Beast

In the Mansion

When Belle woke up, she was in a machine that seemed like a car from the inside. She was laid across the back seat with the strange black handcuffs tight on her wrists and a new, blinking gag in her mouth. In the seat in front of her was Maxwell and in the driver's seat was a man she hadn't seen during the attack. He had tanned, aged skin with dark spots across his arms. He drove with a frown on his face and his eyes never moved from the rode. He didn't speak.

Belle looked around at the backseat. The car was perfectly clean without even a paperclip on the floor. She rolled her eyes, Of course it would be spotless. When Belle sat up straight, she had expected it to hurt so she moved slowly. The stab she had received the day before was deep enough for her to need stiches. She had gotten them before when she was younger. She had fallen off of the ladder in the bookstore and cut her head on the table in the center of the store. Her father had taken her to the city's three doctors who stitched her up in a few hours. But the deep wound was not there. No trace of blood or stitches or pain. Like it had never happened.

That was another person who hadn't crossed Belle's mind yet. Her father...Belle knew he was worried and she couldn't believe herself for not thinking of his wellbeing before she was taken. But her mind had been under a lot of stress.

"Hey, Benny, look who's up!" Maxwell laughed in the row in front of her. The driver, most likely the one named Benny, glanced in the rear-view mirror and then returned his eyes to the road. Maxwell had turned around and grinned at her with his yellowing teeth.

"Sleep well, princess?" She glared at him as he chuckled to himself. She wanted to respond but this new gag was not coming out of her mouth, no way.

"Five minutes, sir." Benny, for the first time since Belle woke up, spoke from the driver's seat. Five minutes until where? Belle knew she was outside of the wall and that was bad enough but if Maxwell was taking her anywhere, she knew it wasn't good.

"Perfect timing, Benny. Take us 'round the back," Maxwell said while slapping a hand down on Benny's shoulder in some demented way of appreciation. Benny shook under Maxwell's hand but nodded at his command. Benny was definitely not equal to Maxwell in any way.

The car they were in drove down a long drive. A huge mansion came into view about halfway down the street and Belle's eyes nearly popped out of her head. Never in her life had she seen a building this big. City hall back in Piana wasn't even this big. But although the building amazed her, she knew that there was a darkness living there. The lawn was kept clean and the bricks were bright white but something was not right about this mansion. If an outsider lived there, it couldn't be safe.

Belle started to panic in the back seat when the car came to a stop. The doors to the car shot upwards when a button on the steering wheel was pressed. Maxwell climbed out of the car and the seat he was sitting on folded up and slid itself into a compartment under the floor of the vehicle. Belle was slightly impressed with this new technology but said -or grumbled- nothing. Maxwell's arm came into the car and grabbed Belle's forearm. She struggled but eventually gave up when his strength won over hers and had yanked her out of the car. When Belle stood on solid ground, she looked back at the car which she found did not have wheels at all. It hovered over the pavement and a bright blue light shone from beneath the vehicle. The doors slowly moved down into their locked position and the car drove away without the smallest sound.

Maxwell grinned at her, "Now for the fun part." With that, he pushed her into the mansion through a door that shot upwards with the press of his thumb on a small blue screen.

XXX

"Dad, I am not going to play games here. Where did he take Belle?" Gaston pressed his hands onto his father's desk. His old man was sitting nervously in his desk chair. Pierre had known that even if Gaston hadn't seen Callahan leave the city with Belle that he would come here for answers. And now his decision was coming back to bite him in the butt.

"I don't know where she was taken Gaston. I only just found out she was gone when you came in here!" Pierre lied through his teeth. It was the only way to preserve his son's love for him.

"You had to have known! How could they take her without anyone fighting back?" His son's eyes were pained and full of tears. He had never seen them so black. Worry lines were traced into his forehead and his eyes were bloodshot as if he had been crying earlier. Gaston was never one to cry.

"I can't tell you something I don't know, Gaston. I don't know what to tell you or to say to make you feel any better...maybe you should head on home. I am working to get a map of the outsider's world. The first step to finding her,"

"You've started plans to find her?" Hope shown in Gaston's eyes for the first time in two days, since the first explosion.

"Of course I have son. I only have one connection with the outside world. Granted, I haven't contacted them in decades but I hope that they will help in an urgent situation like this." Before Pierre knew what happened, Gaston wrapped his arms around his father for the first time since he was a boy.

"Thank you Dad...you're the only one who seems to see the urgency in this. I need Belle back. I...I can't live without her."

Pierre stared into his son's teary eyes, "That's why I'm doing any of this." And at that moment, he knew his son would never forgive him for what he had done.

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