text: [Themes: fan fiction]
  
  Tyler swiped right, only slightly fazed by the girl's thousand-yard stare. She was still certainly out of his league, so why not take a chance?
  
  You got a match!
  
  The chat popped up on his app, and he almost immediately received a message:
  
  [Stella]: heyy, how are you?
  
  [Tyler]: Pretty good, are you a bot? lol
  
  [Stella]: am I a bot? what kind of a pickup line is that?
  
  [Tyler]: Cause youre... uhm... so magnetic? Idk, I get tons of bots on here.
  
  [Stella]: Lol do you want to hang out or something
  
  [Tyler]: Sure, I've got Disney+ if you want to come over and hang out or something
  
  [Stella]: Disney plus? sounds cool, what time should I come over tonight?
  
  [Tyler]: Tonight? How does 9 sound?
  
  [Stella]: sounds perfect
  
  Tyler exited out of Tinder, feeling equal parts nervous and elated. That had been... easy. The difficult part, as he slowly scanned his disaster of an apartment, would be cleaning up his mess. It was already approaching noon, and he hadn't even begun to touch the unspeakable throat spillage that "Mad Brad" had unleashed behind the couch. It STUNK, a rancid combination of each party snack he'd had that night. Industrial strength gloves and baking soda were the recommendation he got from Google, so before he left to grab more snacks, he sprinkled it all over the carpet.
  
  It was 8:30 pm, and Tyler was vaccuming up the last of the baking powder, praying to the party gods that Google had not failed him. Luckily, it seemed to have worked. It still smelled a little suspicious, so he hit it with a few puffs of Fabreze before taking another look at his apartment. Everything was looking pretty pristine. He'd scrubbed the bathroom, sterilized the kitchenette, and rearranged the furniture to cover up one of the stains he wasn't able to remove, a blotchy brown stain that had been there long before he'd lived there. Stella had asked for his address about an hour ago, so now it was time to wait.
  
  He was in the middle of an agressive pre-date pep talk when there was a light knock on the door. It was Stella.
  
  "Hey! How's it going?" Time seemed to freeze as he opened the door, and those words came out of the blonde-haired girl's mouth. She was even more stunning in person, and it was pretty evident that she wasn't trying to be. She was wearing a blue hoodie and jeans, and a warm smile.
  
  "Pretty good," Tyler answered cautiously, "You're Stella, right?"
  
  "Do I not look like my pictures?"
  
  "Yeah, uhm... you do. Want to come in?"
  
  "Sure haha, I like your apartment, by the way, it's cozy!" Her eyes scanned over Tyler's place, as if she was looking for something, and Tyler was relieved that he'd taken the time to scrub everything. Her eyes glanced at his Denny's uniform, hung over a chair and pressed neatly. "You work at a Denny's? That's like my go-to 4am spot, dude. Can't believe I've never seen you at yours, I go so often!"
  
  "Well I'm not usually working the night shift. What do you do?"
  
  "Uh... I work part-time at a nursing home while going to school to become a high school teacher."
  
  Goddamn, I never had any teachers that looked like this. Kids nowadays get fucking everything.
  
  "So, if I remember correctly, I was promised Disney movies. So, what's your pick?"
  
  "Oh, I was going to let you pick, since you're the guest."
  
  "I have to pick? Uhm... okay I guess my two favorite Disney movies would be either Frozen, or Beauty and the Beast. So your choice," she smiled, "the best I can do is narrow it down for you."
  
  > Beauty and the Beast
  "Okay, I havent't seen Beauty and the Beast in a while. How about that?"
  
  "Oh! That's my absolute favorite. You read my mind!" They sat down on the couch, surrounded by a horde of movie snacks, where Tyler turned on his TV and began scrolling through Disney+. It took him surprisingly long to come across Beauty and the Beast; it was tucked away in a corner of the app like some kind of unearthed relic. As he selected it, Stella noticibly reclined into the couch, and her smile faded slightly.
  
  "Something wrong?" Her eyes darted towards Tyler, bulging a tad.
  
  "No, no. I just thought of something."
  
  With that bit of awkwardness out of the way, the movie began. As the quaint town of Villenuve panned across his TV, Tyler noticed further signs of distress coming from his date. Oddly enough, Stella kind of reminded him of the main character Belle, in both how she looked, and even a little bit of her mannerisms. While Belle danced around and sung and checked books out from the Villenuve library, Stella crossed her arms, looking increasingly uncomfortable. Tyler was beginning to question whether this was the same girl he had met earlier. Finally, as the scene where Belle and the Beast begin to get along appeared on the screen, she excused herself.
  
