Meanwhile you were still safely back in your little town, once again curled up in your arm chair. You had now almost finished Black Beauty; you were unaware that your father was in any danger and you were also unaware of the two idiots crouching outside your cottage, Joon and Mir were attempting to put Joon’s plan into action with the latter of the two giggling away.

“I bet Belle’s going to get a real surprise when she answers that door, huh hyung?” Mir said looking back to see Joon checking his reflection in a mirror.

“Yepp this sure is her lucky day” he said with a smirk on his face, checking his teeth and fixing his hair. He turned and walked into a clearing nearby where a small gathering of people stood, a banner hung across two trees said ‘Congratulations on your wedding day’  the local priest looking rather bored stood under it, patiently waiting for his couple to appear. A small band stood aside waiting for Mir’s signal and Thunder was assigning the small amount of people there places to sit on the floor.

Clearing his throat Joon stepped forward “I’d just like to thank you all for coming to my wedding, it means a lot to me and Belle that you all would turn up on such short notice. But now that that’s out the way I’d better go and propose” he said with a chuckle as the men roared with laughter and several of the women dramatically burst into tears.

“Mir!” Joon snapped and the young man quickly ran up, “Now, when Belle and I come through her front door…”

“Oh I start up the band” Mir stated preparing to swing his makeshift conductors stick.

“Not yet you fool” Joon snapped snatching the stick off of Mir and breaking it in two with a simple squeeze of his hand, “Don’t ruin this for me Mir, now wish me luck”

Just as Mir opened his mouth, “Oh wait I won’t need it” And with that Joon arrogantly smirked and strutted up to your door.

~~~~

Your legs were begging to develop pins and needles from staying curled up into a little ball for so long, just as you were mentally preparing to get out of your chair there was a knock at the door. Placing your book, you winced at the numbness of your legs but quickly waddled to the front door anyway. Peering out of the peephole you internally groaned when you saw who it was, wondering what on earth he could want you hesitantly opened the door.

“Belle” Joon boomed as he pushed the door open, forcing his way inside your house.

“Joon what a…unexpected surprise” you said as you staggered back as Joon approached you, his trade mark smirk planted on his face.

“I’m just full of surprises” he said leaning on the banister of the stairs, “You know Belle there isn’t a girl in town who wouldn’t love to be in your shoes, this is the da-“he stopped suddenly to check his reflection in a mirror that hung on the wall before he continued “This is the day that all your dreams will come true” he stated following you into the living room.

“And what would you know about my dreams?” you asked with an amused look on your face, ‘Is this guy for real?’

“Well for starters picture this, a hunting cabin, my little wife massaging my feet as my latest kill roasts on the fire as our children play on the rug with the dogs”

You noticeably cringed but Joon seemed not to notice as he was continued getting a bit too close for your liking and as you continued to back away he only stalked you like a predator hunting its prey, “We’ll have 6 or 7 of course”

“Dogs?” you asked meekly.

“No Belle” Joon chuckled “Strapping young boys like me and do you know who that little wife will be?” he asked finally backing you into a corner, “You”.

“J-Joon please” you stuttered as you quickly slipped out from under his arms and ran for the front door attempting to escape, but before you could get it open hands slammed on either side of your head trapping you, “I’m speechless, I really don’t know what to say” as Joon’s head suddenly loomed in towards you, you could feel his breath on your lips as you stared at him wide-eyed at how close he was, your cheeks slowly starting to turn red as your hands frantically reached for the door handle.

“Say you’ll marry me” Joon said as he leaned in towards you, lips puckered but before he could get any closer you quickly opened the door and shoved him through, the force of your push made him topple over and into a pile of mud.

The band started to play as you chuckled, “You can take that as a no” as you slammed the door shut.

Noticing that Joon was actually in a pile of mud and with you not by his side, Mir crouched down and asked, “So how’d it go?”

Growling in anger Joon grabbed Mir by his collar and snarled “I’ll have Belle for my wife make no mistake of it” his eyes flashing in anger and determination before he dropped poor Mir into the pile of mud and walked off wiping the dirt away from his eyes.

~~~~

Peering outside, you waited until the last of the crowd had left before you reappeared, ‘Thank goodness he’s gone’ you thought as you wandered around the side of you house towards the barn where all of the animals were kept.

“Can you believe that jerk asked me to be his wife?” you asked no one in particular.

Filling a bucket with feed you began to scatter seeds around for the chickens as you continued to rant and rave. Soon you moved onto the cow and goat you had and told them what you thought of the oh so high and mighty Lee Joon. It was kinda sad but sometimes you’d think that these animals were your only friends, the only ones who would listened.

Feeling a pang of loneliness you discarded the bucket and wandered off into the trees, you stepped carefully over branches and brambles before a small clearing appeared. You were on the top of a hill looking over a magnificent valley; you could hear the rushing water of a river nearby and you watched in envy as birds fluttered over head and into the distance.

 Breathing in the fresh air you sunk onto the ground and watched as the first rays of light disappeared, you loved coming out here to watch the sunset as it was always so peaceful and quiet. This is was your special little place that not even your father knew about and you would frequently come here and curl underneath a tree with your books, if the weather permitted it.

