Beauty and the Beast Chapter 2

Peter and Olivia La'Belle had been traveling for quite some time. Their valet, Jean-Luc, was at the reins of the two horses pulling the coach. They were soon traveling through a large, dark, fog-filled forest. The trees seemed grotesque and misshapen without their leaves. Jean-Luc's left hand clutched tightly at his coat as he drove the two horses through the foreboding woods, breathing heavily as he eyed around for danger.

"This can't be right," he said to himself. "What happened to the road?"

"Jean-Luc," asked Peter from inside the coach. "Why is it getting so dark, where are we?"

"I think we missed the turn, sir." Just then, the coach came to a stop as Jean-Luc spotted a fork in the fog covered road. "Sir, come and look at this."

Peter poked his head out from the left side of the coach, looking at the two pathways. "Hmm… And no mile signs." He put a finger to his chin, trying to figure out which path to take. "Let's go right."

"Yes, sir." Jean-Luc noticed that the horses were turning towards the left. He then tightly pulled the reins to the right, trying to get the horses to go that way. "Come on you two, it's a short cut. We'll be there in no time." The horses soon started to walk down the right path.

Inside the coach, Peter tried to comfort his wife, who looked weary. "Darling, are you all right?" he asked.

Olivia held her arms together, as if trying to keep warm. "I don't know," she answered. She was beginning to look pale. Just then, she started coughing.

Peter held her hand. He noticed that her hand was cold. "Olivia, you're freezing! I think you're getting sick!" He patted her shoulder, trying to keep her awake. "I'm sorry, but the trip is canceled, we're going to get you to a doctor." Peter then stuck his head out of the left window to talk to Jean-Luc again. "Jean-Luc, let's turn around. We need to get Olivia to a doc-" His sentence was interrupted by a wolf's howl.

Suddenly, the horses started to panic. One of them reared up and backed the coach into a tree. Peter and Olivia jerked forward as the coach banged into the tree. Suddenly, without warning, thousands of bats came flying in from the back window of the coach! Peter and Olivia screamed in terror at the awful sight as the huddled together.

Jean-Luc was also horrified as he watched the bats swarm out from inside the coach. The horses began to trot off at lightning speed. They ran through the dark woods, trying to escape both the bats and other horrors. Just then, the coach stopped. The horses were trying to run in different directions. Suddenly, the harness on the left horse broke, and it trotted off into the darkness. Jean-Luc breathed heavily and climbed down onto the ground. He opened the door to the coach, seeing that Olivia and Peter were still clutched together.

"Is everyone all right?" Jean-Luc asked.

Peter nodded and said, "A little, what happened?"

"We've lost one of the horses."

"That's upsetting."

"Not only that, I think we're lost."

Peter put a hand to his forehead. "Oh dear."

"Peter?" asked Olivia. "What are we going to do?"

Peter turned to his wife. "Don't worry, we'll think of something."

Just then, growling could be heard from within the forest. Jean-Luc turned to see several wolves emerging from behind the trees and advancing towards the coach. "Oh no," he said, worryingly. He then turned to the La'Belles. "You two stay in the coach, We're getting out of here." He then closed the door, climbed back up and cracked his whip.

The remaining horse started galloping away, pulling the coach. Jean-Luc turned around to see that the wolves were chasing them! He urged the horse to go faster. They ran and ran, faster and faster the horse pulled the coach through the dark woods. Suddenly, the horse stopped in front of a large, iron bar gate. Jean-Luc was relieved, but had no time to feel so. He jumped onto the ground and opened the coach door again.

"Master La'Belle!" he cried. "We've stopped at a gate! But I need you to help me open it!"

"Right, yes, of course!" said Peter as he jumped out of the coach and ran up to the gate with Jean-Luc.

The two men pushed on the gate with all their might, the wolves still hot on their heels. Finally, the gate door flew open. Quickly, Jean-Luc and Peter La'Belle grabbed onto the horses reins and forced it to walk inside. The wolves were getting closer and closer. At last, the horse and coach were inside and Peter slammed the gate closed just as the wolves slammed into it, trying desperately to get in. Peter breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was a close one," he said.

Jean-Luck opened the coach door and helped Olivia out. "Are you alright, ma'am?" he asked.

Olivia just nodded.

Peter turned around and gasped at an amazing sight. "Look!" he shouted toward the others. There, in front of them, just across a stone bridge was an enormous castle. It's towers seemed to stretch towards the dark clouds. Lightning flashed in the sky and seemed to make the large structure seem terrifying.

