Belle’s father woke up in this house alone. Getting out of bed he walked to the kitchen where he prepared himself breakfast. Eating it by himself he considered the things that he had to get done today. The only thing on the list was finishing the clock he was working on. He was going to add a little girl to the mechanism that popped out every hour.
It was then that Belle’s father froze. As if hit by a wave he suddenly felt the overwhelming feeling that he had forgotten something. He looked around the room confused. There didn’t seem to be anything missing. All of his things were right where he had left it. He wasn’t running low on supplies. And as much as he wracked his brain, he couldn’t remember any appointment that he had made.
Belle’s father tried to go about his day by pushing the feeling aside. It didn’t work. There was something that he had forgotten about. There was a voice inside of him that told him that it was important. If it was that important, then how could it slip his mind? He wondered.
Trying time and again to get to work, Belle’s father determined that he couldn’t. Deciding instead to get out and walk around, he set his work aside and got dressed. Stepping outside he looked around. Whereas the streets were usually bustling with people at this hour, today everyone was moving unsurely as if they were distracted.
Stepping onto the cobblestone street, a woman approached him.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I feel like I have forgotten something. Was there something that I promised you that I can’t remember now?”
Belle’s father looked at her thinking. “To be honest, I can’t remember. But you’re right. I feel that I have forgotten something too. It feels important.”
“Yes,” the woman agreed. “It feels important. But what is it?”
Belle’s father looked at the woman helplessly. “I don’t know.”
After both promised the other that they would remind each other if either of them remembered, Belle’s father walked on. This was all very disturbing to him. He was never known to have a great memory, but there was never something that ate at him so much.
After disappointing conversations with a few other passersby, Belle’s father became frustrated. It was still very early, and he was never one to do this, but he needed a drink.
Heading to the tavern he was surprised to find that others had had a similar thought. The bar was filling up fast and everyone in there had the same look on their face. They looked like they had forgotten something and they were just waiting for the spark that would bring back the memory.
“What can I get you, François?” The bartender asked Belle’s father.
Joining the bartender at the bar, François leaned forward and spoke quietly. “Actually, I know it’s early, but I would love an ale.”
“There is no reason to be embarrassed about that. That seems to be what everyone’s ordering. It has been the darndest thing. It is like everyone is either trying to remember something or trying to forget that they have forgotten something,” the bartender said.
“So, you’re saying that everyone here feels like they have forgotten something?”
“Seems to be.”
“Then, don’t you see? It can’t be a coincidence,” Belle’s father told the bartender. Just then François turned around. “Everyone. Everyone, please,” he said trying to capture their attention. All eyes shifted to François.
“Am I to understand that everyone here feels like they have forgotten something?” He asked disbelievingly.
“It feels like there’s something on the tip of my tongue,” one man said.
“Yes, just like that. But it feels important,” a woman added.
“Yes, important,” a third person said.
François scanned the room examining each of their faces. “Then, don’t you see, it can’t be a coincidence.”
“Then what do you suppose it is?” The bartender asked.
Belle’s father thought again. It frustrated him that he couldn’t pull it completely into his mind. “I don’t know. But, I bet if we put our heads together, we could figure it out.”
Everyone in the tavern agreed and that was exactly what they did. Belle’s father suggested that people shout out possibilities. No one could agree on anything. This back-and-forth went on for hours until suddenly something hit François.
“A monster. Yes, that’s it. I remember something about a monster.”
“A monster?” The bartender asked disbelievingly. “Maybe it’s time that you had a rest.”
Although he was starting to feel tired, the thought of a monster energized him. “No, this feels right. Does anyone remember something about a monster?”
François desperately scanned the faces looking for confirmation. Everyone was shaking their head ‘no’.
“Then, maybe it wasn’t a monster. Could it have been something about… a castle?”
“Wait, yes, a castle. That feels right. There’s something about a castle,” a man from the back said.
Excited by his first confirmation, Belle’s father smiled and looked at others. “Does anyone else remember something about a castle?”
