Once upon a rewrite

Beauty and the beast

When the rose's last petal falls, you will die if there is no love to be found in these walls. when the last petal falls

Petal. death. rose. fall.

Death, petal, rose, fall.

DEATH.

those words had hunted me scents; I had become this hideous beast. I had long forgotten the texture of my skin. I couldn't even tell you what the back of my hand looked like. Mother and father had died just the year before I became this. I was glad that mother never had to see me this way; I was always her "handsome boy."

Not long after, I was to hold some feast, not that I did anything my Regent handled everything from the invitations to the food being served. Long story short, my Regent didn't invite some enchantress. Hence, she thought I was the scum of the earth despite being 11.

She cursed me to be a monster with claws and fur. Told me I had 11 years to get someone to fall in love with me. At first, it was incredible. I ran around the Castle, enjoying how the wind swept between my fur. That ended when the pitchforks came. A couple of growls and angry shouts later; they left me alone. My Regent has been running the country.

I'm not stupid. I haven't met anybody since I was 11 that wasn't trying to actively kill me. The last year of my life is quickly coming to an end. There is not a single person who cares. On the contrary, in fact my Regent will be dancing over my grave.

The rose sat on the table with only one pedal left. I tried last year to remove the last two pedals in hopes that I could finally put myself out of this misery, this endless waiting game. But whether I couldn't quite bring myself to rip the petals away or the rose was truly enchanted to keep me from killing myself, I would never know.

I sat in the empty throne room, a shadow of what it once was. The pedals no longer haunted me, serving only as a reminder of my inevitable doom. Now I no longer care to live. I had died long ago. I died when I was 11. All that was left was for my heart to stop beating. For my breath to finally give way. Loneliness had long since taken my heart. As I roamed about the Castle, I looked at each of the walls of my cage. They were pretty walls, of course, painted brilliant scarlet and gold. At that moment, when I was reflecting on my own mortality, I heard the creaking of the front door.

"Gregory must be back with food... that can't be right. He was here last night." I mumbled allowed taking slow creeping steps to the front door. An icy frost wafted through, making my fur stand on end. A man in his mid-40s stood in the middle of the room. He had light blond hair and blue eyes. His skin was pale, but that could've been because of how cold he was."Stranger, why are you in my house?" I asked, my voice coming out a guttural growl that had me wincing.

'I need to stop that. I don't want the poor man to leave.'

"I'm here to get away from the cold would you allow me to rest for but one night." He said his voice was gruff like he hadn't drunk water in days.

"You can stay. There is food in the kitchen to the left of you, and you can warm yourself by the fire straight ahead. If that is all, have a good night." I said, a ball forming in my stomach is obvious the man hadn't seen me else he instead faced the storm outside.