  "Hey, I'm sorry, you mind if I get some water or something? I don't know what's come over me today."
  
  "Yeah, go ahead! There's glasses in the top cabinet, furthest to the right."
  
  "Thanks."
  
  She vanished into the kitchen, leaving Tyler to watch the tense "will-they-won't-they" musical number by himself. The theory that Belle suffered from Stockholm syndrome was actually starting to make quite a bit of sense to him, watching it as an adult. A minute passed. Tyler wasn't really the type to be nosy, but he hadn't heard a sound from the kitchen since Stella had gone in there.
  
  "Hey, Stella, you good?"
  
  "Yeah, I'm alright. Quick question?"
  
  "Shoot."
  
  "What happens when you're both?"
  
  "Both? Both what?"
  
  "Beauty... and the beast?"
  
  Stella's skinny frame appeared in the kitchen doorway, brandishing a long steak knife. She had several long gashes on her own arms already, which were oozing viscously. Holy fuck.
  
  "Hey! What're you holding that knife for? Drop that shit!" Tyler's voice cracked as the music from the movie swelled behind him. Stella traced the wounds in her arms with the knife point, wincing.
  
  "What do people usually do with knives?" In a heartbeat, it was out of her arms, and leveled against Tyler's chest cavity, the pointed end jabbing lightly into him. He held his hands to the side.
  
  "Look, whatever this is about, you don't have to stab me! Put the fucking knife down!" Her face flickered between several emotions, before settling on a grim determination. No, it would change once more, to shock.
  
  A chill passed through Tyler's body; the temperature had taken a sharp dive downwards. Stells stumbled backwards, dropping the knife onto the carpet before letting out a blood-curdling scream.
  
  She glanced this way
  
  I thought I saw
  
  And when we touched she didn't shudder at my paw
  
  Something heavy, damp, and warm laid itself on Tyler's shoulder.
  
  > run. Now.
  Tyler ripped his shoulder away from the... thing, and shoved Stella aside, but as he made his way towards the door, things started to look... weird. Things were getting cold, quickly. By the time he'd stepped to the door, the knob was already iced over.
  
  Fuck, fuck.
  
  Tyler whirled around, where something was lumbering in the now entirely ice-encased living room. Long trails of steam floated upwards from its head, and it bore long fangs, before breaking out into song again.
  
  No it can't be, I'll just ignore
  
  But then she's never looked at me that way before
  
  The dank, matted fur. The fangs. And those piercing blue eyes amongst it all. It could only be one thing, but how? It arched its back upwards, grazing its massive head against the ceiling. Long marroon drapes hung from its body, straying across the floor. It was oppressive, and smelled starkly of wet dog.
  
  The thing turned its eyes on Stella, who was still recovering on the apartment floor. It didn't appear to be even the semi-rabid version of the Beast from the movie, instead a contorted nightmare of him. The Beast ran a massive tongue over its fangs; Stella was about to become dog food.
  
  > get the fuck out of there
  Save the chick who'd not moments earlier threatened to kill him? Yeah, good one.
  
  Tyler dashed past Stella and the Beast, but not quickly enough to avoid being splashed with little remnants of Stella's brain. The Beast's rather straightforward methodology for devouring corpses would not give him a whole lot of time to find an alternative way to escape... or fight back. He eyed the fire escape briefly, which could work in a pinch for an escape, but he'd never used it before. For all he knew, it was an icy death trap.
  
  The other option was to hole up in his room, and get a weapon. The thick, muscular body of the Beast meant that tiny blades (which were all he had) would prove pretty ineffective, but he had a different idea. An aerosol can, plus his trusty lighter.
  
  > take the Fire Escape
  Probably not the best idea to trap myself in my own room with an active fire.
  
  Instead, Tyler slid through his apartment's sliding door exit, and onto the metal balcony.
  
  Holy shit, this stuff is slick!
  
  Within the first few seconds, he'd already nearly toppled over the edge of the railing. Whatever sort of... artificial winter this thing was causing, it was really getting in his way of traversing his escape. A nearby roar told Tyler that the Beast had already consumed his meal, and that he was its next prey. He slid down the narrow steps, grasping the railing with raw fingers. The moisture in his skin was already starting to become an issue. It stuck to the railing like it had been doused in Elmer's.
  
  Glass broke above him, and showered through the gaps in the floor. Tiny shards nicked at his neck, hands, and arms. Just one more floor to go, and then the ladder. It would never come to be.
  
  Like a massive ape swinging in the jungle, the Beast swung downwards through the rungs of the ladder, planting two enormous feet into Tyler's chest. He was thrown backwards into the side of the building, where the Beast spent no time at all tearing him limb from limb.