Beast

A slightly different take on the classic. I guess I don't have to mention where this is from.

Once upon a time there was a forest. Long ago it had been lush and green. During day time golden sunlight had filtered through emerald leaves. Graceful deer had played in the clearings while squirrels had hectically darted up and down trees searching for their hidden treasures. Colourful birds had greeted every new day with their songs while at night owls bade it a hooting farewell. All this, however, was no more. The forest was now dark and forbidding. The trees had grown gnarled and twisted. Sunlight did not seem to reach the ground nor did moonlight sparkle on the hidden pools at night. Birds would not sing and deer dared not tread. Red-eyed wolves prowled the dark of night tearing all to pieces that they found.
In this forest there was an old tower. In fact, it may well have once been a mighty keep with turrets and battlements. Banners may have flown high in the breeze and even trumpets may have sounded at the return of the master of this place. Now, however, it was little more than a ruin. Flag poles were snapped, battlements crumbled. Even its mighty gates had rotted and collapsed under their own weight and the water of the moat had turned into a pungent cesspool shunned even by rats and devoid of any and all life. Only the tower still stood, rising above the crumbled remains of the other buildings like a hollow tooth in an old hag's mouth.
Still, no living being dared to set foot in that place nor so much as go near. The animals avoided it and travellers went out of their way to take the longer road around the forest and its tower. Because the old tower in the middle of the forest was the home of a beast.
It was a beast so terrible that nobody had yet claimed to have faced it and lived. Yet the stories about it were many. I was said to be so ugly that it would make mirrors shatter, milk turn sour or even make a man that laid eyes on it turn to stone. Its teeth were said to drip venom. Its breath was said to make flowers shrivel. And where it set foot, so people told, grass would instantly wither and die and not grow again for a year and a day. So vicious it was that even wolves and great bears were afraid of its bite and its claws. And when its roar echoed through the night it seemed as if the whole world fell quiet and held its breath with fear. It ate little children, some whispered. Others would assure you it fed on a single virgin once a year. Some claimed to have seen it stalk the little nearby villages at night in the guise of a lonely traveller and only the flicking tail from under its cloak would give it away. It was in league with witches, satyrs or even the devil himself people suspected. Within its tower it did unspeakable, unholy things. One thing, however, everybody agreed on: it was evil and deserved no pity nor mercy.
The beast had, in fact, once been a handsome prince, some old folks would tell. But the prince had been selfish and mean, deceitful and cruel. So, when one day an old crone came to his castle at the centre of the forest and had begged for a place in the stables that night he had turned her away and laughed. Then she was a crone no more but a beautiful sorceress and had laid on him a terrible curse. He would henceforth take the outward shape of what his heart was like inside. He would remain like this until his heart was finally cleansed by the flame of true love or he would die a hideous beast. Then she had vanished and his servants had fled in horror and he had been alone. Alone with his spite and his hate and his shame.
As years went by the castle fell into ruin and the longer he was alone the blacker his heart would grow and the more hideous he became. Heroes came to slay the terrible beast but he frightened them away easily or tore those to pieces that would not be daunted. But no maiden came to save his soul and there was no love in his heart. Eventually, he abandoned all hope that the curse would ever be lifted because who would ever love a terrible beast such as him?
Would it not have been a happy coincidence if, at this point, a fair maiden had got lost in the dark forest and somehow had found her way to the beast's castle? She would, of course, have been terrified by his appearance at first. But maybe she would have discovered that despite his roaring and beastly appearance and manners all the time spent as a loathed and feared monstrosity had changed him. Might she not have found that now he was merely a lonely, pitiful creature afraid to accept anybody's help? And indeed, she may have realised that he was a soul hoping to better himself and in search of a chance for redemption. She may have found a reborn, noble heart beneath the monstrous exterior - a heart worth forgiving, trusting and maybe even loving. Thus, after many years of imprisonment the curse might have eventually been broken and the beast released from its punishment. They might have lived happily ever after.
The truth is that maiden did come. Only what she found was not a pitiful, lonely creature looking for redemption. What she encountered there hidden in the dark tower living like an animal was a soul filled to the brim with bitterness and hate. Not with the world at large - that she may have understood, for a man can only spend so long in the body of a monster with all the world loathing him. But all his contempt was only for himself. There had been that beautiful sorceress once, though she was a sorceress only for enchanting him utterly. But despite his love for her he had been selfish and mean. And still she had stayed seeing the good in him and believing she could bring it out like a flower grows out of parched earth. But for every time he hurt her he found himself more and more unable to face his own reflection anymore. How could he deserve this woman's love? How could he accept what she gave him so willingly? Every harsh word he spoke cut him almost the same deep as it did her yet though he vowed to change he never did. He began to hate her for every time she forgave him. And he loathed himself for needing the love she would still give him and which he did not deserve. Nearly mad with shame and contempt he turned it all against her and made it her mistake. Every kind word or gentle touch he would shove back at her like a mouldy apple. Finally, she stopped smiling and her loving words dried out. Then he sank into a deep, dark sadness. It was only then when she found that he was in this place where she could not possibly follow him and remain sane that she abandoned him.
And it was that day, when he found her gone, that he turned into a beast. In a fit of grief and rage he smashed all the mirrors and windows, tore down the tapestries and paintings and burnt them and drove away all the servants. Only when he had finally destroyed everything beautiful and everything that could possibly remind him of her that he rested. That night was the first time his howl of despair was heard echoing through the forest. Living like an animal he drove everyone away regardless of whether they had come to harm him or help him. Years upon years he lived there haunted by memories that would not fade of mistakes he could not undo anymore. Even though she may have eventually forgiven him it was he himself that refused to be forgiven wearing his guilt like a self-flagellation, or a self-inflicted mark of shame. And possibly the only reason that kept him from taking his own life became a grim willingness to endure pain upon pain unto the bitter end.
When then the maiden did find him she found something far more terrifying than the monster from the legends. She found a soul who had by all his will shut happiness out of his life and destroyed everything that he loved so that the pain he would have to endure would have no end. The prince had cursed himself.