Feelings for the Monster

Gaston kissed Mirror goodnight. He empathized. "Let it out. Cry if you must."

Gaston looked into his handsome eyes, desperate to interpret the signs. Could Mirror see into his kid fears, his palpable self-loathing? His monstrous self-contempt? Could his doppelgänger look upon their shared visage and see beyond the mask?

In fact, no. Mirror was as shallow as Gaston.

But Mirror knew their secret because Gaston had confessed... that one time at band camp...

Oh yes, Mirror saw the truth. About Beauty. About Gaston. About Beast.

Gaston had one true love. And no, it wasn't that sanctimonious know-it-all who walked around town with her nose in a book!

"Who is she to give us the Heisman?" Gaston asked his reflection.

"Beauty is Society's normative ideal," Mirror postulated. "She is 'the archetype.'"

"But -- we don't want to marry that woman, or any woman." It was a revelation!

In all the land, only one heart had ever captured Gaston's.

And so Gaston plotted to hide the Beast, removing the wicked temptation. Magic his ass into some inaccessible, mystical dimension, or whatever.

Within days, Gaston had found and paid that wretched old hag top dollar for one hell of a Time Warpy Rose Spell, and his torment at last was over.

Temptation removed? Check.

But Gaston, being Gaston, failed to realize he still was expected to marry Beauty. It was his duty, just like being insufferably handsome and debonaire.

What would Father say? The pressure Gaston was under -- to conform, to be the man. Beauty couldn't possibly understand.

And so Gaston rallied the townsfolk, pitchforks at the ready to storm the castle, ostensibly to save Beauty, who surely would agree to be his bride.

And all was going along so swimmingly... until...

Gaston barged into the castle, and all at once True Love broke Magic's spell, and Gaston and Beast fell head over heals in love all over again!

A Year Later

Beast threw one hell of a wedding reception at his castle on the hill. The theme, of course: Love is Love.

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Word count: 366

Inspired by and written for L.C. Schäfer's Fucked Up Fairytales - An Unofficial Challenge

Fairytale for Reference - Disney's Beauty and the Beast

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Copyright © 04/09/2024 by Christy Munson. All rights reserved.

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