The Other Side of the Door

Chapter 13

When we arrived at the doors of the ballroom, Cogsworth turned to face me. "Alayna, I do hope you enjoy this ball."

"Cogsworth, this ball is not for me. I know it may seem like that, but it is for all of us, especially all of you servants. You guys need this ball more than I do," I sighed. 

Cogsworth didn't reply, but opened the large double doors to reveal the ballroom. What I saw made me gasp. There were extravagant decorations throughout the room. There was lace and gold foil draped on the staircase. Giant red bows were hanging on the wall, and candles were lit around the room, making it glow even more. It was simply stunning. I started walking down the staircase to see Elliot waiting for me at the bottom with his arm outstretched. 

Elliot's  outfit conveniently matched with mine. His tailcoat was gold with pink and red embroidery. It seemed a little fishy to me that we matched so much, but it was sort of cute. 

"You look beautiful," Elliot commented as I took his arm. I was definitely blushing hard, which was embarrassing. I hoped no one noticed. 

"Thank you. You look nice, as well," I responded. 

 We walked across the ballroom to a large table covered in food. There was more croque-monsieur than I knew what to do with. Elliot handed me a plate, telling me to put as much food on it as I wished. 

The problem was, none of the servants ate. They couldn't. They had made all this food, but only Elliot and I could eat it. Unless there was to be a surprise appearance by some humans. I sincerely doubted that, though. 

My plate was covered in croque-monsieur. It looked like I was eating my last meal. There were at least five sandwiches on my plate. 

Elliot and I sat at a small table near the windows of the ballroom. The sun was going down and the stars were starting to appear. It was beautiful. 

The servants had already started dancing, and they looked absolutely joyous. There was not a sad face in the castle.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Elliot asked as my mouth was very full with food. 

I laughed as I tried to swallow all the food as quick as possible to reply. "Yes, thank you." We both started laughing at the incident. 

After a little while of stuffing our faces, I started to wonder if Elliot was going to ask me to dance. All of the servants were out dancing, but I couldn't dance with most of them, as they were significantly shorter than me, and many of them lacked arms. 

I think I wanted Elliot to ask me to dance. Not only because he was the only possible dance partner tall enough, but because I genuinely wanted to dance with him. 

We sat in silence for a little while, digesting our food and watching to servants dance, but I was growing impatient. Why wasn't Elliot asking me to dance? Did he not want to dance with me? Did he not like to dance?

There would be a really big problem with our relationship if he didn't like to dance. Dancing, next to reading, was one of my favorite pastimes. 

I looked at Elliot, hoping I would catch his eye and he would get the hint. Nothing. 

This made me incredibly annoyed. He had planned this huge ball and feast, yet wouldn't dance with me? There was no way I was going to let that slide. 

"Elliot, would you care to dance?" I asked, holding out my hand for him to grab on to. 

He looked at me in genuine shock. It was as if he hadn't expected me to even want to dance. "Uh...uh...," he stuttered. 

I looked at him, waiting for an answer. He just stared at me, like he didn't know how to respond. "You don't have to if you really don't want to," I said, retracting my hand. 

The look that passed over Elliot's face was one of pure embarrassment. "Alayna, it's not that I don't want to dance with you... I just... I'm not a very good dancer. I went to very few balls before the curse, and I haven't danced in a very long time."

I guessed I hadn't really thought of that. Of course he hadn't danced in probably close to one hundred years. "I don't care," I smiled at him. 

Elliot looked at me incredulously. "Alayna, you're incredible, but if I dance with you, I might break your feet." 

I blushed at his comment. He thought I was incredible? "Elliot, I don't care. You won't break my feet. I would love to dance with you." I outstretched my hand again. 

This time he accepted my hand. My hand was significantly smaller than his, but it still fit like a puzzle piece in his. 

We walked out onto the dance floor, and all the servants cleared a space for us in the middle of the ballroom. The room was completely silent for a minute as I helped Elliot figure out where our hands were supposed to go, and what a proper hold was. 

Suddenly the music started, and we were gliding around the room. Elliot had said he would be a horrible dancer, but he really wasn't. It was by far the best dance I'd ever had. At some point during the dance, everyone disappeared. The only people in the room I could see were Elliot and I. In fact, the entire ballroom disappeared. It was as if the starry sky outside was the ground we were waltzing across. 

I hadn't realized it, but everything had changed. My life had completely flipped upside down since I had stayed here. My life, while nice before, had been lacking something, I just hadn't known it at the time. Being in the castle had almost made me a new person. I was stronger, more independent, and far more comfortable being on my own. I was also more selfless, less prideful, and more willing to give up parts of myself for other people. It was like a wall had come down. I had learned charity, forgiveness, and love. 

Love. 

Love was a very powerful, very confusing word. What even was love? There were so many different forms of love, so many different ways to express it. I had learned love in terms of friendship with all of the servants. I couldn't imagine life without them, and that was certainly love. I would die if anything horrible happened to them. 

Then there was Elliot. I had so many confusing feelings about him. I didn't necessarily want to love him. I had certainly gotten fond of him, but I didn't want to feel like I loved him because I was obligated to, because of the curse. I wanted to love him organically, if I ever did love him. However, every time I thought about loving him, I always dismissed it in my head. I always made excuses for why I didn't love him and why it was impossible. I made excuses to myself about how some other girl would fall in love with  him, and how the servants and Elliot would be saved. I knew better, though. 

Looking into Elliot's eyes as we danced, I knew. People always said that the eyes were the windows to the soul, and I knew without a doubt that I was in love with Elliot's soul. I wasn't in love with him because I felt forced. I loved him because I loved him. 

Our dance ended, and the reality of the world came back to me. We were back in the castle, with all of the servants, all of us bowing and curtsying to our partners. I thought maybe my head would clear, and that I was just being delusional because of the magical dance, in the heat of the moment, perhaps. That was not the case however. I looked at him after the dance, and I knew it was not a delusion. I still loved him. 

We continued to dance throughout the night, each dance more magical and powerful than the next. 

The servants began to get tired after dancing the whole night, so we decided that we'd end the dance. Elliot and I reassured the servants that we would clean up the ballroom together in the morning, which was enough for the servants leave us to go to bed. 

Neither Elliot nor I were very tired, so Elliot decided to take me up to the enchanted room, where there was apparently a balcony. We sat down, with a perfect view of the rose, or what was left of it. There was one petal dangling from the stem, holding on for dear life. 

I knew what I had to do.