a soft whisper, almost too quiet to hear at all.

"That's…that's all I'm hoping for."

…

In the quiet, still castle, a creature began to stir.

One…two…three.

He counted his own heartbeats, the loud, quick sounds pounding through his head. He couldn't remember his own name, or what color his eyes were, or why he felt an odd sensation of perpetual, aching sadness. The only things his mind could recall were flashes of a yellow cloak and the sound of a piercing scream.

Luan.

A name. Not his name, probably, but still, it was something.

So the monster fixated on that, trying to puzzle out what everything meant and why it all made his head spin. All the while, his heart continued to pulse madly, reminding him that even as he lay stiff and unmoving on the cold floor, he was still alive. Somehow.

He counted all the way up to seventy-two before his head began to clear.

And when it finally did, he almost didn't want it to.

She's gone.

The awful truth of it sank cold and heavy in his heart, like a boulder in his chest. Luan is gone, and I hurt her, and everything's my fault.

All the memories he had of what had happened earlier were blurry and fragmented. They almost didn't feel real, more like something out of a hellish nightmare. But the pain had been real. The fear had been real. The agonizing look in her eyes as her father had taken her away forever…had been far too real for him to bear.

And now the emptiness of everything was threatening to crush him. The quietness, once commonplace, now felt completely wrong. It was a deafening, all-encompassing sort of silence that filled every space of air around him and flooded right into his ears. Unsettling. Alien.

He sat with his back propped against the cold stone wall for a long while, curling his legs and tail in close to take up as little space as possible, even though now there was nothing and no one around to warrant such a thing. He could smell something had burned in the kitchen, but since there was no smoke, he figured it was pointless to go and check. Not that he felt much like moving, anyway. Above his head, sunlight streamed in through the vacant window, far too bright and beautiful for a day like this.

That, of course, made him think of Luan and everything he knew and loved about her. Not just the way she'd always had a clever quip ready, or how she could somehow manage to make him laugh every time he felt down, but also the fact that she'd stayed with him even when she'd had every reason to leave. He wasn't sure how badly he'd hurt her when his mind had suddenly vanished, or what she might've been thinking, but he knew she'd stayed.

He'd unleashed the scariest parts of himself on her, the parts he still couldn't control or understand, but she'd stuck around. She'd still been there, offering a hand to him in the hopes that she could somehow pull him out of the darkness he was trapped in and back into her light.

Why had she done that? Why had she refused to run away? Everyone else had run away, anyone else would, but she hadn't.

She confused and amazed him even after she was gone. And I love her because of it.

He tried to shake that thought out of his mind as fast as it had come. If he let himself fall in love with her…stay in love with her…it would be the death of him. It would kill him. He was never supposed to have let it happen in the first place.

But I did. I love her, and it hurts. And now she's never coming back. She'll be off with her family, having more adventures and exploring lots of new places. And I'll be here alone. Forever.

He let that forever sink in. The concept of it wasn't foreign to him, but it had never hit him quite this hard before. In the years and months before her arrival, his curse had seemed like more of a probably forever, which let him carry just enough hope to make it another day. Only now that he was grappling with fallen petals and a beautiful comedienne–someone who'd come so close to making him think it wouldn't be–did it really feel like forever.

I'm going to be like this forever and ever, he realized, feeling the shame and hopelessness of it all start to claw his chest to shreds. I'm going to have paws and fur and a bushy tail forever.

I'm going to love Luan forever, too, aren't I? The thought of it terrified him, but deep down in his heart, he knew it was true.

It seemed to him a fate worse than death: to spend forever alone in a dark, dusty, quiet place, reading and rereading the same old stories and plays again and again and again. No one to talk to except the birds and squirrels, and the puppets on the shelves. No one to love him, and no one for him to love in return.

And yet he'd managed it for nearly five years. But how?

He let his mind wander back to the earliest days after the curse. They were something he'd tried countless times to make his brain forget every time it thought of them. He'd trick it into thinking of something else by escaping into a favorite passage or sonnet, or more recently, the sound of Luan's laughter or the thought of her smile. But now that he knew for certain that this spell was going to trap him forever, and now that he wasn't truly sure whether his mind would remain fully intact much longer, he felt the need to revisit that awful event and conquer his five-year fear once and for all.

Benny didn't remember much about being ten. He didn't remember what it was like to go out to the market and not be afraid of getting killed, or what it was like to brush his fingers along his arms and face and feel nothing but soft human skin underneath. He could scarcely recall the exact shade of his skin or the shape of his fingernails or whether or not there were any cute freckles dotting his cheeks like there were on Luan's. He didn't even remember what play his tutors had been reading to him the day before it happened.

But he remembered everything that had happened right after.

Right as the enchantress had left, he'd collapsed on the floor in pain and horror, heart hammering, breaths quickening every time he'd glimpsed at his awful claws or caught sight of the tail swishing behind him.

He'd tried so hard to convince himself that this was all a dream, that tomorrow, he'd wake up and his friends and parents would not be stone. And then they'd all greet him: "You must have slept well, dear prince, it's half past noon!"

And he would respond sincerely, "No, truly, I did not."

Hours had passed that way, and he still hadn't woken up.

Only then had he realized that all of this was real. He was really a monster. And he was, for the first time he could remember, completely alone. With no one to save him.

For a long time, several more hours at least, he'd wept, curling himself into a tight ball on the broken floor and wishing for his parents' loving embrace. The fact that the sensation of the furry paws touching his face and the tail tip resting right over his nose had felt way too fuzzy and twitchy and wrong had only made him cry harder.

It had been the worst pain he'd ever experienced…and probably still would be even if he lived to be a thousand years old.

When his tears had run dry, he had shakily gotten back on his feet, horrified yet again at the appalling sensation that everything in his world felt completely off-balance, like he was an actor in a permanent costume that was far too big and itchy to suit him properly.

It had taken him days to learn to walk properly again with strange clumsy paws and claws that didn't agree with him and a disgusting tail that liked to get in his way and trip him up. And, of course, the hardest part of all had been coming to terms with the fact that his body now seemed to prefer walking on all fours, as weird and terrifying as that was, and repeatedly ignoring that instinct and ordering himself to stand on two feet like a proper gentleman anyway.

The paws he had been cursed with were not gentle or soft, but he had made them become that way. He had forced them that way.

Why? Because that was all he'd ever known. Other than in the storybooks he'd read, he'd never known true ferocity. Or strength. What he knew was to be quiet and peaceful, to step gracefully and speak politely. Never to speak a stern word, or even to complain.

Maybe it seemed counterintuitive to most, but by holding onto what little of his past life he could, by keeping his routines as close to normal as possible, he found the strength to survive and move forward.

If anything, thinking of his body very rarely, distracting himself through stories, drama, and art, had kept him sane. Keeping his eyes trained on the pages, not on the claws that held them or the tail sweeping behind him, was what had saved him.

And during the times when it hadn't…well, every great character suffered numerous tragedies over the course of their stories. Their lives weren't all sunshine, smiles, and happy days, and that was what made them the incredible, emotional people they were.

This was just his tragedy to suffer, though he had no idea if he'd ever find a way out of it.

It had taken days more for him to relearn how to write with a pen, which he had done by copying over Shakespeare's sonnets, one after the next. For a while, he'd considered skipping any poem about love, as the enchantress's haunting words had still rung loud and clear in his head, but then he'd remembered that practically all of Shakespeare's sonnets were about love. And then he'd wondered if he should perhaps be copying down something else instead, but these short poems were the perfect length for an hour or so of writing, and besides, if he ever wanted to break this spell, he should know something about love and what it meant. In the rare case that anyone could ever actually stand to be around him for more than a minute and not run away screaming.

He could still recall every jagged S and scratchy T he'd made as he'd painstakingly scrawled out Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? for the very first time since the terrible spell in decent handwriting, and how this little accomplishment had made him feel as though he was about to explode, though whether with laughter or tears, he never knew.

Of course, back then, he'd known nothing of the girl who'd made him think that, had he been Shakespeare and her his brilliant muse, he would've written that poem for her. And every other poem in the entire history of the world–all of it dedicated to the girl who shone like the sun and looked like a summer's day, one far too bright and lovely to stay around for long. The brightest candles, Benny knew, were always the ones that burned out the quickest.

Summer's lease hath far too short a date. But why couldn't it have been forever?

Because he'd ruined everything. It was all his fault. And now she had left, and he was here, trying to remember how he'd ever managed a single moment without her.

It was proving to be impossible, because no matter what he did, he couldn't not think about her. And even though it hurt, he never wanted to not think about her ever again.

