The Fires of Hell: Part Two


Esmeralda remained silent as the guard escorted her back to her prison cell, struggling to keep face until she was once more alone. But despite her best efforts, the pain was too much to bare. Having had yet another day on the wrack being wiped savagely by the vicious Cat O' Nine Tails for nearly a full hour, the gypsy woman couldn't keep the tears at bay.

At first her tears went unnoticed, but soon enough the guard saw them and began to taunt her, making disgusting comments about her appearance and ancestry, but the gypsy paid him no mind. She didn't care what the guard thought of her. How she looked was trivial to how she actually felt.

As soon as they reached her cell, the guard unlocked the door and harshly pushed her inside, making Esmeralda fall on the cold cobbled floor.

"After tomorrow, I'm glad I won't have to ever see your whorish face again," the guard said with a wicked grin. "Once you've burned, they'll sweep your ashes into the four winds and us good folk will finally be rid of your evil!"

"Then I will burn with a smile on my face, knowing that I am free of this burden. . . Knowing that I will be among friends once more. . . That I may go home to God's grace and leave this accursed place behind."

Esmeralda didn't look at the guard as she spoke, for she found that she didn't have the strength to push herself up from the floor. And though her voice was no louder than a whisper, it held such a note of conviction that the guard had no reply.

After a moment of stunned silence, he left her alone in her cell, not uttering another word as the door slammed behind him.

The gypsy woman, with some difficulty, crawled towards the straw cot that resided against the far wall. But she was too weak to pull herself up onto it, so she merely pulled the blanket down to cover her bruised and bloodied body. And as she pulled the thin bare cloth over her worn frame, she truly began to cry.

Seven days. She had lasted seven whole days of being Frollo's plaything. Seven days of being beaten and branded by hot irons. Seven gruesome days in hell.

Esmeralda sobbed silently as a sort of relief washed over her. She had last an entire week, and she hadn't bent to the Judge's will. She would finally be released from this prison. Though it would mean death, the young woman welcomed it with open arms. It would mean no more beatings, and Frollo would never touch her again.

Tomorrow she would be burned at the stake for the false accusation of using witchcraft, if she continued to resist Frollo and his lustful delusions.

Esmeralda slowly came to a sitting position and leaned her back against the wall as she cried.

As tears rolled down her cheeks,her fear seemed to abate, though her fate was a dark one. There was no future for her now, for the Judge had taken everything. Not just her freedom and innocence, but her home as well. She was disgraced body and soul, and could never go back to the Court of Miracles, not when Frollo had so maliciously defiled her.

It seemed, that despite of all her challenges to Frollo authority and ideals, that the corrupt Judge had won.

Esmeralda felt broken and for once stopped trying to fight it. She was done fighting. Her destiny was decided and she was resigned to it.

The gypsy woman moved to position herself so that she could say a pray before she fell asleep. But as she knelt, Esmeralda fell back onto the cobbled floor, crying out in pain as the lashes on her back were brushed against the remnant of her white prisoners dress. After the whipping she had just received at the hands of the palace guard, the woman couldn't stay upright, so she curled into herself and said her prayer from where she lay on the floor. But instead of speaking her prayer, she sung it letting her emotional lead her words.


"I don't know if you can hear me . . .Or if you're even there.

I don't know if you would listen, to my gypsy prayer.

Yes, I know I'm just an outcast. . . That I shouldn't speak to you.

Still, I see this world and wonder. . . What could this one outcast do?

( * * * * )

Someday, when we wiser. When the world's older. . . when we have learned.

I pray, someday we may yet live . . . to live and let live.

Someday, life will be fairer. Need will be rarer, and greed will not pay.

Godspeed, this bright millennium, on its way.

Let it come someday. . .

( * * * * )

Someday, my fight will be won, then! I'll stand in the sun, then! That bright afternoon. . .

Till then, on days when the sun is gone! I'll hang on!

Wish upon the moon!

Change will come!

. . . One day. Someday . . . soon . . ."


As Esmeralda finished her song she was met by a soft tapping on the wall she was leaning against. At first the woman was silent, waiting to see what would happen, but then she threw caution to the wind and whispered a greeting. When it was immediately returned by a man's voice, Esmeralda shuddered uncontrollably.

"Was that you singing, Madame?" The man behind the wall, asked gently.

"Yes," Esmeralda admitted. "Though I didn't know anyone was there to listen to my prayer."

"You pray most beautifully," the stranger complemented. "I was most fortunate to have heard it."

Esmeralda sobbed quietly, touched by the kindness she could hear behind the man's voice. It was nothing at all like Frollo's. The man had a soft sort of lilt that somehow, made her feel safer than before. Not to mention it was the first kind thing that had been said to her in days.

"Why do you cry," he asked after several moments of silence.

Esmeralda placed her iron-burned cheek against the freezing cold wall and let out a shaky breath. "I cry because Someday will never come! My prayer will never be anything more than an outcasts dream!"

The man took several long seconds before he replied. "One day we will have peace, Madame. . . I know it."

"How," Esmeralda begged, wanting more than anything to understand his hope. "How can we have peace when there will always be men like Frollo blocking the way?"

"There will always be good people who are willing to show love to their fellow man," was his simple reply. "And there will always be those of us who are willing to fight for the truth. It is through our affection and our faith, that we shall have peace."

