Gaston’s Story, Part IV
By TMN
Gaston stealthily searched every wing of the Castle. Every room was dusty and dark. Only the moonlight kept the entire Castle from being completely black. Gaston did not light a torch. He wanted to keep the element of surprise. After an hour of cautious creeping, he found himself at the end of a long hallway. Ripped out portraits lined the walls, curtains swishing from unknown breeze or draft. Gaston stopped. A dark form stood at the end of the hallway. He looked through the scope of his rifle. It was the Beast, its back toward Gaston. It was quietly contemplating a painting. Gaston lined up his shot. This was too easy. The Beast froze. It sniffed the air, sensing imminent danger…BANG!
Gaston cursed! The Beast had dodged the bullet at the last possible moment. I guess it won’t be as easy as I thought. Gaston knelt and began the cumbersome process of reloading. The Beast meanwhile had charged. It reached the middle of the hallway when Gaston fired again. He missed. Gaston cursed. He had perhaps one chance to reload again before the Beast was on top of him. He was midway through stuffing the bullet when the Beast leapt. Gaston stopped loading and brought the rifle between the Beast and himself. In one swipe the rifle broke in half. Gaston jumped back and pulled out his machete. The Beast uncurled its claws. They circled each other. Then Gaston lunged. For the next hour they engaged in an intricate and deadly dance. Gaston attacked. The Beast sidestepped. The Beast swung his arms. Gaston ducked.
They found themselves on a balcony. Gaston saw an opening and drove his machete into the Beast’s heart. The beast moved too quickly. It only grazed his shoulder. It roared in pain. The scream was so loud that the weary Gaston dropped the machete. The Beast saw the hesitation and seized the hunter by the throat. Gaston, dangling in the air, felt his airtubes constricting. He wondered if the Beast’s ugly face was going to be the last thing he saw. It wasn’t.
“STOP!” It was a melodious voice. Gaston turned. His vision was blurry, but he knew it was Belle. She came for me! She’s trying to save my life. She loves me! The fight in Gaston returned. The Beast saw Belle and hesitated. It loosened his grip on Gaston’s neck ever so slightly. Gaston reached in his belt and pulled out a hunter’s knife. He drove it into the Beast’s forearm. It screamed louder, its hot breath blowing into Gaston’s face. Gaston drove the knife deeper into the Beast’s arm, and it flung him against a wall. Gaston hit the wall with a force so strong that the wall cracked. He lay there, trying to recover and finish the wounded Beast. Belle ran forward. She ran toward her true love. Gaston smiled. He began to console her, to tell her to run home, that he would be with her soon, and they would live happily ever after. But Belle ran past him. She ran to the Beast.
Gaston’s pain returned. Every wound inflicted by the Beast amplified exponentially. But it did not compare to the pain in his heart. The pain of lost love made Gaston scream. Neither Belle nor the Beast noticed. Gaston’s eyes hardened. Jealousy built up within him, and there was only one way to release the pressure. His machete lay a mere meter away. He reached for it and charged the lovers. He wasn’t sure who he was going to kill, but after the loss of LeFou, the lost of his love, and the lost of his heart, Gaston knew he would soon lose his humanity. Gaston leapt into the air, screaming and swinging wildly. Wounded as it was, the Beast still had one last reserve within him. It grabbed Belle, and deftly sidestepped the flying Gaston. Gaston’s machete slashed nothing but air. Gaston himself had inadvertently jumped over the balcony.
Time slowed down as he tumbled to
his death. Gaston looked back at the
balcony. He sent one final mental “I
love you” to Belle. He hoped Belle could
escape the Beast one last time. Then he
realized that she would not leave. She
did not want to leave. She loved the
Beast. She did not love him. Gaston closed his eyes, crying even as he
accelerated to his death. When he hit
the