BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Chapter 5

Jambalaya

   And so, they both took their places at the table. Brian took off his gloves to eat and placed them on the table beside him. Justin took the jambalaya out of the oven and served up two plates and brought them over and served them. Then he sat down across from Brian and said:

   "Will you say the blessing?"

   "I don't pray."

   "What? Never?"

   "No." Brian's voice was definitive and held a warning.

   Justin sighed regretfully and said, "Well, I shall start you off lightly then." He bowed his head and said quickly, "For what we are about to receive...and do receive...may the Lord make us truly thankful."

   The fire gave a WHOOMP!...as it flared higher for a second and then died down.

   Justin began to eat. Brian followed his example. Although he tried not to, Justin watched Brian out of the corner of his eye. Brian watched him out of the corner of his eye. He caught Justin looking and grinned, the space in his mouth stretching horribly. Justin blushed and looked away and Brian's smile faded a little because he had forgotten for a moment. But he could see that he was probably making it hard for Justin to eat.

   And so it was with supreme pleasure, he saw Justin look up again. He thought he could get in another corner-of-the-eye look and then looked down again when he saw Brian was openly ogling him. He was just shy.

   "It's not bad," he said nonchalantly. And he ate some more.

   And Justin looked up and looked at him with shining eyes and his hair looked more like spun gold than ever. It gleamed in the candlelight and firelight and his smile was so white and bright it looked like the sun coming out. He had the Beast's number by now and he knew that was a compliment of the highest order.

   "Oh, thank you Brian!" he said.

   "For what?" Brian said, just as non-committally.

   Justin eyed him shrewdly. "Oh... you're right. Nothing I guess." But he knew Brian now, and he knew Brian loved it. He looked at Brian right back now; with a huge smile he couldn't wipe off and watched him eat.

   And they sat like that for a little while in silence, just looking at each other. Justin was very glad Brian had worn the mask tonight for not only was it unbelievably sexy, it let him see his eyes at last and Justin couldn't get enough. Brian's eyes were hazel with flecks of gold in them. They were the most beautiful thing Justin had ever seen. They were, in fact, the only beautiful feature that the fairy guardian had let him keep, sadly knowing that because of the deformities surrounding them, that Brian would never notice.

   Finally about halfway through the second bowl of jambalaya, Brian sighed and began to speak.

   "I was beautiful once, you know. Really beautiful. None of these features are real. I don't have burns by fire and acid. I didn't have fangs. I don't have a cleft lip. I could get any guy I wanted. And I did."

   "Where did they come from then?"

   Brian ignored him. "I worked in advertising. Top of my game. Used supermodels in almost all my accounts. I valued beauty (especially mine) above everything else. I didn't realize it but I was vain, narcissistic and cruel. I stopped hanging out with friends....well, my real friends. I worked all the time. I was rich, had the best of everything but I never used anything. My loft was like a showroom."

   "OK," said Justin.

   "So then one day his guy strolls into my office. He had all the ugliness I have now. He wanted to promote a beauty cream and HE wanted to spokesmodel! I laughed in his face and threw him out."

   "OK," said Justin.

   "So that night, he shows up at Babylon and tries to chat me up. Me! The Stud of Liberty Avenue! Me!" Brian tried to convey the outrage.

   "I see. What's Babylon?"

   "It was a gay dance club. Very big, crowded, noisy. Crammed with big, beautiful gay men," Brian sighed reminiscently. "And I was the most beautiful."

   "Hm. Seems you still haven't let go of that vanity," observed Justin.

   Brian gave him a dirty look. "Aaaaannyway," he drawled annoyedly, "Where was I? Ahh yes. So this dude stalks me down and tries to sell his cream again. No sale. So then the creep tries to hit on me! Strike three. Along the way, he warns me about beauty within but I didn't understand any of that."

   "Why am I not surprised?" Justin said, playing with his now cold jambalaya.

   "Quiet, you!" admonished Brian in a surprisingly good Mr. Peabody impression. "So anyway I'm getting another drink and when I turn back, the guy's face is re-arranging itself like Silly Putty and he turns into this dude almost as good looking as me!"

   Justin looked at him pointedly and raised an eyebrow.

   "Oh hush!"

   "I didn't say anything," protested Justin.

   "No, but you were going to," said Brian accurately. "So anyway, it turns out this guy was a supernatural creature, a fairy guardian and as punishment for being the dick I was, he...he turned me into this! And he told me I had a year to get someone to love me in my ugliness or I'll stay this way forever."

   "A year! And how much time to you have left?"

