I sat in my prison cell, tears dried on my face for what felt like hours before, suddenly, the door swung open. I gasped as I rose and a voice started speaking.

"Forgive my intrusion, mademoiselle, but I have come to escort you to your room," the man told me. I stared at the wall beyond the cell door, but no one came out from the darkness. I quietly grabbed the stool next to me before inching towards the door.

"What room?" I asked. "I thought I was to stay here forever. He said-"

"Oh, what? That 'once this door closes it will not open again'?" I saw his shadow as he spoke and he looked like a man, but after seeing the beast, I couldn't be sure. I could still hear my father's words echoing as I walked.

"This castle is alive!"

The man imitated a roar before continuing on with what he'd been saying.

"I know." I followed the shadow to see a tiny, golden man with a candle burning on his head and in place of his hands. "He gets so dramatic." I gasped at what I saw. "Hello." He grunted as he jumped down from the lever that unlocked the door and I quickly threw the stool at him, extinguishing the flames on his candle. I shrieked as he made a noise of surprise at my attack and quickly back away from him. "Oh, you are very strong. This is a great quality." His hands relit themselves, and he relit his head from them as I stared.

"What are you?" I asked him.

"I am Lumiere!" he introduced.

"You can talk?"

"Well, of course, he can talk." I turned and watched as the clock I'd seen next to the candelabra on the ground floor jumped up to the step we were on. "It's all he ever does. How, Lumiere, as head of the household I demand that you put her back in her cell at once." I turned and looked for another weapon to use against them, but found only a water pitcher as they spoke in a whisper. I stood in the doorway again and looked at the pair of them staring up at me.

"Ready, miss?" He turned and walked away with the clock and I stared from them to the cell and back. They could have been leading me to my death or to a room as Lumiere said. I suppose I'd have to work on trusting what others told me while I was here. It's not like I could go anywhere else, was it?


"You must forgive first impressions," Lumiere told me as we walked from the tower my cell was in too another part of the castle where my "room" was located. From the rampart we were walking on I could see more of the grounds I'd rode in stretching to the forest where Belle and I had retrieved the golden music box Papa had worked so hard on. I held it tightly as I held onto Lumiere's legs as we spoke. Parts of this castle looked like it should have been destroyed years ago, but it still held on. "I hope you are not too startled."

"Oh, no, not at all," I said sarcastically. "Why should I be startled? I'm talking to a clock and a candlestick."

"Candelabra, please. Enormous difference," he told me and I raised my eyebrow at him. "But consider me at your service. The castle is your home now so feel free to go anywhere you like."

"Except the west wing," Clogsworth, he'd finally introduced himself to me as we'd walked, told me and I looked at the pair curiously. "Which we do not have."

"What's in the west wing? Why can't I go there?" I asked them before looking at it from where we stood.

"Nothing," Lumiere said but his voice was at least an octive higher than it should have been.

"Nothing."

"Storage space."

"Storage space."

"That's it."

"That's it."

"Yes, that's it."

"This way, please. To the east wing," Cogsworth said and I looked away from the west wing to follow him again.

"Or, as I like to call it, the only wing," Lumiere laughed, but thoughts of what could have been in the west wing was all this filled my mind now. "Watch your step, s'il vous plait!"


We walked through a doorway that servants must have used once to quickly get around the castle before it was occupied by the beast and his people and Lumiere jumped from my hand to Cogsworth head, to the beautiful blue painted door with golden accents on it.

"Welcome to your new home. It's modest but comfortable." If this was modest I didn't want to see what was grander. The room was painted in a soft blue with golden mirrors on a few walls. What looked like golden branches hanging from the ceiling which was painted to look like a clear blue sky. The furniture was the same blue and gold color scheme to match the walls.

"It's beautiful," I breathed.

"But of course! Master wanted you to have the finest room in the castle." Lumiere jumped on the bed only for a cloud of dust to appear around him. He coughed it from his lungs and waved it away. "Oh, dear. We were not expecting guests." I laughed lightly before a duster flew into the room next to my head.

"Enchantee, mademoiselle. Don't worry," she told me as she started dusting the room. "I'll have this place spotless in no time." She danced down into Lumiere's arms and they spun for a moment on the bed. They whispered and I wanted to look away from their intimate moment when Cogsworth coughed into his hand. They both quickly looked up at us and I smiled before hearing the light snores from somewhere in the room.

"What all is alive?" I asked following the snores, but I couldn't tell if something was alive or not. I placed the music box on the vanity as I picked up the hairbrush and began looking it over.

"That is a hairbrush." Lumiere and the duster were laughing and I quickly put it down before jumping back as the wardrobe did a high pitch vocalization at us.

"Do not be alarmed," Lumiere told me. "This is just your wardrobe. Meet Madame De Garderobe. A great singer."

"When she can stay awake."

"Cogsworth! A diva needs her beauty rest," she yawned.

"Stay with us, Madame," Lumiere told her. "We have someone for you to dress!" She gasped and seemed to finally see me.

"Finally! A woman." She grabbed my shoulders and pulled me close to her. "Pretty eyes. Proud face. Perfect canvas. Yes! I will find you something worthy of a princess."

"You don't have to, really," I assured her. "I'm far from a princess."

"Nonsense! Now, let's see what I've got in my drawers." She opened one of the bottom drawers and moths flew out of it. "Oh. How embarrassing." She pulled out the bottom part of a dress that would keep it in the shape she wanted. "Froufrou, come help Mama." A piano stool came barking into the room as I was being spun and cloth was flying all over the place around me. The stool grabbed one end of one and pulled which tightened around my middle making me gasp for air. Madame de Garderobe exclaimed in another language before placing a wig on my head. "Perfecto!"

"Subtle. Understated. I love it!" Lumiere said as he, the duster, and Cogsworth all backed out of the room. The stool went after them barking as the doors closed between us.

"Froufrou, send my love to the maestro." The doors closed and the wardrobe started her snoring again. I took the wig off before slipping out of the monstrosity of a dress and going to the window. I opened it and looked down and was thankful I'd never been afraid of heights. I sat on the small seat in front of it and sighed as I looked around the room again. Nothing in here would help me. What would Belle do if she were here? Well, she wouldn't be. She'd be halfway home by now. I got up and went to the music box and listened to the lullaby inside and smiled sadly. I took a good look at the pink cloth and made a face before I realized how much there truly was to it. I glanced back at the window and smiled. I was going to go home.