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W HEN ARABELLA WOKE the next day, the first touch of reality that accosted her was the empty space on the other half of the bed. It broke her heart just a little, but Arabella quickly pushed all her fears and doubts away. It was already daylight, and of course Aurélien had no choice but to leave her side before sunrise.

As she took her bath, she found herself doing the silliest things. Dancing instead of walking, humming even when she couldn’t carry a tune, and oh, Arabella even took the time to run a brush through her dark tresses a hundred times. She had read somewhere that it was the secret to making one’s hair shine, and silly or not, she wanted to look her very best—-

Because tonight , she thought dreamily, everything would change . She didn’t know why she was sure of it, only that she was.

Throughout the day, she would find herself sighing and giggling as she lost herself in daydreams, so much so that the staff had started to tease her. “Perhaps it’s because the master has finally proposed,” Nana asserted loudly while sweeping the dust off the figurines that graced the main hallway.

Arabella, who had been on her way out, choked and tripped over her feet, causing Nana to burst into laughter and the younger maids to giggle among themselves.

Even Maurice noticed the change in her during their regular calls, with her father commenting that she looked particularly pretty.

“You’re imagining things, Papa,” Arabella stammered.

Maurice shook his head. “You’ve always been a lovely little thing, my dear, but today...” A hopeful look flashed on her father’s face. “Oh, my dear, is it because your, err, man has promised to turn a new leaf for you? Are you getting married? Are you pregnant?”

“Papa!” Arabella quickly disabused him of such notions and afterwards, she made an excuse about needing to hang up. Maurice could be persuasive if he wanted to, and she didn’t want to risk accidentally blurting out anything about her and Aurélien.

Dinner was the most rushed affair, with Arabella managing to convince the chef to serve her a single course as his birthday gift to her. And as she walked away and rushed to the stairs, she heard a chorus of voices from the kitchen, wishing her good luck.

Oh, for goodness’ sake!

When she finally reached the tower room, her heart was beating madly, and she was breathless and giddy. She opened the door, wondering all the while what she would say.

But there was only silence.

He probably wanted to surprise her , Arabella thought with a smile.

She closed the door behind her, changed into a rather skimpy nightgown that she had never found the courage to wear until now, and dived under the covers.

She waited.

And waited.

And waited.

But he never came.

It was only when dawn broke over the skies when her eyes started to sting, but she hurriedly blinked them away. Stop being a baby, Arabella . He had to have a reason for doing this. No doubt he would come tonight, he would apologize and explain, and she would pout and play hard to get a little, but after that all would be well.

And so she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

But another day came to pass, and he still didn’t come.

****

T HE COLORS OF THE SKY gradually changed, and as the sun rose and set for yet another day, the pall that hung over the mansion only threatened to grow gloomier. Although Arabella had done her very best to hide her misery from the staff, they knew that things had changed. How could they not, when the master had gone back to his old ways?

Once again he spent most of his hours working in isolation, once again he was living in the darkness and shunning all else.

And more often than not, they would hear him moving about in the other wing, the one place in the mansion where all of them were forbidden to go, and that was not a good thing.

Not a good thing at all , Mr. Flamme thought with a disapproving sniff as he entered the kitchen just before his shift began. Everyone looked up hopefully when they saw him –

The night butler slowly shook his head.

Their faces fell, and even Mrs. Bouilloire appeared crestfallen.

“What could have gone wrong?” the housekeeper asked sadly. “They had seemed happy not so long ago.”

“It’s that tower of his,” Mr. Flamme said darkly.

The older members of the staff crossed themselves at the words. Even now, they still remembered the carnage from that day they never spoke of, but as bloody as it had been, what saddened them even more about that day was how their young master had retreated into himself after—-

Like he was once again doing now.

“He shouldn’t spend so much time there,” Mr. Flamme went on disapprovingly. “As long as he does not have that place torn down, the master will not be able to forget the past—-” The butler broke off when Nana came running into the kitchen, a panicky look on her face.

“It’s bad,” Nana whispered. “Ms. Blume told me to pass a note to Mr. Temps, who would then make sure that it reached the master, and I accidentally dropped the note and as I picked it up—-”

Mrs. Bouilloire interrupted impatiently, “Oh, don’t bother with the excuses, child, and just get on with it! What was written on the note?”

“Ms. Blume wants to leave the island now, for good.”

****

A N ICY STORM RAGED on the island as darkness fell, and as rain began to lash against the windows, it was as if the weather had chosen to mirror the mood within the mansion. A moment later, the lights went out, and shrieks of surprise echoed throughout the house.

