There once was a wealthy man who lived in a massive gilded mansion, where he threw lavish parties and spent his money on luxury. One day, an old woman rang his doorbell. He opened the door and was disgusted to see that she was dressed in tatters, her gray hair messy and falling out of her ponytail. She asked to come in from the cold, but the man refused, not wanting to give charity to the poor, whom he viewed as lesser. Little did he know that this old woman was a powerful reporter who was doing an undercover investigation of the man’s behavior. The next day, the front page of the town newspaper featured a scathing editorial about the wealthy man. The town reacted strongly, and the man became a social outcast. 

In the town down the road from the mansion, there lived a young woman named Isabel. She lived with her father, an eccentric artist who taught Isabel to be independent and clever. Isabel loved reading and solving problems, and she was a top student at the local college. There were many girls in the town who were different from Isabel, but Isabel respected them for their lively, outgoing personalities, and they respected Isabel for her intelligence and kindness. They all knew that women turning against one another fueled the patriarchy, so they worked together to solve problems and were all very good friends. 

One day, Isabel’s father was on his way to attend an art exhibition, but a snowstorm caused his car to spin off the road. Stranded, he walked to the massive house down the road from his wrecked car. He knocked for several minutes with no reply. He tried the handle and found the door unlocked. Freezing cold and desperate, Isabel’s father entered the house.Finding the house empty of people, he moved to walk back to his car and make a plan to return home. However, when he tried to open the door to leave, he found that it had locked behind him. Suddenly, he heard something and whirled around to find a massive man with a dirty beard glaring at him from the top of the staircase. The man crashed down the stairs and grabbed Isabel’s father, dragging him through the halls before throwing him into a room that resembled a jail cell. Isabel’s father desperately tried to escape, but to no avail. He was trapped.

Back in town, Isabel began to grow worried that her father had not called her to say he was going to be late. He should have returned by now; it was not intended to be a long trip. Finally, Isabel could wait no longer. She borrowed a car from one of her friends and headed down the route that she knew her father must have taken. 

After a short while, Isabel spotted the wreckage of her father’s car. Horrified, she ran to it, but it was clear that he had escaped. Isabel walked up the path towards a nearby mansion and went to knock on the door. Like her father, she found it to be surprisingly unlocked, so she entered the house, calling, “Hello? Is anyone there? I’m looking for my father!” 

To Isabel’s surprise, she heard a faint voice yelling from somewhere in the halls. She followed the sound through twisting passages before reaching a huge stone door with a small window at eye level. Inside the door, Isabel could see her father! 

“Dad!” she cried, “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out!” Ignoring her father’s cries to get away from the house, Isabel swiftly pulled a bobby pin from her hair and went to work on the lock. It clicked, and Isabel pulled the heavy door open and ran to her father. 

“Well, well, what do we have here?” Isabel jumped at the deep voice behind her and was shocked to see a massive man glowering in the doorway. The man yanked the door shut, trapping Isabel and her father in the room. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Isabel snapped. “Let us out! We’ve done nothing wrong.” 

“Your father is a trespasser, he needs to be punished. You, on the other hand, you I can use.”

“What do you want?” Isabel asked. “Let us go!”

“Your father can go,” the man said, a smile twisting his dirty face. “But you, you will marry me. You will show this town that I am a kind man who treats the working class well. Yes, yes, marrying a working class woman will repair my image and restore me to my former power.” 

“You cannot kidnap Isabel!” Isabel’s father said immediately. “She is not planning to marry. She is meant for better things than spending her life chained to a man like you.” But the man was not listening. He grabbed Isabel’s father and threw him from the room. 

“Get out! Your daughter is redeemed by her beauty, but you are poor filth. Get out of my house before I kill you!” 

“Dad, I got this,” Isabel said calmly. “I can handle myself. You go, I’ll see you soon.” Nodding, Isabel’s father turned and ran out of the castle.

Alone with her captor, Isabel glared. “I will never marry you,” she said coldly. “You are a beast. Only monsters are so evil that they need to kidnap their wives.”

The man laughed. “We shall see.”

Days went by, and the man tried to make Isabel satisfied with her situation. He gave her dresses and even let her visit the mansion’s library, but Isabel had a plan to escape. She pretended to be grateful for her silks and books, even occasionally smiling at the Beast, though she was sickened every time she looked at his cruel, greedy face. As she kept up this charade, the Beast began to give her more freedom within her iron prison. 

One day, Isabel finally executed her plan. She descended the staircase in a beautiful yellow dress, ornately stitched and puffing out all around her. When the Beast came to the foot of the stairs to take her hand, Isabel gritted her teeth and allowed herself to be led to the table. As the Beast began to eat his food, Isabel grabbed her bowl of hot soup and threw it in the Beast’s face! While the Beast yelled and spluttered, she ripped off her dress, revealing the leggings and jacket beneath, and sprinted for the door of the mansion. The Beast had grown too comfortable with her and left the door unlocked that morning. Isabel threw it open and ran out into the cold air. She ran to the car in the driveway, and, pulling the keys she had stolen from the Beast out of her pocket, she jumped in and sped away, back to her father and into town.