Chapter 24

"The exit's not too far away," Clopin told Lilo as they walked cautiously down the shadowed halls of the Palace of Justice, the young Hawaiian clinging onto one of his black robe's folds.

Lilo nodded her head in understanding, looking about her with more than a little uncertainty. The first time that she had been led down this path, she had been too preoccupied with fighting to consider what surrounded her. Gloom encompassed both her and the costumed Gypsy king, broken only every ten feet by the flickering dimness of a wall torch. A number of torture devices hung from the high ceilings, a skeleton or two hanging from their painful grips, untouched but for the spiders and rats that wandered about the darkness. Little sounds could be heard in the narrow corridor, the silence once and a while interrupted by the echoing drip of an unknown leak. It was strange and unsettling. Lilo could just imagine the number of unfriendly ghosts that wandered up and down the halls and cells that made up the dungeon, reliving their torture, waiting for their revenge.

The little girl moved closer to Clopin's thin leg, her fingers tightening worriedly about the costume's fabric. The Gypsy looked down on Lilo at the sudden nearness, and a friendly smile split his thin face.

"Don't worry, my little Gyspy-esque girl," he said, patting her genially on the top of her head. "Your favorite Gypsy king will get you out of this place, straight away!"

Lilo smiled weakly, somewhat relieved by his kind words, but not altogether convinced of their trustworthiness. Clopin noted the doubt with an understanding grin.

"So," he began, deciding that conversation would be a good tool to lower her anxiety, "how was your stay here in the infamous depths of hell? Good? Alright? Less-than-enjoyable?"

Lilo gave him a quizzical glance, but the lifted a finger to her lip as if considering an answer. "If that last one means it stunk, then that one," she answered at length.

The king gave out a pleasant laugh. "Yes, I would have expected that…"

Lilo nodded her head, her smile subtle. "I'm just happy that I'm getting out of here," she murmured, glancing at a random cobweb as she passed it by.

"Yes. Going home finally, eh?"

"I guess…"

Lilo wasn't sure if going home was a possibility anymore. Stitch might come back, and she hoped that he would be able to find her, but, what if he couldn't? She had been in the dungeon for a long time (or at least it had seemed so). What if he came back and he didn't know that she was there? What if he gave up and went back home, and thought that she was gone? Her transmitter was missing; one of the guards had broken it off her wrist when she was trying to break free. The clasp had been broken. She and Stitch had mended it temporarily the night before. But now, she couldn't go home back again by herself.

Where would she go once Clopin set her free? The only place in Paris where she felt safe was in the bell tower, with Quasimodo… but, she had seen him angry. Was he angry with her now? Would he let her stay with him again? She looked down at her feet miserably. Probably not. She wouldn't blame him either.

Lilo bumped unceremoniously into Clopin's leg, grunting in surprise. Clopin put a finger to his mouth, shushing her.

"What is it?" she asked him in a whisper, watching him uncertainly.

"I hear something," Clopin answered as he put a hand to one ear. He nodded quietly. "Yes… I hear it."

"Hear what?"

"Listen closely, dear," he told her. "Something's coming."

Lilo closed her eyes gingerly, listening deeply to what seemed little more than the familiar drip and scurry that had been bothering the both of them throughout the whole trek. Finally, after a short while, her hearing began to sharpen minutely, and the faraway noises of clanking metal and pounding boots began to become apparent. Her eyes shot open suddenly.

"Guards," she hissed unhappily.

"Don't worry," Clopin said carelessly. "They wouldn't dare arrest Judge Claude Fro…"

"Guard the exit!" A familiar, icy voice sliced through Clopin's sentence and stirred a shock and startle within the escapee and her rescuer.

"Well, this has just become difficult," he said miserably, grabbing Lilo suddenly about the wrist and hurrying down the hall. "I swear that man just wants to make my life a living hell!"

"Do you think we'll make it out?" Lilo asked, frightened.

"If we hurry," Clopin replied bluntly, and both hurried their paces on.

