DISCLAIMER: The Hunchback of Notre Dame and all related characters and events belong to Victor Hugo and the Walt Disney Company. This is a not-for-profit work. I am not making any money, nor am I attempting to negatively affect the market for any of the materials shown, or take proceeds from their creators, but rather to expand the fanbase and keep the pre-existing fanbase strong.
A single quote from the film is used at the beginning of this chapter.
RATING: T (for some violence, character death, minor suggestive adult themes, and ideologically sensitive material)
Contains a lot of my own personal beliefs concerning the afterlife, many of which do not mesh with any established religion's teaching, and some of which may be considered offensive. Read at your own risk.
The end of this chapter contains a short but fairly graphic description of a very painful death. This will almost certainly be the only instance of such a description.
SHIPS: Claude Frollo x Esmeralda (sort of…)
CHARACTERS FEATURED: Judge Claude Frollo, Esmeralda, and OCs based on historical and Biblical figures.
Prologue: And He Shall Smite the Wicked
Judge Claude Frollo raised his sword. "And He shall smite the wicked, and plunge them into the Fiery Pit!"
Far below, Paris was ablaze, the roar of the flames merging with the cries of the wounded and dying. The very air itself burned in his lungs, the smoke choking his vision. But Frollo didn't care about any of this. Finally. Finally the damned witch would cease to torment him. Everything else no longer mattered.
A crumbling noise beneath his feet. The gargoyle's head on which he stood was breaking off from the cathedral… he lost his balance and very nearly fell, dropping his sword, only saving himself by grabbing hold of the gargoyle's stone neck.
He clung to it desperately, high, high above the blazing inferno.
And then the gargoyle's eyes burned red as it ceased to be lifeless stone, and it snarled at him with a deep hellish roar. In that moment, a bolt of clarity hit him and he finally understood. Finally accepted what the one remaining good part of his soul had been trying to tell him. And of course now it was too late.
The demon dragged him down into the abyss. As he fell down, down, the air grew hotter, searing his skin, burning his throat as he screamed. After what was both an instant and an eternity, he plunged into the sea of molten copper at the base of the cathedral. The flesh was seared off his bones; the pain was excruciating, but mercifully brief. Death came almost instantly. His last thoughts were a scramble of torment and regret… and then darkness.