   "I have been here about 9 months. So...3 months or so, I guess. I'm not sure exactly but I can...well, here...I'll show you."

   Brian unbuttoned one of his sleeves and pulled it back so Justin could look over at his forearm. There was a tattoo of a rose. It was in vibrant, full bloom. Underneath was a line of numbers: 00 03 25 07 25 15.

   Justin blinked and shook his head. His eyes widened in astonishment and he pulled Brian's arm closer. As he watched, the last number changed to 14...to 13...12...11...10...

   "Oh my God...It's counting down! Isn't it!?" Justin breathed. He reached out with one finger and touched the changing number, stroked it. It was still permanent and inked into his flesh and yet...it changed...right underneath his finger!

   Brian sucked in a ragged breath. "Yes! Yes it is. Oh Justin!"

   Justin looked up and saw in concern that Brian was heaving and his eyes were a little dilated.

   "Brian! What's wrong!?"

   "You're touching my arm. It's getting me hot!" he leered suggestively.

   "Oh good grief! Get over yourself!" Justin gave him back his arm. I just wanted to feel the tattoo! I've never seen anything like that before!"

   Brian's breathing slowed and he became calmer. He buttoned up his sleeve again. "You can't see it but the rose changes too. I've watched the leaves grow and the flower bloom from a tight bud to what you see here now. The fairy told me it will eventually wither and die and when the numbers count down and the last petal falls, the curse will be permanent and I will be a monster.....for the rest of my life."

   "That's terrible!"

   "Yes. And...well you've seen the courtyard. I tried and tried and...well...it never worked out. Last month, I pretty much gave up. I decided to just run out the clock here and when it did, follow through with what I described in the courtyard. This house will no longer be available to me. The only alternative is to wander the world as a monster. And there is no room in this world for monsters, Justin. They are hunted down and killed. No...It is best I go out on my own terms."

   "I'm still not sure I agree with you on that one."

   "Well, maybe I won't have to now! just a few weeks after I decided that, YOU came into my life! I have one more chance! A chance where I didn't have to bribe or trick anyone into coming. So there are no ulterior motives with me...or you. We can break the curse!" Brian covered Justin's porcelain hand with his tattooed one.

   Justin snatched it away. "Yes, no tricks or bribes! Only blackmail! Make no mistake Brian! I may be here! And I'm glad I'm you're guest and not your prisoner. But I'm still here against my will! How am I supposed to love somebody who has done this thing to me....and my family!?"

   Brian looked truly penitent. "I don't know. I only hope you can forgive me someday. My life depends on it."

   "Your life! Your life! You selfish dick! That's all I keep hearing! What about my....!!"

   Justin sat there and put his head in his hands. He took a deep ragged breath. "Never mind! Just...just...go on with your story....Wait! You said he was all this ugliness. But he wasn't masked or turning people to stone."

   "No. He gave me one more ugliness. He took...he made...my hair...It turned..." Brian choked up a bit.

   "What!? Are you bald?"

   Brian shook his head sadly.

   "No. Being bald wouldn't turn a person to stone. Wait! That first night...your hat was moving!"

   Brian nodded sadly.

   "I asked you about it...You said you'd tell me later. Now's later, Brian!"

   Brian just looked at him with inexpressively sad eyes.

   "Wait! Your hat's not moving tonight!"

   Brian nodded.

   Why isn't your hat moving, Brian?"

   Brian just looked at him.

   "Tell me!"

   Brian just heaved a great, sad sigh. "Yes. The time has come. I'll do better than tell you. I'll show you."

   He adjusted his black kerchief and pulled it up over the bottom half of his face. He looked like a western train robber who was into S/M. "I'd better cover everything. I'm not quite sure of the potency of this," he explained. His entire face was covered. Only his now sad, sad brown eyes with flecks of gold were visible.

   He took off his hat.

   Justin gasped.

   It was now revealed that the top of the rubber mask had been sliced away, all the way around the top, exposing the crown of his head. Under the hat, Brian was wearing another hat. The brim was an iron band and fixed to this band was a dome of sorts, made of criss-crossing wires. Held inside the wired hat teemed a mass of snakes, twisting and writhing and re-twisting around each other but unable to escape the squares of wire.

   "Brian...What...are...those...things??" Justin asked, hardly daring to believe his eyes.

   "I designed and had this made so that I can look almost normal but so they can breathe," Brian said.

   "So....they can breathe..." Justin choked out.

   Brian removed the hat.

   The snakes positively burst forth, eager and cramped from being in their confined space. The stretched and twisted and found friends a ways away from themselves and twisted around his ears and... Oh God, the effect was horrible and there was no denying what they were now.