Olivia was amazed to see such a castle. "Maybe someone lives here," she said. "We could ask for help."

Peter nodded and said, "That sounds like a good idea." He then turned to Jean-Luc. "Jean-Luc, you stay out here with the coach. If the owner says we stay for the night, we'll come get you."

"Yes, sir," said Jean-Luc as he pulled out a pipe from his pocket and began to smoke.

Peter took Olivia's hand and started across the bridge towards the castle. Once they reached it, he then began to knock on the door, and then waited for an answer. "Maybe no one's home."

Just then, the door creaked open. Peter and Olivia slowly entered the dark castle. To their surprise, they found no one waiting in the entry hall.

"Did I just imagine the door opening for us?" asked Olivia in a small voice as she shivered and clung to her husband's arm.

"Only if I did as well, my dear. But we must get you to a warm, dry place before you grow worse. This seems as good a place as any."

Peter led the way into the vast entrance hall. "Hello?" he called. There was no answer. "Hello? We've lost our way in the woods, and one of our carriage horses ran off. My wife is ill, and we need a place to stay for the night until we can make our way back home tomorrow and get her treatment."

At first, there was no answer. Then, two male voices could be heard distinctly, coming out of a darkened room to the left of the entranceway.

"See? We have nothing to worry about. They are harmless travelers, and the wife is ill. If we have hearts at all, we must let them in at least for the night," said one.

"Hush," snapped the other. "I won't have them disturbing the Mistress. You know how she is these days. And if you don't keep your voice down, they'll hear us!"

"Hello? Who's there?" Peter called. He led Olivia towards the source of the voices, who continued to mutter.

"Now see what you've done, you fool! They've heard us!" said the second voice, sounding even more irritable than before.

"Perhaps it will turn out for the best," answered the first voice, then it called out, "Of course, Monsieur, Madame, you are welcome here!"

"Um… T-T-Thank you," Peter said in a stuttering voice. "W-Where are you?"

"All will be explained in due time, monsieur," the voice replied. "But you look rather cold; why not you and the miss rest over by the fireplace?"

"Oh, that would be wonderful," said Olivia.

Peter pushed the half-open door wider so that he could see into the room. It seemed to be a gracious drawing room, with comfortable chairs set up in proximity to a large fireplace, where a low fire burned. Its heat washed over Peter and Olivia, and both of them sighed gratefully at the same moment. They took a moment to let their eyes adjust to the fire's flickering light.

"I do hope it's warm enough, monsieur," the voice spoke, echoing around the room. "Worst weather we've had all season."

"Peter?" asked Olivia. "Would you help me sit down in front of the fire, please?"

"Of course, darling," Peter replied, steadily lowering his wife onto a chair. "Easy now. There we go… Nice and warm."

Olivia smiled as she sat comfortably in the red felt chair, feeling the warmth of the flickering fire warming her cold, frail body. "Oh… Lovely."

"Don't worry, my dear, we'll get you all warmed up and we'll be out of here once the storm clears," Peter assured, before turning towards one end of the room. "We want to thank for the hospitality, monsieur; where are you anyway?"

Peter looked all round the room, but still all he could hear inches from where he and his wife stood was silence. Even with the warm fire illuminating the room, the room was still rather dark out and barely a shadow could be seen on the walls. Yet, Peter couldn't help but hear as though some furniture moving around, as if one of the servants was readjusting some discarded objects in the dark. Still, it made Peter all the more concerned. He knew for certain they weren't alone, but why would the servants not show themselves? If there were any servants, that is.

"Perhaps they're shy," Olivia suggested.

"Maybe…Or maybe they just haven't visitors in a while," Peter assumed. "Wait… Do you hear that?"

At that moment, Peter thought he heard the pitter and patter of footprints outside the room. Only, this wasn't human footprints, it sounded as though an animal got loose in the house. Except Peter wasn't hearing a dog or a cat, he'd know that. No, there was clearly an animal wandering through the house… But a completely different animal. Course, what animal it was, Peter couldn't say for sure and even Olivia started to get curious.

"What is that?" She asked.

And then quite suddenly, a light began to shine in the far corner of the room. Curious, Peter motioned for Olivia to stay by the fireplace. He slowly approached that one area of the room hoping to run into one of the servants before he or she walked out. Peter got closer and closer… But then his expression of expectation turned into confusion. All he could see, laid in position on a desktop, was a candelabra and a clock of sorts. Other than that, there was no one else there. Peter turned from side-to-side to see if maybe he had already past one of the servants.

