Beauty in the Beast by Stevie Rae Causey

Author:Stevie Rae Causey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fairytale, Beauty and the Beast, Retelling, Short fantasy stories, Young adult fantasy retelling
Publisher: Plot Bunny Publishing
Published: 2021-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

DAYS PASSED AND BELLE was discouraged. Each morning the boy left the castle, often leaving gifts of food or trinkets at the archway. While he was gone, she stalked the halls, looking for a weak spot in the castle’s defense system. All to no avail. Even the interior doors were locked tight.

Sometimes, late at night, she would wake to the sound of the boy crying in the hall, his energy as the beast depleted. She would call to him, inviting him closer, but every time she moved toward the archway, he panicked and the beast returned. Sometimes he would call for her as it happened, begging her to save him.

Those nights were the hardest. Belle resisted the urge to approach and comfort him, too afraid the beast would take over and kill her. And so they lived for a while, in a stalemate of hurt and fear. Until Belle couldn’t take the silence and the sorrow anymore.

“Where do you go when you leave?” she asked one evening as the beast stalked the hallway. “You said I was trapped like you, but you’re going somewhere I can’t. I know you are.”

The beast huffed in response and kept pacing.

“You’re still looking for help, aren’t you?”

He paused for a moment and looked in her direction, his eyes pained. He grumbled in response. Obviously, his attempts had been unsuccessful.

Belle’s heart ached more with each passing day. He came to her more beast than boy as time went on. She wondered how long it would be before Louvel was lost entirely.

She could save them if he would just trust her; she knew she could. He wanted to be helped—she could see that as well—but what was standing in his way?

The light in the tower came to mind again. In all her time in the castle, she hadn’t seen any evidence anyone else was here, and yet the memory of the soft, warm glow stayed with her, luring her to it, wherever it was.

“Is the light in the tower still on?” she asked.

The beast nodded.

So, he was still able to go out, at least to the courtyard. But why him and not her? And where else could he go that she couldn’t?

Belle was tired of having more questions than answers.

“I won’t give up.” She said it to herself as much as the boy trapped in beast form. “I’m going to figure it out.”

His ears twitched in response and he stopped pacing. For a long time, the two of them just looked at one another in silence. Then the beast shook the tension from his coat and turned a circle before laying down on the stone floor just outside the library.

Belle nodded her understanding. If she was willing to keep trying, he was willing to wait.

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