   Justin leapt out of his chair and screamed. He couldn't help it.

   "It's ok, Justin," Brian said from behind the kerchief, "Take deep breaths. Try not to panic. I'll put them back."

   "Put them back! Where are they coming from!!? Where is your hair?"

   "Justin...they are my hair."

   "OH...DEAR....GOD! This is how you do it! Oh, my God, Brian, you're a Medusa!"

   "Yes, that is what he called it."

   "Are they poisonous?"

   "Some of them. Don't get too close."

   "Never fear of that!"

   "I'll put them back."

   "Don't they bite you?"

   "No. For some reason, they like me!"

   With a bit of prodding and coaxing, Brian was able to get them back under the wire framework and then put the cowboy hat back on.

   Justin breathed a sigh of relief.

   Brian pulled down his kerchief around his neck again. "Now you understand. That is why everyone is stone. That is why you must never seek to look me full in the face."

   Shudderingly, Justin sat back down. He nodded.

   They paused a few minutes, Justin to get his normal breathing back and Brian to wait for him to do so and move on to the next step.

   Finally Justin was able to start breathing normally. He said: "I'm sorry! I can't imagine what came over me. I don't usually react so violently to things."

   "I believe it's part of the curse," said Brian, "I've shown them to every one of my guests when they've asked and without fail they all had the same reaction."

   "Oh."

   Are you ready to hear the rest of the story?"

   "Yes. I think so. There aren't going to be any more nasty surprises, are there?" Justin gave him a cautious look as if he might be hiding a Devil's tail and trident somewhere.

   "No. That's the worst of it. Well, where was I? Oh yeah, so after the guy turns me into this he gives me a card with the address and description of this house on it, re-starts time and vanishes into thin air. Oh, did I tell you he stopped time for a while? Ooops, sorry! Yeah, I guess he decided we needed a little "us time"!"

   "Wow! So what happened then?" Justin was back on pins and needles.

   "Oh, now that was terrible! I was panicked and I had no idea what to do. I turned to Charlie the barkeep and asked for help. He glowed this eerie white and changed into a statue right in front of me! So I ran. I tried to keep my head down but it was no use! I must have turned half of Babylon to stone trying to get out of there!"

   "Oh Brian! That's must have been terrible!'

   "It gets worse! Out on the street it was worse. People turned into statues right and left. I must have turned dozens of people to stone before I managed to duck into an alley."

   Justin looked on, wide eyed with horror.

   "I think the screams were the worst part. God, I'll never get those out of my head! All they had time for was one scream before they were caught and silenced. But another would look over to see what the other was screaming about and be caught in the curse. Soon the entire street was screaming. And then...silence, save for the lone survivors who were crying over their loved ones. Then fresh people turned the corner and found them and the screaming started again."

   I ran through the alley to the next street. I had on my club clothes, had my keys, my wallet but that was all. I was terribly cold. I couldn't go into a store to buy anything. So...I laid in wait till I saw what I needed and...and I mugged somebody!"

   "Oh, Brian!" Justin's voice was soft with pity and regret.

   "I didn't want to!"Brian said defensively.

   "Of course not!"

   "I'm not a criminal!"

   "I never said you were," Justin said, eating some jambalaya.

   Brian looked at him as if he had for a second and then humph'ed.  "Humphhh! Well, anyway, I grabbed this woman from behind and told her not to look behind her. I made my voice all rough and mean and desperate. I took her scarf and her driver's licence and then let her go."

   "I tied the snakes together and then back as much as I could and then wrapped the rest of it around my face. All I could think of was the guy saying, If anyone looks you full in the face...so I covered it as much as possible. And it worked! I ran the rest of the way home and people still got out of my way in a hurry but no-one turned to stone either."

   "I was safe at my loft at last. Or rather everyone was safe from me. I still had the scarf on. I went around with every sheet and towel I had and covered all the mirrors. I ended with the bathroom waved goodbye and covered it. I never saw my face again. At the time, it didn't matter, for the man I was, was already gone. But I still remember him. And I miss him."

   Justin looked as if he had something to say and then thought better of it. He motioned for Brian to continue.

   "There's not much to tell. The next morning, I made a few phone calls. I quit my job at Vanguard. Then I phoned up an old friend, Mikey and offered him my loft to sublet for the year. He wondered what was up and started asking questions. I shut him up and told him I had to start to travel for work. Then I told him if he didn't want it I'd ask Ted. (Friend and accountant.) That shut him up. That's the thing about Mikey. He knows he had first dibs with me and if I'm really serious about something, I'll offer it to Ted next. And he hates that. So he took it and moved in with his partner, Ben. At least, I think he did. I hope so."

