Taming the Beast

That knowledge, that deep recognition, calmed her even more. When he bumped himself into her, butting against her, pushing her on and aiming her toward the front doors, she let herself be herded up the porch stairs, through the entryway and back into the manor.

“I’m so very sorry,” was the first thing she said when they were human again. “I had no idea that would happen.”

“Yeah, that definitely caught me by surprise, too,” he said with a laugh.

“How can you laugh now? After that?”

“How can I not? It’s laugh or…”

Neither of them picked up the dropped thought, both preferring to let it go without pinning it down.

“So, that’s it then? We’re all doomed. We didn’t break your curse at all, we just swapped it out for my curse. For the manor’s curse. We’re all doomed to be like this forever, aren’t we? And it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t let Eva give me hope, if I hadn’t let her talk me into going after you and had just stayed here, you wouldn’t share my curse now.”

“No, I wouldn’t. I’d be even worse off and more miserable. I’d rather have this, Belle. I’d rather be here with you, be just like you, than still be kept from you. This way we can be together, we can share the same burden. We understand each other.

We can drown our sorrows and lose ourselves in each other. We can touch, kiss, talk, fuck our days away, together. Wait…

You said “we’re all doomed.” You said Eva gave you hope and talked you into coming after me. Is she here, too?”

“They all are. Everyone who was in the manor that night when dad walked in on us. They’re all cursed, too.”

“They all turn to beasts when they go outside? Where is everyone now?”

“They’re probably all scattered through the manor, giving us privacy. Their curse is different, they can’t even go outside at all, like you couldn’t get onto the grounds before. They can’t go outside and they’re stuck in their altered state. We turn beast, but they’ve all been turned into… objects.”

“Objects?”

“Sex toys. Eva is one of those G-spot vibes now. Mrs. Pulse is a neon multi-speed, everyone is something different. Vibiere is extra big, Cocksring is a, well…”

“Why would they hide themselves from me, they all knew me before. I’m as cursed as they are, it’s not like I’d judge. They don’t need to hide.”

“Well, to be fair, until right now we have been getting rather intimately reacquainted with each other. I think it was very nice of them to not make themselves known. I’d imagine a talking vibe or cock ring speaking up right in the middle of us getting busy would’ve ruined the mood.”

“It would’ve done more than ruin the mood. That would’ve scared the shit out of me, to be honest. I see your point. But now that I know, I’d love to see them all again. We all need to talk, actually. Put all of our heads together.

If my curse was separate and designed to fit me, and then altered to your curse when we got together, maybe their curse can be altered, too?”

“So we’d all be forced to be beasts? I’m not sure that’s any better, Gastard.”

“Not any better than being sex toys? At least we can go outside. And we can be human indoors. Maybe they’d prefer to have that option, as well? Maybe they wouldn’t. But if we could offer them the choice—having a choice is always better than not having a choice, right?”

“We’ll, that’s true.”

“And maybe, if we can figure out why their curse is their curse, and why your curse is your curse, we can figure out what similarity binds all the curses, and we can break them all.”

“The similarity is me, Gastard. All of this is my fault. If I hadn’t gotten caught with you, none of us would be in this mess. I did this.”

“Then maybe you can undo this as well,” Eva said.

Belle and Gastard both jumped when the tentative voice spoke up from nearby, startling them from their obviously not-so-private conversation.

Belle’s eyes darted around, searching, til she saw Eva’s form, half-hidden as she peeked at them from around the corner of the doorway separating the foyer from the next room.

“Mrs. Pulse has prepared a meal for you both,” she said. “After, we can all talk, like Gastard suggested. But for right now, come and eat. It’s not often we have guests; Mrs. P is very excited. I have a feeling she’s going to make quite a production out of this.”

Gastard

“Break our curse, break our curse, put this damn spell in reverse.”