Because something within him had changed that day, the day when Love herself had swept through his door with puns and funny faces. She'd changed him, and now he couldn't change himself back.

After what seemed like hours, Benny finally found the strength and courage to get up from the floor. It felt like deja vu; just as they had been in the first days after the curse, his footsteps were wobbly and awkward–those of a creature in the wrong body. But this time, it seemed, he had no idea what sort of body was the right body anymore. Human, monster, something in between…none of it felt fitting.

The only thing that felt right anymore was Luan. The feeling of her hands between his. The gentle brush of his palm against the skin of her cheek. The way her head came to rest so perfectly against his chin, and the way he'd had to bite back both a gasp of shock and a laugh of joy whenever she'd nuzzled her nose into the fluff on his neck. She'd never known it and he would never have dared to tell her, but her feather-light touch against his fur had made him ticklish. Because that's Luan. Funny without even trying to be.

But now nothing would be right ever again, because she wasn't there.

The only sounds to be heard in the empty castle were the taps and clicks of his pink pawpads and sharp claws against the stone tiles. Tiny noises that had been easily drowned in the Loud family's chaos, but now echoed endlessly and ceaselessly through the vacant castle.

If loneliness were a sound, Benny mused, it would sound an awful lot like this.

All around him, objects lay scattered lifelessly about the floor like ancient artifacts from a forgotten, abandoned museum. Lori's collection of stationery, pens, and parchment, and the draft of a letter he'd helped her to write, littered with lines of romantic poems he'd shown to her to spark her imagination. Leni's sewing needles, one with a long filament of white thread still looped through the eye: the same kind she'd used to repair the loose button on his jacket. He recalled with a faint smile the way she'd even thrown in an extra little stitch for luck, winking across the room at Luan as she'd said those words to him.

A guitar with a broken string, once alive and humming with Luna's melodies, but now a corpse lying cold and still. Several of Lynn's sports balls, a few already half-deflated. Half-drawn sketches of a comic Lincoln had been working on, a story in which all ten of his sisters were the armor-clad heroes of a brave guild of female knights. Scribbles of Lucy's poetry, including a goofy limerick she'd written in his honor:

'There once lived a young prince called Benny,

Though friendships he hadn't had any.

But then he let a girl

Touch a lock of his curls,

And now to this day he has many!'

Continuing down the hall, he was greeted by Lana's red rain boots. Though they lay neatly by the staircase and were spotless from heels to toes, a still-soggy mud pie had been slapped down right beside them. A filthy sight, sure, but in Lana's eyes this was a highly respectable gift. It had been a wonderful surprise to have received his first one from her two days ago…even if he'd had to wash his paws a dozen times afterwards just to get all the dirt out from underneath his clawtips.

Lola's plushies, teacups, and wooden unicorn figurines, on the flip side, were strewn about everywhere, as though this castle had been hers this whole time instead of his. Benny hadn't minded the mess much–after so many years of solitude it had been nice to have a house that felt so cheerfully lived-in–except for the one time when he'd made the mistake of accidentally stepping on one of the delicate little trinkets. His clumsy feet and careless blunder had cost a poor unicorn its leg, snapped cleanly off by the weight of his step. And then Lola had let out an earsplitting wail that had made him feel like an awful monster all over again while Lincoln had dashed off to get the glue. Luckily, the toy had been easily fixed, Lola had quickly been won back over with a heartfelt apology, and a horrible crisis had been averted.

Lisa's algebraic equations (both on paper and on the walls and floors themselves) were scattered here and there, and even now as he squinted at one, he still couldn't make out what any of it was supposed to mean. He hoped that someone would make sure she had her nap and took a break from studying her textbooks to eat lunch.

And as for tiny Lily…what would she do now that her beloved lavender blanket had been left behind, still resting in a little heap underneath the chair where Luan had been working?

Oh, Luan. Her face, the silly sound of her laughter and the soft, gentle touch of her hands flooded through his mind once more.

Spotting a familiar wooden shape on the floor, he recalled the conversations that had taken place just a few moments earlier…those moments in which, under the guise of silly puppetry, they'd revealed some of their innermost feelings to each other. The kinds of feelings he never thought he'd dare to tell to anyone.

And had it really only been an hour or so ago when she'd broken down right here at this table in the lobby, unleashing days' worth of pain and misery with the most heartbreaking sobs he'd ever heard?

He'd felt so guilty…so terribly guilty…because that had been his pain that had clogged her chest, and his pain that had suddenly come pouring out of her. It was him who kept making her suffer.

Even if she ever did come back, I could never let her in, he realized. He walked over to the dummy, picked it up, and stepped back across the room to place it on top of the table. I can't let her keep watching me deteriorate into nothing. It would destroy her, and everything that she stands for.

I love her, but she can't be mine.

But…I love her.

I tried to tell her, too. Sort of. He wasn't sure where it had come from, that bizarre instinct to rest his head on her lap like a clingy puppy, but he'd given into it without thinking twice. Because that was the only thing he and his animal side had ever been able to agree upon: that this beautiful creature had needed his love and comfort.

He could still remember perfectly the warm, soothing feeling of her hands combing through his hair, down the bridge of his nose and behind the backs of his ears in that curious, playful manner with which Luan did everything. He'd never known touch could feel so good before. It had felt as though her fingertips had been made of sunbeams, sending their brilliant golden rays right through his fur and all the way down to his brain itself. Not a single coherent thought had crossed his mind the entire time she'd done it–onlypure love, trust, and contentment. She'd made him head over heels times infinity in a single moment.

He would've stayed right there for the rest of his days if she'd asked him to. He would've been hers forever, if only she'd told him she wanted it, too.

But now…he'd never even get the chance to ask her.

True, he'd been expecting that–for her to leave far too soon and for himself to remain trapped in this furry prison forever. He'd known better than to get his hopes up about Luan, because even though she was incredible and brave and wonderful, not even a girl like her could break a spell this impossible.

Every interaction they'd ever had had made him feel like he was a bad actor that had been cast in a role he'd never been meant to play. They'd all been tainted with the knowledge that the world simply didn't have a place in it where he could belong. And he belonged least of all with her.

He'd been Icarus and she'd been, as always, the sun. Any attempts he'd tried to make to soar towards her radiant light on glistening white wings had always been doomed to end up with him at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by melted wax and charred feathers.

But hadn't her sunbeams felt amazing, in the brief moments they had touched his face?

She'd been worth falling for.

Because for a brief moment, a few fleeting seconds in time, he had flown. And he'd remember that feeling for the rest of his life.

But then…what was going to be his life? What was the point of it anymore? If there was no chance of breaking the spell, and nothing to light up his life the way Luan had, and the strong possibility that the spell would keep erasing his very humanity until there was nothing left of him but fur and fangs…then what was stopping him from taking the dagger Luna had left behind and letting the world be rid of him once and for all?

Walking over to where it lay near the wall, Benny picked the sharp object up, and studied it carefully in his hands. But not too carefully, because even after all this time, he didn't dare to spare a single glance at his own reflection.

What kind of life was there for a creature that didn't belong anywhere?

Then give it up, Benjamin.

But something stubborn within him refused to yield.

Yes, it was going to be a tragic and torturous existence, being all alone (and most likely mindless) for the rest of his life, but it was still an existence. And although he wasn't sure exactly how to accomplish it, he still wanted his life to mean something.

And maybe in time he'd be able to teach his lungs to breathe and his heart to beat again without Luan by his side.

And without his family, or any of the people he'd once known…

Though he didn't dare let his mind think about them often, or else he'd probably go mad, Benny had always had faith that one day, somehow, the spell would break and everyone would be released from their stone prisons and fine and together and happy again. But now that he'd let them all down for good, now that the spell would never break…

That means I'm a murderer.

I killed them…all of them.

And the worst part is, I won't ever get the chance to be forgiven, or to make up for it, though in time I guess I'll repent for it. I'll be a monster, completely mindless, not even having the heart left in me to remember what I've done. I just hope Luan never comes across me again–it would probably ruin her.

None of us deserve this fate, not even me, really…but there's no other way. There's no other option anymore. It's all pointless, and it probably always was.

But, since there's nothing I can do about it, for now I guess I'll carry on like I did before. Dropping the dagger, Benny crossed the hall and stepped into the doorway of the library. After a few moments of searching, he came across one of the many books he'd been halfway through before Luan had ever-so-casually changed his life by knocking on his castle door.

