Out There


I own none of the characters, they are owned by Disney, Victor Hugo and Disney Channel. I do however own the original characters.

This chapter is short, I know.


Chapter 6: Hellfire


"I was 10 years old.." Matt began to explain.

***FLASHBACK***

A ten year old boy and girl were playing in the woods.

"Matty, see if you can catch me." a young Romani girl said excitedly. She had her hair in a pony tail. Her ebony mane was tamed by an elastic band.

"No fair, Es. I can't keep up with you." a small red headed boy declared.

Alone they ventured further into the woods. But not so far as they could no longer see light trickle from the edge. Not even thinking that they could be putting themselves in danger. Esmeralda and Quasimodo had a meeting with King Adam and Queen Belle. Phoebus had to report to General Li Shang as the replacement head of the Royal Guard, after Shang got a promotion.

"Come on Matty. We have don't all day. I want to see the lights!" Esther stated. It was Princess Rapunzel's 29th birthday. The festival of Lanturns was a tradition in the Autonomous Region of Corona, a region in Auradon. Paris, also known as the City of The Cathedral, was the capital of the nation. It wasn't for two years that Matt and Esther would have the chance to attend Auradon Prep.

The rustling of bushes frightened the children but they ultimately decided it was probably just a bunny. The two peasant children continued playing in the forest, unaware that something far more sinister was stalking them.

***Pause***

"Wait a minute? You thought the rustling of the bushes was a bunny?"

"Shut up and listen, Ben."

***Flashback***

Matt heard sticks crackling, like something was stepping on twigs or something. Matt tapped Esther repeatedly on the shoulder. He was really starting to get scared. Esther tried to calm her best friend down.

"Matty, it's okay. You hide, I'll count to 20 and find you."

Matt went a little deeper into the woods alone. It was dark and he was scared. But he found a pretty good hiding place and hid there. But the grove he was in was occupied by another person. A strange looking man with a hooked nose and a strange looking black dress.

"What are you wearing?"

"I am a judge, young man. This is what I wear."

"Oh, it looks funny." Matt said, not knowing who this man was. His voice was deep and scary. He also had a funny looking hat that was shaped like a triangle. "My names Matt, what's yours?" He asked innocently.

"Claude."

"Clawed? Like a crab?"

"Yes, sort of like that. Where are your parents, dear boy?"

"My mommy died when I was born. My dad is working."

"A good hard worker then? What does he do?"

"He rings the bells in the Bell Tower. He says when I'm older that I'm going to take over his job..." Suddenly the funny looking man grabbed Matt and stole him away. Esther saw this and ran after them.

Esther ran into her mother and Quasimodo full of tears.

"Mamma, Quasimodo. Some strange man has captured Matty." She said, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly the man stood in front of them, Matt in one arm, what looked like a jar of black and scarlet flames in the other hand.

"Master Frollo please. Not my son, it's me you're after. He's an innocent..."

"You disobeyed me, Quasimodo. This child's life is the price you shall pay for your insolence."

"STOP!" A booming voice cried over the crowd. The King himself, King Adam appeared. "How is it you have escaped?"

"I think you'll find that I have quite a way with words, your majesty. This does not concern you, Beast King, it is between me and the Hunchback. He will suffer, for what he did to me. At the price of his son!" Frollo sneered as he opened the jar and the Black and Red flames spilled on to Matthew.

Esmeralda sheltered Esther from seeing this but the boy was screaming as his Shadow (the life force of those in Auradon) began to rip apart from Quasimodo. Quasimodo tried to put out the fire but couldn't. For but a moment, Frollo had succeeded, until a knight clad in armour wrestled the boy from Frollo. The King's Guard arrested Frollo. But Matt was still screaming in pain for his papa, for his mother as no one noticed from the shadows a man with a Blue Pointy hat and a long beard was mumbling something unhearable to the human ears.

The crowd parted as a Raven crowed from the top of Notre Dame as though signalling the death of an innocent boy. Just then light flickered from the heavens as three fairies, the Three Good Fairies came and somehow dimmed the fire. Matt's skin deformed as scars began forming, black as night.

"Will he live? Is my son okay?"

"Fear not, dear Hunchback, we cannot heal his scars, but we can stop the curse from taking hold. We must got to Princess Rapunzel and extract the magical blood that holds the essence of the Magical Healing Flower." Meriweather stated.

The Fairies took the boy to the state of Corona, where Rapunzel was celebrating her birthday.

"What happened here? What is that thing doing out of the tower?" Queen Leah scolded as Quasimodo burst through the party.

"Your majesty please. There has been a terrible accident in the Great City..." Queen Belle kindly stated, as Quasimodo snorted.

"Accident? You're majesty, if I may so bold to say, what happened was not an accident. The son of Quasimodo almost had his shadow torn from him by the Hellfire curse." Flora interjected.

"That's not possible. Maleficent is still on the Isle..." Princess Rapunzel said...

Suddenly a knock at the door interrupted Matt's story. Quasimodo had returned from work. He had finished the Bells for Evening Mass. Esmeralda suddenly burst into the door.

"Quasimodo come quick. It's Phoebus..."

"What happened, Esmeral.."

"He's been murdered."

