Prologue | Pride Before The Fall
Written By: lexyloves07
Edited By: @queenofgeeks

"Get up! Get up! What's the matter, Beast? Too kind and gentle to fight back?" Gaston mocked as he approached the Beast in a predatory manner. The Beast sat on the edge of the roof in despair, where Gaston had cornered him, and he made no move to get up and fight, for he was too saddened by the fact that Belle, of all people, had left him. And to think that he might have loved her!

Leaning down to rip off a piece of the roof, Gaston raised it to smash in on the Beast's head when Belle's voice drifts up. She stood on the bridge, yelling at Gaston and telling him to stop.

"Gaston! No!" Belle's plea was heard by the Beast and hearing her voice sparked something within him.

"Belle," I love you. The last three words were unspoken, but that was the phrase that immediately came to the Beast's mind when he heard her voice.

"Gaston, don't!" Belle screamed once more as Gaston swung down at the Beast, but the Beast caught the weapon in his hand. He rose up and roared in Gaston's face, standing a good foot or two taller than him.

As they swung at each other, Gaston with the wood and loose stones, and the Beast with his claws, the castle tops were crumbling and unstable so they were constantly jumping from one spot to another. Slowly, they made their way up to the rooftop and after a particularly hard swing from the Beast, Gaston stumbled away in surprise which gave the Beast enough time to hide behind a few gargoyles so as to catch his breath.

Gaston carefully looked around, but the filthy monster was hidden well. With a snarl, he yelled out in a taunting voice, "Come out and fight! Were you in love with her, beast? Did you honestly think that she'd want you when she had someone like me?"

Adding a harsh laugh at the end, a smirk formed on Gaston's lips when the Beast emerged. He knew how to provoke the monster, and that is just what he was going to do.

"It's over, Beast. Belle will be mine!" Gaston snarled as their vicious fight ensued once again, but this time, however, the Beast had had enough. Picking Gaston up by the neck, he held him out over the edge of the roof, a deadly glint in his dark eyes.

Gasping for breath, Gaston's eyes went wide with fear as he gripped at the Beast's paw around his neck.

"Put me down, put me down. Please, don't hurt me! I-I'll do anything! Anything!" Gaston pleaded, choking a bit near the end of the sentence.

'No,' Gaston thought. 'This will not be how it ends.'

Gaston tightened his grip on the Beast's hand because he was not going to back down. He would put up a figh-

With a small cry of fear followed by a grunt, he was surprised to see that he wasn't falling but the Beast had dropped him back down onto the cold, stone rooftop.

"Get out!" The Beast roared, and Gaston staggered back, still in shock. The Beast gave Gaston one final shove to the ground and Gaston got back up on his feet, staggering away.

"Beast!" Cried Bell in concern. The Beast looked up as Belle emerged from a balcony a floor up from where he stood. Gaston watched from the shadows, fury building up inside of him, but there was nothing Gaston could do. As he pivoted on his foot to turn back around, his foot hit something. Bending down to pick it up, a smile slowly crept onto Gaston's face when he saw the familiar gleam of his knife catch the light as lightning struck. Glancing back over his shoulder, Gaston looked to see that the Beast was beginning to climb the tower towards Belle.

With a malicious grin on his face, he turned back around and crept up slowly, climbing up after the Beast.

"Belle? You came back!" The Beast spoke, a bit breathlessly for he was tired and in shock. This beautiful girl had come back for him. Mesmerized, he studied her face as his hand came up to reach for her face but he quickly pulled back, roaring in pain when Gaston stabbed the Beast in the back. Belle screamed when Gaston pulled the knife out and was going for another shot when the Beast began to fall back, knocking Gaston off balance.

With a cry for help slipping past his lips, Gaston screamed as his grip slipped completely and Belle watched over the Beast's shoulder as he was swallowed up completely by darkness.

He was falling.
Falling fast and falling hard, the wind rushing around him roared over the sounds of his screams. And all he could think was;
This wasn't fair.
He was going to die.
But he wasn't supposed to die.

He was the one who was supposed to be alive after killing the beast. He was the town's hero, the one who everyone adored. He was the strong one, the most handsome, the popular man.
He was supposed to be the one who married Belle, the most beautiful girl in town. It was the path his life was supposed to take. It had be he who had fought and returned from the war, this was not the way to die after surviving that.

Screaming out in anger and the fear of dying, he hopelessly clawed out at the air above him as if he could just pull himself out of this one. He was too young, and it was never supposed to end this way.
Suddenly, his fall halted to a stop and he gasped, choking a little, as he grabbed at his chest. His breaths came out harshly in quick intervals and he tried to process what exactly was happening. Looking down, his eyes widened and he let out a yell of fright when he realized that there was still a few feet to go, but-
He was frozen in mid-air.