It was strange to open it again, because with everything that had happened in these past couple of weeks, he'd forgotten a lot of what had happened in the book. Even when he did manage to pick up where he left off, reading this story–which was full of people falling in love and learning how to dance and exchanging witty banter under the moonlight–no longer made him think sadly, that's not for me, that's never going to be for me in the way he had before Luan's arrival. All of that was replaced with fond, yet bittersweet reminders of the girl he'd fallen in love with…and now would never see again. The words on the page were bold, black-and-white diagrams of his own heart. Traces of Luan were everywhere, in everything.

For a long, long time, he read in silence. If he concentrated hard enough, he could almost believe that he was still a ten-year-old boy, having only just recently been twisted into something dark and furry with paws that he was still getting used to, picking up this very same book because he had no idea what else to do with himself. He could almost make believe that five years hadn't somehow flown by, and that he'd never been in love with a girl with a yellow cloak and a bright smile that she'd worn as naturally as flowers wore their petals. None of that had ever happened.

Except, of course, it had. He had fallen in love, and it had been beautiful and terrifying and hopeless and just about everything in between.

But now there was none of that left, and he was going to have to figure out how to keep going on without it. Without her.

It's going to be fine. I'll keep going as before, at least until this wretched curse takes my mind forever. And then I guess I'll find a way to make do that way. I'll find a cave in the woods, or someplace else where a monster can be safe and hidden from the world. Somewhere I'll never hurt anyone ever again.

Maybe the only meaning my life will ever have is just to keep on living like I do even when the world tells me I shouldn't anymore. But even that alone is still something.

These were the thoughts that filled Benny's head as the afternoon passed away in still and utter silence, slowly fading away into dim blueness, then black. The night had never felt so dark before.

And though Benny tried to convince himself to sleep literally anywhere else in the entire castle, he couldn't stop himself from padding back to the lobby and curling up into a ball right beside the door. However, right before he did, he locked the door tight. This wasn't so much to keep anything else out, but to keep himself in when all he wanted to do was race out into the night and find Luan's arms. His ears perked up at even the slightest of sounds…even though he knew none of them would ever amount to anything.

The door was closed, but he'd wait by it forever.

Every thought in his head was laced with traces of Luan's name and remnants of her memory, as though she'd left bright yellow fingerprints of paint across the surface of his mind. As Benny lay there, burying his nose in the tip of his tail, he finally allowed himself to mourn the loss of her, letting tears stream from his eyes the way he had when he'd first become a beast and had lost any chance of a life filled with love.

He'd keep going, he had to keep going, but that didn't make Luan's absence any easier for him to bear. As he thought back to their dance, to all the moments they'd shared together where the only times he'd ever felt like himself were the times her hands had rested perfectly in his, he realized how empty he felt now that he was by himself again.

She was gone, but she'd taken his heart right along with her.

It was Luan's scent, still buried deep in the folds of his jacket from the times she'd worn it, that had calmed his mind enough for it to finally let him drift off to sleep.

From there, he faded into dreams that began with mirrors, hundreds of mirrors, and a thousand different reflections. Human and beast, child and man, dozens of things somewhere in between…and even things he had never been before, like a famous actor or a studious playwright, all of these images blinked back at him with impossibly large brown eyes. They spread out like a wall before him, stretching as far out to either side as he could see. He had to tip his head back to even fathom how high the top of it was. The mirrors matched his height exactly; every reflection was a perfect, lifelike replica.

The look in their eyes was urgent. Like they were expecting something of him. Expecting him to choose between them?

How could he even begin to choose what he wanted to be when the world had already done that for him years ago? And, if he were ever to choose, what did he most want to be?

They made his head spin, those eyes. His eyes. He'd never liked being stared at like this, like he was a character on a stage making all the wrong decisions. And now, knowing how familiar these eyes were, except of course, they weren't, because none of what he saw inside himself felt familiar, nothing felt familiar, except…

Oh. Luan.

She peered out at him from behind one of the mirrors, hands placed gently on its golden rim. She watched him as curiously and intently as any of his own reflections, though when he approached her, she broke out into a grin, and then a silly face.

No matter what expression she wore, she made his heart crash against his chest.

His paws padded towards her out of their own volition, and none of his. When she reached out a hand to him, he took it without ever making the conscious decision to do so himself.

Luan led him through a little gap between the mirrors and into a grassy field ablaze with the shine of a million stars. Their light caught and held in the glossy fabric of her cloak. She looked like a fallen angel.

Deep in her eyes, he could see a reflection of himself. One that didn't match any of the mirrors. It was something completely new and different…though he couldn't place his finger on what exactly it was that made it that way.

She tugged on the collar of his shirt, bringing him close, and though his heartbeat quickened at this gesture, he had enough brains to think to himself, don't be fooled by her little tricks. You've seen the way this plays out; you know the end of this scene like the back of your own fluffy paw.

But then she exploded his heart into ash when she put a hand on the nape of his neck, tipped herself up onto her toes, gently brushed back his curls, and kissed him on the forehead.

He knew it was all a dream, but all the feelings he had were as real as his own thoughts. Even though he couldn't feel her touch, he melted into it–just the way he had when she'd run her perfect hands through his hair and behind his ears.

This is crazy. This is stupid. It's hopeless in real life–in anywhere other than my wildest dreams and fantasies.

But the only thing I truly want to be right now is yours.

Eventually, she drew back, and he had the overwhelming urge to ask her to do it all again, or maybe even ask to kiss her himself, if she'd let him. He would've done it, too, if he hadn't paused to look down at his hands.

Caught between hers like a bird in a net, they were small, ghost-pale, and human.

…

Is this the most reckless thing I've ever done?

As the clock in the town square chimed once, Luan stood in the doorway of the inn's lobby, staring out at the cold, dark night. The hills rolled and curved into the horizon, the distant ones so far and black that she could scarcely tell where they ended and the foggy clouds began. The moon shone like an eye in the starless sky–the only one that had caught her as she and her five oldest siblings had carefully snuck their way past their sleeping parents (whom Lisa and Lucy were guarding), and down the many flights of stairs. Never before had she felt quite so grateful for her years' worth of experience from sneaky pranks and booby traps.

But was she really going to do this? Luan had bickered with her parents, from time to time–every child did–and had broken a few of their rules here and there. And, of course, she tormented them, along with the rest of her family, every year with a storm of April Fool's gags and pranks. But she'd never outwardly defied them before, at least not in such a big way. The thought of how much trouble she was sure to be in made her stomach queasy.

But I don't care, she reminded herself, her jaw set with determination. If it's for Benny, I don't care.

Thoughts of the sweet and kindly prince…her sweet prince…filled her head. She had to make sure he was still there, that he was still alive and okay and safe and not as doomed as she feared he was. And she'd beat up a thousand angry wolves on her way to do it, if that's what it took.

Even if he couldn't talk to her, there was a chance he could understand what she was saying, and she needed to make sure he knew how much she cared for him. She needed to remind him that she wasn't going to give up on him, even if he wanted her to. Luan had made a promise to him, and when it came to promises, she was always a-hundred-percent dead serious.

He really needs me right now. And I think I need him, too.

She pulled the hood of her cloak tightly over her head and took her first small steps out onto the cold, dew-stained grass.

Following her were Lori, Leni, Luna, Lynn, and Lincoln. The sight of them standing loyally behind her made her heart as warm and soft as a tray of freshly-baked cookies.

Right after they all left the doorway, Leni stepped forward to pull Luan into a hug. The rest of their siblings soon piled on, surrounding her from all sides with some of the best little fragments of her life. She was reminded for the millionth time what a joy it was to have so many siblings who loved and supported her like this, even when she was making such foolish, dangerous decisions.

"Where would I be without you guys?" Luan whispered into Leni's hair.

"Probably dead by now," said Lynn.

"Lynn Loud Junior!" Lori said sternly.

But Luan only laughed in response. "Yeah. Probably."

"Well, come on then, dudes," Luna urged, breaking away from their hug. "If we want to be back before it gets light, we'd better start moving."

And so they did. Luna took up the lead, followed by Leni and Lincoln, then Lynn, who swung her trusty baseball bat as though she was a knight protecting the most valuable magical artifacts in the world. Lori hung back with Luan.

"Tell me what you're thinking about," she said.

"I don't think you'd understand," Luan replied.

"Maybe not. But tell me anyway."

"I just don't know what to do anymore," she confessed, her heart feeling heavier than a ton of bricks. "I've been trying so hard for him, but nothing I'm doing ever works. I wish I was more like you, Lori."

"Really?" Lori asked. "Why's that?"

"You're always so logical and level-headed about everything. You always know what to do." Luan let out a breath of air. "I'd give anything for even a shred of your confidence."

