Beauty And The Beast: The Classic Fantasy Fairy Tale With A Twist
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Chapter One
Reality Is Not A So Happy Ending
ONCE UPON A TIME, there lived a woman named Jane who existed in the real world and who felt set apart from those around her as if a curse loomed over her. One day, she had a dream where she was swept away to a fairy tale world of werewolves and dwarves. Jane's goal was simple, deliver some bakery goods, get a signature, and return to her make believe job at the Tasty Dwarf Bakery with enough tips to take a bath.
Jane arrived to make the delivery only to meet the man... er... the Beast of her dreams. She tried to make her delivery, but an enchantress named Ceress had other plans for the Beast. Jane attacked the enchantress to save the Beast, but an arrow ended her attempt and cut short her belief that she was merely dreaming.
The present...
Blood trickled to the ground as Jane held her wound and stared at the hard wood floor where she knelt. She had been content in her belief none of the places or people she encountered were real, for many of them were weird and/or frightening, and yet it also made her sad, knowing at any moment she would wake and reality would whisk her away from the fantastic and yet scary World of Grimm. All of those carefree thoughts and emotions invoked by her misguided belief in that she was only going about a whimsical trek, vanished as terror set in.
Her intense panic increased its thunderous pounding as if to beat apart her chest the more she thought about her plight. The seriousness of her situation sunk in and abducted her courage. Everything she experienced up to that point was real, including the arrow in her flesh. Jane had gone about her day as if everything was some silly mindscape. If she had known everything was real, she wouldn't have charged in like it was a zombie video game that she could paused or reset if things got too hairy. The werewolf had warned her. He told her she wasn't dreaming and the sooner she started believing that, the sooner she could come to terms with her new reality. Her new reality was that she had an arrow in her arm and a woman who could cast magic, stared down at her with a glee-full murderous intent.
The arrow thankfully had missed its mark by a few inches and hit her left arm. She glanced back at the Beast who appeared shocked by her unwavering gaze. He couldn't see her wound from his position in the room, but he could see her eyes. Jane also put his life in danger. The one who had given her hope that she would find love one day, and she played up this situation like a giddy school girl with a crush. Her crush wasn't of a man on a poster, but a living, breathing, and in danger Beast.
"Foolish woman!" he yelled at her. "Run while you still can!"
He didn't even know her, and he already cared about her safety. Jane had been stupid and if she didn't put her fear to the side, she'd get them both killed. With what strength she could muster, Jane stood to her wobbly feet and glanced back at the door to the kitchen. The enchantress seemed to be in no hurry to end her as Ceress, who still held the bow, moved over to the dead goblin. He had been her minion, and she searched through the arrows in the quiver on his back as if looking for the right accessory.
Once she finished looking through the quiver, Ceress said, "I guess that was the only special arrow."
She moved over to Jane who backed up till she ran into the dining room table, not knowing what the enchantress wanted to do to her next and still too afraid to do anything about it. Ceress saw the fear in her eyes and relished in it as she reached over and pulled the arrow out. Jane cried out for the pain. The absence of the shaft caused the blood to increase its flow down her arm. Jane grabbed a cloth napkin from the table as the enchantress walked away from her a few paces. Jane tied the napkin around her arm as Ceress turned and faced her again. The Beast could be heard struggling against his restraints.
"It would seem my aim was quite a bit off–" Ceress stated. "–but don't worry. I won't miss this time, not from this distance."
Thoughts about escaping rushed through Jane's mind like a log caught on a swift river as the enchantress drew back the string and like that log which rushed over a huge waterfall to be dashed on the rocks below, her thoughts went no further than the aspiration to flee and the panic filled conclusion, I'm going to die! Her body wouldn't obey, and her mind refused to give aid or another recourse other than a frenzied, And there's nothing I can do about it!