But inside Arabella’s tower room, all was quiet until—-

Something hard struck the wall of her room from behind. It sounded very much like a powerful fist striking a heavy mass, but that couldn’t be, since then it would mean Aurélien Sauvage was as strong as – well, certainly as strong as a dozen men.

And that was way, way beyond any low-key Superman could do , Arabella thought. She knew it should be a cause of concern, but she just couldn’t make herself care. It had been the only way to survive the past few days. To pretend that she didn’t care—-

But she was nearing the breaking point now, and so Arabella knew it was time to leave.

“Arabella.” Aurélien’s voice was grim.

Mm. Seven minutes , Arabella thought. She had started counting the minutes the moment she gave her note to Nana, and it had taken Aurélien Sauvage seven minutes to get to her.

She should be flattered, oui?

The beast waited for Arabella to face it, but she remained with her back to the beast, facing the windows, her shoulders stiff and her arms wrapped around her body. Something was different about her. Something about her scent—-

The beast’s nostrils flared, and it said harshly, “You’re drunk.”

“How observant.” Arabella’s voice was steady enough, but as she turned to face the beast in the darkness, it noticed her swaying a little on her feet.

“Before I leave,” she started in a haughty voice.

The beast shook its head. “You are not going anywhere.” Not when she was like this, with anyone able to take advantage of her.

“Of course I will.” Arabella’s words played out in a breezy, singsong voice, but the beast was far from fooled. It heard the hurt and resentment underneath, and it inhaled deeply, knowing that it had no one to blame but itself.

“Arabella—-”

Arabella covered her ears. “No!” She did not want to hear the regret in his words. Not now, not when it was too late. “You don’t have the right to speak,” she said bitterly. “Not after what you’ve done.”

Silence.

Slowly, warily, she lowered her hands from her ears.

And there was still silence.

Good , she told herself. This was good. This was what she wanted.

Taking a deep breath, she started again. “I want you to know—-” And she paused, seemingly for effect but really it was to fight the weakness that threatened to overcome her and make Arabella burst into tears. “I want you to know—-” And she prepared herself to scream.

But in the end, the words came out painfully tired.

“I want you to know I hate you.”

And then she started blinking and blinking because she didn’t want to cry.

She hated him, and that was true. But she also still loved him, and that was true, too.

“Do you have nothing to say?” she whispered brokenly. “Nothing at all?”

When Aurélien still refused to speak, Arabella’s pain grew. She couldn’t help but think he was bored of all this, couldn’t help but imagine Aurélien probably looking at her with his lip curled in disdain as he silently wondered why she was dragging this out when all she had to do was leave.

Just leave—-

And that was when it hit her.

“Oh my God.”

Arabella stumbled back in shock. “You are just waiting for me to leave, aren’t you?” And when Aurélien still didn’t say anything, pain ripped into her anew—-

It was too much.

Just too much—-

The need to hurt him as much as she was hurting lashed out inside of her, and her mind worked itself into a feverish frenzy, thinking of the best way to make Aurélien bleed.

And as she stared into the darkness, it came to her.

She remembered why he was always one with the dark, remembered why he didn’t want her to see him—-

“Monster.”

Arabella heard Aurélien suck in his breath and knew she had done what she wanted, but it wasn’t enough. It just wasn’t. And suddenly, she couldn’t stop herself. “You’re a monster, a fucking monster—-”

“ Tais-toi .” Shut up.

But still, Arabella kept screaming, “You’ll always be a monster!” Her every word was like a punch to its guts, and even though the beast knew that Arabella would never have used the words if she had known what they truly meant to someone like it—-

It didn’t matter.

It was still the beast’s worst nightmare come true.

“Did you hear me, Aurélien?” Arabella was screaming now. “You’re a monster—-”

Pain slashed into him as he heard her say the words over and over, and the beast swung away in an effort to control his emotions. “No more, Arabella. No more.”

Never, Arabella thought wildly. She needed to twist the knife deeper into him, needed him to bleed the way she was bleeding.

“Maybe,” she heard herself sneer, “that’s why your first love really left you. Because you’re a fucking monster—-”

Hapless rage threatened to overwhelm the beast’s reasoning at its words, and it slashed the wall in an effort to release its pent-up anger. “Enough, Arabella. I am warning you.”

“I don’t care what you want,” Arabella raged back at the beast. “I’m over you playing God in my life, you monster—-”

“Call me that again, and you will regret it—-”

“MONSTER!”

The beast struck the window behind Arabella, and she screamed as the glass exploded into pieces behind her.

“If you want me to be a monster,” the beast growled, “then that’s what I’ll be.”

And Arabella screamed again as a pair of hands seized her.

“Put me down!”

Her mind reeled, and with her senses still dulled by alcohol, Arabella could no longer figure out what was real or imaginary. It seemed as if they were moving too fast—-

This was impossible. Impossible!