"Well, I have no idea what to do right now, either," Lori admitted. She ran a hair through her impeccable blond locks. "Honestly, sometimes, I wish I was anything like you."

Now this was news to Luan. "Why would you want to be like me?"

"Because you can see the bright side of everything, even when it seems completely impossible. I have no idea how you're able to do that, but you are, somehow. Whenever any of our siblings are feeling upset, it's usually you who cheers them up, not me."

Luan wanted to interrupt her and tell her about all the reasons she was wrong, but Lori kept on going: "And you never judge a book by its cover. You can look right past someone's outside and see what's on the inside, sometimes even before they do. You never give up on anyone, not even after they've hurt you." And with a small smile, she added, "Plus, you've literally got a prince wrapped around your finger."

"Bobby's wrapped around yours," Luan pointed out.

Lori's grin widened. "You didn't deny it, Luan."

"Deny what?"
"That Benny's fallen for you."

By now, Luan was well aware of all the telltale signs that told her that her cheeks were a brighter color than usual. "Oh, no, he couldn't possibly…I mean, I'm not nearly as smart or pretty as you are, Lori."

Lori looked puzzled. Or concerned. It was hard to tell which.

"I don't think that," she told Luan. "Benny clearly doesn't think that. Why do you think that?"

Luan thought hard. She wasn't entirely sure where those thoughts had come from. Was it the first time she'd been booed offstage? The time she'd looked in the mirror when she was twelve and noticed Luna's hair was much shinier than her own? All of those moments when Leni had been asked to dance while she'd watched from the sidelines like a ghost?

"I don't know," Luan answered at last. "I just do. Maybe I'm broken."

"Nah," said Lori. "I think you're just growing up."

Luan pondered that for a long while as they walked up and down the familiar grassy hills. I don't know if I want to grow up. And yet…do I even have a choice?

I don't think the universe really cares what I want. But I have to keep going anyway.

The sight of the castle–and the memories of the boy who lived there, and every happy, sad, wonderful, awful moment she'd shared with him in it–made her heart flop and flutter with emotions she had no hope of labeling. She drew in a breath, the cold air catching in her throat and choking up her lungs, and touched a hand to her chest.

I really hope you're okay, my prince.

Lori must have picked up on whatever tragic, heart-melty faces Luan was surely making, because she crouched down to her sister's level and asked softly, "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Luan barely managed to say. "It's just that I…oh–"

"Do you want to talk to him alone?" Lori's eyes shone with sympathy and concern.

"Um…yes. If that's okay with you."

"He's all yours, Luan," Lori agreed. "We'll stay back here so that we can keep an eye on you, in case things get…" Wincing, she struggled to get the last words out. "Well…you know…"

Luan looked down at her feet, saying nothing.

"It was very brave of you to come back."

"Brave? I don't think so," Luan admitted. "I just really hope there's still a chance I can save him, because he's my…" Now it seemed it was her turn to stutter again. "What I mean to say is, there's no one else that makes me feel so…"

"That's okay." Lori smiled, but Luan's instincts told her it was a sad sort of smile. "You don't have to explain it to us. We all know."

Despite everything, the blush returned once again to Luan's cheeks.

Lori's expression turned serious. "I want you to know that whatever happens, we love you. And we don't regret a thing."

"Thanks, Lori." Luan reached out, taking Lori's hand in her own for a single squeeze before letting it go again. "Thanks, guys."

"Stay safe," Lori whispered. The others waved their farewells as she took off running up the last hill towards the most wonderful, most hilarious, most painful part of her life.

By the time she finally reached the top of the hill, she was well out of breath, panting hard from fatigue, stress, and urgency. Still, when she looked up at the imposing doors, she felt even more terrified than she had been on day one.

Because now she wasn't afraid of the mysterious creature that lived on the other side. She was scared for him, of the possibility that he could be gone…or dead. Even if he wasn't, was he going to be doomed to live a life in this beastly form forever? Because of her?

Louds never quit. So don't give up on him, Luan reminded herself. Let him know you're here, and that you care about him, and how sorry you are for everything that happened and how you wish he could be happy forever and ever, but…

She lifted a shaking hand to the door and rapped three times on its wooden surface. "Hello? Knock-knock?"

Luan put her ear against the wall to listen. Just as she'd feared, there was no reply. Not even the slightest hint of something moving on the other side.

The silence was a dagger through her chest. What if he really had escaped that morning, and was now lost somewhere deep in the forest? What if her kind, funny Benny would never be Benny ever again–reduced to nothing but a wild, feral creature who couldn't even answer to his own name?

I'll still scour every inch of the woods for him, she vowed. Anywhere I have to go, I'll go.

It was the uncertainty of this moment, this long moment as she stood outside alone with nothing to keep her company but the agonizing feeling of not knowing where he was…or who he was, or why he was…that really killed her.

"Never mind," she said with a soft sigh, feeling foolish at the thought that she could be talking to a person who no longer existed. "This is no time for jokes. It's just Luan."

Still trembling with nerves and feeling crushed under the weight of their hours apart, she placed her hand over the doorknob, letting the cold metal sting her fingertips, and turned…only to find the door was locked shut.

Why is it locked? Could she dare to hope?

"Benny, if you're there, please tell me!" she begged, her voice rising sharply in both pitch and urgency. "Or…or give me a sign, or something."

Nothing but silence.

Luan wanted to scream his name out into the night until her throat was raw. As long and loud as she could, in the hopes that wherever he was, he'd come running back to her the way he always used to. But she couldn't find enough tongue to do it, not when her airways felt this dry and desolate. "Please. I really need you."

Don't be dead. Please don't be dead, or I swear I'll kill you again.

She was about to turn and run from the door, sobbing her eyes out, when she heard a soft sound that sent her heart spinning through her chest.

"You shouldn't have come back." The voice on the other side of the door was quiet and hoarse, but the flood of joy and relief it sent through Luan's body was nearly enough to drop her to her knees. He's alive. He's safe…for now.

"Benny? Oh, thank God…"

"I mean it. You shouldn't be here. Not after everything I've done." His tone was stubborn, but his words were so clear that it sounded as though he was sitting right beside the door.

She touched a hand to her heart. Has he been waiting there all night for me?

"I'm not going anywhere," she told him firmly. "I'm not leaving."

"Why?" Benny demanded, the question sounding more urgent than any question she'd ever heard in her life. "You don't make any sense to me."

"Why don't I make sense?"

"Because that isn't how this story's supposed to go!" he cried, the intensity and emotion in his words making Luan's heart pinch and squirm all over again. "You're not supposed to come back. You're supposed to run away screaming the second you find out what I am, and never come near me ever again! Just…just like everyone else."

He sounded so sad and despondent, Luan wanted to grab him tight and squeeze him harder than she'd ever squeezed anyone else before. A hug powerful enough to yank all the pain and loneliness right out of him and make it leave him forever.

But of course, she couldn't do that, on account of the stupid door between them.

Luan's comedienne mind had always seemed to know what to do in the past. Whenever she'd seen someone hurt and sniffling like this before, her first and immediate thought had always been, How do I turn this frown back upside down? It had hardly ever taken her more than a minute to whip out a silly face or a balloon dog and get everyone smiling again.

But this was more than a simple frowny face. Making all the balloon animals in the world wouldn't do a thing to help him, even if she'd been desperate enough to try to do it.

This was the kind of problem that was too big for her to fix. And she couldn't think of anyone in the world who was less deserving of it.

Benny wasn't just breaking her heart. He was breaking her entire soul.

"So stick to your lines and go away," he said. "Leave me alone."

Luan gripped the knob beneath her fingers even tighter. "Not a chance. Now let me in."

She twisted and pulled at the doorknob, but the door wouldn't budge. It stayed locked.

"I wasn't asking, Benjamin Stein. That wasn't a request. Let me in."

The door creaked and groaned as she tried to pry it open with all of her might, but even now, it remained firm and solid, held in place.

A burst of rage flared through her chest. How dare that door try to keep her out! How dare the whole entire world for hurting her prince and attempting to keep her away from him and trapping him under a spell she had no hope of fixing! How dare the stars say no to her when all she wanted was for them to be on her side for once and say something else!

"Let me in!" she shouted at him, pounding on the door as loudly and furiously as she could. She was well aware that her siblings were probably watching this display from the base of the hill–watching her pour her fragile heart out right in front of them–but she couldn't find it in her to care. Right now, she only cared about one thing. "You let me in right now…or so help me, I will kick this door down! I'll do it!"

