What if:
- Gaston wasn't chucked off the roof AND
- The beast's stab wound, instead of disappearing when the spell was broken, stayed fatal?
Gaston blinked. A minute ago there had just been a dead Beast but now there was a dead person, (a handsome one, too) and these cheerfully unnatural sparkles drifting down out of the sky.
He brushed them out of his face. "Belle, we're going." Without bothering to wait for her to agree with him, he bent over and scooped her up in his arms. For a horrible second she clung to the body and it rose up in the air with her, but when Gaston shook her authoritatively, Belle let go and the Beast (person?) clunked back down to the stone floor.
Gaston threw his woman over his shoulder like a very weepy sack of potatoes. He strode back across the terrace, through the West Wing, and back down the main staircase. When he got back to the entrance hall, toting Belle's limp body the entire way, he ran into some townspeople who were trying to set fire to a wardrobe.
"Forget that dresser," he ordered. "This castle is cursed. Burn the whole thing." The villagers just stared at him, so he shouted "I said burn it!" and kept going.
He didn't even wait around to see that his orders were carried out. He'd taken care of the Beast and now the important thing was to take care of Belle. He could hear her sobbing "Beast…no…" over and over again, but he generously didn't take any steps to shut her up.
She was a little crazy, that was all. She'd come around. He swung her up onto a horse and climbed on behind her. "Now, hold on, Belle, you don't want to fall and get hurt," he cautioned. She didn't even seem to hear him.
Gaston growled and set off for town.
The chilly night air cleared Belle's head out a little bit. The Beast was dead! Gaston, that monster Gaston, had killed him in cold blood and was now carrying her off!
Belle started to struggle, but Gaston held her easily with one arm. "Will you quit it?" he snarled. "You're going to get us both killed."
"Good!" Belle snapped back. "I'd rather be killed than be wed to you, you evil, heartless creature!"
"Evil? Heartless? Belle!" Gaston wanted to force her to look at him, but considering they were riding the same horse the best he could do was grab her hair and tilt her head all the way back. He struggled to glare down at her, but his huge chest was in the way and he couldn't really achieve eye contact. "I came to save you from a creature that had cast a spell on you, and this is the thanks I get? Look at me?"
"I can't look at you, you cretin, because you're holding onto my hair. Let go." She brought both hands to the back of her head and tried to pry apart Gaston's gigantic fist.
He let go with a patient sigh, and she twisted around to glare over her shoulder. "I hate you," she said clearly. "You're a murderer and I'll never forgive you for what you've done. Never," she repeated, her eyes tearing up.
Gaston kept his eyes on the road. "She'll come around," he said aloud. And he was sure she would.
As soon as they got back to the village, Gaston dragged Belle to the church. The priest, one of the few who had not gone on the beast-hunt, was asleep, so Gaston woke him by throwing rocks at his window.
"It's time for a wedding," Gaston shouted from the street. "Marry us here and now. Belle and I are so eager that we just can't wait until morning."
She slapped him across the face as hard as she could.
Gaston counted to two for patience, then grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her close. "I don't want to hear a word from you except I do," he hissed. "Understand? Or I'll take steps. We've already had one hunt tonight, I'd hate to have to start up another."
"A hunt for what?" Belle demanded. "You've already killed everyone that matt- Oh! You mean you'll tell them to hunt my father?"
Gaston shrugged and gave her a wide, innocent smile. "Sorcerers disguise themselves as crazy old inventors all the time. If the townspeople start to believe that Maurice is a threat, well, they're just in one of those moods, Belle. I wouldn't be surprised if they start building a gallows this very night. Don't push me."
Belle's mouth moved without sound. Then she finally managed, "Y-you wouldn't."
"Wouldn't I?" Gaston shoved her through the church doors and led her up to the altar, finding that her hair made a convenient set of reins. He frowned when a few of the Beast's sparkles fell from her ponytail.
While she did weep silently through the whole ceremony, Belle said I do in the proper places, and within a few minutes she was Madame Gaston.
Her new husband led (dragged) her out of the church as soon as it was over. He stared down at her in the moonlight, his long black hair in disarray for the first time she could remember. "To honor and obey, Belle," he reminded her sternly. "Now and forever."
Belle's eyes narrowed and her voice was low. "Yes, Gaston. Til death do us part."
The End…
Or is it? I'm not sure where this story is going. At first I intended it to be a love story between Belle and Gaston, but it seems like kind of an inauspicious beginning. I dunno. What do you think?