𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐀'𝐒 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 widened in horror as she was forced to watch her home burn to the ground. The small cottage and her belongings within were all she had left of her precious Raoul, and humanity was determined to take even that from her.

"Let me go!" She screamed as she fought against the villagers that kept her restrained. She wriggled and strained in their arms, but they held firm.

She could feel her natural strength draining from the heat of the flames growing larger with each passing moment. But the rage inside her grew in equal comparison as the sound of his boots stopped just behind her.

"You've seen the nefarious acts of this woman," Gaston exclaimed to the mob around him. "You've seen the dangers she is capable of performing."

"Gaston, you worm!" Althea growled. "We had an agreement!"

He smirked and leaned in closer to whisper so that she might be the only one to hear, "Well that was before I knew I was dealing with a bonafide witch. But this works in my favor as well."

She sought to contradict his statement, but as she looked at the flickering orange flames and the ingredients visible through the shattered windows, she knew she could no longer claim to not be a witch. She'd fallen prey to temptation and turned to dark magic in her desperation. Now, she was paying the price. At least Celine was a safe distance from these monsters—

"Stop!" Celine's voice cried out as she approached on horseback. Althea's blood ran cold as Celine quickly dismounted, lifted the train of her gown, and ran to her side. "Maman, are you hurt?"

"Stay back, Celine," Gaston warned, feigning a protective stance as he placed himself between mother and daughter. "This witch means to harm you."

"That's ridiculous," Althea snarled, "a poor plan even for you."

"This is my mother," Celine's face twisted with disgust as she pushed past Gaston and tried once more to free her mother from the clutches of the villagers, ignoring the stairs she received for her formal dress. "She's not a common criminal, I demand she be released at once."

Monsieur D'arque stepped forward with a sinister grin plastered to his face. "We can't do that, miss. It's for your own good."

"My own good?" Celine scoffed and held back her wrath with a laugh. "I'm growing quite tired of people thinking they know what's good for me."

"She intended to harm you," Gaston insisted. Without room for dispute in the conversation, he quickly retrieved the vial from his pouch and offered it to Celine.

She raised an eyebrow in confusion, but noticed that her mother's eyes narrowed and hardened. "What... what is this?"

"A love spell," Gaston answered truthfully. "Your mother threatened me with unimaginable curses should I not give you the potion."

He wasn't sure she'd take his word, but at the mention of a curse, he noticed her flinch. It was small, but the action meant she was at least listening. Celine turned her head away from Gaston to face her mother, but when Althea refused to meet her gaze, Celine realized that at least some of what Gaston said was true if not most of it. Celine took a startled step back.

Gaston tried to pull her close as if presenting himself to be a source of comfort in her time of need, but she pushed him away and held out her hands as if to ward him off.

"Stay away," Celine warned. She took another step back, warily eyeing the gathering mob.

"Celine!" Belle's cry of relief was heard from the midst of the crowd. The bookworm pushed past the other villagers and ran to Celine's side to embrace her. "You're alright."

Celine took yet another step back, looking at her friend with distrust. "Did you know?"

Belle looked back toward the house, a look of sympathy creating tears in her eyes. She gently shook her head and pulled Celine close as the blonde finally broke down, falling prey to the emotions she had kept built up.

"I was so worried that the beast might never let you leave," Belle whispered, but it was loud enough for Gaston to overhear.

The hunter took Belle by the hand and pulled her away. Celine's tears stopped streaming down her face, the shock preventing her from reacting too harshly. "What are you doing?"

"I'm protecting you, Celine." Gaston's eyes desperately pleaded with her to see reason. "You don't see the harm of the people you surround yourself with, but they are witches and crackpots: spouting off black magic and stories of beasts hidden in the woods."

"Unhand her, Gaston!" Celine shouted, pulling herself back to her feet before she marched up to his side. "She's not crazy. I won't let you send her to the asylum to rot."

"You're deluded." Gaston's tone was soft, but demeaning as if speaking to a child. "But don't worry, all will be amended once we are wed."

Celine recoiled. Her emotions were high and seething was the only way to still her boiling rage. "Gaston, get this through your thick skull. I will never marry you."

It was clear that Gaston's patience was running thin as the shade of his face grew red, but he ran his hand through his hair to slick back his hair, keeping up the illusion of perfection. "You're tired. We'll discuss this in the morning."

