By the time the next morning rolled around, Tyler had managed to finish all the books he had grabbed for Cade and fit in about two hours of sleep before he was due to leave for the town square again.
He stood on the front step, waiting for the clock bell to chime as it always did; but today was not going to play out as it always had.
As the first bell rang and everyone was beginning their day, Tyler was prepared to step outside the garden when Philippe came bounding up to him, frantic and void of a rider. Tyler, worried, rushed over to Philippe and pet his mane, calming the horse.
"Philippe, where's Mom?" Tyler asked, his worries clouding his mind and better judgement as he mounted the horse and took the reins. Philippe took off in a gallop across the plains and through the woods he had just recently traversed though the circumstances were more favorable this time around. "Come on, boy, we need to find her."
Philippe veered right at the crossroads, down the snowy path and right through the metal gate. The garden seemed even prettier in the daylight, and Tyler admired the yard as Philippe brought him to the staircase. With a quick, grateful pat on the flank, Tyler slid off Philippe's back and began to climb the stairs, only stopping once to swoop down and pick up a large stick to protect himself. When he reached the front doors, one was slightly ajar, and he allowed himself in. His heart was racing and he was alert, his eyes jumping from one object to another as he walked further inside.
His heart stopped as he began to hear whispers when there was clearly nobody around.
"Look Cogsworth, a young man!"
"Yes, I see him Lumière."
"Maybe he is the one! The one who will break the spell!"
"Don't be ridicu-"
"Who's there?" Tyler called, wielding his stick as he stepped towards the chest Lumière and Cogsworth, now silent, were perched on. "Come out!"
A cough, faint but still able to be heard, arose from the silence, and Tyler hastily snatched up Lumière, heading up the stairs towards the cough, which continued to get louder with every step he skipped on the way up. He finally reached a cell carved into the stone wall where his mother lay, sniffling and coughing. He set Lumière aside and knelt outside the cell, reaching in and quietly calling for his mother, who shuffled over to him at the sound of his voice.
"Tyler, you need to get out of here," she warned him, frantic. "Th-This castle. It's haunted or something; a-and there's a b-b-beast running around."
Her cold hands closed around his, and Tyler looked for some sort of key or way to let his mother out; the idea of a beast or haunted castles floated to the back of his mind.
"Tyler, no, you need to leave," his mother repeated as he stood, searching and feeling the wall for any lever or key. "Tyler - Tyler, she's here!"
She?
Tyler had no time to question anything as something - no, someone - landed next to him, startling him. He staggered back and again swooped Lumière from the perch he was set on, his heart racing yet again.
"You have no business here," the beast spoke, staying in the comfort of the shadows. "Leave immediately. I do not tolerate trespassers, if you cannot already tell." She turned her back to Tyler, who was becoming more and more desperate by the second.
"Wait!" He froze as she turned back to him and stood to her full height - which was shorter than Tyler. "I wish to make a proposition here. A deal, a trade."
The beast scoffed. "Who are you and what could you possibly offer me?"
"I am Tyler Weeks. I live in the village just downhill, and I offer my own life; I wish to take my mother's spot as your prisoner," Tyler declared, ignoring his mother's pleas for him to reconsider and leave her. "Please; she has an ill son. He needs her; I'm begging you. I promise to take her sentence without argument."
The beast pondered this for a moment before reaching out and pulling a lever, and the cell door opened.
"Once this door closes again, it will never open again," she hissed, and Tyler rushed in and embraced his mother, who sobbed and clung to him before the beast ripped the two apart, slamming the cell door shut as she carried his mother down the staircase and out of sight.
Tyler, distraught, sat in the corner of the cell, hugging his knees to his chest as he wondered how his life would play out, stuck here in this damp cell for the rest of his life. He was just getting to predicting how his untimely death would come upon him, the cell door swung open again, but the beast was nowhere in sight. Concerned, Tyler picked up the stick and held it close to him as he peered out of the cell to see the candelabra - very much alive - waving at him.
With a yelp of surprise, Tyler swung, knocking Lumière off the lever and onto the ground.
"Quite an arm you've got there, monsieur," he commented, picking himself up and brushing himself off.
"Y-You're talking," Tyler stammered, and Lumière chuckled.
"Well of course he talks; it's all Lumière ever does, to be quite frank." Cogsworth pulled himself up the last stair, and Lumière joined his stout friend, who leered at the candelabra.
"Now now, Cogsworth, let's not start something here in front of our guest," Lumière chided, wrapping one arm around Cogsworth and pointing at Tyler with the other. "Sorry for such a rude introduction - you caught our Mistress at a bad time. Let us show you to your room, monsieur!"
"My ... my room?" Craig looked back at the cell, then to Lumière, confused. "But what about the door?"
"Oh, do excuse the mistress' sour attitude," Lumière apologized, beginning to head up the stairs with Cogsworth hesitantly following. "She's not very, ah, what's the word I'm looking for. . ."
"People-oriented," Cogsworth suggested as the three climbed the tower, and Lumière nodded.
"Oh, I could tell," Tyler muttered, running his fingers across the stone as they walked. "She doesn't have guests often, I'd assume?"
"Not since the -" Cogsworth caught himself mid-sentence and quickly fixed his ways. "No, not for some time now."
Lumière quickly changed the subject as they walked along an icy path between towers. "Now, all the castle is for you to roam freely, monsieur. It is truly wonderful; I do suggest you take a walk around and embrace the beauty of this castle."
"Except for the West Wing," Cogsworth piped up, and Lumière turned to glare at his friend. "W-Which we do not have, of course."
"The West Wing?" Tyler turned and looked out at the west side of the castle, which seemed ominously darker than the rest. "What's in there?"
"Nothing," Lumiére reassured, quickening the pace. "Please come along, for you must be tired. Your room is up this way."
Tyler followed, but not without a mind full of curiosity, for what could be so taboo about the West Wing?