‘I don’t think I would want to leave this’ you thought but you were broken out of your reverie by a horse’s cry. ‘Philippe?’

Quickly standing up you dashed off into the trees again and as you spotted your house in the distance, you noticed Philippe was standing outside bucking her legs and was obviously in distress.

“Philippe, stop calm down girl” you cried as you patted her head and pulled her close but then you noticed that your father was missing, “Wait where’s Father? Philippe where is he? What happened?”

Obviously not getting a response you quickly rushed inside and grabbed a jacket before you ran outside, your mind immediately jumping to conclusions that your father was hurt somewhere, you dismantled the cart that was miraculously still attached to Philippe before situating yourself in her saddle. “Take me to father Philippe” you demanded before you dug your foot into her sides and rode off into the evening.

~~~~

Trusting Philippe to take you to where your father was, you sat back as she albeit hesitantly trotted along the dark path. You pulled your jacket closer, shivering as you felt someone watching you. Turning around you saw nothing and brushed it off as paranoia.

Eventually Philippe stopped in front of tall and eerie gates, peering inside you caught a glimpse of a dark castle surrounded by gargoyles. You gulped “What is this place?” you asked yourself. Something caught your eyes just inside of the gates, carefully climbing down from Philippe and wandering closer you realised it was a hat, more specifically your father’s. Swallowing down the slight fear that crept up your throat your eyes widen as you realised that your father must be in that castle that stood before you.

Pulling Philippe inside the gates and carefully tying her reigns around the gate so she wouldn’t run off, you slowly began walking forward subconsciously pulling your jacket closer as you wandered past the gargoyles that stood protectively along the pathway, trying to scare away any intruders. Doing your best to ignore them you reached the front door and timidly knocked. When nobody answered you attempted to push it open and to your surprise it easily swung open.

“Hello? Father? Is anyone here?” you called, your voice echoing throughout the grand foyer that you now found yourself in, you wandered forward slowly trying not to notice yet the more statues and gargoyles that stood around the room and near the ceiling, but determination suddenly filled you as you realised that your father could be hurt somewhere here so you quickly hurried forward calling his name every now and then.

‘This place sure is huge, I wonder why I’ve never heard or seen it of it before’ you wandered up some stairs and carried on down a hallway. Dust seemed to be everywhere and you wondered whether someone even lived here but judging by the fires that were lit along the way you guessed that someone did inhabit this place.

Further along the corridor that you were currently walking down a clock and a candle were squabbling, failing to notice your presence until you called your father’s name out.

“Did you see that?” Ilhoon asked jumping down from his perch and peering around the corner with Eunkwang close behind him, “It’s a girl”.

“I know it’s a girl” Eunkwang snapped rolling his eyes, "Of course you would notice that" he added.

“But don’t you see hyung, she’s the one, the girl we have been waiting for she has come to break the spell” he yelled excitedly before running down the hallway after her.

“Ilhoon wait a minute” Eunkwang hissed following closely behind.

Failing to notice the two objects following you, you continued down the hallway before you heard a creak behind you, a door was standing open. Pushing it open it lead into a stone corridor that was even more eerie than the rest of the castle, your breath appeared in front of you as you wandered down the corridor noticing a light disappearing down a flight of stairs.

“Wait is someone there? Please, I’m looking for my father” you called as you hurried after the light thinking that it was someone who could help you. Jogging down the flight of stairs you wandered past Ilhoon who was as inanimate as a candle should be and came to the bottom of the stairs where a room opened up. There were numerous doors each with bars on them; this room gave you the creeps.

“Is someone here?” you called.

“Belle?”

“Father” you cried rushing forward and grasping his hands that were reaching for you through some bars of a door nearby. You could have almost cried with relief but you noticed how cold and pale you father was, “How did you find me?” he asked coughing slightly, “Belle please you have to get out of here!”

“Why, who did this to you?!” you demanded, anger and the need to protect your father welled up in your chest, how dare someone lock up your father.

Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed the back of your jacket pulling you away from your father, you shrieked in shock as you landed on the floor and a cold voice growled from your right “What are you doing here?”

The lights went out and you crawled over to father unable to see who or what was talking to you, “Who are you?” you asked panicking slightly because of the dark.

“The masters of this castle” a voice replied in front of you.

“Please I’ve come for my father, let him out can’t you see he’s sick” you said.

“Then he shouldn’t have trespassed” another voice growled to your left, you flinched at the tone and harshness of it.

“But he could die, please let him out, I’ll do anything” you begged.

“There’s nothing you can do for him, he’s our prisoner now” the first voice spoke to you, you could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

Panicking slightly you said the first thing that popped into your head“…w-what about me, let me take his place” you said, “Belle no!” your father cried.

The voices didn’t reply for a while, you couldn’t see beyond the light of the window above your head, but you knew they were debating your answer.

“She could be the one” a voice said.

“Yeah right” another voice hissed, you had no idea what that meant so you chose to ignore it.

A new voice whispered “Hyungs maybe we should accept her offer I mean-“but a voice spoke over him “You would trade places with him?”

