Third Degree Burn
Chapter One
The hunchback watched as his guardian fell backward into the rising flames. No more Frollo to hurt him or Esmeralda. No more wickedness in this part of the world.
Except as the hunchback squinted, he saw something miraculous happen. The fire was retracting. Were the gypsies below putting it out?
But no, something monstrous rose before his eyes. It was swallowing the flames. This was no miracle at all, but a horrific dragon.
Quasimodo's former guardian fell down onto the creature's back, unharmed.
"I will come back for you, boy," he said, as the dragon flew before him. "Though I love the woman you are protecting, lust for, the woman I truly love is right here."
He patted the dragon's neck.
"Um, that is a beast," the hunchback said, confused.
"She is a powerful sorceress transformed into this magnificent creature," Frollo said. "Something you would never understand, boy."
"I thought you hated magic."
"A mistress with powers has just saved my life. People can change their minds."
The hunchback glared at his former master.
"You will never be welcome in this church again," he declared.
"I don't care," Frollo said. "I am going to a place where I will have my happily ever after. And you will rot in this bell tower for the next sixty years. That girl you saved doesn't even love you."
"I don't care!" Quasimodo shouted. "I have won against you this day.'
"You win this battle, yes, foolish boy. But I win the war."
And with that, the dragon took flight.
/./
"I'm going to send you to a place where there are no happily ever afters," the Evil Queen said, in another country just as Quasimodo was watching Esmeralda and Phoebus reunite, the worry of Frollo being out there still on his mind.
Snow White and Prince Charming were forced to send their child through a wardrobe. A boy they called Henry.
"You won't remember any of this," they were warned. "But it's the only way to save the Enchanted Forest."
/./
A circus came to Paris not long after Frollo had left and it was being rebuilt from the damage he had dealt. Esmeralda was pregnant with her and Phoebus' child.
Quasimodo was giving up on love, when he encountered a beautiful maiden working for a wicked man among the circus folk. It took awhile to reach her heart, but eventually he did.
Just as they shared their first kiss, the earth shook, as the Evil Queen's spell reached everyone, bringing them out of the Enchanted Forest into a place called…New York.
Twenty-eight years after the event, no one had grown any older. But Frollo had adopted a daughter. She was sleeping upstairs, while he kissed a woman who felt like she was in the wrong place, but couldn't remember the guy she belonged with.
And the girl upstairs dreamed of fairy tale creatures, including a hunchback she called uncle, coming to rescue her from a dark, twisted villain. She also dreamt she had two fathers,one biological, one who had adopted her, who were fighting over who properly should have custody of her. But when she would wake up in the morning, she'd run to Frollo, hug him around the middle, and make his breakfast. Even though she sensed something not altogether right about him, he was the dad who cared about her. Where her actual father was, why he and her mother had given her up, she expected never to know.
"We might wake Emma," Frollo said at one point, when the lovemaking noises he and Esme were causing started to get loud.
"Sorry," she said, sheepishly. "And you have mayorial duties in the morning. I should get going."
She reached down for her gown.
"It's way too late in the night for you to leave," he said. "We can just rest quietly next to each other."
"Okay, big man," she said, giggling. She suddenly thought of a flash of blond hair, on a male. If Frollo had had blond hair, it was so long ago, she had no way of knowing without asking him.
His adoptive daughter was blonde though. Esme really liked Emma. She sometimes seemed misunderstood, or aloof. But when she did show her joy, it was terrific to be around her.
That was one reason Esme remained around Frollo. To keep Emma from falling to pieces.
And the other reason? Because a part of her mind seemed to say that this man was an adequate substitute, until she remembered who the guy she belonged with was.
One day she would betray Frollo, if she ever found the other man. But she couldn't remember his name, and for all she knew, his hair was red, and not blond, the way her memory had told her just now.
Because she was also recalling a man with crimson hair. She couldn't recall other details about him, like how they met.
She was sure Frollo would know who this man was, if she asked. But she feared he'd yell at her, should she ask.
Maybe it was better not to know. She cuddled back with her lover, and settled into sleep.