Another Beauty and the BEAST story

Chapter IV

"There must be some way I can... Wait! Take me instead!" I shout to the person trying to leave the tower without releasing my mother. The person freezes, but I can barely make out the silhouette of the person's body

"You? You would take her place?" The voice sounds insecure now, as if it can't believe someone would sacrifice oneself for someone else. 

"No! Jack! You don't know what you're doing! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING YOURSELF IN TO!" My mother yells behind us. I ignore her and try to focus on the person standing across the room. 

"If I did, would you let her go?" I ask, finding myself insecure as well, not quite believing that I'm actually going through with this. All the memories of my life flashes through my mind; the farm, the town, the animals, Philippe, the bookshop, the field. I would have to give all of that away, to stay behind in this dark, scary place for who-knows-how-long. 

"Yes, but you must promise to stay here forever," the voice decides coldly, returning to it's previous cold state of mind. I ponder the situation. Behind me my mother keeps yelling my name and begging me not to go through with this. I realize I still haven't seen the captor yet.

"Come into the light..." I whisper, stepping out into the light myself. I squint in the sudden brightness, but try to focus. 

The captor seems to freeze at this demand, but slowly begins to drag it's feet against the floor until the person is fully visible in front of me. I catch my breath. It's a girl, not a year older than myself. Her skin is as white as ice, and her eyes gleam with a light turquoise color, showing nothing but heartless cold. She has hair as blonde as snow, curled up around shoulder in a braid,  like a snake, and she wears a simple farmers dress in a light blue color: with no decorative spangles or additional cloth (like Gabriela would). Her hands and arms are covered in mystical tattoos, resembling scars, and her fingers are completely hid inside a pair of white gloves. She defiantly meets my gaze, and I find myself cowering before her. 

"NO, Jack, I won't let you do this!" Mother yells behind me. I swallow my pride and all my fear, and meet the terrifying girl standing before me. 

"You have my word", and as the words exit my mouth I lose my composure and fall to my knees with my face in my hands. I barely recognizes mother being let out of the cell, and then being hauled off into the distance, still screaming my name. Only when her voice has died out do I realize I didn't get to say goodbye. The girl comes back into the tower, still carrying herself with concealed feelings and emotions. 

"You didn't even let me say goodbye! I'll never see her again!" I say to the girl, angrily wiping the tears from my cheeks, biting back on the harsh words I want to scream at her. But since it was my idea, I don't think I have the right to question anything at the moment. 

"I'll show you to your room", the girl answers, and I can hear on her voice that she feels bad. I do not care of her empathy, it means nothing to me. 

"My room? But I thought-" I say, turning my head towards the cell in the corner.

"You wanna stay in the tower?" The girls hisses at me, forgetting all about her empathy for me losing my mother.

"No".

"Then come with me".

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We walk in a never-ending labyrinth of ball rooms, giant foyers and hallways covered with statues and old armors. Everything has it's own layer of dust. I lag behind the girl walking in front of me, carrying a golden candlestick for light. I dare a glimpse of one of the hideous sculptures sitting in a cavity of the wall. It's a sculpture of a two-legged beast, awfully alike humans, staring at the travelers in the hallway with a snarl, showing off sharp teeth. The eyes of the sculpture show off complete madness. I gasp, and then run to catch up with my captor. She whispers to herself before clearing her throat. 

"I...um...hope you like it here. The castle is your home now, so you can go anywhere you wish, except the West Wing," the girl stutters. Now my mother is gone, and it's just her and me, she suddenly seems to be a lot less frightening than she appeared to be before, while she threatened to leave my mother in the tower to die. 

"What's in the West Wing?" I ask, unable to lay band on my curiosity. 

"It's forbidden!" The girl shouts and whirls around. The cold in her icy eyes are back, and she stares me down even though she's shorter than I am. I take a step back to show her that I meant no harm with my question, and we continue our walk in silence.

After a while we arrive at a large double door, painted with incredible little flowered details. She opens the door and motion for me to go inside. I carefully start to make my way into the darkened room. 

"Now, if there's anything you need, my servants will attend you," the girl says and starts to close the door. 

"What servants?" I ask, cancelling her attempt to leave. I haven't seen any other people around in the castle, despite our long walk to the room. 

The girl raises one of her thin eyebrows and whistles out into the air. Barely a second passes before one of the armors from the hallway before stands before us in a perfect bow. I gasp, and stare at the moving armor. I didn't think anybody was in there! I back away into my room, standing there awkwardly while the girl commands the armor to tell the kitchen servants to prepare dinner. 

"What's your name?" I whisper when the armor sprints off down the hall with his command. 

"Elsa", the girl whispers back, "and you will join me for dinner", she finishes before shutting the door and leave. I can hear her bare feet marching down the hall. I look around my room, it's bigger than my entire house back home, with stone floor and the walls decorated with some sort of rich, dark-blue tapestry. The giant windows are covered with drapes. There's a master bed, covered with decorative pillows, and a fireplace that looks like it's barely been used over the last years. There's also a seating area with a few chairs and a giant dresser, as well as a mirror. No bookcases, to my disappointment. 

I walk over to the mirror, and look at myself in the mirror. I look pale, and terrified, and my blue eyes are hollow in my face. My short brown pants are dirty by the knees, and my white shirt is barley even white anymore. My silver hair hangs in stripes around my face, and my robe is ripped by the edges. When I see myself, my final walls of protection come crumbling down, and I break apart and start crying like a baby, screaming out my agony over this cruel, cruel fate of mine.