Just to prove her point, she battered, beat, and kicked at that door as hard as she could, until her knuckles and shins were sore and bruised. But when that star-danged thing still wouldn't knock itself down (and in all agonizing honesty, she hadn't expected it to), she huffed, crossed her arms, and sank right down onto the doorstep, pressing her back against the wooden frame on the wall.

"Okay, fine. Maybe I won't kick your door down. But I'm still not leaving. I'm going to sit right here outside your door, and there's nothing you can do or say to stop me."

"Please don't do this to me."

"Do what? Care about you? Because I do, Benny. I do. And it hurts me so much to know that you–"

"Exactly. It hurts you. Everything I do hurts you." She heard him sigh–a sad, mournful sound that was nothing like the Benny she'd grown used to. "Look, this isn't easy for me to do, but it's better for both of us if I make you leave. Trust me. It's…for your own good."

His sadness made her insides boil, burning sizzling holes right through her chest. How could he ever say something like that?

"Okay, number one, you're not making me leave," she insisted. "You're not ever going to get me to leave. And number two, I don't care what's for my own good. I just want you."

"Luan, I beg you…"

"No. I'm staying put. I promised you I wouldn't abandon you and I intend to keep that promise. No matter what goofy and horribly wrong things you tell me. Besides," she added, "I get the feeling that you want me here, too. Don't lie to me."

He was quiet for a long time before confessing in a low, heavy voice, "Okay. You win. I do want you to stay. I don't want you to ever leave me. But I shouldn't…"

"Shh. Throw all of those shouldn'ts out the window for me. They don't matter."

"Um, no, they kind of do," Benny pointed out. "They kind of do a lot."

"Then pretend they don't. Pretend today never happened and it's a casual Saturday evening and we're two people, sitting out under the stars." Her voice cracked, but she did her best to push through it. "And I'm pointing out silly constellations, and you're laughing at me and everything's fine, and..."

"I'm not a person, I'm not coming out, and everything's not fine!"

"Well then, do your best to act like it is!" she snapped. "You're an actor. So make believe for me. What would you tell me right now if everything was normal?"

He paused for a moment. "I suppose I'd ask about your family."

"And I suppose I'd tell you about my mom and dad. And all ten of my crazy siblings."

"Pssh. You don't have ten siblings. That's impossible. You're joking."

"Thank you, Benny. That was perfect."

They were silent for a while, until he spoke up, hesitantly: "And what would you tell me, if the world was normal?"

"What would you want to hear?"

"Anything, so long as it comes from you."

Stop being so sweet, she silently told him. If you're sweet and adorable, which of course you are because you always are, it'll hurt me so much more.

"I'd tell you that I won't give up on you. No matter what. For better or worse, you're stuck with me."

She placed her palm flat against the door, wondering if, somewhere on the other side, he was doing the same.

Oh, but what she wouldn't give to hold his hands! She would've sacrificed every last whoopee cushion she owned (one hundred and forty-three, to be exact) to fling her arms around his neck, bury her nose deep into his thick fur, and drown herself in the scent of him. He was worth more to her than gold.

"Are you sure I can't come in?" she pleaded, startled at the slight tones of whininess, of neediness, she found in her voice. She cared for him deeply, but she'd never heard herself sound so clingy before. Was it possible she'd missed him even more than she'd realized?

"No, Luan. I can't let you. Not after what I did."

"That wasn't you."

"I think somewhere, deep down, that was me. As much as I hate to admit it, that wild, savage monster and I are one and the same. We live in the same body. I can try to run from what I am, but that doesn't change the fact that I am what I am. And sometimes…" he admitted quietly. "Sometimes, I fear I'm becoming far more beast than human."

"That's not true. That isn't true," Luan replied quickly. "You were confused and terrified, and in that moment you didn't know any better. You didn't remember anything. It's not fair for you to hold yourself accountable for something I know you didn't do on purpose."

"Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm dangerous." He took a deep breath. "I'm not just some puppy, you know. I'm not a cute, innocent, fluffy puppy for you to hug and cuddle whenever you want to. I'm a dangerous, wild animal with horns and claws and fangs. And I don't want to hurt you any more than I already have. I should have sent you away much sooner."

"I wouldn't have left."

"Heck, if I'd had half a brain, I never would've let you inside in the first place."

"But you did. Something compelled you to open that door, and to keep opening those doors. That alone makes you human. Maybe you don't think you are, but I do, because I know your soul and I like it…and I like you. And maybe you've given up hope, but I won't. You don't have to let me through the door, but you do have to deal with the fact that I'm a part of your life now. And I want to keep being part of it, and to keep trying to save you. Hand over those spellbooks and let me keep trying."

When he did nothing in response, she only pressed even harder.

"I'll sit out here all night," she threatened. "We can play this game all night, if that's what it takes for you to give in and admit that you still need my help. I won't even sleep; I'll just keep bothering you until sunrise."

"You have to sleep."

There's that stubborn, worried Benny I know, Luan thought with a pang of deep affection. And he thinks he's long gone. Ridiculous!

"Nuh-uh, not a wink until you fork over those books." The smug, teasing lilt her words took on made her feel a little like she had way back when she was just a misbehaving toddler, stealing Lori's plastic-bead bracelets and refusing to tell where she'd hidden them until her parents bribed her with candy. Even now, Benny had a way of bringing out that side of her–the purest, silliest part of her that she'd thought even she had lost with age. "Seriously. This doorstep is looking really comfortable, y'know."

There was something so deliciously satisfying about knowing she'd already won him over.

"Fine." After Benny spoke, Luan heard a tap on the window pane. "Come here."

Luan got up from the doorstep, turned the corner, and met him at the window. Opening the glass a crack, Benny handed her the spellbooks and she dropped them onto the grass. Before he could pull away and close the window, Luan lunged for his hands, catching them right in the nick of time.

He immediately tried to pull them out of her grasp, making a small, frustrated noise as she continued to cling tight. "Luan, you shouldn't–"

"What did I tell you about shouldn'ts?"

"That I should throw them away," he recalled. "But I don't…I don't understand why you keep doing this. Why did you come back? How did you come back? And how can you stand to touch me like this, even after learning what I'm capable of?"

"Because you might not be a fluffy puppy," she said, giving his hands an extra-tight squeeze. "but you're still my Benny, in any shape you take."

"...Your Benny?!" He sounded shocked, as though this wasn't the most perfectly obvious fact ever in the history of the world.

"Mmhmm. Get that through your thick, beautiful, curly-haired skull."

"But it doesn't make sense," he repeated. "This has never made sense to me. You're the fearless heroine. I'm just the monster who terrorizes the whole town and gets tragically slain by you in the end."

If I ever meet her, I'm going to slap that witch right in the face, Luan swore. Along with anybody else who has ever made this boy feel as though he was less than worthy of the entire world.

"Not in this story, Benny. Not this time."

Luan managed a small smile when she felt Benny's fingers curl and tighten around her own. But even that was laced with fear and sorrow, because the bristle of his fur and the poke of his claws reminded her about everything she still didn't understand about him and the magic that bound him tight. And his future…Luan didn't even want to think about what his future might hold.

What if this is the last time he ever lets me hold his hands like this? What if I never hear his voice or listen to his laughter again? What am I going to do without him if that spell takes him from me forever?

Maybe I can't save him, but if it's all I can do, I'm going to make the most of every moment I have left with him.

No matter what, I'll never stop trying to set him free. Never, never, never.

"And I wish you'd stop calling yourself that. A monster."

"Is that not what I am?"

Luan wasn't sure whether to facepalm or to break down crying on the spot. So, she went with neither, simply rubbing her thumb across the back of his hand in that soft, gentle way she knew he was fond of. "That settles it. You're the most ridiculous boy I've ever met."

"You say that as though you're not the one who spends her free time juggling scarves, cracking puns, and walking tightropes."

"Alright, fine, that's a fair point," she conceded. "But seriously, hear me out."

She paused for a moment, bracing herself for the flood of emotions that was about to come spilling right out of her.

"You can't call yourself a monster because monsters don't have beautiful eyes or bright smiles or adorable curly hair. They don't dance or recite poetry or change babies' diapers. They don't teach little girls how to read or make me feel safer and warmer than I've ever felt before in my life. Monsters don't laugh at my jokes, or fix my hair, or talk to me under the stars, or somehow know exactly what I'm feeling before I even tell them. A monster has never held my hand or told me I was pretty or caused me to question everything I thought I knew about myself. Monsters don't make me want to laugh and cry and hug them tight every time I see them–because you're perfect exactly the way you are, even if I can't get you to believe it. How can you not see that? How do you not see any of that?"