A man sitting at the table in front of François slowly shook his head ‘yes’. “I can’t say for sure if it has to do with a castle, but I do seem to recall having visited a royal court. When would I have visited a royal court?”
“Yes, a royal court. I remember it too,” a woman from the other side of the room said. “But how could that be. I have never traveled more than a day’s journey from our village. At least, I don’t think I have. Have I?” She paused and then said, “François, tell us a little more about your monster.”
As the day went on more things seem to come back to the group. As night fell they had become sure that something had been taken from them, or perhaps, a lot of somethings. As far as they could piece together, there was a castle somewhere and the monster that had stolen their memories lived within.
Filled with alcohol and building anger, the mob became restless. If they could just remember where this castle was, they could destroy the monster and take back what was theirs. Where was this castle, though?
“The Dark Forest,” Belle’s father finally said with a sudden realization.
The tavern owner grabbed his gun from behind the bar and showed it to the ramble. “If that’s where the monster lives, then we will travel into the Dark Forest, find this castle, and destroy the beast.”
The crowd cheered at the bartender’s cry. Leaving to gather weapons and torches, they agreed to meet in the village square to march into the forest. They were going to reclaim what they had lost. They were determined to. And they wouldn’t stop until they had.
Chapter 22
Prince Renaud waited in the bedroom that Captain Bernard shared with the Beast. The Prince was waiting for Bernard to fall asleep. Agitated, it seemed to take Bernard forever. But finally, when Bernard drifted off to sleep, the Prince walked to the side of the bed and looked down into Captain Bernard’s peaceful face.
“Bernard?” The Prince said calling the Captain to him.
Bernard opened his eyes. He looked confused but that only lasted for a moment.
“Prince Renaud, I am so glad to see you again.
“And I you,” the Prince admitted.
Bernard sat up as the Prince sat on the bed in front of him.
“I’ve missed you so much,” Bernard told Renaud as his bearings slowly came back to him. “There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought about you. I used to dream about you. It wasn’t the you that is sitting before me today. It was always the boy I had fallen in love with. You were so beautiful, so innocent, so courageous.”
“Courageous? The boy you knew was a coward.”
“I can’t believe that. Have you forgotten that back then I was the one who was afraid of my feelings for you? Don’t you remember that it was you who had kissed me and had shown me who I was?”
“And what did that get you at the hands of my father? You were left for dead and I was too much of a coward to go back and help you.”
“But you did tell somebody, didn’t you? Wasn’t that how I was found?”
“No. When I was taken back to the castle I was locked in my room for days. I couldn’t speak to anyone, and there was no one who could speak to me.
“For a long time, I thought you were dead. It was only after I was told that your family had fled the castle that I had a glimmer of hope that you had survived and that they were leaving to protect you.
“Are you saying that you don’t know how you got back to your family?” The Prince asked him.
Bernard’s eyes flicked back and forth as he searched his memory. “There is a memory I have but I have always thought of it as more of a dream. There was a beautiful woman above me. She looked like she had wings and there was a yellow light glowing around her. That couldn’t be real, could it?”
“Do you mean like some kind of fairy?”
“I know it sounds ridiculous. Maybe it was just a dream.”
“What did the fairy do,” the Prince asked him intrigued.
“She just stared at me with great sympathy. She seemed so sad. I was embarrassed to have saddened her so. I began to cry.”
“And then what happened?”
“She told me that there was no reason to cry. She told me that I would find you again. She said that she would help me. The next thing I knew, I was laying in my bed. Every part of me hurt but I was home.
“I remember that my parents kept asking me how it had happened. For a long time, I wouldn’t tell them. As I began to feel better I started to feel like I had to tell them. When I mentioned it was the King, they packed up our belongings. We were gone that night.
“We traveled far away and my father made whatever money he could. When I was old enough to no longer be a burden, I joined the Royal service. Thoughts of you drove me.” Bernard smiled. “I can honestly say that it is because of you that I made it to the rank of Captain.”
