Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunchback of Notre Dame or anything to do with it. However, I do own Diamanta Devereux, her father, Oliver, Cecile Devereux, Madame Doreen, and Judge Thomas Gautier.

Note: No, the story isn't finished. I, too, am a Clopin fan and refuse to finish the story with such a terrible ending as I have in this piece of it. I don't know how many chapters there will be, but there'll be enough for the story to make all Clopin fans fulfilled.

Chapter #1

Diamanta stared out her window into the ebony sky dotted with pearly stars. To any other child her age this would be a beauty to behold. For Diamanta, this was another night of beatings and pain.

I deserved it, she thought to herself as she examined her blackened arm, Papa says I was a bad girl that night. I am a very bad girl, and I deserve this. An excruciating pain ascended her arm as she touched it softly. She held in her scream in fear her father would hear. Never again would she make that mistake again. She glanced at her healing leg, a reminder of what would become of her if she were to utter a single sound.

"Mama, let me live with you in heaven. If Papa beats me like he did you, please let him take my life as he did yours," she whispered into the raven sky.

"Get away from me, gypsy and go back to where you came from!" Diamanta gazed down into the streets to see her father throw a begging woman onto the cobblestone road. She stared up at him in horror and ran while caressing her bleeding hand. He cursed loudly to God and, as he turned his head up to the heavens, he spotted someone. A little girl was staring out of her window at him. His little girl.

Slam! The door shut behind him.

"I saw you, Diamanta!" he bellowed.

"Kyrie Eleison," Diamanta prayed. Someone chortled loudly from her open bedroom door. Diamanta spun around to see her father laughing insanely. A flash of hope flew across her heart. Maybe if she could keep him happy he wouldn't hit her. That flash simmered as he went back to the cruel stare he often gave her.

"Do you know why I'm laughing, Diamanta?" he asked in a dangerous voice.

"Because you're happy, Papa?" he took a step toward her.

"Don't you be smart with me, you disgusting thing. I was laughing because of what you said, daughter. Lord have mercy. Do you know why that's funny, Diamanta?"

"I…I don't know, Papa," she stuttered. He took another step toward her.

"It's funny because Lord never has mercy on bad little girls like you!" He grabbed a lock of her hair and pulled her out of the room.

"Papa, please," she said with pleading eyes.

"Don't you even speak to me, you miserable, worthless thing!" he kicked her in the back of her neck, forcing her to tumble down the stairs uncontrollably.

She landed by the door. Diamanta lay motionless. I'm going to die, she thought to herself. Mama, I'm coming.

She opened her eyes to see the same hateful man at the top of the staircase.

"No," she gasped. "No!" This is my time to die! Suddenly it occurred to her: she needed to escape. If she was going to die, now was not the time. She needed to get away. Far away. With as much strength as she could muster, she stood and headed for the door. It was her only passageway to freedom. Her only passageway to life.

"What do you think you're doing? Don't you dare leave this house!" She shoved the door open and ran for her life. Suddenly loud footsteps thumped behind her. "You think you can run away from me? You are just like your mother, always trying to get away," A voice boomed from behind her. Rain began to pour down the streets. Everything soon became a blur to both of them.

Diamanta ducked down a dark alleyway only to find she was trapped by a steel gate. And that her father stood on the other end of the alleyway.

"Poor Diamanta, trapped in the dark streets of Paris," her father said in a mock-tragic voice. Diamanta stared at her father, then the gate. With her last shred of hope, she climbed for her life. Her father's face converted from cruel satisfaction to disbelief. "Come back here you insolent…" Diamanta fell on the other side of the gate and rushed through the lonely streets, refusing to stop until her body collapsed.

"Where am I to live? I ran from Papa, my only life," Diamanta whimpered. "Lord, let me survive. Let me live. I came this far. Don't let me die. " She came upon a vast cemetery. "At least I have a place to sleep tonight. Tomorrow I will find a way to—"

"Did you hear that?"

"Frollo's men have found us!"

"What are they saying?"

"Never mind what they're saying, Darryl, warn the king!"

Diamanta spun around, trying to see these men through the heavy rain. Suddenly it occurred to her: The voices where coming from below her. She looked downward only to see a crypt. What sort of king lives inside a crypt? Diamanta asked herself.

BOOM! A clap of thunder echoed throughout the onyx sky followed by a streak of lightening. Without a word, Diamanta pushed aside the stone which enclosed the crypt and crept down the dark steps which, to her surprise, lead to a long hallway of sewage.

"Hello?" she called. "Is there anyone here? I haven't come to har—" someone from behind twisted her arm behind her back. A torch was lit, revealing several others standing around her menacingly.

"Identify yourself!" the voice behind her demanded

"I am Diamanta Devereux. I—"

"The traitor's child!" one man gasped. "Let the woman regret she was ever born to gypsies!

"What are we to do with her?" a man with a rather wide nose said. Another man with several gold teeth smiled cruelly.

"Kill her."