She looked at him. It was hard to tell with that stupid window between them, but his eyes looked even larger and darker than they ever had before. She wanted to stare at them for the rest of her life, if only so that she could finally figure out what it was they seemed to be trying to tell her.

"So, if you're going to keep calling yourself a monster," she concluded, holding his hands tightly. "I'm going to start calling myself an armadillo. Then we'd both be just as wrong."

"Luan," Benny whispered, his voice catching in his throat as though he was lost in a rhapsody. "I-I don't know what to say…"

"Then don't say anything. I just wanted you to know."

"Are you sure you're not an angel?"

Despite how emotional and serious everything felt, she found herself biting back a laugh. Imagine that! She, Luan Marie Loud, the goofy, pie-throwing clown…as someone's angel. It was completely preposterous!

Then again, that person was Benny, her lovely, silly Prince Benny, and this was one of the sweetest things she'd ever heard him say to her.

"No." Luan shook her head gravely, but she couldn't seem to keep the smile off her face. "I'm not an angel, Benny. I'm a person trying my best. And you're a person trying your best. Maybe together we could make this work."
"You'd have to be a fool."

She touched her nose to the cold glass and tugged on his hands, pulling him as close as she could just so she could look him straight in the eyes. "Then call me your fool."

"You're crazy," he replied.

"No, I'm serious. Say it."

He edged even closer. The tip of his nose pressed right against the spot where hers was resting.

"Okay," he whispered. "You're a fool."

A mischievous smirk crossed her face. "Nope. That's not exactly it."

He hesitated for a few seconds, but eventually corrected himself.

"You're…my fool."

"Until the end of time."

She was about to tell him something else…she didn't know quite what, just whatever sappy little nothings came off the top of her head, she supposed, when she heard Lori's voice call her name.

Luan turned around to see Lori making her way up the hill. The night wind tossed her blond hair like a chef might a pot of hot spaghetti. "Luan, come on! It's getting late!"

She turned back to Benny with a mournful expression. "I have to go."

"Can't you stay?" Through the window, she could see that his eyes looked deep and pleading. Dang it. He was using those puppy-dog eyes she couldn't look away from.

When she spoke, her voice was tight with emotion. "Benny…"

"Don't leave me." Surprising her, he released her hands, placing his own under the gap in the window and lifting the glass pane high above his head.

And there it was. Every little detail of his soft and perfect face, just as adorable as the image of him she kept safe at all times in the back of her mind.

He seemed shy and cautious, as though worried he might turn on her again, but all the same, he reached out a quivering hand to touch the back of her wrist.

"Five more minutes. Please."

She put her own hand over his with a weak smile. "You know I can't say no to you."

Looking back at Lori, she shouted, "I'll be down in five minutes!"

Lori crossed her arms, plopping herself right down onto the grass. "Fine, but then we literally have to go. Mom and Dad are going to murder you if they find out where we've been!"

"Are…all of your siblings here?" Benny asked her, cocking his head in that cute, quirky way of his.

"Just the older five," she said.

"Could you tell them I'm sorry?"

Oh, Benny. His face…I can tell how awful he feels about all of this.

"I think they understand it wasn't you who did any of that."

"Yeah, maybe, but I bet I scared them really badly." She watched as his face suddenly fell, his ears drooping. "Oh, gosh–is Lily okay? And the twins…Lisa…"

"Shh, everyone's fine. I mean, sure, they cried, even Lisa, but they're going to be okay. They're all safe, Benny, you never did anything terrible–"

Benny's eyes widened in shock. "I made them cry?!" Cringing, he looked down at the floor, averting his eyes and rubbing his free hand against the back of his neck. "Dang, I'm the worst. Is anyone hurt?"

Luan lifted her hand off of his and stroked her thumb along the side of his cheek. Her movement achieved its intended goal, which was to startle him into looking into her eyes again.

"You're perfect and smart and hilarious, and nothing that happened changes that." She almost didn't want to tell him about the things he'd done, but she knew she owed it to him to tell the truth. If it had been her who had accidentally harmed someone, that was what she would have wanted from him. So, with a sigh, she said, "I've got a couple scratches on my arm. Leni was barely grazed on the wrist. That's it."

"It's…not as bad as I feared," he said, sounding relieved. "Show me where?"

She tore both of her hands away from his and tugged back the folds of her cloak. The scratches were no longer a bright and blazing red; they had long ago faded into a dull maroon. None of them were large or painful at all, only minor surface wounds.

But the way Benny treated them, lightly brushing his fingertips across them with a broken, otherworldly look in his eyes, they might as well have been wounds deep enough to cut to the bone.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "Fair sun, I'm so sorry. I don't remember a thing."

"I do," she replied. "You were scared. I don't think you were trying to hurt us. You were just worried we were going to hurt you. Any creature would have acted that way."

"Maybe so, but it's still weird of you to come back after all of this. Any normal person would have left without ever looking back."

"Have you ever considered me a normal person?"

"Nope."

"Good. Because even if you think it's weird, I'm not going to stop until I find a way to help you. Not if it takes me a billion years to do it."

"Luan, wait." Benny started to tighten his grip around her arm, but a strange, guilty expression took over his face, causing him to reconsider and pull away. "I don't want you to throw your life away for me. I mean…there's a pretty good chance that anything you try to do will end up being hopeless."

"I'm not throwing my life away by trying to save yours," she countered, her voice coming out a bit sterner than she'd meant it. "If anything, you're the one throwing yours away. I mean, when are you going to wake up and realize that your life doesn't have to be some big Shakespearan tragedy? I know it feels like it is, but that doesn't have to be the only way you define it, or yourself. You're so much more than that. And…maybe it was written in the stars that you'll be sad and cursed forever, but I want to make a stand for you anyway."

She put her hand on his shoulder. When he flinched at her touch, she only moved in closer, sliding her fingers higher until they settled into the small divot where his neck met his collarbone. "I want us to try to make our own fate."

He tilted his head. "But…why? What's the point?"

"I already told you the point, you goof. Because you're mine and I'm yours. Forever."

The look in his eyes could have outshone every star in a hundred galaxies. And that faint thumping noise she heard sounded suspiciously like the ones she'd heard whenever his wagging tail had accidentally crashed into a wall or knocked over a chair.

"Do you want to try with me?" she asked, although the answer was already sketched out across his face as bright and golden as the fabric of her cloak. "Even if nothing comes out of it?"

"Yes," he said. "A hundred thousand times, yes."

Breaking out into a wide grin, she threw her other arm across his shoulder, fully prepared to tug him forward into the biggest hug she'd ever given to anyone in her life. But instead, he placed his hands over hers and slowly brought them back down to rest in a warm bundle between them.

"Stay right there. Don't come an inch closer," he warned her.
"Are you scared you might hurt me?"

"I always am. But mostly I'm scared that if you try to hold me right now, I'll never be able to let you go again."

"You act like that's a bad thing."

"It is a bad thing!"

"Mmm. Not to me."

A silent spell came over them. But this time, it felt comforting, being here in this calm, quiet night under the hidden stars–even if it was the stars that kept trying to tear them apart. In that moment, there was nowhere she'd have rather been.

Normally, Luan's happiness had come from noise and chaos, from light and color and laughter and a hundred funny things all going on at once. And that passion was still there, as it always would be, but Benny brought out a new sort of quiet happiness in her that she'd never known before. He really does make me question everything I thought was set in stone. I don't even think he realizes how much he's changed me.

Maybe it's weird and stupid of me to want him like this, but I can't change the fact that I do.

He wouldn't let her come any closer, but that didn't make her desire to be near him any weaker. If anything, it only made it stronger. Her need for him burned in her chest, incinerating her body as though it was a bonfire. Like a worm on the end of a fishing line, by God, he had her hooked.

Luan was tempted to bring his furry hands right up to her lips and kiss every last one of his fingertips the way he had once kissed her own. Or maybe even seize his shirt collar, step up onto her tiptoes, and press a quick kiss against all those silly dark curls on his forehead. She didn't even care that those kinds of thoughts were supposed to be bad. She just wanted him–every sweet and wonderful inch of him–and wanted him to be aware of her want for him, and to tell her he wanted her, too. She wanted him to tell her that it…that they…were possible.

But she found herself frozen, locked in place. Unable to look away from his eyes.

He was looking at her the way every girl longed to be looked at.

It rendered her brain completely useless. All she could do was stare at him, grinning like an idiot as he held her hands, keeping both them and her heart nice and warm.

I suppose I can always kiss him tomorrow, she mused, her brain feeling all fluttery and loopy…the way it always did when he charmed her like this. I'll make it a good and proper one, like Lori always gives to Bobby. As soon as I figure out how.

