Beauty Becomes Beast

creativewritingprompts.com #4
Write a sequel to a classic fairy tale starting with the "classic ending" except something goes wrong.

Don’t think of Disney. I looked up the original tale, as told in the 1700s. There are multiple forms of the original tale; I encourage you to read a variety of original versions of your favourite fairy tales. Disney made things much more friendly and happy than how Hans Christian Anderson, the Grimm Brothers, or others intended.

The Brothers Grimm version published in 1812. (They popularized already famous tales)

The Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve version published in 1740. First known written form. Her text was 100 pages long, longer than standard fairy tale bedtime stories. It was abridged in 1756, and translated to English in 1757. I wish I had a copy of the original translated to English. I don't know if the wiki link IS the translated abridged version, or if it is just a summary of the abridged version (would it then be a double-abridgement?) Either way, it is this version that I based my sequel on. 

Belle saw Beast half-dead in her mirror and quickly turned the ring to return to him. She knelt over his body and wept, crying out, “I love you.”

Suddenly, the wind blew fiercely. Belle shielded her eyes from the dirt and leaves. When she opened them, the wind was blowing all of Beast’s patchwork scales and fur away. His horns fell off and cracked on the ground. Even his tail shriveled up and crumbled in the dirt. Beneath Beast’s menacing appearance was revealed the handsome prince of her dreams. The handsome prince continued to lie there; unmoving; unbreathing. Belle cried harder than before and almost didn’t hear a rustle in the bush.

“Who’s there?” she called.

From behind the rose bushes emerged an old crooked witch. “My spell made him disgusting until he could find someone to love him despite his appearance. Your love returned him to his original form. But you waited too long to tell him and you broke your promise to return to him. That broke his heart and he died. No magic can bring life from the dead.

Belle hiccupped her last tears away. “Did you just come here to tell me that?”

“No, I came here to decide something. I know you are kind. You would offer me inside to shelter from the rain. But do men really value kindness more than beauty the way us women do? I could leave you in your misery, but a husband might find you within a fortnight.

“No, instead I shall strip away your beauty. You shall live in the prince’s castle until a man can fall in love with your hideousness.”

She snapped her fingers and again the wind roared. When it settled, Belle saw herself before her. She watched her body disappear in a puff of smoke. Belle crawled to her mirror. Since she was already at the castle, it did not show her the castle, only her own reflection. In the glass, she saw the image of the old crooked witch. She grasped at her face with her knotted fingers and felt warts and a bony skull. She screamed in horror and her voice was weak and hoarse. She realized the trick the witch had played on her and slowly walked into the castle – into her new home.