This story will contain: violence, implications of rape, child abuse, crooked cops, drug use, mental illness and crime
Phoebus rolled his eyes as he was reprimanded for the fourth time this week. The new minister was not much better than Frollo; while he didn't believe that all gypsies deserved to be burned at the stake, he saw them as thieves and immoral people all the same. Phoebus tried to defend many of their actions as simply harmless parts of their culture, because of this he and the minister were constantly at odds with each other.
"You have to understand that their culture is what makes them prone to be criminals. They aren't all like that... they're just more likely..."
"Yes, sir." Phoebus agreed tiredly, he wasn't right about gypsies... but he wasn't completely wrong either.
"Good, captain. If only you realized this before you married one of them."
Phoebus eyes widened before narrowing with anger, he spun around to face the minister, but he was already gone. He sighed, scratching his neck, "Well, Achilles," he said looking back at his horse, "it's time for us to get home."
He smiled when he saw the door to his humble home, knowing what awaited him inside, Esmeralda would sitting with Zephyr on the floor reading a book, or playing a game on the carpet. He tied his horse to the pole outside and walked in.
"Honey, I'm home!" he announced with a smile, pushing open the door in one strong motion, his smile suddenly disappeared.
Esmeralda was sitting on the carpet, but she wasn't alone, with her was Clopin and Zephyr but that wasn't what upset him, it was the fact that Clopin was holding a needle to his son's right ear.
"What are you doing?!" Phoebus yelled. Shocking the group, Clopin tumbled to his feet, Esmeralda shot up.
"Let me explain," she said, Clopin darting behind her, "It's an old gypsy custom, to pierce a boys ear when he becomes a certain age-"
Phoebus crossed his arms over his chest, "And is there a reason you didn't think to tell me about this old custom?"
Zephyr ran up to clutch his mother's skirt, he was 11 now but he still clung to his mother he always had, "You would have said no." she said, looking away.
With those words, Phoebus' expression softened, "How can you know what I'd say if you don't even think to ask me? He's my son."
"He's my son too, and I want him to be exposed to my culture, not just yours." she said.
"Yeah, because a white gypsy is going to have a nice life." Phoebus muttered.
"You see!" she pointed at him angrily, "I knew you would have said no!"
"I'm trying to what's best for everyone," Phoebus puffed.
"So you think you're culture is better than mine." she stated turning away from him.
"Well I'm just going to go..." Clopin muttered in the background, sneaking out the window as the couple continued to fight, looking the down at Zephyr he added, "I suggest the same for you, little one. Things are about to get ugly."
"I don't think that my culture is better than yours... but other people think it is!" Phoebus tried to defend himself, only succeeding in further angering Esmeralda.
She beat on the sides of her head with his brown hands, "You're impossible! Do you even hear yourself?!" she turned around, shoving him slightly, "What does it matter what anyone thinks?!"
"What about Zephyr? Did you even bother to ask him if this is what he wanted?" he looked around and noticed that Zephyr was no where to be seen, his face softened completely, "Where's Zephyr?"
Esmeralda's eyes widened, "He was here just a second ago!" she whipped around, "Zephyr!" she called out but there was no answer.
Phoebus' eyes darted around the room until the fixed on the open window, the curtains blowing slightly in the wind, his heart nearly stopped, "Oh no."
"He ran away." Esmeralda said what they were both thinking, clutching her chest.
"He can't have gotten far, I'll go out and look for him. Stay here in case he comes back." said Phoebus, Esmeralda nodded and he rushed out. He jumped on Achilles wasting no time, he just cut the tether with his sword and dug his heels into Achilles sides to tell him to run.
"Zephyr!" he called down the streets and ally ways, he pulled the reins hard, Achilles came to a stop, "Zephyr!" he called again, jumping off of Achilles. It was a bad part of the city, at the smallest noise he drew his sword, "Stay close Achilles," he looked back at his horse, "I don't like the look of this place."
Another noise, footsteps down one of the ally ways, Phoebus held his sword out in front of him in a threatening manner, "Show yourself!"
Out stumbled a small girl with mousy brown hair, he knew a good amount of English from his crusades but he barely understood her she was talking so fast, "Help me, please! They're after me! I don't know where I am!" after that she started to cry and he couldn't make out a single word.
He crouched down and saw her eyes dart to the sword he held fearfully, he laid it down before her, "I'm a friend," he smiled reassuringly, she nodded slightly, "Now tell me who's after you." her eyes darted around, it was almost like she couldn't see him at all, "No one's going to hurt you," he assured, attempting to lay his hand on her shoulder.
Suddenly,(not looking at him) she screamed like bloody murder, wrestled to her feet and attempted to run away, when he caught her by the arm she bit down on his hand. He jerked away with a cry and she continued running.
"Come back! It's not safe out there!" he shouted after her, she only continued running, "Dammit," he cursed running after her.
"There's nothing after you!" he shouted and suddenly came to a stop, before him was an old building that looked like it was about to fall in, "She can't have-"a scream resonated through the ally, "Stay where you are, I'm coming!" he called, pushing past the debris and entering the building the floor underneath him creaking and cracking loudly. He could hear sobbing as he stepped carefully over fallen supports, "It's not safe in here, where are you?" he called for her, the sobbing seemed like it was everywhere at once. He came to a door blocked by boards and he saw her, curled up in the corner sobbing. "You're safe now," he said beginning to rip the boards away.