"Luan! I gave you more than five minutes! Tell him goodbye and get down here now!" Lori's shrill voice rang out across the breeze, and Benny's ears perked at the sound.

Luan looked at him and rolled her eyes. "I'd better go. By the sound of it, Lori's going to kill me if I'm not by her side in thirty seconds."

"Are you going to come back tomorrow?"

"Always," she vowed. "I swear. Tomorrow and the next day and every day after that, for as long as I can. Wait up for me by moonrise and I'll find my way to you."

"You're one in a million, Luan Loud," he said with a grin. "Okay, I'll be here waiting, no matter what form I'm in."

"That's all I needed to hear. Well, then…I shall say goodnight till it be morrow, dear prince. Stay alive for me. Stay right here. And don't fur-get about my promise, okay?"

Benny laughed. "I won't."

"Oh, wait, one more thing–I promised Lori I'd ask about your head. She…kind of hit you with the broom this morning when you…" Attacked me, her thoughts finished. She winced, unable to get the terrible words out of her throat. "Does anything feel damaged or broken?"

He nodded, looking deep into her soul with his perfect brown eyes. "Yes. There's definitely something wrong with my head."

Instantly, guilt and concern flooded through her veins from head to toe. She gripped his hands even tighter. "What is it, Benny, what? Do you think it's serious?"

But he only flashed her a wry grin. "It hasn't been able to stop thinking about you all day."

Now it was she who suddenly burst out laughing. "Oh, Benny!"

He gave her hands a soft squeeze, as though he was doing it for the last time in his life–but please don't let this be the last time, it can't be the last time–then let her go.

"Take care of yourself, Luan. Get home safe."

"You don't have to worry about me. I've got Lori. Plus Lynn and her baseball bat."

"Well then…goodnight."

"Goodnight." With a strong, painful stab of longing, Luan managed to tear herself away from the window. She picked up all of her books, turned to give the prince one last smile, then raced down the hill towards Lori's outstretched arms. Her heart felt shattered, but at the same time as though it was soaring higher than all the clouds in the atmosphere.

When she reached the bottom, all of her siblings, even Lynn, were wearing the same peculiar half-happy, half-sad face that Luan herself had probably worn around Benny countless times. They all seemed to reach out for her hand in unison, but of course, Luan didn't have nearly enough hands to hold onto them all. After an awkward minute, she ended up nestled between Luna and Leni, while Lori and Lincoln carried her books. Lynn gripped her baseball bat, swatting at any plants and trees that dared to look at her funny.

They'd only walked a few steps when Luan heard a loud, sweetly familiar voice carry itself over the wind.

"Luan!"

She turned her head to look behind at Benny. Back on the top of the hill, he was leaning as far out the window as he possibly could without toppling over. He had both hands cupped around his mouth, seemingly wanting to make it absolutely certain that she heard him.

The words he shouted down to her were brief and garbled, hard to understand because of the distance between them. But as soon as she realized what they were, they brought tears to her eyes. Happy, sad, bittersweet, and just about every single emotion in between.

"I'm your fool, too!"

…

Luan found herself in a deep daze the entire trip back home. She felt as though she was lost in a daydream. Her head was so foggy, she would've walked right into a tree had Luna and Leni not been there to set her straight.

She'd gotten a sharp whisper of "Luan, get your head in the game!" from Lynn, but other than that, none of her siblings had made any attempts to talk to her.

Which might've been for the better, really, since Luan had no idea what she would've told them. She wasn't even sure whether to feel happy or sad, hopeful or despondent, absolutely smitten or worried about the fact that her affection for Benny only seemed to be growing when she was supposed to be ignoring it to work on fixing the spell.

That's Benny for you, she thought. He'll make you feel all sorts of things in the span of only a few minutes, none of which you can name or explain. But mostly he'll make you feel like your head's not screwed on exactly right.

At the very least, she could rest assured that he was safe, her family was unharmed, and she had what she needed to keep working. After all, the last petals hadn't fallen just yet. Everything was going to be okay. It had to be okay.

"So, what did you guys talk about?" Leni asked after a few more minutes of walking in silence.

"Leni, don't ask her that!" Lori hissed. "Whatever she told him is private!"
Leni cocked her head. "Regular private, or private private?"

"Private private!"

"Oh…oh!" Leni clapped both hands over her mouth with a gasp. Then, she whispered to Lori in a tone softer than silken socks, "She seems a little young, though. Are you sure things aren't moving too fast?"

Lori facepalmed. "I'm starting to think maybe you and I have entirely different definitions of the word private. Please ignore all of that, Luan."

Luan, meanwhile, felt hotter than a furnace, and the suspicious look Lynn was giving her wasn't exactly helping things. She was grateful when Luna picked up on her discomfort and quickly changed the subject.

"We all saw Bens is back up and about. Is he doing okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. Not hurt." Luan said quietly, earning a sigh of relief out of Lori. "But very, very sorry. I don't know if he'll ever let me into his house ever again after what happened today. Even if it was only an accident, the guilt is crushing him. It kind of hurt to even look at him," she confessed.

"Not half as bad as it hurt me, I bet," Luna spoke up unexpectedly. As Luan looked up at her, she could tell her sister was clenching her jaw. "I'm a bad liar, so I'm just gonna tell it to you straight. I was so dang close to stabbing the poor critter when he came near Lans and Lols. And I've been feeling awful about it all day. Especially now, after seeing how much you still care for him, and how much he clearly cares about you."

After a moment or two of silence, she added: "Almost did it, too. He told me to."

Well, that got everyone's attention.

Luan gripped Luna's wrist so tightly, she could see some of the skin around it start to turn bleach-white. "Benny told you what?!"

"Yowch, Lulu, not so hard!" Luna yelped. "Your nails are razor-sharp, dude!" After Luan loosened her grip, Luna collected her thoughts. "It was a few days ago, when he took us to get some paper from his room. Poor thing had had a nightmare or something that night. Left his bedsheets in shreds. Super nasty."

Luan looked back at the castle with another pang of fierce, desperate longing. He never did show me where he sleeps. Is that why?

I'll save you from those nightmares, she promised him. You'll never have another bad dream again once I'm through with you.

"Yeah, and so when some of the girls were feeling nervous, he gave me that dagger and told me to stab him if he ever tried to hurt any of us. Through the heart, he said. It was only when I looked in his eyes and saw that you were right, he really was scared out of his mind, that I started to reconsider."

"Wow…I never even knew," Luan whispered. Her sweet Benny had been so worried about harming her family that he would've gladly died for their sake had Luna been so bold. "I didn't even know…"

She could picture in vivid detail an image of him dying on the floor with a pointed silver blade thrown through his chest. Right down to the shocked, confused, painfully tragic look in his eyes as he stared up at her, his breaths already starting to slow down to nearly nothing as he bled out onto the stone tiles.

Would his mind have been human, in his final moments? Would he have felt betrayed by what her sister had done, or would he have accepted his fate without protest?

Would he have let his life be nothing more than the tragedy he claimed it to be?

What would she have done if he had?

The thought of all of this was making her heart, which had only just started to shape itself back into something coherent, snap apart all over again. "What else did he say to you that he hasn't told me?"

"Well, Benny said not to tell you this, but I'll do it anyway," Lincoln said. "He keeps all of your pies in a stack in his icebox. Hasn't even touched a single one."

This tamer confession somehow stunned Luan nearly as much as the previous one. "What?! Why? Does he not like the way I cook?"

She wasn't exactly going to call that a deal-breaker, since he was wonderful and adorable and splendid in practically every other way. But it was still kind of pushing it.

Lincoln shrugged. "Said he couldn't taste anything sweet. Some weird side effect of that curse or something."

"So he's been handling everything this whole time with no chocolate?" Leni said, her eyes wide and bright. "Or cake, or cookies, or pie, or anything? That really is a curse!"

Indeed, Luan thought, squeezing her sisters' hands tightly. If I ever run into that witch, I'll give her something extra 'sweet' to taste, just for that. And for all of the hundred other things he's probably dealing with that he hasn't told me about.

How could anyone ever do something like this to someone so young?

Whoever cursed him must be a monster. A real one, I mean, not a beautiful, silly boy in a monster's furry body the way my Benny is.

I have to find a way to make him human again. Even if it takes me my whole life.

"Lincoln told us," Lori added quietly, "that Benny said it's been years since anyone's been around to talk to him. He's been by himself for a long time."

That word was like a kick to the chest–it seemed to knock all of the wind right out of her. Years. It's been years.

