The beginning... a couple of first Chapters.

Linny's Beast

^^ that title WILL change... i just don't know what too.

Well this is extremely nerve wracking, i hate posting new stories, just cos i'm scared of how they will go down with you guys. This is why i'm posting the first chapters, to figure out what you guys will be interested in reading... or not. 

This is the first chapter of something that i am having fun with. I've always loved Beauty and the Beast, like crazy loved it. The picture on the side should show some of that. So i've started my own version. There are similarities to the Disney movie, (point them out in the comments if you find them?) some are obvious, some more subtle. Obviously i own nothing that belongs to Disney, but you knew that. As much as i am influenced by the story i'm also going to be keeping it in my style and the ending will be a little different. 

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For a brief moment I stand and survey the town that is to be my new home, the sign above my head reads ‘Welcome to Midnight Falls’. It’s quaint and old fashioned in appearance, the main shopping area being the centre of the town and is set out in a square so it surrounds a small park where dogs frolic and kids play all totally at ease knowing that here they are not in danger. A concept now foreign in the larger cities.

I let go of the handle of my suitcase and rummage through my oversized cloth bag for the directions I’d carefully scrawled onto a piece of paper last night. The sun beats down on me and I can’t help but be thankful that I had chosen to tie my dark brown hair into a low ponytail and wear my light blue summer dress, otherwise I would have passed out under the heat of the powerful rays, and how embarrassing would that be in a new place on my first day?

As I desperately comb my hand through the contents of my bag my fingers stroke a piece of paper and I clutch it like a lifeline, pulling it out and almost tearing it in the process. After reading the directions for the only hotel in town I once again grasp my suitcase handle and yank it in the desired direction, sweat forming on my brow as I go.

As I walk down one side of the neat square I can’t help but look into the shop windows, the shop fronts differ dramatically from posh boutiques with expensive clothes to charity shops and DIY stores but only one shop really takes my fancy and I stop outside it transfixed by its window display, it is of course a book store and the sign above the door reads ‘Tale As Old As Time’, I smile at the apt name for a store that inside holds hundreds of stories some older than the town itself. One book dominates the display sat in the centre on a pedestal; ‘Human Again’, the book cover is a midnight blue with the title in elegant silver script, an image of a wolf sits centre at the base as it bays at a full moon positioned in the top right hand corner. A sign that has been placed next to the book reads ‘The author of Human Again, Lee Fouler, a local talent, that has brought a new interest to the town will be signing copies from eight pm right up until midnight on the 21st July to honour the full moon.’ That would make the signing this evening. Intrigued I can’t help but put a hold on my plans to find the hotel and decide to take a look inside.

A bell above the door tinkles pleasantly as I open and then shut the door behind me. The first thing I notice is how cool it is in here compared to the heat outside, the air-con literally causing goose bumps to spring up across my skin. The sensation is a blissful one.

“Be with you in a minute.” A voice calls from deep inside the shelves, to say that the store is packed would be an understatement but it isn’t with people, there are books everywhere, on shelves, on tables, even piled on the floor. I inhale the scent and sigh in pleasure as the smell of books old and new hugs me and surrounds me like a safety blanket, places like this feel more like home to me than back in the place that I grew up. Running a finger across the spine of a shelf full of thick hard backs I smile in content and read the titles, I could spend years in here and still never want to leave.