The Witch's Curse

Maurice's Visit

10 years later...

I sulked around my estate, ignoring my servants when they tried to talk to me. Darkness swirled through my head. I glared at the rose, hanging in it's glass prison. It seemed to mock me. Taunt me. I roared, knocking a nearby hat stand over.

The sound of the doorbell shot through the house, stark against the silence. I looked up. I had not heard that sound since... I couldn't even remember.

"Master. Answer it." Lumiere coaxed, putting his candle on my arm. I got up and stomped down the stairs. When I got in sight of the doorway, I saw on old old man was standing there.

"Adam?" He asked, his mouth hanging open. I stopped. I had not been called that in so long. So long.

"Who are you. What are you doing here?" I remembered the last time someone had come through those doors. But there was something missing.

"I knew you were bad from what Belle said, but..."

"How do you know that name!" I roared, jumping from the stairs. The ground shifted and cracked beneath my feet. That name, what was that name! It haunted my dreams, along with a child's tear streaked face. Anger spilled through me. I buried the face, it brought too much pain.

"Belle, your daughter. Adam, do you not remember me? I'm Maurice. We were friends once." Maurice exclaimed. My daughter. I remembered, memories all so jumbled from years of avoidance. The witch. The curse. Belle's terrified screams. Pain lanced through my heart. I roared, ripping my hair. What had I done, sending her away? No, it wasn't my fault. I shoved the memories away. Covering them in a shell of darkness. That was the best. I must not remember. I must not feel. Only anger, and pain. That was all I was now, that was what protected me.

"Maurice?" Mrs. Potts asked, coming out with her son Chip in tow. Maurice's wrinkled face broke into a smile when hearing her voice, but looked around confused.

"Genevieve? Where are you?" His eyes drifted to the teapot, whose eyes were glistening, tears dripping down the painted side. He looked startled.

"Maurice." She breathed, barely willing to believe it was him. Realization spread across his face.

"Gen!" He ran to the teapot and hugged it. "Oh my dearest wife. I thought you were gone forever."

I looked between the two. A deep sadness overcame me. I roared at them, the feeling too painful. I let anger overcome it. I knew anger. I could work with that. Anger, that is what I was meant to feel, what she... No, I must forget...

"Why are you here?" I bared my fangs at Maurice, who turned pale but didn't cower like a rabbit, as I had hoped.

"This spell has changed more than just your appearance, Adam." He whispered, still holding Mrs. Potts. I grabbed him by the arm. She dropped onto the tea tray with a thump.

"Master, where are you taking him? He's my husband, and your friend!" She called out. I stopped and turned, my thought's those of animalistic rage.

"I do not have friends. I do not have family... I..." I growled, willing my headache to ease. Chip hid behind his mother, scared of me. Why did that make me sad?

"Master, you do not need to do this." Lumbered waved his flaming candles around, his golden face full of worry.

"I am the master of this house, and I will do as I like!" I snapped at him, dragging Maurice behind me up the stairs.

"Adam, please. This isn't you." I stopped and turned to him.

"I'm not Adam. At least, not anymore." I continued dragging my him up to one of the spare bedrooms, which I threw him in.

"Adam. Adam! I came here to tell you something important. It's about the wi..." I slammed and locked the door. Too long. I felt some part of me that screamed to let Maurice out. 10 years was too long. My brain, it swam in darkness.

"Master!" I lumbered past Mrs. Potts, fury changing her usually beautifully decorated face into a mess of rage. "Let him out now!" I walked into my bedroom and shut her out. I looked at the rose, petals strewn across the table below it. The glass surrounding it looked frosted, like the flower was giving off cold. Indeed, my room was the coldest in the whole estate.

Too far. This had to stop. I looked at the rose and started to shake. I was too much of the beast I had sworn never to become. But I couldn't stop. I was a beast. I put my horned head in my paws. Belle. My sweet little Belle. I shook harder, the pain increasing with the mention of her name. I looked up and roared at the ceiling with all my might, the stable structure shaking in its framework.

I sank against the ruins of my bed, long ago shredded by my claws "Too long." I whispered to the air around me, and I felt the cold of the rose deepen as I pulled my tattered cloak closer against my hulking form. "Too long."