"Beauty and the Beast, 6-8" by Carmel D. Shachar

Over the days, the castle became almost warm and inviting. Beauty was very happy because it was not normal, and there were very interesting things in the castle. Suzie was very happy because it was not normal and there were very expensive things in the castle. The Beast was very happy because it was not normal and there were very female things in the castle. It was working out nicely.

"Suzie…" Beauty began one day. Something was bothering her.

"Yes? Doesn’t this necklace look swell? It’s the most expensive I’ve gotten yet!" Suzie fingered the very large string of pearls. They suited her in an awful way.

"Su… are you going to say yes to the Beast?" Beauty didn’t even know why she cared. Her existence only touched the Beast in minor inconvenient ways, similar to dust bunnies and dirty plates. And she enjoyed making him angry. Unfortunately he enjoyed making her angry too.

"Ha! That’ll be the day!" Suzie smiled. "He’s footing the bill without the ring."

"But… you’re leading him on, aren’t you?" Beauty found a note of anger and panic in her voice.

"Of course… I want him to foot the bill. What other way can a girl make it in the world, but through enticing?" She pursed her lips.

"But that’s wrong."

"Well if you like you can have him. Strange, I don’t see him going for you. I wonder… could it be the fact that you’re an ugly, moralizing, too smart piece of baggage?" Suzie smiled widely as she walked away. Beauty stood very still and quiet. The outburst didn’t bother her, what is there everyday loses its effect. Something else was bothering her.

She closed her eyes and said "Hello Beast."

To her amazement, the Beast replied. Which was doubly strange.

1. Because usually the Beast grunted or growled to acknowledge her. He didn’t seem to be her biggest fan.
2. Because Beauty actually hadn’t gotten a sense of the Beast behind her. She had started composing a monologue out loud. Whoops.

Despite her surprise she accepted his hand, or paw, as followed him through the garden.

The odd couple walked through the altogether too large garden slowly. Even from a distance there were several things noticeable;

1. The larger of the two took tiny baby steps to keep to a slow stately pace. This was because the larger of the two was well, larger.
2. The two seemed to be in a mutual game of avoid the other’s eyes.
3. There was something glittering in the large of the two’s pocket. And no, he would not be happy to see you. Especially spying on him. Don’t you think that you better get out of there now?

Beauty let her hand rest on his arm. The shirt was made of the finest silk; a silk that even the Emperor of China would have killed a million men for. It rippled like the water, however, underneath was the rippling of several deep see monsters that no swimmer would like to see swimming towards him. Her hand seemed tiny and yet depressingly real in comparison, a lone wooden boat adrift in a sea of gossamer, perhaps in search of a pearl.

"I… am very happy that you and your sister have come to stay with me." Said the Beast when it occurred to him that he ought to speak nicely. He inserted the honey in to his voice, in hopes of capturing the fly.

The fly sighed a tiny sigh she would not own up to. "Really? You seem to be more glad of my sister."

"How am I to respond to that Beauty?" He asked gravely. He and Beauty had ignored this topic since the first night… he was out of practice discussing it.

"You would do best by stating, ‘why no Beauty. I heed your advice that she’s a beautiful snake and instead of trying to make her love me as I do, I will think about her gorgeous legs for a bit, and then move on. Like a sensible person.’"

"Why do you recommend that?" He clenched his jaw, which had the added affect of Beauty thinking, my goodness he could crack my bones with those teeth. I hope he’s a vegetarian.

"Beast, Beast. Trust me… she’s never loved a man who she could marry. Right now her major ardor is for Mr. Gold, Mr. Diamond and Mr. Ruby. She’s a material girl. She doesn’t care for you. She doesn’t care for me even. I’m willing to wager that in the case of a fire she’d save her jewelry box and not give you a second glance."

"I don’t need a fire alarm Beauty. I need a love."

"So you’ll chose the viper because it’s in a pretty wrapping? Sir, you’re a moron." Beauty looked away.