After a frightening while, the sounds and shouts of approaching guards loudening with every second, Clopin halted, and with a disconsolate groan, pulled Lilo into a nook in the wall, where shadows took a permanent residence.

"What is it?" Lilo asked.

"There are guards coming up that way too," he told her, glancing out of the nook at the hall. With a short yelp, he pulled back in, and he held Lilo close, a silencing hand clapped knowingly over her mouth.

Just then, a group of soldiers tromped down the hall, passing the two of them without any notice, mumbling amongst themselves.

"What's the point of doing this?" one asked, stopping defiantly in his tracks just before Lilo and Clopin's hiding place. "It's just a gypsy girl for goodness sakes."

"Judge said this one did something bad," one of his comrades answered back, stopping just before him and beckoning him to continue on down to the exit. "I heard that she cursed a girl into illness just a day or two ago. Her father came down looking for a doctor and muttering about a blue monster and his Gypsy owner casting a spell on her."

The other man just harrumphed and leant against the wall just inches away from Lilo and Clopin's spot. His comrade clicked his tongue.

"You're not going, are you?" he asked.

"No. It's not like the judge or the captain's going to notice are they?"

"Well, if that's what you think, but it's your funeral." With those words, the other soldier rushed down the way, trying to catch up with the lost regiment.

Clopin cursed inwardly, staring at the man in hopes his thoughts would will him away. But, as expected, the guard didn't budge from his spot, doing little more than grunting, and picking at his nose. He needed to get Lilo out of this place, and if he didn't hurry, the exit would be so overwhelmed by guards there would be no possible way for him to get through. At least, not with Lilo.

Lilo was trying her best not to scream. She could feel something sniffing at her bare legs, clawing at her ankles. It was a rat. She knew it was. What if it was rabid? What if it bit her? She began to wriggle uneasily, her mouth just barely sustaining its silence. Clopin held her tighter, trying to stop her movement, but Lilo couldn't help it. She felt its nose brushing curiously against her skin, and, with a sudden rush of fear, Lilo let out a scream.

The nearby guard jumped, and turned to the shadows, only to be promptly rendered unconscious by the now surly Clopin Trouillefou. The man fell onto the floor with a loud, metallic clunk. After a short, awkward moment, the sounds of suspicious shouts began to fill the air, and nearing footsteps sounded.

"Oh dear," Clopin said dryly, "who would have guessed they heard that?"

"Sorry," Lilo said sincerely, watching with relief as a rat scurried away.

"Thank you, not that that's going to help now," he said unhappily. What was he going to do now? Running would do no good; if his ears were right (and they were hardly ever wrong), the guards were coming from both ends of the hall. With a disconsolate groan, Clopin flung his arm violently downward through the air, shaking an unhappy fist. He jumped at a sudden tinkle of metal against the stone, and, looking down, he realized that it was that strange bracelet that the dog had thrown to him.

"My transmitter!" Lilo exclaimed, noticing the same sound.

Clopin picked up the metal bracelet, and played with it gingerly. "You don't suppose that this would help with our escape, now do you?"

"It would help a lot!"

"Wonderful!"

With a quick movement, he threw the bracelet around her arm, and hurried to try and close the clasp.

"Oh dear," he muttered, crunching his teeth together. "It won't fit…"

"WHAT?" Lilo cried.

"The clasp is broken; it won't come together!"

"NO!" Lilo exclaimed staring unhappily at the transmitter.

"I'm sorry, dear," Clopin muttered, shaking his head regretfully. "It just isn't working."

And, all around them, the sounds of approaching guards echoed across the halls.

A/N: This Chapter was short because I'm making the rest of my chapters short... more than a thousand words, but not as much as usual. I really want to finish this story... especially this story... because, I never finish what I start. And i really love this story a lot... I don't know what's wrong with me... Sorry if the writing wasn't as good as it should've been... I guess I'm sort of out of it, especially lately. READ AND REVIEW, please!