Belle wondered if, after death, every soul that once used to be sane would turn to rot, turning them insane when it came to their thoughts and rationality which was thrown out of the window.

The friend she knew was a good man, and he would never ask her to kill herself.

"You are not in your right mind. Why don't you get some sleep, and we'll talk about this once it's morning. You must be tired," said Belle when he let her go, and she took a few steps near the door for it to be blocked.

"Don't take me to be an idiot, Belle."

"You are acting out of context, and your thoughts are irrational. The George I knew would never propose that I die for him," Belle pursed her lips.

"People change, Belle. Change is the only thing that is constant, and it is inevitable like your death," he was joking right? Thought Belle to herself. Was he here to kill her and take her to the land of the dead? She gulped at the thought of it.

He walked forward towards her, cornering her against the wall as he looked down at her face, his eyes taking in her appearance. Belle had never felt this worried and scared for herself. Maybe it was because she knew Lucas was always around the corner and he would never let anything happen to her, but Lucas was not here.

This time she would need to handle it by herself without relying on Lucas' help.

When George's face came close, Belle placed her hand on his hand, the place his skin was exposed, but unlike her mother, who had started to crumble, nothing happened to him. He got too close to her, raising her chin so that he could move his lips towards her and Belle suddenly pushed him away before making a run out of the drawing-room.

Belle started to run, trying to go up the stairs which George caught up with. Her feet moved quickly, and she wondered what to do as she didn't know what to do. Was she supposed to hide? Not with him on her tail and how was one supposed to kill a dead? Asked Belle to herself.

Wait, she would need oil and fire to set the body on fire but somewhere deep down in Belle's heart she wasn't ready for this. Her heart broke further that she would have to kill her friend with her hands and if she didn't, he would kill her and drag her to the land of the dead to have his happily ever after which would not be happy to her.

Wasn't there a way to send a soul without harming them? Just having them disappeared?

"Where do you think you are going, Belle?" asked George, "Playing hide and seek with me is not going to help but if I do find you, I will take you with me. I first thought that we would settle down wherever you would want to."

"Then let me live where I want to live and with whoever I want to," shouted Belle by turning around and speaking to him.

"I spoke to my parents about you. The week before this happened to me…" George's voice trailed, "What an irony. I told them I loved you."

Belle felt sorry for him, but the truth was that she didn't see George the way he was looking at her. George, Simon and she had grown up together in each other's company. Maybe not spending too much time but when they met each other, they had always spent time together. She didn't have to write letters to keep in touch with each other regularly.

"I told them how much I cared for you and how I would like to marry you."

"When did this happen?" asked Belle, her red eyes looking at him move towards her.

George's eyebrows furrowed in concentration, "Must have been during summer. Yes, it was summer," he answered, "I have been thinking to come to meet you, but somewhere it felt like I was drugged and seeing things that didn't exist. I came to meet you, but there was no one. The house was empty and," he ran his hand across the walls, "It looked broken."

The Adams' mansion he had visited was not the one in the land of the living but the one in the land of the dead.

"Did you refurnish it?" asked George, walking down the corridor, and Belle continued to move back. She searched for an open window so that she could jump out of. Belle was no cat, but she had jumped out of the windows plenty of times in her past, so it wasn't a big deal. Since it was night, the towns and villages were quiet and asleep. She didn't want to attract attention and maybe taking George outside was a better decision, thought Belle to herself, "There were cracked walls, broken windows, barely any furniture. For one instance, I thought your family had moved and didn't tell us about it."

"How did you end up here then?" she asked him.

"I missed some of the memories here. We used to have such wonderful memories and maybe if the butler was not here we would have more. He always liked to interrupt things we did together."

Lucas was someone who was smart, and he often drew lines between her and any other person because people or children could be harmful. It still made her wonder why Lucas had taken his job of being the butler or her guardian with such seriousness.

"We can build them again though. Come here," said George, and Belle at the same time, moved her hand on the window. She tried to unlock it, but it didn't open, "It won't open, Belle. I have got the house locked. No one can come in or go out unless I want them to."

Belle wondered if this was the right time to worry.

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