The Prince smiled back and placed his hand on Bernard’s leg moved by the story. Bernard looked down seeing it.
“And what about you, Prince. Did you ever think of me too?”
The Prince’s eyes drooped in sadness. Unable to speak, he swallowed. “Every day. I thought about you every day.” The wall that the Prince had built up around his heart from years of denial slowly began to crumble. The Prince began to cry.
“I cursed the world for taking you from me and then I cursed myself for loving you so much. I compared you to everyone I was ever with and you were the reason I could never be happy with anyone else.
“The day I lost you, I lost a part of myself that I could never get back. I have loved you more than I have loved anything else in my life. And my longest most secret dream has always been…” The Prince paused. “The dream has been to hear you say that you love me back.”
Bernard choked as the tears began to roll down his cheeks. “Prince, I do love you. I have always loved you. Even when I was a boy and I barely knew what it was, I somehow knew that I loved you. You have my heart. It is yours to do with what you’d like. I have no resistance to you. My heart is yours for the rest of my life.”
Overcome with love, the Prince moved forward pressing his lips against Bernard’s. The two men kissed passionately. They lost each other in their shared embrace and when kissing was no longer enough, they grabbed at each other’s clothes stripping the other bare.
Pushing his body against Bernard’s, the Prince laid the Captain flat. With their two tongues pulling at one another’s, they pressed their hard cocks into the other’s belly. It was what they had done as kids. The memory of it whisked them away. Now adults, they were ready to do much more.
The Prince reached down grabbing Bernard’s cock. It was thicker and longer than his. The Prince loved feeling it in his hand. Holding their two cocks together he thrust.
Letting it go, he pushed his fingers up Bernard’s rippling stomach and then bulging chest. He moved it down the muscles on his side and then onto his ass. Every part of Bernard was a man. The sensation of holding him made the Prince’s heart race. He had wanted to do this for so long. Now here he was and there was no one that could stop him.
Bernard, feeling the urge to consume the Prince, dug his fingers into the Prince’s muscular back. Tracing them along the muscular valley down his spine, his fingers flowed onto his ass. It was smooth and taught. The Prince tensed as Bernard rubbed. Pressing the Prince’s cock harder against his stomach, Bernard slipped one of his fingers into the crack of the Prince’s ass and immediately went in search of his hole.
The Prince could feel his cock drip as Bernard explored his opening. He wanted Bernard inside of him so badly. As the tip of Bernard’s finger spread his opening apart, Renaud expressed his excitement by nibbling on Bernard’s lower lip.
Bernard, pushing his fingers through the Prince’s hair squeezed him tighter against his body. With the tip of his finger now lodged in the Prince’s ass, he slowly rotated it. It made the Prince’s hip swivel. Bernard’s lust was making him short of breath. And when the Captain couldn’t take anymore, he flung the Prince to the side rolling the smooth chested man onto his back.
The Prince looked up at the powerful Captain helplessly. Bernard was so much bigger than he was. The Prince imagined that he couldn’t resist even if he tried. He didn’t want to resist, though. He wanted his Captain to take him. It took only moments for him to do just that.
Crawling between the Prince’s legs, Bernard laid the Prince’s left leg against his chest. Leaning forward he twisted the Prince’s body. With the Prince still looking at him, he took hold of his own cock and moved it towards the Prince’s loosening hole. Smearing his juices around his opening, Bernard placed the head of his thick cock against the muscles of the Prince’s hungry ass.
The Prince’s heart beat out of control staring up at the only man he had ever loved. Feeling Bernard’s cock test his opening, the Prince gasped. Needing to feel his touch, the Prince reached out his hand and rested his fingertips on Bernard’s chest.
When Bernard thrust forward filling the Prince’s ass, the Prince moaned. Bernard’s cock tore him apart as much of it made him feel whole. He never wanted his Captain to leave him. With Bernard’s cock in him, he felt as though they were one.
