Tales From the Cave-Beauty & the Superbeast

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, in a land not too far away, a young clone lived in a beautiful lush mansion. Oh, wait, I read that wrong. It says he lived in a mountain. A mountain? Is he a hermit or something? Oh, it was a secret superhero HQ base that looked like a mountain. That makes more sense. Moving on.

This young man, cloned from the DNA of the Great Superman, was blessed with good looks—chiseled features, thick black locks, and eyes that were the most gorgeous shade of ice blue. But even though he was beautiful on the outside, the same could not be said for the insides.

He had had love once.  Love that had made him feel as if he could touch the stars.  And that love had come in the form of a beautiful young Martian girl.  She had loved the clone with all her heart, showing him the wonders of the earth on which they lived, opening his eyes to a thousand possibilities.  Never before had the clone felt so safe and cherished as when he was with her.

But the clone took the Martian's love for granted.  As time went on, he developed a habit of blowing her off without notice, for another attempt to win the love and approval of his parental figure, the great Superman himself, forgetting to treasure the love he already had from her.

Than, one day, after a particularly frustrating failed attempt, the clone decided to take his anger out on her.  In a blinding rage of hurt and anger, he had foolishly told her that he would be better off without her in his life.  His words had broken the Martian's heart.  The following morning, when he went to apologize, he found that she was gone, having run away without telling him or any of their friends where she was going.

After nursing his broken heart for weeks, the clone came to the conclusion that he did not deserve love.  After all, he had not been satisfied with the love he had had, and only tried to gain more.  Now he had none at all.  He vowed right then and there that he would never again let himself love another living creature.  That way, he could hurt no one, and no one could hurt him.

And so, he sealed his heart off from those around him, never daring to become close with them, choosing instead to spend his free time alone.  Without giving love, or love given to him, his heart grew hard and cold, and he became selfish, angry, and unkind towards everyone.

Then, one fateful night, during a terrible storm, an old, ugly beggar woman stumbled upon the mountain while Conner and all his former friends were gathered there.  She begged them to let her in and give her shelter from the bitter cold.  In return, she offered them a single, yet beautiful red rose.

Now, as if her haggard appearance weren't enough, the clone despised roses, for the Martian had loved them, and had even planted a lovely bed of them before her disappearance.  Now that she was gone, roses were but a bitter reminder of his mistakes.  The clone sneered at the beggar woman's gift and yelled at her to get out.  She warmed him not to be deceived by her less than lovely face, for true beauty was found within.

The clone found her warning to be hilarious, and laughed loudly in her face before ordering her again to leave.  As soon as those hateful words left his lips, the old woman's putrid appearance melted away to reveal a glorious enchantress, with hair as shining golden as the sun, skin as smooth and white as pearls, and eyes that literally glowed sapphire blue.

When the clone realized what he had unleashed, he fell to his knees and begged for forgiveness.  But his pleas fell on deaf ears.  The enchantress had seen that he held no love or kindness in his heart, only hate and selfishness.  As punishment, she waved her hand and transformed him into a hideous beast, so twisted and vile-looking that all his friends shrunk from him in fear.

As if that weren't enough, she transformed said friends into common household objects, like clocks and candelabras and teapots.  Finally, she placed a spell on the mountain, forbidding a single soul from setting foot into the outside world.  As the clone wept for his fate, the enchantress hovered beside him and whispered words of comfort to him.  When he calmed down, she gave him the rose and explained everything to him.

The rose was enchanted like her.  It would bloom until his twenty-first birthday, which was still four years from now.  If he could learn to love another, and earn their love in return before the last petal fell at midnight, than the curse would be broken, and he and all his friends would be human once more.  If not, his friends would lose the spark of life and become the object they had been turned into, and he would remain a beast for the rest of his days.

Before she disappeared into the night, she left the clone one final parting gift—an enchanted mirror, for him to see the outside world, since his new ugly face could no longer be in it.  It would show him whatever he wished, on his command.

At first, the clone was furious.  He hated seeing his new self so much, he went on a rampage, shattering ever mirror and slashing every photo of himself in the mountain.  But when initial shock of it all had passed, Conner realized he didn't care if he stayed a monster forever.  He had already vowed that he would not let anyone love him, nor would he allow himself to love.  It was just as well that he was ugly now.  No one would fall in love with him, no one would get hurt.

His friends were another story.  The thought of becoming lifeless knick-knacks terrified them, but what could they do?  It had been hard enough to love the clone, with his angry, selfish ways, when he was handsome.  Now that he was as hideous on the outside as he was on the inside, no girl would dare come near him.

The days soon bled into years.  The clone shut himself up in his room, only leaving for meals and bathroom breaks, having resigned himself to his fate.  As for his friends, they tried to convince him to break the spell but to no avail.  Eventually, they gave up.  As his birthday drew closer, they fell into despair, and lost all hope.

For who could ever learn to love a beast?