As the man spoke Esmeralda knew that this kind stranger was telling the truth. And it was truly comforting for her to know that perhaps the future could have a happy ending after all.

"Thank you," she whispered. "It- . . . It was wrong of me to lose hope."

"There's no reason to thank me," he said. "Just keep your chin up. Your Someday will come, soon enough."

"I truly hope so," Esmeralda breathed. Then as she felt her heart flutter, she changed the subject, asking, "Why are you here?"

"Tis a simple enough reason," the man said with a deep chuckle. "I defied Judge Claude Frollo."

For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, Esmeralda actually laughed. It was a weak and shaky sound, but it was completely sincere.
"The world's population defies Frollo by existing, sir."

Now it was the strangers turn to laugh, and laugh he did. It was a hearty sound that made the worn gypsy woman smile. And as she listened to her new friend, Esmeralda found herself daring to hope once more, though her death was fast approaching and her pain.

"It is true!" Though Esmeralda couldn't see him, she could hear the smile in his voice. "But what I did was truly unforgivable in the Judge's eyes."

"What did you do?"

"I was his Captain of the Guard, and when it mattered most, I took the side of a gypsy instead of him."

Esmeralda's eyes instantly grew wide as a unbidden memory played within her mind. It had been the Feast of Fools, and she had danced with Clopin, joyfully celebrating the fun loving holiday. It had been after her performance, when it had happened. A vicious mob in the Main Square just outside of Notre Dame had tied up Quasimodo the deformed Hunchback, and were pelting him with rotten fruits and vegetables. She had stopped the cruelty immediately, and in the process she had caught Frollo's eye in the worst way possible.

As the memory replayed Esmeralda distinctly remembered the Judge turning to his second in command, a handsome golden haired man, and demanding that he arrest her. To which the man had ultimately refused, causing the rest of Frollo's guards to turn on him. The young gypsy woman hadn't had time to see what happened to him, on account that she had run away.

"What is your name," she asked shakily, praying that she was wrong.

"Phoebus," the stranger offered. "It means 'Sun God'. And before you laugh, it was my mother named me thus, because she said I was her ray of sun."

Esmeralda would have smiled at the sweet story, if she hadn't felt so guilty. This poor man. . . he was here because of her. He had tried to stand up for her and was now here in the Palace of Justice, paying for a non-existent crime.

When Esmeralda stayed silent the man spoke again, and his voice was toned down to a gentle whisper.

"I wouldn't change anything that I did. . . It was my choice to stand up for what I believed in, and I never would have done so without the proper prodding. . . So I should thank you . . . Esmeralda."

Esmeralda placed her hand against the wall, wishing more than anything that she could see him. But the wall stayed put, blocking her view of the man that had tried to save her.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Several of the guards still owed me favors," Phoebus confided. "And I asked that if you were captured, that they would put you in the cell next to mine."

Esmeralda was speechless for several moments before she asked the groundbreaking question. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to spend the remaining hours of my life in your company." Phoebus replied with a voice that foreshadowed tears. "I couldn't leave this earth, without thanking you."

"I have done nothing to deserve your friendship," Esmeralda objected before she asked, "You would thank the gypsy that got you thrown into prison?"

"You opened my eyes to my own prejudices and made me realize that I had wasted my life supporting a broken idol. . . I would thank you for helping me repent of my sins, before I am put to death."

Esmeralda felt her heart break as his last words sunk in. "Though I did nothing intentionally, I am glad that you saw your life in perspective . . . Phoebus. . . They plan to kill you?"

"Tomorrow evening, I will be beheaded for treason."

Esmeralda closed her eyes tightly, grief filling her up almost as quickly as her hope had. Tomorrow, the world would lose an extraordinary man.

"Tomorrow, I too, am to die," Esmeralda admitted in a small whisper. "Phoebus?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you do something for me?"

When Phoebus answered, his voice was shaky, "Anything."

"Until the time comes . . . Will you talk with me?"

"Yes," Phoebus said tenderly. "And I will be with you until the very end, Esmeralda."

"Then I'm not afraid anymore," the gypsy cried softly. "Not as long as you are with me."


*~The Final Conversation~*

(* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *)

"Keep your thoughts on your 'Someday'. Mind nothing else."

"You are not afraid. . . Others would just pretend. But it's as if you would embrace the very end. . . You're an angel, sir. You were sent to me by God."

"And perhaps it's you that God has sent to me."

"When I hear your voice, all my fears are in the past. But when I must go, do you promise it will last?"

"Yes. . . And like a lightning flash, all your suffering will cease."

"Will I find you again?"

"There can be no farewells. For we will meet where the weary find peace. . . Steady."

"I'm not afraid anymore. . . I'm not afraid of anything, as long as you're with me."


Author's Note:

Esmeralda's prayer is a song that they cut out of the movie, called "Someday." It embodies all that Esmeralda desires and is a beautiful contrast for the Hellfire reprise I wrote for her. If you haven't heard Someday, I highly recommend it. ^^

The Final Conversation is based on the Finale Song from 'A Tale of Two Cities Musical'. Light italics is Esmeralda and dark italics are Phoebus.

I have several more chapters planned, but it may take a while to get them all typed and post. Please bare with me! Thank you all for your support and reviews!

Please review if you read! I want to know what you think of the story so far! :D

~Lyn Harkeran