Esmeralda rushed out in tears. Quasimodo went up the stairs to find the two boys talking on the roof of the Cathedral.

"Your Majesty, Matt." Quasimodo said to the two boys. "Get inside and stay there until I come back for you." He continued to say with a tone of warning and fear for the worst.

"Dad, what's happening." Matt said while signing to him.

"Phoebus has been murdered, the Royal Guard compromised..."

"The Royal Guard? Are my parents okay?" Ben asked worried that he might lose his parents. Until Ben was of Age, his mother and father were acting King and Queen.

"They're fine." Queen Elsa said behind Quasimodo.

"Elsa..."

"Hello Quasi. We should go help Esmeralda."

"Queen Elsa, what's going on?"

"The school has been compromised. Someone there released a dark curse. A boy named Frank."

"What kind of curse?"

"You must be Matthew. A scourge of victories against Auradon and her allies. Arendelle and Wonderland have fallen to Oz, who have also annexed the Southern Isles. I fear that the Wizard now turns his gaze towards Auradons's outer States, Corona, DunBroch and Camelot."

"Boys, stay inside, please." Quasimodo said as the two of them left. Those four words, Matt had a feeling, would be the last words his father spoke to him for a while.

Matt needed to find out what was happening. Suddenly a small figure appeared on the doorstep. It was Macaria and she was holding an injured and unconscious Mal.

"Macaria what happened?"

"It's Frank. He's taken over Auradon Prep. He's holding everyone hostage. Only Mal and I managed to escape. But's on his way to the capital. He says there is to be a bonfire execution and everyone is invited in Three Days Time."

Ben looked on in horror as the world he knew and the Kingdom he loved were now in peril. His friends were in danger. He looked to Matt, but the son of the Hunchback avoided his gaze. Matt didn't know what to do. Mal was unconscious and Macaria was looking at Ben for what to do next. It was his first real test as a king. But he felt it was one he could not pass. He feared for his country.

"Ben?" Matt said.

"Yeah?"

"What do we do?"

"I don't know, Matt." Ben said, for the first time, Matt saw the young king break down into tears. Matt hugged his friend.

"We'll figure it out, Ben...I-I promise."he said. Matt didn't even get to finish his story to Ben.

FLASHBACK

"...Maleficent is still on the Isle." Rapunzel said.

"It was not Maleficent, but the enemy of Quasimodo. Claude Frollo did this. He murdered three members of the Royal Guard and escaped the Isle. He was stalking young Matthew here and then captured him when the boy talked to him. That curse he lay on the boy, is the Hellfire Curse, stolen from Maleficent's keep. It is a curse of terrible and great power." Flora, the Green Fairy stated.

"What must we do? Is there a cure?" Queen Belle asked.

"Only Merlin knows of it..."

"Merlin? But Merlin's been lost since the reign of Arthur..."

"There is a way to contain it."

"How?" Rapunzel asked, although she felt she already knew.

"You know how."

"Rapunzel, you can't..."

"A drop of blood should be enough if mixed with magical herbs and formed into a paste."

"And if it doesn't work?"

"The boy will die."

"Rapunzel, it's too risky. Especially for a peasant boy..." Leah snobbily asked of Rapunzel. She often sneered at those of non- royal blood.

"That is the difference between you and I, Leah. This boy is innocent, and something in my tells me that the favour will be returned one day." Rapunzel replied. "What must I do?"

And so the mystical paste was made and applied to Matthews scars. The young boy showed no change. Quasimodo's heart broke as his son was dying and he could do nothing to stop it.

"It didn't work." He said sadly. Rapunzel put a hand on the Hunchback. They were kindred spirits of sorts, both held in towers for the first part of their lives, told that the world would fear and hate them if they stepped outside and both defied the orders of Gothel and Frollo to discover that the world they were taught to fear was one filled with light they looked past the dark facade. Rapunzel opened her mouth and began to sing*:

(song used is not owned by myself. I claim nothing. It is owned by Walt Disney Studios.)

Flower, gleam and glow

Let your power shine

Make the clock reverse

Bring back what once was mine.

Heal what has been hurt

Change the fates design

Save what has been lost

Bring back what once was mine*

At first it appeared as though the boy's condition did not change. But then he began to glow with what Quasimodo would only call, Heaven's Light. Matt's blackened scars began disappearing with the past. But the scars didn't disappear, and they retained their dark grey colour.

"Papa?" Matt meekly said as Quasimodo hugged his son. Rapunzel was filled with joy that her birthing day was one used for goodness' sake and that evil did not triumph.

Matt touched his scars as they began to darken. Ever since that day, Matt had to apply the Magical Paste to his scars once every three months to keep the curse from consuming him. It had been two months since his last application. The Hellfire Curse was beginning to take effect again, and Matt only had four days before it consumed him. He looked at Ben holding Mal's hand as Macaria was chanting in Ancient Greek some sort of Pagan healing Hymn.

It was best they didn't know.


* I do not own the lyrics for this song, I only used them because it fit the story.

I hope you enjoyed it. It's a little longer then I hoped it would be, by about 1000 words, but what ever. I am enjoying this story so much and I hope you, the readers, are enjoying it as well.