Finding Beauty

Chapter 31

~Beauty~

"What?! So Jake's dad was the murderer all along?" Gale asks, looking bewildered by the very thought. The smell of the fire and pine needles encircles the room, mixing with the tea smell coming from the kitchen where Carina is cooking. She's been making herself very busy lately and it's led to me spending more and more time with Gale.

I nod. "Yep. Although, towards the end it was easy to see it coming." Reopening my laptop, I glance back at him with a small encouraging smile. "You should try reading it one day."

He shrugs and lays back on the couch, his hair falling over his forehead. He's been doing this for a while now. I'll explain the whole plot of a book and he'd listen with eager eyes. But after I'd recommend reading the book himself and he'd pretend to lose all interest. I guess reading would hurt his "cool guy" ego.

Leaning back, the Christmas tree we got a few days ago comes into view. After healing and warming up from the almost drowning incident Gale went back out to get it. It's bare of decorations and slouched in the corner. Pine needles litter the floor beneath it.

It's been a few days and Gale has made no move to decorate the tree and changed the subject whenever I brought it up. I'm not sure why but with the way he's staring at it now, I can see he might have his reasons. His eyes are hazy and his strong hands tremble beside him.

Not sure what to do, I reach out and grab his arm in a gesture of comfort. "Hey," I offer. He snaps out of it and pulls away. "Are you okay?"

He let's out a deep, frustrated sigh. "No." The word hangs in the air for a while as Gale plays with the threads on his sweatshirt sleeve. "I know you must be wondering about the tree and it's just that the decorations . . . they're in the second half of the mansion where my mother's old stuff is kept."

"Oh," I say, understanding flooding my thoughts. "I know that must be difficult for you. You don't have to go in there if you don't-"

"That's the thing," he says gently cutting me off. "I have to face it. I need to. I'm just..." he trails off looking so unsure and somber. Despite the fangs, pig nose, and beastly complexion, he looks as human as anyone else. His insides are bleeding through to reveal a lost and broken young man.

"You're just scared," I finish for him. I watch as he tries to cover it up, disturbed that I saw right through him. "It's understandable. You don't have to do it alone if you don't want to-"

His eyes brighten. "You'll go with me?"

"Yea. For moral support and stuff," I say still feeling a little unsure. How did things become so calm for us? Our relationship no longer one of a kidnapper and victim but one that resembles a friendship?

"Thank you," he says sincerity clear in his voice.

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Gale holds the rusty, gold, skeleton key in his hand while standing in front of the elegant door. He places it inside and turns it in one movement. Then, taking a deep breath he pushes the door open and gestures for me to walk in first.

The door leads into a circular entry way with a long hallway following it. Unlike the rest of the castle, this part isn't tattered and messy. It's fancy, sparkling, and untouched. A silver chandelier hangs overhead and the walls are lined with framed certificates and ribbons.

One reads,

New York State Hero Award: Benjamin Princely

For saving over 20 lives in the local Dayan Mall shooting.

Before my lips can form the question Gale answers it. "My dad won those. He was a highly recognized cop for saving all those people. That's part of the reason why he chose to disappear. People would eventually find out about me and it would ruin his image." He does a half turn, gazing at the rest of the awards hanging on the wall. "I guess that meant more to him than I did."

I frown, connecting his pain to my own. I use to think the same about my mother, that she loved her drugs more than she loved me. Only, unlike Gale, I had someone around to remind me I wasn't worthless.

My mother... How is she? I hate to think it but she's probably doing even worse than before. She first started drugs because of my father's death and now she's lost me. What if it sent her off the end? The last time I saw her she seemed more than happy to see me go but that feeling couldn't have lasted, could it?

I push the thoughts aside for another time.

"That was wrong of him," I say because that's what I would have wanted someone to say for me. I'm expecting some sarcastic or closed off answer in return but instead, his eyes well up with tears.

"Was it, Belle?" his voice is loud and his leg bounces up and down as he stands. "Because I killed his wife! I killed my own mother! I killed her!" He sobs, a sound so unexpected and mournful all I can do is watch. "She was the only good thing in both our lives and I killed her!"

He lowers his voice and melts to the ground, talking more to himself than me. "It should've been me. The witch should've just killed me. I'm a murderer... I deserve more than this curse." He stares at his hands and says with more conviction, "I deserve death."

The word sets an alarm off in my head. This is what he meant the other day when I asked him if he wanted me to let him die during the almost drowning incident. The reason why he kind of wanted death was because of the guilt. It's eating him alive. "Don't say that."

"Why not? Wouldn't you love that? You could go home. But the witch she knew this would happen. She's trapped me in my own guilt with that stupid side affect-"

"Gale, stop. It was an accident. You didn't mean to hurt your mother, you were trying to help her!" He sniffs and shakes his head.

"Okay but what about all those other people I killed? Did you see the size of my rose garden in the city? I killed them all in cold blood-"

"But they aren't dead!" I feel the sudden urge to help Gale find a way to make things right. There's good in him and he's changing. He just needs a chance. "They're just living as flowers. There has to be some way to reverse the curse and make them human again! Maybe if we ask the enchantress? Is there some way to summon her?"

Gale's face lightens up a bit, hope radiating from under his skin. "I can't summon her but I think she left something that can help." He gets up and pulls me with him. We hurry down the hallway until we reach a door with about a million locks on it. "Dad with his stupid locks," he mumbles.

He doesn't stop to unlock all of them. He tells me to back up and rams into the door several times until it creaks open. "My father kept this in here since he found out I was turned into a beast. He thought if he learned more about it he could find a way to reverse the curse to. The only problem was he was looking for a practical way when what was needed was magic."

The room is dark but a bright lavender light comes from the center. Under a fancy glass container is a beautiful rose. It hovers over a small table with it's blood red petals stretching outward as if reaching for us. The edges of them are black like ashes. Some petals are darker than others, looking sick and unhealthy. As I watch, one of them slowly falls onto the table and lands in a pile. All I can do is stare.

"This," Gale says,"is the first enchanted rose."

My eyebrows knit together in confusion. "I thought you're mother was the first one-"

"No, Belle. I was the first one."

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