Beast within the Beauty || A Beauty and the Beast Retelling

Chapter Six || To Betray a Beast

It was later that week that I waited until the moon had soared to the center of the sky, praying that every servant and guard had fallen asleep. I kept a keen ear on my door, waiting for the telltale of a breath. Once I was certain that there would be no disturbances, I quietly crept outside my doors and tip-toed down the hallway. I decided that the best course of action was to get to my husband's bedchambers and retrace my steps when I had left that room.

I looked out the window and determined by the rising of the moon that my rooms were on the east side of the castle. As I walked down the hall, I did my utter best to keep in mind the direction in which I was supposed to head. For the first few minutes, I was able to keep my index held before me and pointed to the West, rotating my hand as I turned. But after one too many spiraled stairs, I began to doubt the accuracy of my fingers' orientation.

"Merde," I muttered to myself. My finger was not a compass, what had I expected?

However, once I squinted around, I realized that I was standing on the exact staircase that I had previously learned led to the West Wing. I frowned, searching the sixth and seventh steps, which were lined with a maroon carpet. Upon closer inspection, I found the splotch of deep red at the edge of a step.

That was where I had fallen and drawn blood from my lip.

It made no sense in my mind, for I had not even crossed a quarter of the distance necessary to arrive at my husband's chambers. The configuration of this castle was quite nonsensical, however, and so I proceeded up the steps. My fingers trembled and my breathing was shaky. Every seven or eight steps, I glanced over my shoulder. Only the shadows stared back.

At the top of the spiraling steps, I had come across a large set of doors. I squinted. They were dark in color, so utterly massive in size. Fumbling in the darkness, I found the drapery that concealed the dim light of the moon. Once I turned, I noted the layers of dust that had accumulated on the statues and pillars along the wall. The candles had long melted into wicks that drooped in reverence. Quietly, I stepped back to the elaborately decorated double doors. As my fingertips brushed the handles, I felt a cold of ice and snow rush through my body.

I flinched as though if I were burned.

My breath caught in my throat and I reached out once again, grasping the handles. I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out, for the metal felt as though if it were made of something tenfold the coldness of ice. As my hand settled and pushed down on the handles, the doors clicked open with a creak.

I pulled my fingers back, turning my palm and braced myself for the sight of newly acquired burns. But my skin was intact and still callused as it had been, baring no wounds from that door handle. I raised my eyes.

The entire hall was void of any candle that would light it, only the bare traces of moonlight entering through the shattered window at the end of the corridor. These rooms were unkempt and wild. I could see that a layer of frost and dust had formed along the surface of the floor, the walls, the flaking ceiling and every broken object lying about. These halls were abandoned. I chewed on the inside of my lip, nervously examining the broken shards of glass and cracked wood.

Something whirled behind my ear.

I spun around, arms raised and eyes flicking to the curtain shreds clinging to the back of a broken seat. I clutched at my chest, hands shaking from both the cold and tense nerves. Perhaps it was the distant breeze, whirling inside through shattered window. I hoped it was. After long, I turned back.

As my gaze fell along the floor, I noticed the broken chairs whose wooden legs splintered across the carpeted floors. There were candelabrums mounted onto the walls, the candle wax long melted and dripped onto the floor, collecting in solidified puddles. Everything within the hall appeared murky and dark in color, due to the layers upon layers of dust and frost caking the surfaces. There was a lot of torn fabric on the floor, shreds of curtains and what I assumed were gowns.