Beauty and Beast

  CHAPTER 8

HOW I LOVE YOU

 

The Beast lay bleeding on the balcony when Belle arrived to his room in the west wing. Her heart sank in her chest when she saw the servants gathered around the window to the balcony. She knew something was wrong. Everything was wrong. Somber and sobbing, Belle was on the balcony in a heartbeat and threw herself to her knees beside him. “No!” she sobbed, “You can’t die! You can’t leave me.” She stroked his hair and caressed his face. “Don’t die. Please don’t die. I love you. I'll marry you. Come back to me.”

Belle didn’t notice the last petal falling as the Beast drew his dying breath. Upon the exhale, his final words: “Belle, my only love.”

It seemed like everything else in the world disappeared in that moment. A crack in the air, like sharp thunder; and the wafting of a strong breeze arrived all around them as the very earth and castle shook. The servants all lost their footing and fell back into their master’s room, they then let out cries of confusion.

The fallen petals from the rose danced slowly in the air over the Beast’s body. Belle tried to shake the confusion from her mind. But the Beast’s cloak began to rise and envelope his lifeless body like a cocoon. Belle tried to keep her grip on him, but her grasp slipped as the enchantment lifted him into the air. 

The pieces from the balcony flew up from the ground and restored what had broken in the battle to protect its master. Belle braced herself as her entire surroundings transformed. The gargoyles flew back to their perch and their horns shrunk into their heads along with their wings. Their faces turned gentle, now more like cherubs.

There were cries that came from inside the castle. Sounds of breaking dishes and banging cupboards.

Still, Belle didn't move. Her eyes never left the cloak that twisted and writhed in the air. When it turned vertical, she gasped, horrified that it would drop her beloved beast off the side of the castle to a final resting place alongside the murderer, Baxter.

“No–” she murmured, but as he smoothly slipped out of the entanglement to crouch in front of Belle with his head hanging down. She lifted a hand to brush his hair out of his face and realized there was less face there than there was before. No snout. No horns. But instead, a human face with soft flesh and dark facial hair. He looked up at her with his same gentle eyes. 

“Belle”

He called her name in his same gentle voice. He shrugged out of his heavy fur coat as he stood up. She watched him grow taller as he arose, but not nearly as tall as she knew the Beast to be. She stared at him confused and concerned. 

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach," He spoke quietly, but with words he knew she would recognize. "For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need," He continued and extended his hand to help her up. She took it and he lifted her with ease. "By sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with a passion." They kissed. 

A loud clatter of cheering, applause, and hooting came tumbling onto the balcony from the Beast’s room. 

"Beau! Prince Beaumont! We did it! Er-you did it!” Fulbright, Elgin, Mrs. Potts, and Chip all ran onto the balcony–as humans, along with Otto, the sheepdog, all hugging and examining one another’s transformations. 

“It has been ten years since the enchantress put that spell on us, but you look just the same, old boy!” Fulbright rejoiced, lifting Elgin’s arms. 

Belle watched as the dark, weedy nettles became lush green vines and fluffy purple blossoms of wisteria. “I knew it had once been beautiful.” She stretched her arms out and spun around. 

Chip pulled on his mother’s apron. “I’m hungry, Mother.”

“Well let’s go see what’s in the kitchen, my dear Chip.”

“Trueley?” Maurice’s quivering voice came from the open window.

Mrs. Potts turned towards him in shock. “Maurice!” She cried and hurried over to embrace her husband.

“I thought you were killed in that dreadful storm all those years ago.”

“No dearie, just frozen in time with a cloud over my mind.”

Belle turned to recognize her mother and then her older… er… little brother, Charles.

Mr. Fulbright lit the standing candelabra in the hallway as they all started down to the kitchen. I think this calls for more than a snack!”

“You are so right, old friend,” Prince Beaumont twirled Belled under his arm. “Let’s throw a Ball! Elgin, send invitations to all the villagers and townsfolk in the whole kingdom!”

“You mean those same villagers that were just overrunning the castle and trying to kill us?

“Oh, c’mon, Elgy! They were under a spell.” Prince Beau gazed into Belle’s face and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingertip. “They won’t remember a thing.”

“A ball!” Mrs. Potts piped up. “Oh, won’t that be splendid! But Sir, we can’t just tell them that none of us has been human for the past ten years. What occasion will we be celebrating?”

Beau took Belle by both hands, and she smiled and nodded. 

“A wedding!”

First draft of this chapter was written by my mom.

Illustrated and Edited by me.