"NO! NO!" she screamed, "Go away! You'll break it!" she ran up to the door and wrestled with him to put the boards back.
"You aren't even making any sense!" he snapped, jerking a board away from her, causing her to fall back, suddenly the building began to tremble and creak. The floor beneath him gave way and suddenly he was falling into a black abyss, the girl reached to grab him but wasn't fast enough. He fell for what seemed like forever until he hit the ground with a hard thud and was knocked unconscious.
He awoke to the sun spilling over him, rubbing his eye. He expected to be in bed with Esmeralda, having just had an awful nightmare, but that wasn't the truth. His bed was soft but what he laid on now was hard and cold, with only a blanket of discarded newspapers. Broken bottles were all around him as if his body had served as the marking for some non-existent dumpster. He pulled himself to his feet, rubbing the back of his neck, his clothes were torn and it seemed as if his armor had been stolen. He used the wall as support as he looked over his surroundings. He was in some kind of ally, it smelled of urine and ash, around him where many men and women of similar condition, sleeping on the gravel, each in strange garb.
"Where am I?" he murmured, he wasn't given much time to ponder that, however, for the next second a horrible black and white metal carriage with blue and red lights flashing on top rushed into the ally, causing everyone to scatter. Phoebus watched them rush past him, unsure of what to do as strange men got out of the carriage, dressed all in blue.
"It's time someone cleaned up the streets of these urchins," one of them said in that horrible language English, grabbing a young child by her hair as she stumbled after the others.
"Leave her alone!" he shouted, attempting to reach for her before a man came up behind him and hit him in the throat with some kind of club, knocking the breath out of him.
"I've got this one, you go after the others," they said. The other men went to rush after the running people leaving Phoebus alone with the one who hit him in the throat.
It took Phoebus only a second to regain his breath, "Please, I'm just trying to find my son, do you know what part of France this is?" the man was shocked for a moment but then he just rolled his eyes.
"Fucking nutjobs," he muttered, shoving Phoebus against the wall, "Hands behind your back."
"Well if that's the way you want to play it," Phoebus muttered, he elbowed the other man in the ribs, causing him to reel and made a break for it.
"One's getting away!" the man shouted into some strange black object. Phoebus looked back and saw that they were all far behind him, smiling until he heard a brain splitting horn. White lights shining bright in his face.
A huge metal carriage was coming up right at him, he dove quickly out of the way only to see another, and then another until he finally go the other side.
"He's some kind of fucking lunatic!" one of the men shouted.
Phoebus rushed down the sidewalk, bumping into people and asking them all the same question, "Do you know how to get to Paris from here?" receiving nothing more than disgusted glares an cruel remarks regarding his sanity. He saw the men busting through the crowd behind his and picked up his pace, slamming into someone.
"What the hell?!" they said.
"I-I'm sorry sir- but"
She turned around, bright red hair, green eyes blazing, "What did you just call me?"
"Oh!" Phoebus proclaimed stumbling to his feet, "You're a woman."
"Damned right I'm woman you little-" she said angrily, shoving her finger into his chest.
"I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find my son, is this Paris?" he asked her, her face softened suddenly. They heard yelling in the crowd. She whipped around.
"You're being chased," she said softly.
"Tell me something I don't know." said Phoebus shrugging, he started to rush off.
"Wait!" the woman shouted after him, but there was no need, he was quickly caught by what she referred to as 'cops'.
"Got ya'!"one said, struggling to hold his arms behind his back, when he continued to fight, they tased him. He screamed as the painful, foreign sensation rushed up his spine slipping to his knees.
The woman watched, biting her lip, wincing in sympathy. Yet she was unsure what to do until one of them pulled out their club, she rushed up to them, "I see you found my brother," she said with what she hoped was a convincing smile.
Phoebus looked up at her from his position on the ground, "Wh-what-" he panted.
She silenced him with a dark glare before smiling back up at the cops, "He forgot to take his medicine, you see, and I've been looking for him. He didn't cause you any trouble did he?"
"He's been rushing around talking about Paris, so yeah." the man looked at her skeptically.
She laughed a little awkwardly, "I'm so sorry, I'll just take it from here," she reached a hand down to Phoebus, "come on big brother, let's get you home." he took it hesitantly and she helped to his feet and started to walk away with him.
"What are you doing?" he asked her quietly.
"Saving your life," she replied harshly.
The cops heard her and jerked them back, grabbing Phoebus "I think it's best if we run him through the system anyways, just for safety's sake. You know it's illegal to lie to a police man, right?"
The woman sighed deeply, looking at the cop angrily, she dug in her pocket and pulled out as small leather object, she opened it up and handed a substantial amount of green paper and shoved it into his waiting hand, "There!" she snapped.
The man released Phoebus and he moved to stand beside her, rubbing his wrist.
"Pleasure doing business with you, ma'am!" the cop said, tipping his hat, "Enjoy your crazy guy!"
"I hate cops," she muttered.
"Thank you," Phoebus said, "Why did you do that?"
She wrapped her arms around herself, "Because I know what they would have done to you if I hadn't," she turned away from him. He gently pulled her back.
"I haven't introduced myself, I'm Phoebus, it means sun god," he half bowed, reaching his hand out to her, "And you are?"
She chuckled at him, "You really aren't from around here, are you?" she looked away, "People call me Wraith."
Phoebus withdrew the hand she didn't take, "Strange, does it mean anything in English?"
She smiled sadly, "Demon."
Weird, I know, but I worked on it for a long time so please review!