Bernard, slowly pushing his cock until he could go no further, change direction and slowly pulled out. Careful not to exit, he retreated and thrust in. The feeling was magnificent as his Prince’s ass hugged his cock. Needing to touch him more than he already was, Bernard threw the Prince’s leg in front of him.
Without taking his large cock out of the Prince, he laid his lover on his stomach. And then spreading the Prince’s legs with his feet, he grabbed both of the Prince’s hands within his own. He laid his chest on the Prince’s back and returned his cock deep within his lover’s ass.
It was like this that Bernard aggressively fucked the Prince. Slapping his groin against the Prince’s ass, he moved his lips in search of the Prince’s. Kissing him, Bernard could not imagine any way that the two could be closer. This was all too much for him. Knowing how long he had waited for this, a spark shot up his inner thigh and gathered inside his balls like a bomb waiting to explode.
Unable to hold it back any longer, Bernard gripped into the Prince’s palm and orgasmed into his lover’s ass. His mind swirled with pleasure. For so long this was the only thing he wanted. Needing to take hold of his Prince even more, he moved one of their intertwined hands under the Prince’s chest. There, he could squeeze his own chest onto the Prince’s back.
Bernard lay on top of his lover exhausted and fighting for breath. He loved the man beneath him intensely. He was willing to do anything for him including laying down his life. That was clearly not what the Prince had in mind now, though. Escaping from Bernard’s grip, the Prince pulled himself from underneath Bernard and climbed on Bernard’s back readying his own cock.
The Prince looked down at Bernard’s back wondering how many times he had imagined this image. With his hard cock protruding, he laid on Bernard’s back and pushed his hands under Bernard’s chest. Without touching his cock, he penetrated the valley between his lover’s ass cheeks.
Lifting his hips, the tip of his cock found Bernard’s hole. Squeezing Bernard’s back to his chest, the Prince thrust forward. Bernard groaned as if his was a virgin ass. It was. Bernard closed his eyes thinking about how good the Prince’s cock felt. He wanted every inch of the Prince in him and the Prince obliged.
Thrusting harder and harder, Renaud lost himself. Slipping his hand from under his lover, he instead propped himself up gripping onto Bernard’s waist. Taking long strokes and circling his hips, his mouth dropped open in pleasure. He loved the man laying beneath him. There was no way that he could now deny it.
The realization came with a sensation of freedom that tingled in his balls. Slowly losing control, his breathing hitched. The Prince swallowed hard, thrust harder and spiraled into a blinding orgasm.
The Prince’s cock twitched frantically inside Bernard’s hole. Renaud was in as deep as he could be. He imagined his juices shooting up through his lover. When his arms and legs began to quiver from fatigue, he collapsed onto Bernard’s back drained of everything he had. Panting, struggling to regain his breath, he looked across the bed and saw the Beast.
He was looking at himself, he knew it. For so long he had hated that part of himself and had wanted it gone. But the Beast was the part of him that was capable of loving Bernard. How could he be rid of it now? How could he lose the part of himself that allowed him to love the man of his dreams?
It was at that moment that the Prince heard a loud noise. As if tossed aside, Captain Bernard disappeared from underneath him and appeared between the Prince and the Beast.
The Beast was the first to spring up. At immediate attention, the Beast stared at the door.
“What is it?” The drowsy Captain said to the Beast.
The Beast didn’t respond. Instead, he shot out of bed landing at the door.
“Where are you going? What’s going on?” Captain Bernard said quickly rolling out of bed and reaching for his clothes.
Still ignoring Bernard, the Beast threw open the door and charged down the hall. The Prince lay on the bed watching all of this. He wasn’t sure what he should do.
“Prince Renaud?” Belle said entering the bedroom. “A mob from the village is attacking the castle. They’re breaking the door down. It won’t hold for long. What do we do?”
As Belle stood there, Captain Bernard ran past her. He had practically run through her. Belle looked down at her ghostly figure at a loss of what to do next.