"Wha-what? What... what's happening?" He cried out in hysteria as he sat up from his horizontal position, glancing around fearfully, completely panicked. His eyes landed on a beautiful woman who stood on the ground, calmly watching him with a stoic expression placed on her captivating features. Seeing her, he was in awe of her magnificent presence, her hair glowing and streaming out around her. Gaston became silent and his eyes narrowed.

"Who are you," he demanded to know, awe washing away, his steely blue eyes fixing the woman with a deadly glare. The anger which the woman displayed turned to amusement for just the slightest second which caused him to draw his lips back in a snarl.

"I am the Enchantress." The glowing woman announced.
"I did save your life so I would think about your next words and actions very carefully my child. "

Growling, he clenched his fists tightly at his sides. "Get me down from here! What do you want from me?!?" When he didn't even bother to say thank you or show gratitude his gratitude in any way, the Enchantress studied the man in front of her carefully, quite unimpressed by what she saw within, and reaffirmed in her initial conclusions about him.

A curse could not truly help him, he was too far gone within himself to change for the better. But, she thought. It would be a fitting punishment. Yes, far better than the quick and painless death he has been scheduled.

"Monsieur Gaston," she started out in a very reprimanding tone. "Your vanity has blinded you, and your arrogance causes you to underestimate your opponents, and my goodness, you are horrifically egotistical." The Enchantress said this with disgust, shaking her head. Gaston tried to interrupt, not understanding how this pertained to his question, but the Enchantress raised a hand to silence him.

“I see into your soul and it is black from the lack of caring, burned from the compassion you've denied it. You cannot love.” She gritted her teeth at the awful thing hidden beneath the handsome facade.
"You say that Prince Adam, the one you call Beast, is a freak-"

Gaston shook his head quickly at the Enchantress's words, cutting over her with a shocked inquiry.
"Wait, repeat that again? Did you just say... Prince?" Gaston interrupted.

"Well, yes. Soon to be king actually." The Enchantress said quickly as she waved her hand dismissively, for this was not what she was here to talk about.

"You're telling me that that Beast is to be king? That filthy, ugly, hairy, monster?" Gaston questioned as he crossed his arms over his chest. The Beast was of royal descent? What the hell was this Enchantress talking about?

"Well, he's obviously he's not a beast anymore more-” She tried to explain before being rudely cut off yet again. He was straying her from her original point, this encounter was not one meant to discuss royal lineage.

“How the hell is he not a beast-” Gaston didn't finish his sentence as he screamed when the Enchantress snapped her fingers and dropped him to the ground.
"Quiet you insolent boy!" She exclaimed, waving her hand and causing hid whole body, including hid mouth to become still.
He tried to speak but only faint moans could escape his sealed lips.

"Much better..." she sighed in an almost relief.
"From now on I shall do the talking and all you shall do is listen, and listen closely!"
The tone in her voice was one that dripped of ancient magic and something that told him she was not one to be trifled with.
If he could have nodded, he would have.

"For too long your dark aura has poisoned those around you. For the moral crimes you have committed in your short life Gaston, you deserve death, but the one fate has decided for you I find too quick, too easy, whereas I have a punishment a little more fitting in mind." The words dripping from her lips made him tremble despite the spell on his body.  "Just as you curse the love of those around you, I too shall curse you, and what curse more fitting them the one of the man whose life you nearly stole!"

With another wave of her hand his body was lifted into the air and surrounded by swirls of spiraling golden magic.
He could see nothing, but let out a sharp cry of pain as he felt his bones and flesh contorting and mangling around both inside and outside of his body.
"You shall become the ugly thing you wanted to kill. You Gaston, shall become the Beast!"

The magic continued to swarm violently around him with each word spoken. His vision returned but this time it was sharper, more intense, he immediately noticed details that he would have before missed, like a grasshopper resting under a leaf in the distance, or a thread hanging from the skirt of her dress.
With a wave of her hand a glass display appeared infront of him on the rocks below. Inside were three glowing balls, a yellow, a white and a red. The balls dispersed into three beautiful, enchanted roses. "Each of these flowers represents the type of love you've denied from others and what you've never bestowed yourself.... that is if you even can love." The Enchantress shook her head doubtfully. "In order to return to what you were before you must learn to love and be loved equally in return."

"You have one year to break your curse Beast." She addressed him by his new name. "But I doubt that you will."