"Stop telling me how I feel!" Celine screamed. She swatted his hand away that had tried to guide her back toward the village. "I'm allowed to feel anger, and disgust, and sadness, and confusion, and joy, and love! I am a woman, but I am more than a pretty face. Belle is more than a pretty face. She is brilliant, which you perceive as madness, and she thinks deeply about things you could never dream of understanding. She is not insane and you will not slander her so!"

Gaston took a cautious step back. But Celine paid him no attention, she was already reaching for the satchel slung over Phillipe's back before anything else could be said. "You think you've witnessed my mother's dark magic? You haven't even glimpsed a fraction of her true power."

Celine revealed the crystalline mirror and held it up toward the sky, ignoring the return of the pain burning her veins. "Show me the beast!"

The reflection on the sleek surface warped and distorted itself until an image of the beast appeared in its place. The creature howled with despair, head reared toward the sky.

Monsieur D'arque gasped with the rest of the crowd, but voiced what they all were thinking. "This is sorcery!"

Celine's grip quivered and shook as the pain grew to be too much for her to bear. Her veins glowed brighter than they had at the castle and she released a cry of pain, dropping the mirror for the second time that evening. However, Gaston caught the object just before it could be dashed against the cobblestone ground. His eyes were trained on the image within the crystalline mirror.

"Look at her hands," one of the villager women cried out, "they've turned black with the witchcraft of her mother!"

Gaston's eyes widened in horror the second he lifted them from the sleek surface of the mirror. Celine's fingertips had turned a solid black shade as if she'd dipped them in ink. The veins running up her arms continued to glow but the effects had also made their way up into the left side of her face. Pain contorted the features of her face and she began to writhe along the ground.

Gaston's eyes hardened and he turned the mirror toward the crowd who gasped in fright. "Look at this beast! Look at his fangs! His claws!

Celine looked up in alarm as she heard the villagers scuffle back in fear. She shook her head and gasped for breath to clear her mind of the pain so she could focus on protecting the beast. He might have hurt her, but she had no desire to return the favor. "No, don't be afraid. Please, I know he looks vicious, but he's gentle and kind."

Gaston sneered as he looked toward the creature in the mirror with hatred. "You've seen her hands. The monster must have her under his spell. If I didn't know better, I'd say she even cared for him!"

"He's not a monster, Gaston. You are!" Celine seethed both in pain and anger. "The beast wouldn't hurt anyone."

Gaston bent down and lifted her chin so that he could look her in the eye. His gaze softened for just a second before growing cold once more. "I've heard of the effects of dark magic... but I've never seen it with my own eyes! This is a threat to our very existence!"

"No," Celine gasped, trying to pull herself to her feet while fighting through the pain. "I won't let you hurt him—"

Celine's arms gave out and she fell again. Gaston shook his head, disappointed, but he continued to look at her as if nothing she said was actually of her own choice. "We can't have her running off to warn the creature. Lock her up too. We'll deal with the witch when we return."

"No!" Celine cried out, but was helpless to fight against the grip of the villagers that harshly pulled her up from the ground and tossed her into the back of the wagon where her mother was waiting. Althea immediately pulled her daughter close and ran her fingers through the silken blonde hair.

LeFou nervously glanced back toward the wagon as Tom closed the padlock. He reached a hand toward Gaston's jacket, tugging on air as he distractedly tried to get the hunter's attention. "Gaston, with all due respect..."

"Do you want to be next?" Gaston asked. The threat in his eyes was real enough to silence LeFou. The stout man gulped and shook his head. Gaston nodded, satisfied, then turned toward the growing mob. "Fetch my horse. Stand guard! Don't let them escape. This creature will curse us all if we don't stop him. He'll make off with your children. Come after them in the night. We're not safe until his head is mounted on my wall! I say we kill the beast!"

The mob erupted in cheers. It wasn't long before the villagers were spreading their own rumors and soon it wasn't just the cottage spreading like wildfire.

"We're not safe until he's dead."

"He'll come stalking us at night!"

"Set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite!"

"He'll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wander free!"

Gaston jumped to the front of the crowd, stepping up onto the wheel of the wagon to stand above them as he waited for his horse. "So it's time to take some action, boys. It's time to follow me!"

"Through the mist, through the woods. Through the darkness and the shadows." Gaston stepped down from the wagon and made his way through the crowd, dramatically setting the scene of the hunt. "It's a nightmare but it's one exciting ride. Say a prayer, then we're there at the drawbridge of a castle, and there's something truly terrible inside."