Ceress aimed again. She was usually an enchantress for hire, but this particular job was personal, and she allowed herself to enjoy it more than usual. Ceress considered every possible scenario that could arise, but the one scenario of a woman showing up, never entered her mind. It would be an added bonus to take the head of one such as she, but first she needed to complete her first objective, and the simplest way to do that was to make the woman dead. The sun dipped below the horizon outside as twilight shown across the land and just before Ceress released the string, a black tattoo of a swan magically appear on the woman's right cheek. Time slowed as the marking shimmered before the one tied to the chair in a dazzling display of hope. The fairy had given this gift to Jane long ago as a defense mechanism to help safeguard her, and it kicked in seemingly for the first time as it sensed the death of the one who the mark branded. Some would call it a curse, and it would be the second curse Jane bore, but at the moment, it was a blessing. A puff of smoke surrounded Jane and caused the enchantress to pause as the last rays of light vanished from the land and night began to rule. When the white smoke dissipated, a small yellow duckling stood in her place with a wounded wing. The baby bird squawked and ran around in a circle twice before she ran into the kitchen, dragging her wounded wing as she left the tied napkin behind where it fell from her arm.
"This is better than I thought," Ceress spoke as she started for the kitchen. "It looks like I'll be having duck tonight." She turned to the Beast, paused, and said, "That is as soon as you tell me where the rose is!"
Jane ran to the back of the kitchen, flapping her wings a little delirious because of what happened to her, and when she was about to scream when she saw her reflection in the spoon that had fallen to the floor, poof! She was a woman again, bleeding, confused, in pain, and incensed. She put her right hand to the wound and fisted her left. Jane noticed the fireplace where the pot of soup hung, so she grabbed a poker, and stomped back into the dining room. Jane charged the enchantress with her weapon held high.
Ceress turned just as she struck, and Jane hit her on the collar bone. The enchantress stumbled back as she lifted her hands to protect herself.
"You reverted!" Ceress uttered and then winced in pain before she screamed, "How did you turn back?"
Blind with rage, Jane ran at her and swung. The enchantress' arms received the blunt of the blow, and she fell to the floor as Jane raised the poker to inflict the death blow. Ceress realized her grave mistake. She should have killed the woman when she had the chance, but instead her inaction allowed the woman to quickly recover from her affliction. Ceress would die before she took her revenge.
Jane looked into the fear filled eyes of the enchantress, and her anger vanished. She lowered the poker as she felt a little queasy, and then she shouted, "Run!" Jane motioned to the other door with the poker and yelled, "Get out of here or I'll kill you!"
The enchantress crawled away, then lifted to her feet, and fled from the castle. Jane walked over to the dead goblin, dropped the poker, grabbed the short sword from his cold grasp, and moved toward the tied up Beast. She felt dizzy and saw stars as she walked, but Jane pushed forward, knowing she had to release him or they both might be in trouble if the enchantress returned.
Jane didn't know what she should say as she approached him, so she muttered, "I have a delivery for you... from the Tasty Dwarf Bakery."
The Beast watched her, unable to turn away from her and hide his face. His ghastly appearance didn't seem to bother her in the least as she continued toward him in a slow determined trudge. The Beast noticed her wound and saw the blood seeping from it, and his fear of her seeing his cursed form turned to terror as he realized what she was.
He glanced at the blade she held and froze as an animal would, hoping a predator would pass them by. Her face paled as she lifted the short sword, and he tensed waiting for the blow. This woman's presence wasn't like Ceress'. The Beast could tell this woman had intensions for him, but he also sensed that they weren't malicious. She stabbed the blade into the chair's arm, cutting the bonds of his right side, and then with focused determination, she pulled the blade out and stabbed the other chair's arm, cutting the ropes that bound him. She stared deep into his eyes when she finished. No one had gazed at him like that since he took on his curse form. A warmth seem to come from her smile, and that warmth was aimed at him.
Jane couldn't believe it as she clung to consciousness. There they were... Those eyes from her drawings. How could they belong to this magnificent man who lived in a realm that shouldn't exist? She smiled at him again, but this time she felt as if they had known each other for a lifetime. She reached out her hand to touch the side of his face as she found herself saying, "I need your signature for the delivery."
Before she touched what must be soft fur, she collapsed, and he caught her as she landed on his lap, and she remembered no more.