Author's Note: In this new version of Beauty and the Basilisk, Emma meets a poor man with the disfigured face instead of the Basilisk. Their story began in a small house deep down the forest.
Beauty and the Ugly
His name was Charles. No one knew who he is and where he came from. People called him Ugly because of his appearance. Adults afraid of his strange behaviors. Children feared to look at him. They eventually moved as far as they could until no one but him alone in the forest.
His old dark house surrounded by the wilted roses, just the bare branches with thorns. It made the house looked so creepy. Maybe the most valuable thing in the house was the jewel box with a gold rose inside.
Source: Golden Rose
One day, as he sat on the round table looking at the rose in the middle of night, he heard someone staggered down the trail, got closer and knocked the door.
- "Is anyone here? Sorry to disturb you at this time but i got lost and couldn't find the way home".
Ugly let the woman in without saying anything. Ugly left her alone so she could have some rest. After a while he came back, the woman and his jewel box vanished. He got angry and searched around but got no sign of her. As he became desperate, the sun rose and a beautiful young girl found him. Her name was Emma.
- "Does this belong to you?" said Emma. She then showed the rose wrapped carefully in a fabric.
- "My mom said she took it from this house. I am so sorry, but she sold the box and used the money already. I can do whatever you want to compensate it, please." She hesitated.
- "It's all my fault. I requested the rose when she gets back". The young girl tenderly nodded her head.
He took the rose, say nothing but looked at her. As usual, Ugly left home at sunrise. She could have gone, but she thought she should do something in return. Emma committed to do the chores and took care of him for three days even though she was skeptical and scared of his odds.
She opened the window so the light could get in, cleaned the table, the chair and the floor. She then watered the roses outside, picked some wild fruits in the forest and put them on the table.
As he returned back later at nightfall, Emma saw blood dropped down from his hand. She worried that he would hurt her. The second day, Ugly still got back late, no blood, but looked so exhausted and irritated. Emma started to get curious why he always covered by the hooded cloak.
Illustration of Ugly in the black hooded cloak. Source: Storyblock
The day later, Emma realized that his arm was injured, and he seemed to get worse. While he fell asleep, she gently took the hood out of his face. She was frightened by his jagged teeth and sunken-in eyes. She instinctively felt that she was about to run but her nature didn't allow to do so.
Ugly suddenly woke up and wrap her hands.
-"I was just trying to help", a quavering voice.
It had been so long since someone got close to him like that. No one noticed that the rose bushes out there gradually recovered and the new flower buds appeared. He knew that Emma was the right person that he has been looking for- the only girl that could see his invisible cloak.
As Emma took off his cloak to clean the wound, the cloak suddenly disappeared, the roses bloomed again, the little house turned into a luxurious castle.Ugly eventually changed to his normal appearance while the wound healed itself.
- "Don't be afraid, my name is Charles." He said under Emma astonished.
Charles was a prince of Roseland. His father feared that someone would take advantage of him, so the king invited a exorcist to hide his handsome appearance behind the invisible cloak until he find his true love. And that was Emma.
-"Will you marry me?" He proposed.
...
(Open ended)