"Hello?" Peter called out. "I just wished to thank you for letting us in."

Suddenly, a pair of eyes opened from the candelabra and looked up at Peter, who looked stunned for a moment.

"Bonjeour, monsieur!" The candelabra replied with a smile.

Peter gave out a yelp of surprise and tumbled down to the floor, as the candelabra looked down at him. From back at the fire place, Olivia heard her husband fall to the ground and turned toward that portion of the room.

"Honey, what happened?" Olivia called out. "Who's in here?"

Peter tried to answer, but his constant stuttering prevented him from doing so.

A face appeared on the clock and it turned toward the candelabra, who looked back at it. Clearly, the clock was rather annoyed with the rash candelabra.

"Well now you've done it, Lumiere!" The clock spoke. "Splendid! Just peachy!"

"Y-You-You…" Peter stuttered. "You two…can talk?"

"Why, of course!" the candelabra called Lumiere graciously stated. "Though I do apologize if I have startled you and your wife, monsieur."

"Peter!" Olivia started to get up. "Is there someone else in the room?"

Peter paused for a bit before finally saying,"…You could say that."

Olivia started to get concerned and went over to where Peter was standing. Olivia looked rather concerned seeing that Peter's attention was on a candelabra and a clock. But that was when she started to see their faces and their eyes blinking. Olivia wasn't scared, yet she couldn't help but feel intrigued by what she was seeing.

"What trickery is this?" Olivia asks softly.

"No trickery, I assure you, madam," the clock reassured. "Though it would be rather difficult to explain this to you."

"Oh Cogsworth, let's not speak of sore subjects now," Lumiere replied. "I say, where did you two come from anyway?"

"Well, uh… I'm Peter La'Belle, and this is my wife, Olivia," said Peter. "As we've said before, we're lost and my wife needs medical treatment. I think she's coming down with something."

"We were wondering if, perhaps…we could stay for the night," Olivia spoke up. "Our valet is waiting outside, just in case."

Lumiere and Cogsworth looked at each other, a look of concern on their faces. But between the two, Cogsworth looked the most concerned. Just as he was about to say something, Olivia immediately started coughing again. Only this time, it was much more violently and near uncontrollable. Now Cogsworth had an even bigger reason to show concern. I this condition looks as serious as he thinks, he didn't have to be a Doctor to know what ails the poor woman.

"Oh Cogsworth," said Lumiere. "Have a heart."

"Oh dear, oh dear, this is worse than I thought," Cogsworth spoke then sighed. "All right. The least we can do is see what's wrong with her. If it's what I think it is, she's going to require medical assistance."

"Oh, thank you!" Peter said, smiling. "Thank you, so much."

Cogsworth then cleared his throat and clapped his hands. "Miss Doe," he called out. "We require your assistance. One of our "guests" is very sick."

At that very moment, someone walked into the room, wheeling in a tea tray. Peter and Olivia slowly turned and what they saw surprised the two. Pushing the cart in front of her, it appeared to be a doe, but with human qualities. This anthropomorphic doe, garbed in a blue dress and white apron, halted the cart right by the couple. She turned to both Lumiere and Cogsworth.

"You called, sirs?" She asked in a kind voice.

The two pieces of furniture motioned to the couple standing before them, Peter and Olivia still displaying a look of surprise seeing this Anthropomorphic Doe before them. Still, she paid no heed to their utter shock and simply gave a motherly smile.

"Hello, dears. Would you care for a spot of tea? This should warm you up, just popped off the fire."

"Oh yes," Olivia says. "That's very kind of you."

Miss Doe slowly poured a cup of tea and carefully handed it to Olivia. "Here you are, Madam."

Olivia softly blew the tea gently, to let the steam simmer down nicely. She then took a gentle sip of the tea, it's hot water and herbs warming her up nicely. Olivia had never tasted anything sweet as this special brew that was given to her. Olivia let loose a sigh of relief as she started to feel better. She turned to Peter, her husband happy to see his beloved wife looking brighter. He turned to Miss Doe with a smile.

"Thank you."

Miss Doe nodded, saying, "My pleasure, sir."

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As Peter and Olivia got settled into the castle, Jean-Luc had been standing outside most of the night. Still waiting by the coach and while the remaining horse rested, Jean-Luc passed the time smoking his pipe. By now, it started getting rather quiet inside the castle and that troubled Jean-Luc greatly. He began to worry about the fate of his employers.