   I packed a bag, grabbed a bunch of money from my wall safe, phoned a limo service and was out of there. I mailed the keys and codes to my loft to Mike, mailed the scarf and the licence to the address on the licence, and when the limo got there, got in and came here."

   "Wow, a limo! Ohhhh, I get it! Tinted windows, right?"

   "Right! I told the driver to leave the window up all the time. I said I was a reclusive celebrity who wanted...to be alone! Like Garbo! He swallowed the whole thing and we communicated only by phone."

   Anyway, I guess that's it. You know the rest. When I came here, the place was awash in magic. I soon realized I barely needed any of the money I'd brought or even the bag I'd brought. Practically all my needs were met and those that weren't could be solved by an occasional trip into town."

   "Ahhh yes! Where you scared them all to death! Shame on you!"

   "Justin, I told you, it was for their own protection! After what you've just seen, can't you understand that? They're small town folk. If you're friendly and they to you, then they talk to you and about you! They want to be friends and invite you to barbecues and swap meets and book clubs and dinner parties!"

   "Oh yes, I can see where that would be a real grind! Just horrible!" Justin said sarcastically.

   "Justin!" Brian admonished gently. He tapped his hat. "Think! I can't have that! I can't have that ever again!"

   "Why not? We're doing it right now," Justin said reasonably.

   "It's just the two of us. And I'm being careful, covered up. Out there, I might be able to pull off a party or two around Halloween but the rest of the time I'd look awfully strange. In my own home, I'm eccentric. Out there, in town...I'm walking cyanide!"

   Justin sighed and rolled his eyes.

   "No, it's better this way," Brian continued, convincing himself...again. "If they hate you, they leave you alone, they don't talk. Your house becomes...that house...haunted, evil, dangerous. People warn away their kids from you. They're safe...They're..."

   "I say again BULLSHIT AND HORSEFEATHERS!!!" Justin yelled again, smacking the table with his palm for emphasis. "I have never heard such self-pitying garbage in all my life! I won't allow you to think of yourself in this way as long as I'm here! It is...It...ah, yes how did you put it?...It makes my dick soft!"

   Brian started and smirked a little to hear his own words thrown back at him.

   "Besides, I think we already established that you scare and bark at those poor people for your enjoyment. You could have very easily made friends with those people and been benevolent to them."

   "Oh yeah! How!?" Brian roared.

   "Well first, you could stop going into town dressed like a dungeon master! A nice suit, a coat and hat being sure to wear that wire doohickey underneath. If you're intent on being medieval about things, a nice cloak would do. Then you simply tell people you were in an industrial accident that burned your face and you're shy about your looks, which is why you go around wearing a tasteful mask. No more total hoods, Brian! Oh yes! Beddy told me all about it!"

   "Bitch..." Brian muttered under his breath.

   "SHE'S NICE!" Justin roared, "And you scared her half to death! Aren't you ashamed of yourself at all!!?"

   Brian looked down at his plate and pushed around his last bite of jambalaya. He shrugged his shoulders wordlessly and sulkily, obviously ashamed of himself.

   "In fact, I think that's what we'll do, next time we go to town, say tomorrow or the next day." Justin said brightly, as if it were a done deal. He ate the last of his own serving, savouring the taste of the meat and spices. "We can tell her you were under a lot of stress and you can apologize while you buy me lunch and repay her for the one I ate when I came to town."

   Brian looked at him as if he'd grown a third head. "Are you fucking crazy!?" he yelled, "I'm not doing any of that shit!"

   "Oh yes, YOU ARE!! Justin yelled right back. "I may have to stay with you but I'm not going to do it and sit idly by and watch you abuse me or anybody else for your own amusement. So we're going to follow this plan and you're going to straighten up and fly right with these people while I'm around, do you got me Mister Beast!?"

   "Yes, Dear, whatever you say..." Brian started.

   Justin smacked the table again to show he was dead serious and to cut the crap.

   Brian sighed long sufferingly. "Fine, Justin OK!? We'll do it your way! OK!?"

   Justin relaxed back and sipped his wine primly. "Of course we will," he said serenely.

   "Watch it little boy! I'm still the cock of the walk around here and I can still..."Brian growled.

   "So you were telling me about the magic that you discovered in the house?"

   "Yes well..."

   "When did you find out it was sentient?"

   Well, I..."

   "Oh, and who's Emmett?"

   Brian's face went white.

TBC