"Don’t call me sir." He said icily. "You think I am making a mistake. But I tell you, if you could see what I see…"

"Well, sir, if you could see what I see then you’d see my sister getting another poor man’s appreciation of nature’s handiwork… all the way to the bank. Haven’t you ever met a woman who’s done this before?" She asked despairingly.

The Beast stopped. Then he grabbed her hand and began walking. Again Beauty offered a prayer hoping he only ate veggies.

Beauty and the Beast walked a long time. Or to be more exact, the Beast walked and Beauty stumbled painfully after him. Finally they stopped at a hut hidden in the ivy.

This hut did not really merit the name hut. It lacked the basic huttiness, a horrifying mixture of small and ancient. The hut was made out of pure snow marble, etched with the faces of souls. The Beast pulled at its ebony doors, and pulled Beauty in. Beauty closed her eyes and gulped. At least I’ll die in a Beautiful place, she thought.

The Beast stopped. She opened her eyes to face her death like a man, or like a woman or like some Homo sapient who was too stupid to be cowardly. To her surprise there seemed to be no eating involved. Instead there was a family gallery, which as some people know, can be as deadly as a good devouring.

The Beast grabbed a candle from the place in which it was floating. He stalked forward. As he took the light farther and farther away from her, Beauty decided to close the distance. She ran.

After she caught up she began looking at the portraits. Graceful and delicate, Ugly and fat, Just and Proud, Sly and mischievous, each portrait was of another person. They were a family though. Beauty could tell that much from the similar crown on the heads of most of the paintings. Hadn’t she seen a crown like this around the castle?

Maybe he ate all these people, she thought. Maybe this gallery leads to his dining room, where he ate them. If Beauty had a passing grasp of literature she might understand when the narrator writes that her thoughts followed the plot of the "Cask of the Amontillado" by a certain Edgar Allan Poe with a crunch in the end.

Finally the gallery ended. Her grabbed her hand and the roughness seemed to validate her thoughts. He was breathing heavily too, as if not to let tears fall. He pointed at the picture in front of them.

If there had been beautiful people in the other paintings, the woman in this picture outdid them all with ease. Grace captured by alabaster might begin to describe her. Around her delicately carved face and gemstone lips were thick locks of raven. Her verdant eyes were not fixed on the viewer, but rather modestly glancing to her left. She was dressed in a light purple dress, a simple one to contrast the ornate frills of the previous paintings. However, it was obvious that she was not wearing the simplicity to be modest but rather to state I am so perfect I do not require beautiful things to make me beautiful. Rather I do so to things. The only accessory she had, besides a flimsy veil in order to hint at the fact that she could hide the beauty at whim, was a thick pearl necklace.

Beauty breathed a quiet sigh of pleasure. "She’s… perfect. Even more pretty than Suzie." The Beast nodded.

"She cared only of his fortune." He stated.

"Who?"

"The man next to her."

Beauty looked at the rest of the painting and gasped. Before she had believed there to be no man to equal the perfection of the lady. Now she saw the lady’s equal. Tall in stature, he was graceful and charming. His blue eyes fixed themselves on the viewer, as if guarding the beauty. Beauty felt the feeling she had developed the first time she had heard the Beast’s voice. Surreal and numb, she could not turn her head away from him.

"They’re meant for each other." She replied to the Beast. Oh how strange it was! On one side of the canvass the gods of magnificence, on the other a motley couple, neither particularly attractive. A truly twisted mirror. She realized that the Beast was not looking at the painting. Rather, the Beast was looking at her look at the painting.

"No, Beauty, they’re not." He moved her away from the lovely man, the gorgeous woman. "The Prince suffered a run of misfortune. When he needed her the most, she told him that she would not waste her beauty on such a one. She left. Taking what he had given her… only leaving him the empty leaves of memory."

"So there is a Prince here! Wow, will Suzie want him." Beauty wished she could have taken the words back after hearing them.

"True Beauty, true." The Beast turned back to the painting. "Oh Beauty, you are much luckier than I am. I can see that you will be one day the equal of her. I can only say that in my day I was as perfect as he."

Beauty did not see the Beast the rest of the day.