This whole time, she'd been treating him as though he'd been under that spell for a few months, maybe a year at most! But years, plural? Why had he never told her that?

"How…how many years?" she asked, surprised by the way her voice came out as barely anything more than a hoarse, scratchy rasp. Then again, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer to this question.

"He didn't say," said Lincoln. "Mom gave him a hug when he told her, though."

"She did? When?"

"Just this morning."

Just this morning. The last time everything had been anything even remotely close to good and well. Her shy prince had somehow managed to capture her mother's heart just as well as he'd stolen away her own.

And yet…that image her mind conjured up of her mom hugging Benny didn't match at all with the harsh, snappish tone Rita had used when she'd called him a monster that same afternoon.

Maybe she didn't really believe it, then.

Maybe my parents are a lot more complicated than I give them credit for.

Luan felt as though she was seeing brand-new parts of everyone. Benny, her mother, even her siblings, who had apparently been given access to information that she'd known absolutely nothing about. "And he said not to tell me any of this?"

"Most of it, yep," said Lynn. "This might be a shocker to you, but 'Don't tell Luan' is kind of a regular part of his vocabulary."

It is a shocker to me! Why would he hide so much from me?

Is it because he didn't want me to see how hurt he is?

Was he worried that I couldn't handle it? That I can't handle him?

Oh, Benny…how can someone be so thoughtful, yet so stupid at the same time?

"Was there anything else?" she asked, afraid to know the answer.

"It was mostly a bunch of stuff about how pretty he thinks you are," Lynn said, rolling her eyes in mock annoyance.

Luan wanted to strangle herself for even asking this question when the only really important thing was to get home as fast as possible so she could go to bed and wake up and keep trying to save his life. But the vivid, heated blush on her cheeks seemed to demand it. Command it.

"What did he say about me?"

"Well," Lori said with a smile. "He told us that he thinks your eyes are so enchanting and beautiful that he's genuinely, literally scared he'll get lost in them forever."
Ooh, dang it, there's that blush again. Benny wasn't even there, but she could imagine him saying those words so clearly. They were so obviously him in nature that it made her giggle.

But does he really think any of that? Or is he lying to my siblings because he knows I'm upset and he's trying to make me feel better? Because that kind of sounds like something he would do.

"He knows you think he's cute," Leni added, "But he thinks you mean it as though he's nothing but your pet."

But I don't! she wanted to shout at him, even though by now he was already far beyond her reach. You mean way more than that to me! I thought you knew that!

"He doesn't want you to worry about him so much," Luna said. "But he knows you're going to anyway. And he adores you for that."

I adore him, too. Way more than I ever thought I would.

"Plus, he said he fancies you," Lynn remarked. "Do with that information what you will."

Luan felt like the top of her head was going to blow off like an erupting volcano.

He does?! What does he mean by that? And once again…what do I want it to mean?

And why do I feel like I should run right back up that hill and stay with him forever?

Why can't I just sort these feelings out? What is it about him that makes everything feel so difficult all of the time?

All of the other siblings gave Lynn a look, but Lynn only shrugged in response. "What? She asked for the truth, people. I'm not going to lie to her!"

"He really said all of that? No joke?" she asked.

"No joke," Lincoln promised. "Everything they told you is true."

"But…all of this feels like a fairytale," she whispered, her face burning hotter than the sun. "Comediennes never get fairytales."

Lori's only response was to pat her sister on the head. "Consider yourself fairytaled, Luan."

Somehow, even with the weight of his life on her shoulders, even after catastrophe after catastrophe had struck them, Benny still managed to keep her laughing and smiling. There was something truly magical about that boy and the way she felt about him, though she couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what or why.

But she knew that when she was with him, she felt like the most beautiful creature in the world.

And nothing could ruin her mood after that. Absolutely nothing.

Except maybe the sight of both her parents, their arms crossed in anger and their faces as unflinching as flint, as she and her siblings walked into view of the inn.

Only one night and she'd already been caught.

"Luan Marie Loud." Her father's voice was all but soundless as the wind screamed into her ears, but Luan was still able to tell exactly what he was saying…and her blood ran cold at the words.

"You are officially grounded."

…

Though some travelers may have claimed to know the Dark Woods, the truth was that not a single soul could ever really understand it for certain.

No one, that was, except for the trees themselves.

It may seem like something out of a storybook–although the wisest of readers know that nothing is truly as fictional as it sounds–but they whispered to each other, late at night when no sensible souls were around to hear them.

The trees told secrets to their neighbors far and wide. Maple, alder, oak, and birch, all were versed one and the same in the language of late-night gossip.

If someone was willing and able to listen, what would they hear?

Maybe they'd hear the tale of the little blonde girl who spent a full night and a full day waiting for her mother's return, busying herself by transforming frogs into birds, then back again. Maybe they'd know how far and fast she'd ran when she'd heard howling during that second night (though it was uncertain whether it was wolves, the wind, or her stomach) to the first building that caught her eye–a towering structure with windows made of brightly-colored stained glass.

Maybe they'd know about the half-wicked enchantress who spent that same second night getting carted away to the county prison after having been knocked out for the entirety of the first one. Then they'd hear her cursing just about everything and everyone in existence…but nothing more than the iron bars of her cell. Just her luck, getting stuck behind the only material immune to her spells. As long as that barrier was in her way, not a shred of her magic could get anywhere past her cage, leaving her as trapped as a cat in a kennel.

And maybe then they'd see the group of settlers, now well over two hundred strong, that had taken over that forest as though they owned it. They'd see those people, hungry for jewels or gold, or just the thrill of the chase, watching that old forbidden castle. Knowing there was a creature lurking somewhere inside and waiting patiently for the day something could lure it out.

They'd have heard all the talk about the yellow girl earlier that night–the one who had dared to come back even after something had suddenly made her whole family run right out that same morning.

"There's got to be something wrong with that girl." As soft as rustling leaves, the settlers' voices had whispered as they'd watched her peer through the window at the something inside. Even when it had lifted up the window pane, it had still been far too dark outside for any of them to get a good glimpse of the creature's shape. "Perhaps she's been bewitched, somehow."

"Bewitched?"

"Why else would she keep coming back?"

"...The same reason we are?"

"You've seen her hands. She never leaves with jewels."

Silently, the settlers had watched as the girl turned tail and left, just as suddenly as she'd arrived. Her cloak had caught the light with a glow as luminous as if it had itself been made of spun, solid gold.

"You can't possibly think there's something magic afoot here, do you, boss? Something weird and dangerous?"

If any of the trees had owned a pair of eyes, they would have seen the glint of a grin sharp enough to cut through steel.

"You never know. The woods are a scary place. Not a single moment of peace and quiet to go around. Not once in my life."

"And getting rid of this thing will help you accomplish that?"

This thing. Quite a strange and unbefitting way to describe the lovestruck boy with a bushy tail who spent the late hours of the night–and would probably spend all of the next day as well–longing for the return of his comedienne. The boy who eventually fell asleep in a patch of stone and moonlight, thinking of her smile right before he slid back into his usual restless dreams.

Then again, when it came to the forest at night, nothing was ever what it seemed to be. Everything had a way of getting obscured by the thick foliage and howling winds. Only the trees ever knew the truth about anything hiding within it.

But, of course, what good is it to know the truth if you are rooted to one spot for your entire life, unable to say or do much at all?

"You could say that. But don't you worry, friends," the woman concluded. "As soon as it steps even an inch outside…everything we want will be ours."
Even after the breeze had started to die down, the leaves on the trees were especially shaky that night.

...

A/N: And so this not-so-little story continues! I'm super excited to see where else it goes, what kinds of twists and turns are lying around the bend. I hope you're excited for it, too.

Honestly, one of my favorite little parts of this fanfic is the fact that almost every single character seems to think that they've been cast in the wrong role, or placed in the wrong story. As the chapters go one, we'll see even more characters start to settle into roles they never expected they'd play. And that's the best part of being an AU writer: getting to write characters, scenes, and events that would never take place within the canon universe. That's what keeps me writing...and keeps me young and on my toes!

Once again, it's been a long while since I posted anything, and once again we have a super-long chapter, because by now I've lost all my self-control and self-preservation skills (send help please). My "beta reader" (a text-to-speech voice thingy named Mark) probably wants to murder me by now. But I hope seeing this story pop up brings you some joy and excitement, even though you can never predict where, when, and how I'll pop up next. As always, I want to thank you for your continued support, and send you all of my love and happy endings. You all deserve that just for being here and taking part in this emotional journey with me.

Catch you later! :)