His speed was inhuman, his strength, his ability to see in the dark—-

Before she knew it, the doors of the Great Hall were flung open, and she was suddenly on the ground. The pouring rain had her drenched in seconds, and as she opened her mouth to scream at him, she heard Aurélien release the most inhuman growl.

“GO!”

Her entire body shuddered in terror at the sound, but when lightning flashed above them, illuminating the sky, that was the moment Arabella realized she didn’t know what true fear was—-

Until she found herself staring into the glowing red eyes of a beast.

She screamed and when thunder roared above her, she screamed again.

Oh dear God, what was this powerful creature looming before her?

Its arched horns, its claws—-

The beast took a step towards her, and Arabella automatically crawled back, her heart thudding against her chest. What could this creature be , she wondered crazily. It had the most beautiful face, but even so, Arabella couldn’t stop staring and trembling at the large horns that protruded from its head and the razor-sharp claws that grew from its hands.

It suddenly moved, so fast that it became a blur—-

A...blur?

And then suddenly the beast was crouched right in front of her, pushing her down, and Arabella screamed as she fell on her back and found herself trapped underneath the beast’s body.

The thin, cruelly beautiful lips of the beast parted, and Arabella paled when she saw the incisive outline of its fangs.

Oh God, it was going to eat her.

But instead, she heard a painfully familiar voice ask, “Do I frighten you now, ma belle ?”

Arabella whitened. No. It can’t be. It can’t.

“Do I disgust you?”

Oh my God.

And she remembered the whispers from the locals, which she thought she understood –

La Béte Sauvage.

Now, now oh God, now she finally realized what they meant.

“Do you want me still, Arabella? Me – your owner, your lover—-” And its lips twisted. “Your Aurélien.”

She watched it slowly raise its claws, and Arabella froze.

Its claws started to descend

And when she realized it meant to touch her—-

Arabella blanched, and something flickered in its eyes. A moment later, it had torn itself away from her, and as the beast turned its back, Arabella heard it say, “Go.” And when she was unable to move, the beast faced her again, and this time it roared like the terrifying monster it was.

“GO!”

The horrifying sound propelled her into action, and in her terror and panic, she found herself falling several times on the slippery ground before she finally reached the edge of the woods.

She ran away, sobbing, tearing through the woods as her mind tried to grapple with what had happened.

Was that truly Aurélien?

Was he truly La Bête Sauvage?

Confusion and exhaustion made Arabella’s head pound and her vision blur, but she continued to forge on even as she lost track of the number of times she had tripped over sharp branches and struck her face on the leaf-strewn ground. Thorns lashed her skin as Arabella fought her way past thick thatches, and her tears flowed faster as her wounds began to sting.

When she finally reached the clearing, Arabella gasped in relief—-

Only to realize that she had emerged on the wrong side of the woods, and she was standing directly on the edge of a cliff.

The land under her feet slowly started to crumble.

Arabella screamed.

****

A S ARABELLA DISAPPEARED into the distance, the beast slowly fell to its knees, white-faced and shaking.

It was done now, and Arabella was gone for good.

It had wanted a way to make Arabella leave, and fate had handed it to him on a silver platter.

Now, Arabella knew its true form, and she was repulsed by it.

The knowledge shredded its heart to pieces, but the beast fought to endure it, telling itself that this was for the better.

One day, it would forget that Arabella ever existed.

One day , the beast thought doggedly, even though at the back of its mind it knew that it was only lying to itself.

This pain in its heart would never go away.

Arabella was the only one it would ever love—-

A sound reached the beast from the distance, cutting through its thoughts, and the beast’s head jerked up.

A moment later, it heard the same sound again—-

Arabella’s screams.

Mon Dieu.

The beast didn’t waste another second, loping through the woods as it frantically followed Arabella’s scent. Too late, it realized that it should never have forced a confrontation this way, should never have let Arabella go off in such a night, with her senses dulled by spirits.

If something ever happened to her—-

Anguish squeezed its heart.

No. It could not lose hope. It had to find her.

There was another scream, and this time it was filled with so much desperation that the beast knew Arabella was fighting for her life. It ran as fast as it could, and when it reached the edge of the woods, the beast saw Arabella about to fall.

“Arabella!”

The beast caught her hands just as the last jagged edge of land she was holding on to crumbled.

In a second, the beast had hauled her back to safety. It badly wanted to crush her into its arms, but instead it slowly let her go. “You’re safe now.” The beast waited for her to cry, to run away. It expected her to do so many hurtful things that the beast knew it deserved, but in the end, none of its wildest imaginations even came close to reality.

Arabella threw herself into its arms. “I’m sorry, Aurélien. I’m sorry.”