The Beau & the Beast

60 - The Rose

I sat with my feet up on Lumier's desk and leaned my back comfortably in the chair as he entered the room. Clearly annoyed he hurried to shut the door as he watched me. "Belmont." He said with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Where's Clocksworth?" I asked straightforwardly when our eyes met.

"How should I know?" He muttered in response but I continued unaffected by his temper.

"Because you have contacts."

He nodded briefly and walked closer to sit on the desk next to my feet. "But he apparently doesn't want to be found."

"That's not what Marianne claims." I said coldly.

He licked his lips and studied me intensely, "why do you want to contact him?"

I shrugged, "Because we have things to discuss."

"Explain." He ordered. So I took my feet off the table and rose up from my seat so that he had to look up at me and then I prayed to all the gods of the world that he would not see right through my bluff.

"I love Nico." I started in a hesitant voice, fingering my cuffs on the shirt sleeve, "and I don't want him to suddenly appear as a clown in the box and ruin my life when it finally starts to get better again."

Lumiere tilted his head to the side and I watched his thoughts spin inside his head. I knew he would see through a lie, but this was the truth even if I left out the major reason.

But to my great relief, he must have realised that I was telling the truth because he leaned forward and wrote down an address on a post-it note that he handed me.

"Your relationship has always been complicated, Belmont. I Hope you finally get what you long for."

I glanced down at the note and saw an address. "Thanks."

But just when I was about to leave, he grabbed my wrist and stopped me. "I hope you're just doing this for your and Dominic's sake, I would hate it if Clocksworth gets involved in my business."

I laughed a little and stared up at the ceiling. "I have a feeling Clock isn't eager to get involved in our lives, Lu, why else would he have stayed away this long?"

He released my arm and I started walking towards the door. "You look happy, you and Nico, are you sure you know what you're getting yourselves into?"

"Don't worry dad," I teased, "I'm a big boy now." But inside my heart was racing.

***

The house looked abandoned but hopefully there was at least one person inside.

My pulse was beating so hard inside my body that I couldn't help but be amazed at my body's reactions even though it was technically dead.

I was not angry anymore, I was almost happy that he didn't come knocking on the castle gate, it would have made everything so much harder. Now the initiative was mine and it felt good somehow.

My steps moved towards the entrance and I stopped outside the door to bend my neck and look upstairs, that's when I saw a flickering light panting.

What if he was completely different from the man I knew? What if he didn't remember me?
I thought about the option that he'd really got mad from his powers, just like Lumiere seems to be. My thoughts were one big jumble inside and deep down I promised myself never to try to take over someone's soul like they've done. It felt anything but healthy.

With hesitant movements I pushed down the handle and felt the door slide open.
I stepped into a dark stairwell and began to walk up the stone stairs with determined steps.