"What's taking them so long?" he asked himself.

Jean-Luc let a puff of smoke escape his lips, the tobacco making him cough slightly. Removing the pipe from his mouth, Jean-Luc strolled over to the side of the bridge and tossed out some tobacco into the moat. As he watched the ashes simmer and sink into the water, Jean-Luc thought he saw someone's reflection. Confused, Jean-Luc turned upward to one of the smaller towers. His attention turned to one particular tower and Jean-Luc swore he saw a figure of sorts looming over him in the darkness. Being that it was rather dark, Jean-Luc could hardly see who it was. But quite possibly, it was not happy to see him… And it didn't look human.

Jean-Luc's mouth dropped open and his pipe fell to the ground. "Oh god…" Quickly, he reached into his pant leg and pulled out a flintlock pistol. "Halt!" Jean-Luc aimed the gun, it shook in his hand. "Stay there… Don't come any closer!"

The figure on the tower cocked its head to one side, Jean-Luc still shaking out of his wits. The mysterious being hopped down off the tower, landing nimbly in front of the valet. In that one moment, it didn't move from where it landed. It just stared down at this man as if looking past his expressions and gestures, piercing deeply into his soul. It sensed a deep fear inside him, the man finding it difficult to keep a straight face.

It finally made a move, taking a step close to the valet. BANG! A shot was fired, but the shot didn''t hit the figure. In fact, Jean-Luc intentionally missed the figure and merely fired a warning shot.

"I said don't come any closer!"

But that was without a doubt, possibly the worst thing Jean-Luc could've done. Suddenly, the pupils on the stranger's face turned small and it unveiled it's fangs, displaying it's inhumanity. Then, with a growl, it lunged toward the man, before he could unload another shot. So fast this creature approached, he didn't have time to scream.

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Back in the castle, Peter and Olivia were just settling in by the fire as Miss Doe was preparing another cup of tea. At first, they felt at peace and nearly forgot their troubles. But the silence was broken by a loud, shrilling scream coming from outside the castle.

"Sacrebleau!" exclaimed Lumiere. "What on earth was zat?"

"It's Jean-Luc!" Peter realized. "My God, we left him outside!"

"What do you suppose could've happened to him?" Olivia asked in a frightened tone.

"Oh no…" Cogsworth silently spoke. "Not again."

Just then, the doors to the room flew open and the fire in the fireplace was immediately extinguished by a huge gust of wind. Olivia huddled to Peter, the man doing his best to look brave for his wife. But just as Olivia seemed scared of what was coming toward the door, even Peter could not hide his own fear. Their fear only increased as something emerged in the door frame.

Though they couldn't really see the creature, Peter and Olivia were in deep fear of the approaching monstrosity. But what really frightened them to most was what was the creature itself was dragging: Jean-Luc, their valet, still alive but unconscious.

The creature then laid its eyes on the La'Belle couple, who quivered in fear at the very sight of it. "Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" the creature spoke, in a stern voice. Clearly this creature was female, as her voice echoed throughout the room.

"P-P-P-Please forgive us…" Peter stuttered. "We meant no harm… My wife and I… We were lost in the woods and…we just wanted a place to stay for the night."

"LIARS!" The creature responded, fiercely. "You just want to hurt me, like this man tried to do!"

"Oh no," Olivia pleaded. "Please, we would never do such a thing! Jean-Luc was probably just-"

"SILENCE!" The creature shouted. "I know why you've come! You've come here to kill me, haven't you?! Yes, that's it… You've come to kill the BEAST, haven't you?! Yes, yes! Kill the BEAST! Kill the horrible, ugly, monstrous BEAST before it's too late!"

For a moment, they just stared each other down and the Beast breathed deeply as it stared down at the humans. Olivia noticed a single tear fall down the Beast's cheek, only for it to wipe it's face with it's paw. Finally, after a moment of silence, it was clear a decision had been made.

"Well I won't let you! This is MY home; MY castle! And I will not tolerate intruders!"

The Beast then lunged toward the La'Belles, lifting one in each arm effortlessly and stalked out of the room.

"And I will make sure you're in a place where you'll never be able to hurt me!"

The La'Belles cried for mercy, but it all proved fruitless. The doors slammed shut, leaving Miss Doe, Lumiere, and Cogsworth alone in the room with Jean-Luc laid out along the floor and feeling utterly dreadful of the terrible fate that awaited the La'Belles.