Author's note: Beast never gets named, so I named him Jacques.
The beautifully decorated, exceptionally large office of the elegantly dressed Prince Jacques gave me an unexpected bout of extreme anxiety as I sat across from the intimidating man. He paid me extra to come to his castle rather than him attempting to meet at my office.
"I'm ready," began Jacques. "How do we do this?"
I smiled lightly, trying to put him at ease. "You just take a few deep breaths, relax, and answer my questions as thoroughly as you can."
He took a few deep breaths before nodding that he was ready.
"Okay. Let's start at the beginning. What was your childhood like?"
Jacques sighed. "My father was the King of Occitania, inheriting the title when he married my mother, Princess María of Castille. This is why I have to marry Belle – there is a requirement that I have to marry to become king."
He took a few deep breaths. "I remember my mother died when I was eight. She was an amazing and kind woman. My father was a habitual drinker who took his loss out on me. He held grand parties thrice a year, one on the anniversary of his coronation, one on his birthday, and one on my birthday. He drank himself to death when I was seventeen. I celebrated with lavish parties for three years."
He got quiet and thoughtful for a moment. "One night, an old beggar came and asked for board during a storm. I denied her, treating her as my father taught me, and she put a curse on me. She turned me into a ferocious beast that would not know love, and she turned all the partygoers and servants into objects. She said she made the townspeople forget that we existed too. We spent twenty years like that."
His eyes took on a depressive undertone, the darkness of the memories churning in his mind like the midnight storm from twenty-one years ago. "Did you lose all hope during that time?"
His eyes flashed back at me, pulling him out of his daze. "Almost. The years passed by in a haze; my memory is cloudy about that time. The castle started to fall apart around me without the care it needed. The only thing that kept me from losing every ounce of hope I had was the rose that the hag enchanted. She took one of my most beautiful roses, enchanting it so that when the last petal fell, the spell would be permanent. To break the spell, I had to get someone to care for me. It stayed perfectly preserved for twenty years, but one year ago, the first petal fell. It was the night Belle came to the castle searching for her dad."
I allowed him some time to process his thoughts before continuing. "Why was Belle's dad here?"
He huffed in annoyance. "The old bat was out in a bad storm, like the one twenty years before. He was on his way back from some market, and lightning knocked down a tree. It blocked the main road and sent him this way. He assumed I wouldn't have a problem with him and his horse staying the night in the castle. He was wrong. I made him my prisoner instead."
"Why did you do that?" I asked.
"He was trespassing!" Jacques slammed his hands on the coffee table between us.
I raised my eyebrow at his outburst. "Take a deep breath and calm down."
He looked irritated with my request, but he complied. I let him huff in silence for a moment before moving on.
"Do you think the witch enchanted the castle not to be found for twenty years as a punishment for how you treated her?"
He looked surprised. "No; I didn't think of that."
"Is it possible she sent a stranger into your castle by influencing the storm to lead him here? That could be a test to see if you learned your lesson about being hospitable."
He slumped back in his seat, grumpy and puffing out air. "Yes. I guess it is possible."
"How long was Belle's father here before she came looking for him?"
He contemplated momentarily, tapping his fingers in calculation. "I think it was two nights. The first night is when he trespassed into my castle, and the second night is when Belle arrived. She was worried after their horse came home without him."
He descended into silence for a minute. "Belle said he would die here if he stayed, especially since he was already sick after one night. The dungeons are cold, and he was wet from the storm. I was fine with him staying in the dungeons and dying. She was very insistent I let him go, even if she had to take his place… I didn't want to agree at first, but the look of desperation on her face made me agree. I told him never to come back, and I told her she would never leave."
I stared at Jacques, trying not to say what I actually thought of his behavior. I had to use my professional voice, so I bit my lip for a moment.
"How do you think that made Belle feel?"
He looked at me strangely. "Why would I care how she felt then? She's with me now."
I raised my eyebrows at his audacity. "It matters. Please answer the question."
He rolled his eyes. "Ugh. If I must. She laid down on the straw bed and cried. I left to go to the East Wing, which is where my room is."
"What happened next?" I asked as I tried to keep judgment out of my mind.
"My servants were excited there was a girl in the house, so they took her into a guest room against my wishes."
I fought the urge to sigh deeply. "You were upset by that," I observed.
"Yes; she was a prisoner here. They are my servants. They need to do as I say. Their answer was that if she was going to stay in the castle permanently, then she should have a room. They finally convinced me. I ordered her to join me for supper or she could starve. She didn't want to join me."
I raised my eyebrow at him and asked him in a slightly condescending tone. "Do you not think she might have needed time to adjust to her situation? Moments of extreme anxiety can produce feelings of nausea and make someone lose their appetite."
His eyes narrowed. "Are you insinuating that I can't tell a prisoner of mine whether or not they can eat?"
"I'm saying you should have taken into consideration that Belle was in extreme distress, and giving her time to adjust to her new status would have benefitted everyone involved. In addition, denying someone access to a necessity for survival, even if they are your prisoner, is morally wrong." I explained this carefully so he might try to think about Belle's feelings.
He scoffed. "I offered." He rolled his eyes and waved his hands. "The servants snuck her out and gave her food regardless."
"Do you think of Belle as your prisoner now?" I wondered.
He stared intensely across the space between us, eyes swirling with contemplation.
"No. She is about to be my wife."
After much more mentally draining conversation, I departed through the grand castle's twenty-foot wooden doors. The servant escorting me opened the door to my carriage and bid farewell as I climbed in, thanking them. As the carriage moved, I began to make additional notes in my file, including a preliminary diagnosis. Jacques was the textbook example of narcissistic personality disorder with his blatant disregard for others, including his poor fiancée Belle, his inflated ego, and his strong desire for attention with his copious amounts of lavish parties.
He also had borderline personality disorder. He was terrified of being abandoned, had unstable relationships with those around him, was extremely impulsive, and committed self-damaging promiscuity before the witch transformed him. He felt incredibly empty for the two decades he spent in his magically transformed castle with objectified people, and he had extreme bouts of inappropriate anger. Based on the description of how he acted when Belle first came to the castle, he had violent rages - damaging objects in the castle frequently. He had an unstable self-image due to the twenty years spent in his inhuman form.
I personally do not understand how Belle fell in love with a man so abusive and manipulative. Could it have something to do with the library he gave her?
