Evermore [The Beast/The Prince x Reader]

chapter two

His once tailored, artful suit was torn into shreds on his body. He now wore his shirt like a cloak. It barely hung around his neck that had doubled in size. His trousers ripped up the sides, his feet free of shoes and covered in thick, animal-like fur.

He was several inches taller, and several inches thicker. His chest was broader and stuck out like the abdomen of a creature. His hair, which she had only seen free from his usual silver wig once, was no longer red and short, but long and mahogany.

His hands had become triple their size. The palm of his hand could cover her entire face if he touched her cheek. His nails were replaced by long, dagger like claws. As he stood before her, they raked against the fur of his legs.

Had it not been for his eyes, so hauntingly familiar in their crystal blue color, she would have believed that she was staring into the eyes of a beast. But those eyes were the same eyes that watched her as she danced, that smiled at her as she told a joke, that gleamed when she came out of a dressing room, her face full of makeup and her hair curled beautifully around her face.

"Your majesty," she breathed.

She felt sick. Not with fear, but with dread. What had happened to her friend was far worse than what happened to his castle staff. He had been twisted and transformed into a monster that children would fear and adults would detest. He was a silhouette of terror, of anguish, and of pain.

"Go on," he grumbled, his voice shaking, "mock me. Curse at me. Be afraid. I'm... hideous."

Tears swelled in her eyes. "What have you become?"

"What does it look like I have become?" he yelled. "I'm a beast! Punished by an enchantress that disguised herself as an old hag. She has doomed me."

The Prince - the Beast - turned away from her. He buried his furry face into his palms. A sound, almost like a sob, but more like an animalistic whimper, rumbled down his back.

She stood helpless as she watched what had become of her friend. What was happening was, as any sane person would say, impossible. There are no such things as curses placed upon a castle of royalty by an enchantress. But she knew better than to just accept her friends' fate. She would made sense of it and change his ending, and his staff.

She blinked. "Surely there must be a way to reverse the spell," she said. "We can think of something, anything! I can go out there and get help-"

He growled. "There is no help out there. With the curse, she has frozen us in time. No one outside of this castle remembers us. No one can see us unless they go deep into the woods - and you know how dangerous they are."

"Well, allow me to leave the castle and go find someone," she said. "I can bring them here, and then the spell-"

"You were cursed the same moment we were," he interrupted. "While you were not turned into a hideous monster or an object, you were bound to his castle. You are not able to leave the castle grounds any longer."

Her heart sank. In a matter of minutes, all of her freedom had been torn from her. She was now a prisoner to a castle that was frozen in time. Her entire life revolved around her freedom.

She felt tears in her eyes. She was staring at the floor as she silently dealt with the war in her mind. Her friend turned his head and frowned at the sight of her sadness. When she looked back, he turned to face her and huffed.

"Still," she said, smoothing her hands on her gown, "there must be something we can do."

"There is only one thing that can be done," he replied. He looked away. "But it is hopeless."

"It's not!" she assured him. "I promise you, your majesty, I will go to any means necessary to break this spell for you."

He growled. "Why, because of the pity you now feel for me? Don't lie - I see it in your eyes. You are sad for me because of what I have become."

She swallowed. "I'm sad because you're my friend, and I only wish for you to be happy-"

"Happy," he scoffed, and he sulked away. "You wish to free yourself from the curse. The moment you're free, you will leave. You will go to whatever kingdom you find suits you best."

She raised her eyebrows. "And what else do you expect me to do?" she asked. "I did nothing to deserve this imprisonment."

He was stubborn, much like her. It was the cause of many fights in their relationship - but also what held them together as close friends.

"In your selfishness, in your rudeness, you have doomed us all," she accused. "You have turned your staff into objects. Objects! You have placed us in the middle of a storybook, your majesty, and if you don't tell me how to fix it, we will be doomed for an unhappy ending."

"Like you said," he replied sharply, "you did nothing to deserve the imprisonment, so you shouldn't worry about the solution!"

She groaned and pressed her fists against her eyes. She held them there and fought through the anger she had swelling in her chest. If he would just stop being so angry, he would listen to what she had to say and obey her.

"You have involved me already, your majesty," she said through clenched teeth. "Please, just allow me the knowledge of the solution-"

"It's nothing you can take into your own hands," he insisted. "It's something I have to do."

"Then let me help you!" she exclaimed.

"No," he answered sharply and shortly.

"Why?" she asked. Tears were falling from her eyes. "If you had just given that hag a place to stay and accepted her rose, none of this would have happened. You would be normal, we wouldn't be frozen, and I would be-"

"Gone?" he snapped. He growled loudly. "Because you wouldn't be here. You leave any chance you get."

"I have a life, your majesty," she said.

"And I'm not too important in it," he said. "Especially now, as I stand here, looking like - I - I get it."

He turned away. He was falling back into his position of self pity and hopelessness. He moved himself in front of a mirror and stared at his new reflection. His eyes were the only human thing about him. They welled with tears he wouldn't let fall.

Her heart sank. Although he was different, he was still her friend, and never before had he broken down in front of her.

"Are you joking with me?" she breathed. "You're the biggest and most important part of me, your majesty. I relate more to you than to anyone else in France. And that's why I can't stay all of the time. You and I don't mix well, you know that. We... we clash. A lot. And it makes us fight like this."

He made a low growling sound. He tore his blue eyes from hers and fixed them on the floor. His voice was full of anguish as he whispered six words that didn't reach her ears.

"Perhaps why I shouldn't tell you."

His hands shot forward. He grabbed the frame of the mirror and, with a loud roar, ripped it from its place on the wall. It tore wallpaper and made nails scatter across the floor.

He threw the mirror to the left. It crashed against a fireplace. He felt no satisfaction at the sound of it shattering into bits. Even worse, when he looked back, she was gone, having fled the room in his fit of anger.

He felt utterly alone in every way.