“Come with me,” the Prince demanded. “I have an idea.”
Belle followed the Prince as he descended the stairs in search of the servant’s quarters. It didn’t take him very long to get there. Standing in the hallway in front of all of their rooms, he called to them.
“Everyone, you need to get up.”
Quickly men and women poked their heads out of their rooms. Seeing their bewildered faces, the Prince continued.
“The castle is under attack. We have to protect the Beast. If something happens to him, we will be stuck like this forever. We have to go,” the Prince said rousing everyone there.
“You heard the Prince,” Mr. Kandel encouraged.
“Yes, you heard the Prince,” Mrs. Potts repeated. “Now, grab what you can and defend the castle.”
All of the men and women surrounding the Prince bellowed in a war cry. Belle was the first one to head back towards the entrance. The Prince and all of the men and women followed in line.
When Belle stepped into the entrance hall, the battle was already underway. Both the Beast and the Captain were fighting valiantly. They were woefully outnumbered. The Captain was fighting three men at a time. The Beast was battling more.
The Prince and his army were a welcome sight to the Beast. To the villagers, they looked like floating books and magical cooking pans. The Beast knew who it was and he was grateful.
Gathering his strength the Beast tossed the pile of men off of him. Still recovering from his wounds from his battle with the Captain, he ignored the pain and ripped at the next person he saw. His only thought was of protecting the castle. The castle didn’t just house a collection of things. The chairs, candlesticks, and clocks were all remnants of his court. If any of them were destroyed, the Beast was sure that they would die.
With the mob unyielding, Belle, the Prince and the servants did everything they could to fight them off.
“The clockmaker was right,” a man yelled. “This castle is haunted,” he said startled but not stopping his assault.
“Clockmaker?” Belle asked. “Papa?” She yelled looking through the crowd.
At the back of the mob, Belle saw him. It was her father. He looked bewildered. Being there was triggering a memory he couldn’t understand.
“Belle?” He asked himself. “Did I have a daughter named Belle?”
“Yes, papa. It’s me, Belle. Can you see me?”
He couldn’t. Belle was about to grab him to jolt his memory when she suddenly heard a bang. She spun around. There was a man who held aloft a smoking gun. It looked like the bartender from her village. The gun was pointed at the Beast from only a few feet in front of him. The Beast, who was already struggling to stay on his feet, dropped to his knees and fell to his side.
“No!” The Prince yelled from behind Belle. Turning to look at him, Belle found the Prince shocked at what he saw.
“I got him,” the bartender said readying his musket for another shot.
Belle shifted her attention next towards Captain Bernard. He had to be who the bartender was aiming for next. As far as the bartender could see, there was no one else there.
As the Captain continued to fight the men off, Belle ran towards him. Approaching the bartender first, she tried to grab him. Her hands went straight through. Loaded, the bartender lifted his gun and was about to fire.
“No!!!” someone yelled at the top of their lungs. It was the Prince. But none of their attackers could hear him. Too far away to do anything, the Prince could only watch as the bartender pointed his gun at the Captain and slowly pulled the trigger.
It was out of nowhere that the Beast lunged across the room wrapping his arms around Captain Bernard. When the bartender fired, it wasn’t the Captain who he hit. It was the Beast again. Whatever life the Beast had drained quickly after that.
As the Beast fell, all of the fighting stopped. The floating books and pans dropped to the ground. The approaching mob seemed to come to their senses. They looked around confused.
Belle took advantage of the moment of calm and raced back to the Beast. With the Captain standing over him, Belle placed herself by his side.
“No, Beast,” the Captain said trying to prevent him from slowly closing his eyes. “You must stay with me. Prince, you must stay with me. I won’t let you go.”
The last man to join the group was the Prince himself. Standing above the trio he looked down. Belle, with tears in her eyes, looked up. Without being asked, Belle allowed the Prince to take her place. The Prince looked down at the Beast mournfully.
