Gypsy Camp

Charles Comte de Chagny descended from his carriage with natural elegance. He had taken the detective, his solicitor, and a few loyal male servants, with him. The Comte stopped a small gypsy boy, and told him, "Lad, can you take us to the devil's child?"

A few minutes later they were among a wild crowed of people yelling obscenities, laughing, and throwing objects towards a cage. The group of the Comte waited at the back of the crowd as it was impossible to get through.

Slowly the crowed started to dissipate, and the Comte with his men started moving towards the cage. The first thing the Comte de Chagny noticed was a sign above a cage that read, "The Devil's Child" painted in bright red letters. As he continued to move forward he noticed a foul smell, he took out his handkerchief, and covered his nose in disgust. Next he saw a cage like that of an animal, there were very dirty small human hands clinging to the bars. Next he noticed that the wrists attached to those hands were tied with rope to the bars.

The Comte de Chagny continue to move forward, and finally saw a face covered in tears, and blood, pressed between the bars. When he saw the disfigurement of that face there was no longer a doubt in his mind, he pushed his way forward through the few people that were left, he stepped in front of Erik, and protected the child with his body. He yelled at the remaining people, "How can you be so cruel, and treat a child like this, leave or you will face justice." His voice sounded broken at the end of his speech.

Javert approached the Comte de Chagny from inside the cage, and told him angrily, "Who do you think you are, to scare my costumers away. This thing it's not a child, but the spawn of the devil." To accentuate his words, he hit Erik's thin abused back with his whip. The poor child could not hold back a groan of pain, and more tears poured out his eyes, while he trembled in pain. The Comte took out his gun, pointed it at the cruel master, and yelled at Javert, "Don't you dare touch this child again, or I swear that I'll kill you. I am Charles Comte de Chagny, and this boy, this child, is my son Erik."

Javert might have been drunk, but a gun pointed at his chest made him see reason, and he backed away from Erik, with his hands held up high. The solicitor told him, "If you know what is good for you open the door of this cage, and come out with your hands held high." While this was going on, Erik had closed his eyes tightly in both shame, and anger. His father the Comte de Chagny was using his handkerchief to gently clean the tears, blood, and manure off his face.

Once Javert was out of the cage, and restrained by his employees, Charles walked up to the man, and took the keys from him. He entered his son's cage, and approached the child. Erik heard someone approaching him from behind, and gave an involuntary shudder before tensing up in anticipation of the whip that he expected to fall on his back. Instead he heard the calming voice of his father telling him, "It's Papa, Erik, no one is going to hurt you again son, you are safe now." A few stray tears, were running down the face of the Comte de Chagny.

Erik fell the gentle hands of his father cutting the rope that was around his neck, and then the ropes that restrained his wrist. He was too weak to support himself, and he fell backwards. But he never hit the floor of the cage, instead the strong arms of his father caught him, and after kissing his forehead, his father gently laid him on the hay. His ankles were still shackled to the bars of the cage. The Comte used the keys he obtained from Javert to open the rusty metal shackles. More tears spilled out the Comte's eyes when he saw the raw bleeding ankles of his son, they were in such bad shape that he could even see some bone.

It had been years since another human being had approached Erik without the intention to harm him, out of instinct he started scooting away from his father, the pupils of his golden eyes dilated with fear. His father spoke to him, and told him, "Erik it's Papa, do you remember me son?"

It was anger that gave Erik the strength to talk, his voice was full of hurt, and hatred while he yelled at his father, "Of course I remember how your wife sold me, following your orders. What are you doing here pretending to care? Did you come to see the devil's child to further humiliate me, what type of sick pleasure do you get out of it Father?" Then the lad broke down crying, and begged, "Please just go, I cannot take any more pain, and shame in my life."

The Comte scooped the almost naked child in his arms, ignoring the flinching, he gently rocked him while he spoke, "Erik my child, my precious son, I never told your stepmother to sell you. I have been looking for you for years, because I love you, and my hearth has been broken without you. "

Erik could not believe what his father was saying, he could not risk any more pain in his life. His father understood that, he sat Erik on the hay, and put his fingers under Erik's chin gently lifting his face until their eyes met, then he said, "Erik look at my eyes, and you'll know that what I say is true. I love you my son with all my heart, and I swear that I never told my wife to sell you." The lad saw the love in his father's eyes, and realized that it was directed at him. He figured that no one could fake love like that, so pure, and so raw, like a reflection of the soul.

The lad looked right in to his father's eyes, threw his thin, grubby arms, around his father's neck, and said in a low voice, "Papa, I believe you, and I love you too," before fainting from exhaustion, starvation, and pain, feeling safe in his father's arms. The Comte walked out with his son in his arms, and deposited him on the grass to check on him, he felt better when his saw his thin chest rising, and falling. He took his elegant black evening cape off, and rapped his son with it, before lifting him back in to his arms. He could have given him to one of his servants to carry, but he needed to feel his son securely in is arms, to be able to believe, that finally after all these years he had found his little Erik.

The ride back to the de Chagny mansion in Paris was one filled with different emotions for the Comte. The strongest being rage towards his wife, how dare she lie to him, and sell his precious son to gypsies. There was no doubt about it. Javert gave a perfect description of her, and even showed him the papers that she signed to transfer the ownership of The Devil's Child to Javert. He recognized her signature. Of course the papers were illegal, but were irrefutable proof that his wife had sold his son, for a few silver coins.

Erik stirred in his father's arms, whimpered, and opened his eyes. His father pulled him closer to his chest, and murmured "Go back to sleep my son." The child moved his head closer to his father's heart and wrapped his skeletal arms around him, before closing his eyes, and going back to sleep, listening to the calming rhythm of the Comets heart. Love, and worry, were the current dominating emotions of the Comte, as well as paternal protectiveness towards Erik.

The Comte looked down at the face of his sleeping son, it was not his deformity that caught his attention, but it's hollowness, and the amount of grim on it, he moved further down, and opened his cape slightly to reveal the protruding ribs of his sons, and his concave belly, the skin adorned with old scars and open sores. Further down his genitals were covered with a filthy rag, kept in place by a rope tied around his hips. His legs were skin and bone, his knees raw, and bony. The poor child smelled of urine, feces, blood, stale sweat, and animal manure.

Charles consider himself a strong man but could not stop himself from weeping at the state of his son. He was so angry with his wife that he felt like killing her, he knew that it would not be safe to have her in his presence for a long time. First thing in the morning he would send a carriage to bring his young son Raoul, to him. She could not be trusted with his children. What if she decided to sell him too? The woman's evil knew no boundaries.

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vonny25