The Beast Within (Villains 2)

“She won’t betray me, I know it!” The witches’ laughter filled the Beast’s head, driving him mad.

“She never loved you! How could she?” “She was your prisoner!” “She only pretended to love you so you would let her go!” “How could she ever love someone as loathsome as you?”

The Beast’s anger rose to dangerous heights. His roar caused the chandelier to rattle and the room to shake, frightening even the sisters, but Lucinda persisted. “Look! Here’s proof if you don’t believe us!” And she showed him the mirror. Belle was standing in front of an angry crowd. Holding the enchanted mirror, she screamed, “Show them the Beast!”

His face appeared in the mirror, ugly, frightening, and foul, his roar terrifying the mob.

“See! See? She’s betrayed you!” Lucinda said as she danced in the Beast’s study.

“She never loved you!” screamed Ruby, joining Lucinda in her absurd dance.

“She’s always loved Gaston!” chimed in Martha, prancing about like a deranged peacock with her sisters as they taunted the Beast.

“They’re to be married in the morning after he kills you!” they all sang as they danced in a circle. “It was their plan all along, you see!” They cackled as their dance grew even more repugnant.

The Beast was finally defeated. Completely diminished and heartbroken, he could barely bring himself to meet their gazes when he asked the sisters to leave. “Please leave. You’ve gotten what you wanted. I have suffered for hurting your sister. Now, please, I want to be alone.”

Lucinda’s laugh was more sinister than he’d ever heard it before. “Oh, and you shall be alone! Alone forever, forever a beast!” And the sisters were gone before the sound of their laughter left his drafty study. He was alone and he knew he had brought all this on himself.

Only one thing comforted him: he had finally learned what it was to love. And the feeling was deeper and more meaningful than anything he’d felt before. He felt like he was dying. To die, one must have first been alive. And the Beast could finally say that by finding love, he had lived.

The tall green house with black shutters and a witches’ cap roof was silhouetted a little too perfectly against a deep blue twilight, like a paper cutout of a dollhouse. Nothing about the witches ever seemed quite real, not even their house. Inside, the witches danced while watching the Beast’s demise in the many enchanted mirrors they had placed around their main parlor. They drank honey wine, splashing it on their deep purple dresses, which blossomed about them as they spun in circles, laughing in the face of their own frenzied insanity. They would stop their bacchanalian antics only to mock the Beast and praise themselves for having seen the curse through.

“He’s given up!” raved Ruby. “He wants to die!”

Lucinda scoffed. “He’s heartbroken, Sisters. He’d rather die than live without that stupid girl!” All three sisters laughed. “Now he knows what it is to be heartbroken!”

The sisters were even more excited to see Gaston’s mob arrive. “They’re attacking the castle!” Gaston’s mob would have laid waste to the castle if it weren’t for the servants.

“Bloody fools!” screamed Lucinda. “They’re trying to defend the fiend!”

Martha spat at the outrageous spectacle between the mob and the servants. “Sister! Don’t spit on our treasures!” scolded Ruby, and then she saw a most welcome sight. “Look! Gaston! He’s there! They’re fighting on the roof!” The sisters stamped their feet, flailing wildly in a manic dance while chanting “Kill the Beast!” over and over. They said it until their voices were raw as they watched the bloody encounter between the old friends, who now were cursed so that they did not remember each other. The Beast didn’t even try to fight back. Gaston was going to kill him, and it seemed the Beast welcomed it, as the sisters had hoped he would.

“Kill him, kill him, kill the Beast!” they yelled, as if Gaston could hear their words, but something changed, something wasn’t right. The Beast saw something the sisters could not. Whatever it was gave him the will to fight.

“What is it?” they screamed as they scurried from mirror to mirror, trying to surmise what could possibly have inspired the Beast to fight, and then they saw.

Belle.

That horrible girl, Belle!

“We should have killed her when we had the chance!” Ruby cried.

“We tried!” Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha watched as the Beast overpowered Gaston. He had him by the throat, dangling him over the side of the castle.

“Quick, get the scrying bowl!” Lucinda scrambled in the pantry for the oils and herbs they needed for the scrying bowl while Ruby filled the silver bowl with water, and Martha got the egg from the icebox. The egg floated in the water like a malevolent eye while Ruby tossed in the oils and herbs.

“Make the Beast remember when they were young.” Martha and Ruby looked at Lucinda, mouths open.

“What?” Lucinda was panic stricken.

“That didn’t rhyme, Lucinda!”

Lucinda rolled h

er eyes, vexed. “I don’t have time to think of a rhyme! Just say it!” Ruby and Martha looked at each other but didn’t repeat the phrase. “What?” Lucinda asked again.

“It’s not as fun if it doesn’t rhyme.”