“You were willing to sacrifice your life to protect the man you loved. I misjudged you, Beast. My entire life, I have misjudged you.”
It was as the Beast closed his eyes that Belle noticed someone approaching their group. With her came a brilliant light. Belle looked up and saw a beautiful woman. There was a yellow light glowing around her and she appeared to have wings.
Captain Bernard also looked up. He didn’t see the same person. To the Captain, it was an old woman who wore tattered clothing and whose back curved like a ‘C’.
“Mother?” Prince Renaud said breaking the silence.
Belle looked at the Prince shocked by his revelation.
“Mother, is that you? What happened to you?” He asked not believing what he was seeing.
“Son, I am sorry that I left you when I did, but I have always been there for you. I can see that your life after I was gone was hard. But I give this gift to you now, the gift of loving yourself. Because until you have learned to love yourself, you will never truly be able to love or receive love from others.”
With those words, the glowing woman lifted a wand and tapped the air in front her. A magnificent ripple of light shot outwards. The force of its knocked Belle onto her back. It did the same to everyone.
When Belle opened her eyes and looked around, everything around her looked different. Slowly sitting up, the first thing that Belle noticed was that the Beast was gone. Where he had been was the Prince.
His wasn’t the only change, though. All of the furniture that had been surrounding the room had disappeared. Now, in its place, was Mr. Kandel and many of the others. Was the curse broken? Belle wasn’t sure.
“Belle?” She heard her father say from across the room. “Belle, is that you?”
“Papa?” She said as her relieved heart filled with warmth. “Dear Papa!” She exclaimed getting up and running to him.
Throwing her arms around her father, Belle saw that hers wasn’t the only reunion in the crowd. Mr. Kandel spotted one of the women from the village and was running to her. One of the young girls who had been a servant in the castle sprinted to a man she called father.
They had done it. They had helped the Prince break the curse. And remembering the state that the Beast was in, Belle then left her Papa and hurried to the Prince’s inside.
“Prince, are you all right?” Belle asked holding the Prince’s hand.
The Prince’s eyes were closed. Hearing her voice, he slowly opened them. The first person he saw was her. A light shone in his eyes that told her how much she meant to him.
“Thank you,” the Prince said reaching for Belle’s hand. Squeezing it, the Prince then looked over to his right side at Captain Bernard. “And thank you,” he said unable to love someone more.
Belle looked at the way that the Prince looked at Captain Bernard. With an ache in her chest, she swallowed. It was clear who the Prince loved. It wasn’t her. As much as it hurt, she was going to have to accept that. Belle was about to get up and leave the two alone when the Prince tightened his grip on her hand.
“Where are you going?” The Prince asked turning to her.
“I’m going to go so that you can be with the man that you love,” she said as graciously as she could.
The Prince smiled. “But if you leave me, then how will I ever be with the woman that I love. Belle, I have loved you from the moment I saw you. And the fact that you were the one who saved me from this curse, tells me that my love for you was not in vain.
“If you will have me, Belle, I would like to spend the rest of my life with you.” The Prince then looked at Captain Bernard. “With both of you.” He looked back at Belle. “That’s if you two would have me… and perhaps even have each other.”
Belle’s heart thumped with warmth. She couldn’t imagine loving anyone as much as she loved the Prince. The only one she could come close to loving as much would be Captain Bernard.
“What do you say, Belle?” Captain Bernard said drawing her attention. “You know that I have always loved you, too. Will you have us both?”
Belle looked between the two men unable to imagine two men she could love more. She smiled, not just on the outside, but deep within as well. She was about to become the wife of the Prince and the cohort of the Captain and she could never imagine being happier.
“I will have you,” she said to Captain Bernard. “And yes, I will have you too,” she said to the beautiful Prince.
And as the three of them held each other and kissed, the crowd cheered with delight. Turning to face them as their soon to be queen, Belle smiled knowing that she was about to live happily ever after.
The end.