THE KEEPER [Beauty & The Beast retelling]

Into thin air

It was long before Mona fell asleep in a huddle, over a puddle of her own tears. She'd cried over the loss of her father until midnight had brought fresh tears for a man she knew she'd loved, for a while now but never realized. But here she was, a small ball of a human on the cold floor, asleep and hoping she'd dream of the Beast again, for she knew what he was now. The mirror still clutched in her small hands. Waiting.

Several hours later, in the early darkness of dawn, she stirred, tired and sore from an uncomfortable dreamless sleep on the concrete floor. She dragged herself to her feet and went about her day as ordinary as possible, numbed by the ache in her heart, saddened by the silence in her ears. 

She showered and dressed in the dark, then trudged her way to the kitchen, which to no surprise was left just as she'd predicted. Although, someone must have tried their hand at cleaning a few dishes that were still dirty yet drying on the dish rack. She flicked on the lights in the kitchen and donned her favorite apron, which used to once belong to her beautiful mother, and started about cleaning the 'clean' dishes first, before tackling the worst ones.

As the day got lighter outside those frosted winter windows,  Mona felt more tired than before, lethargic even, like her hands were beginning to get heavy under all those dishes. Somewhere in one of her siblings' rooms, she heard life stirring awake from heavy slumber and resigned that this was her life now.  In a moment of weakness, Mona dropped the dish she was holding in her soapy hands and it smashed into a thousand pieces at her feet, the largest piece falling on top on her toes, carving a nice red line across it. Blood slowly oozed out and all she could do was stare at it. It somehow reminded her of the blood red rose she'd seen once in Beast's room at the manor, a manor that no longer existed anymore, not for her. 

"What are you doing? You're gonna bleed all over the floor!" Macey, the oldest of the sisters rushed into the kitchen half ready to yell cause that's what she was very best at, but upon seeing Mona's injured toes slowly pooling in their own blood, Macey stopped short and detoured into the bathroom to fetch the first aid kit. "Seriously Belle, you could've lost your toes!" she said, getting down on her fours to tend to her baby sister's injury. It was the first time in years Mona had felt cared for by anyone other than her father. It brought tears to her eyes. 

"It just slipped," she sniffled, cringing as Macey applied pressure on the wounds. 

"Why you crying? Does it hurt?"

Mona shook her head. It was her pain over the cut toes that was making her cry. It was the fact that she'd lost everything she'd cared for last night and no one had noticed, and no one ever would, because Beast only existed in her mind, now didn't he? There was no one left who cared for her anymore, who truly cared for her. And yet, here was Macey, the coldest of them all suddenly worried over tiny cuts on little insignificant toes. 

"What is it?" Macey wiped the tears off Mona's face as their mother used to when they were young. "Is it Dad?"

Mona both nodded and shook her head. "And more." 

Macey nodded and gently shoved Mona away from the sink. "As you said yesterday, this isn't your mess to clean up. Now get some bandages on them toes and put a pot of tea on for us while I finish up. It'd be nice to have tea together this morning, don't you think?"

Mona could barely utter a word, for that's how surprised she truly was. The young woman standing before her had somehow grown up overnight into the adult she was meant to be, caring and cooperative. Therefore, Mona did as she was told before by some dumb luck Macey snapped back into the demanding self-centered older sister she was used to. 

As Macey cleaned the mess up, Mona readied their teas and put some toast on for good measure. She hadn't had any food last night and she was quite hungry. She slipped onto one of the stools at the counter's edge and sipped her tea, and picked up her toast. It was then that she let out a gasp and dropped her toast. It was then that she finally noticed.