There’s the door, finally!
She slid the last few feet toward it, her sock-covered feet no match for the slick, polished surface. She grabbed the handles and pulled the doors wide open, greeting the day in silent joy, mentally saying a big ‘fuck you’ to her dad, the manor and the curse before running confidently out onto the porch.
She ran hard, throwing herself into a leap from the porch to the grass, excited to feel the damp yard soak through her socks, only… she landed on all fours on the lawn instead.
She let out a pained howl. She tried to scream, “Noooo!” but only grunting, screeching sounds came out of her beast’s muzzle.
This can’t be right, she thought.
They’d broken the curse, she’d been sure of it.
Gastard was here, he’d been able to get through her dad’s magic, and he’d proven many times that he could orgasm again. It was over!
Then why was she standing in the middle of her front yard, howling at the injustice of it all, in her animal form?
Where had they gone wrong?
Had they only broken Gastard’s curse, somehow? Was his curse separate from the curse on her and the manor?
The questions whirled through her mind, painfully, as she fought what she knew to be true. She was still a beast. She was still doomed to turn into this form every time she left the fucking manor.
The hope she’d had fell away from her in that moment. She lifted a hairy paw to her face, staring at its leathery pad and razor-sharp claws in resigned silence. So this was how it was going to be, then? Was she never to be free?
She didn’t even have the heart to look back toward the front doors, she didn’t want to see her disappointment mirrored on Gastard’s face. Or pity. Or disgust.
He’d said that he loved her anyway, but that was when they’d just found each other again. They’d still had hope. But now?
How could he still go on loving her, knowing she was still cursed, even as he’d been set free?
She slumped down into the grass, sitting dejectedly where she’d just leap to joyfully the moment before. She heard her own sad sigh rattle out of her huge, beastly body and wondered if beasts could cry.
Was a creature like herself even capable of shedding tears, or was that human ability lost to her in this form as well?
I’m about to find out, she thought, as she started to give into her emotions.
She felt her body begin to shake, the sobs building from deep inside and fighting to be expressed out loud.
“Oh, Belle. I’m so sorry.”
She heard his voice behind her and knew he’d finally caught up with her. She still couldn’t bring herself to look back at him, but she could picture him in her mind from the timber of his voice.
He was standing in the open doorway, having caught sight of her, and she just knew his head was shaking sadly back and forth as he watched her huge, hairy form, wracked with sobs.
“Come back inside, baby. We’ll figure this out.”
She could only shake her head. If she could’ve spoken the words Go, just go, she would have. She didn’t want him to see her like this, but she didn’t want to go to him, either.
“We broke mine, Belle. That means they can all be broken, somehow. We’ll break yours, too. We just have to figure out how.”
She looked at him then, swiveling her massive head to face him, bracing herself. She expected to see pity in his eyes, but when all she saw there was determination and love, she breathed a little bit easier.
Could they really figure it out?
Maybe he was right, maybe his curse breaking meant that hers could be broken, too. Her dad had thrown his curse at him separately, as he’d been leaving that night. If they weren’t under the same curse but two different ones, maybe there was a chance after all?
Belle
Belle nodded her acceptance of everything Gastard had said. He was right, this was no time to give up. Not when they’d already come so far. She’d pull herself together, get up, go back inside, and when she was human again she and Gastard would try something else. And if that didn’t work, they’d try another something else.