He continues through the crowd until he makes his way back to LeFou, thrusting the mirror out into the air while exaggerating the features of the beast. "It's a beast, he's got fangs, razor sharp ones. Massive paws, killer claws for the feast."

"Hear him roar, see him foam, but we're not coming home, 'til he's dead," Gaston bellowed. "Good and dead, kill the beast!"

Belle uncomfortably watched as the mob grew more riled up. There was something off and she could feel it in her chest like indigestion after eating a meal too quickly. She was quiet, but she still objected. "This isn't right."

Gaston turned and marched straight up to her. Hugo protectively stepped in front, clearly distrusting the hunter's intentions. Gaston glared as he looked Hugo in the eyes. "If you're not with us, you're against us."

"There has to be a better way," Belle tried to rephrase her previous statement.

Gaston shook his head, overlooking Hugo now as he spoke directly to Belle. "I apologize for my lack of faith in you Belle, but you were right. There is a beast lurking in these woods and he currently has your bosom friend trapped under the curse of his dark magic. Do you really wish to leave her to this fate?"

Belle glanced over her shoulder back toward the wagon. Although she wasn't close enough to look inside, remembering the inky shade of Celine's fingers and the sound of her voice as she whimpered in pain was enough to come to a conclusion. She lifted her eyes from the ground, locking sights with the hunter, then nodded her head to confirm that she agreed with him.

A twisted smile formed on Gaston's face as he took a step back to look at his work unfolding. The mob had taken actions of their own, gathering the strewn wood from the cottage and crafting torches from the fire they'd created earlier.

"We'll rid the village of this beast," Gaston exclaimed to gain their attention. "Who's with me?"

A chorus of "I am"s rang around the crowd. "Light your torch, mount your horse!"

Gaston did just that, mounting his horse as LeFou offered him a lit torch. "Screw your courage to the sticking place."

"We're counting on Gaston to lead the way!" The mob echoed.

As Gaston led the mob toward the entrance of the village, he quietly muttered under his breath., "Call it war, call it threat You can bet they all will follow for in times like this they'll do just as I say."

Fear was prevalent in LeFou's eyes as he rode beside the hunting, looking up as if trying to see into the depths of his mind and understand. "There's a beast running wild, there's no question. But I fear the wrong monster's released."

Gaston led the mob through the town toward the entrance of the forest. There was a wild look in his eyes: a combination unlike anything ever shown on his face before. There was both madness and calm, vengeance and resolute determination. He'd thought hunting the angel was to be his prime achievement, but this beast was a conglomeration of all the fiercest animals known to man. Mounting its head on his wall would serve as a reminder to the day he finally won the angels favor. No wonder she had turned him down, she'd be entranced for months now. How had he not seen it before?

"Sally forth, tally ho, grab your sword, grab your bow," the mob hollered, "Praise the Lord and here we go!"

Gaston thrusted his sword into the air just as they reached the edge of the village. "We'll lay siege to his castle and bring back his head!"

"We don't like, what we don't understand, it frankly scares us and this monster is mysterious at least! Bring your guns, bring your knives, save your children and your wives, we'll save our village and our lives," the mob exclaimed. "We'll kill the beast!"

It was the last thing Celine heard before the mob was completely out of reach. Realizing the situation had grown hopeless, she allowed the pain to wash over her. Tears streamed down her face and her body shook as she nuzzled closer to her mother for comfort.

"This is all my fault," Celine sobbed.

"Oh, mon ange," Althea clutched her daughter close. Like any parent who treated their child like life itself, she desperately wished to take all of her pain. But it was her fault that her child was hurting in the first place. She'd lived out her worst nightmare and inflicted the same pain that the monsters who hunted them down had. "Oh, mon ange."

Their home was gone, nothing but a smoldering pile of ash. Whatever little reputation they'd had in the village was destroyed and there was no security in Villeneuve any longer. It looked like rumors of the Villeneuve Witch were true and thee Villeneuve Angel had fallen, losing the purity of her wings in the process. On top of that, they were a broken family that shared a shattered heart. All hope appeared to be gone so what was the use of holding on any longer?

Celine's eyes fluttered as she struggled with the pain. Finally, she stopped fighting and let the light ebb from her vision as she fell into unconsciousness.