Beauty and the Beast
A divided Noir,
where the rich lived in
luxurious mansions and buildings
and the poor lived in
overcrowded slums and rundown buildings,
Life was either
at its fullest or
at its worse.
But one thing for sure,
there is no eternity.
There was a wealthy man,
cheated by a friend,
declared bankrupt,
ended up in the poor district
with his wife and daughters.
Two beautiful daughters.
Heather,
one is of his flesh and blood.
Elsie,
one is from the orphanage.
One favored over the other,
but never forgotten.
Heather and her mother
demanded for luxury,
for poor was something
they would never get used to.
Elsie asked for none,
as so to lessen
the burden of the family.
The search of the cheater
takes the man down the
sewer of Noir
over to the rich district
with the request of
his wife and Heather
for jewelries and fine clothing.
Elsie asked for none,
except the safety of the man.
The sewer manholes,
locked shut with passwords,
the man was about to give up,
when the final manhole
revealed the
crimson sky above Noir.
A garden of thousand flowers,
a mansion decorated with
gold and platinum,
surrounded with tall walls.
It was a gift from Heaven,
the man thought so,
as he accepted its hospitality.
He filled his stomach
with food and drinks
served on the large golden table.
An exploration of the mansion
after a fulfilling meal,
the man found a chest,
filled with jewelries
and fine clothing.
Guilty as he is,
but to appease his wife and Heather,
he took a bag of it
and turned to leave.
A dark-skinned disfigured man,
strange sliver colored tattoos,
large pair of claws and feet,
disgusted by the man’s greed,
imprisoned him within the mansion.
The man begged for his life,
the beast wanted something in return,
and so the man offered Elsie,
for he could not sacrifice his own flesh.
The man ran all the way home,
a lie lured Elsie to the mansion,
as she met the beast.
She begged to go back home
and reunited with her family,
but the beast refused
and kept her within the mansion.
Elsie wandered around every night,
trying to escape,
but the tall wall stood high up.
Time went by,
hope was lost,
Elsie accepted her fate,
an attempt to make friends,
brought the beast and her closer
into understanding each other.
The beast began to fall in love,
asked her hand in marriage every morning,
only to run away from a question
of his true identity.
Strange,
Elsie thought about the mansion and the beast.
There were no such thing mentioned
in the streets of Noir.
She was determined to
find out the truth.
She sneaked into
the lair of beast
and found no beast,
but a handsome young man
sleeping soundly in
the soft feather bed.
The man woke up and tried to run,
but Elsie stopped him in time,
the truth was revealed,
Abel was the man.
The high and almighty president of Noir,
who only cared about himself,
cheated a witch for
power and wealth,
only to be rewarded with a curse,
for Noir and himself.
A divided country,
the rich will fight among themselves for more,
the poor will suffer from illnesses and starvation.
A beast by day and a human by night,
only finding his one true love,
will set Noir and himself free
from the witch’s spell.
Truth exchanged,
Feelings were not the same,
Heartbroken as Abel is,
he still release Elsie,
with a PDA guiding her way home.
Looked through the window
of the semi-rundown house,
Elsie saw her family,
smiling and eating happily
on the dining table,
they had forgotten about her.
Forgotten and abandoned,
sadness filled her.
She went back to the manhole
leading to the sewer,
having no idea where to go,
she took out the PDA.
A secret diary
unlocked with her name,
revealed Abel’s love for her
was from the bottom of his heart
and not for the sake to break the curse
All he had done for her moved her,
sending her back to the mansion,
only to find Abel’s soul dying slowly on him
as he was heartbroken after she left.
She held him in her arms,
telling him he would never be alone again,
for she would stay with him forever.
Tears flowed down and struck Abel,
he was freed from the curse
as so was Noir.
The tall walls disappeared into thin air,
and Noir was reunited as one
under the rule of
a reborn leader and his wife
as everyone lives happily ever after.
A lovely story and as always very creative.