“If I did would you let him go?” you asked, ignoring your father’s pleas you for to stop.

“Yes, but you must promise to stay here forever”

Unwilling to promise anything before you could see your captors faces you asked, “Come into the light, I want to see who I’ll be spending the rest of my life with”.

Slowly but surely 6 figures stepped into the light, your eyes widened in fear and you gasped as you stared upon the 6 beasts that towered over you. Turning away in fear you clutched onto your fathers hands, “Belle please don’t I’m old I’ve lived my life”

Despite that your fathers attempts to get you to disagree, you wouldn’t leave your father here to die so mustering up your courage you too walked into the light, some of the beasts softened upon the look of pain and fear in your eyes but you covered it up with a mask of bravery.

“You have my word” you whispered, immediately falling to your knees upon your promise. A beast stalked past you and let your father out who rushed to your side, “Belle please-“ but the rest of his words were cut off as the same beast took him by his collar and dragged him down the stairs.

“No please wait” you cried as you reached out and attempted to follow them only to cower back when a beast stepped in front of you and growled menacingly to you, “You promised” which caused tears to fill your eyes and a chocked sob to exit your lips as you once again fell to your knees.

Your father begged and pleaded for the beast to set you free, but the beast that had a firm hold of his collar didn’t listen and instead dragged him out into the courtyard where the rain and flashes of lightening still fell, and pushed him into a carriage “Take him back to the village” and upon his commands the carriage suddenly grew legs and cantered off into the night with your father locked inside. You only watched in despair from a window as your father was taken away.

The beast soon returned and watched on with his brothers with a mixture of expressions of their faces, some had sympathetic looks whilst others were either expressionless or had anger on their faces.

“You didn’t even let me say goodbye and now I’ll never see him again” you cried and that made the beasts realise how hurt you were and their faces soften slightly, “Come I’ll show you to your room” one spoke up whilst the others looked at him in shock.

“But I thought-“

“You thought you were staying here? Why do you want to stay here?” one snarled causing you flinch back, he immediately felt bad afterwards.

“No” you muttered softly.

“Follow me” the one who had spoken up first said, offering you a paw but you disregarded it, you were too afraid of these beasts right now.

You followed on silently with your head down, you were flanked by the 6 beasts as you walked, two on the front, two on the side and the last two behind you.

You felt like you were being escorted to your death.

You took the time to examine them closely; after all you were going to spend the rest of eternity with them. The two at the front appeared to be the biggest, the one carrying the candle held his head high and walked with confident steps, almost leader like and you presumed he was in charge out of these beasts whilst the one next to him seemed to be second in command for he held a similar kind of authority although his was less prominent.

The two beasts on either side of you; the one on your left seemed to emit coldness and hatred while the other one seemed to glow almost and from what you could see he almost had a spring to his step that despite his outward appearance made him look almost cute.

‘Aish Belle, these things aren’t cute, they’re beasts’

You quickly peered over your shoulder to the last two, one was certainly packing muscles and seemed to walk with a strut to his step once again with his head held high, not leader like but almost arrogantly, ‘Oh brother another Lee Joon’ you thought with a slight roll of eyes. The last one was very quiet and walked whilst barely making any noise, he seemed shy almost and he suddenly looked up to meet your eyes. You quickly turned forwards afraid that you might get into trouble for staring.

A few stray tears streamed down your face as you walked along, the light casting shadows upon the walls illuminating the faces of the gargoyles which caused you to shudder in fear slightly.

Doojoon, the beast who held the candle, peered back at you watching as the tears rolled down your cheeks. Frowning slightly he looked forward only for Ilhoon, from Doojoon’s hand to tap him on his shoulder.

“Hyung, say something to her” Ilhoon hissed in his ear.

“We…er, hope you like it here” Doojoon started, glancing back at you to see you reaction, you looked up at him surprised by his words, “This castle is your home now so you can go anywhere you want”

“Except the west wing” the one on his right muttered.

“Why what’s in the-“you began, “It’s forbidden” the one next to you snarled causing you to stumble back a bit.

“Hyung” the arrogant one behind you warned as your face turned pale in fear, but he merely continued forward with a slight growl.

Finally you arrived at a door which Doojoon opened for you, “If you need anything our servants will attend to you” he said as the happy beast ushered you inside.

“Invite her to dinner” Ilhoon hissed into Doojoon’s ear.

“*ahem* would you like to join us for dinner?” he asked as he watched you enter your room.

“No, thank you for showing me to my room” you said, your voice was beginning to break and without thinking about the consequences you slammed your doors shut and locked the doors.

“Yah!” a few of the beasts called and began to bang on your door which caused you to squeak in fear which they heard with their enhanced hearing and immediately stopped.

“Come on, we should leave her be for a while” Doojoon said, ushering his brothers ahead of him. He stopped and looked back at your door, slightly wincing as he heard your sobs he followed his brothers back down the corridor.

Your resolve finally broke and your loud sobs echoed around the room, in attempt to muffle them you collapsed atop of the bed sobbing slightly louder realising that it was now yours forever.

~~~~

I hope your enjoying it, I'm on break from school at the moment so I'll update again soon within the week.

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