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 #21
Diamanta stared at her in disbelief.
"What?"
"I know how to save Clopin's life, but I need your help. So will you help me?"
"I think you already know the answer."
"That's what I thought." Esmeralda sat on the bed next to Diamanta and began to explain her plan. Diamanta nearly choked on her bread.
"Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea what would happen to us if we get caught?"
"Would you rather live in Notre Dame for the rest of your life, forever wondering if you could have possibly saved the life of the man you love?" Diamanta sighed and shook her head no.
"But how are we going to escape Notre Dame? There are guards at every door!" Diamanta exclaimed. Esmeralda smiled.
"I never said we were going to use a door." Esmeralda craned her head out the single window and made a small hand gesture.
Within seconds a man who Diamanta almost mistook for a monster climbed into the room. There was a horrid, misshapen hump on his back, forcing his large body to hunch over. Some strange thing with a mat of red hair protruded from his hump. It took a while for Diamanta to realize that this was the creature's head. On his eye was a wart, making him only able to see out of the other. His teeth were crooked and chipped, forcing his smile to be slightly lopsided. He was a terrible, almost disgusting sight.
"I'm sure you remember Quasimodo," Esmeralda said as Diamanta shook the hunchback's hand. As a matter of fact, she didn't. She knew of the heroic hunchback who rescued Esmeralda from the evil Judge Claude Frollo, but she had never actually met him. Even when he was nearly hanged, she never did get a good look at his face.
"Do I make you uncomfortable?" Quasimodo asked after noticing Diamanta's shocked expression. She shook her head no and smiled politely.
"How are we going to leave this place?" Diamanta said, changing the subject.
"Just climb on," Quasimodo said plainly. Unsure of exactly what to do, Diamanta let Esmeralda go on first. "Esmeralda, you hold on to me, and Diamanta, you hold on to Esmeralda," he instructed. Diamanta grabbed Esmeralda around the middle and took a mental note to never look down. She suddenly felt herself falling and had to bite her lip to not scream. As if nothing had ever happened, Quasimodo placed her onto the cobblestone ground after the series of sudden drops and unexpected twists and turns. Before she knew it, the hunchback was gone, leaving her and Esmeralda alone.
"Where are we?" Diamanta asked, suddenly aware that Quasimodo must have jumped across several homes instead of landing them directly in front of Notre Dame. They stood in an empty dark alleyway with tall, ominous-looking buildings on either side of them. One side of the alleyway led to what seemed like a small town. The other was blocked by a steel gate.
"You don't remember?"
"Should I?"
"You took me here when you were eleven." Suddenly it hit Diamanta. When she was a child, she always had such terrible, hellish nightmares. Esmeralda told her that the only way to escape these nightmares was to face her fears. So she had taken her here. This was the place where she last saw her father.
"Why are you bringing me here?"
"This is as close to the prison as we can get without being seen," Esmeralda replied.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Diamanta asked. "Let's go." The two dashed through the cobblestone streets as if their lives depended on it. A woman with Madame Doreen's round figure shook her head as Esmeralda and Diamanta rushed past her.
"The way they're going," she murmured, "is almost as if they have a life to save!" Of course, by the time she had said this, the two women were already at the prison. They snuck around the back right by the same place where they had escaped not too long ago. After testing a few of the stones which made up the gigantic prison, Esmeralda pulled away the stone which could have been made loose by gypsies from the past. They slipped through the wall and tunnel into the long familiar dark hallway.
"Are you sure this is where they're keeping Clopin?" Diamanta whispered.
"Where else would Gautier keep him?" Suddenly a loud snort erupted from the far end of the hallway. Diamanta and Esmeralda froze.
"Just a little further…just a little further…oh, come on you fat lard move over!" The two edged toward the voice and had to bite their tongues from laughing.
A morbidly obese guard sat snoring in front of Clopin's cell, a large amount of drool dripping from his mouth. And there was poor Clopin on his hands and knees, reaching for the guard's belt which held the keys to his cell. Since he hadn't noticed two beautiful women standing right in front of him, they decided to watch him in entertainment.
"You stupid, fat, pig of a man! Move!"
"It doesn't matter what you do. He's not going to move an inch," Diamanta said plainly once Clopin looked up. In one fluid motion, Esmeralda whipped the keys from the man and unlocked Clopin's cell. Diamanta launched herself onto him, and silently hoped to never let go.
"How predictable," a cold voice hissed from close by. "You get the bait, and the fish come right to it,"
"Run!" Clopin shouted.
"No," Esmeralda said. "We can't let you die without a fight." For the sake of my child, she thought to herself, I'll kill this man.
"Oh, so it's a fight you want?" Gautier said, putting up two fists.
"You're not honestly going to fight this old man, are you? He'll break his back before you touch him!" a squeaky voice exclaimed. All of them looked down at Clopin's puppet.
"Has the gypsy lost his mind?" Gautier said, more out of entertainment than surprise. And he began to laugh. Short gasps of giggles, then a bellow loud enough to wake the dead (however the sleeping guard did nothing but stir and snore a bit louder).
"You've lost your mind, gypsy, and you think you're going to win!" Gautier giggled. "And against me, of all people! I've got guards at every entrance who could snap you like a stick!" Suddenly Gautier's eyes grew wide and he fell to the floor.
"My…heart…"
"He's having a heart attack!" Esmeralda exclaimed. The three hovered over him, staring at his limp body.
As if struck by lightning, Gautier sprang up, shoving the two women into the jail cell with the door slamming. He ripped the key from its hole and threw it across the hallway, trapping Diamanta and Esmeralda inside the jail cell.
"Do you think I'm that idiotic?" Gautier bellowed. "Do you think old, grey Gautier would lose a battle by having a heart attack?" The nearby guard began to wake and immediately sprang to his feet.
"Sir, the gypsy is outside his cell!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, get out you fool!" Gautier snapped. The chubby guard waddled out of the room. Gautier's eyes locked on Clopin. "Do you honestly believe I could escape from my grasp?" he hissed. "As a matter of fact, you've actually been participating wonderfully in my plan to trap Diamanta," he said after some thought. Clopin raised an eyebrow. Gautier threw his head back and laughed. "It's quite obvious that two people as attractive as Oliver and Diamanta would find each other. So after realizing the two would be together, I ordered my men to be very alert, since Oliver is bound to come out of the Court of Miracles. Of course, I caught him in my net. And with Oliver there is bound to be Diamanta. And where there is Diamanta, there is her puppy Clopin following her every step of the way."
"Shut up," Clopin hissed in a dangerous tone that neither Diamanta nor Esmeralda heard before.
"Oh, did I say something?" Gautier said with a cruel smile. "Was it the fact that Oliver would try to defy you by escaping from the Court of Miracles?" Clopin's eyes narrowed at him. "Or is that every time Diamanta is in trouble, you come along to save her, but" he nearly whispered the last words into Clopin's ear, "no matter how close you get to her, one of you gets hurt." At this the gypsy king threw himself on top of Gautier, clawing and bruising every inch of his face that he could reach.
"Bastard!" Clopin shouted. With amazing strength for a man his age, Gautier pried Clopin off of him and pinned him against the wall.
"It doesn't matter, gypsy! Either way one of you is going to die," Gautier said as he wrenched the gypsy's arm back. Clopin howled in pain. There was a sickening crack and suddenly Esmeralda screamed,
"YOU BROKE HIS ARM!" Clopin fell to the ground, whimpering and cradling his broken limb.
"Pitiful thing," Gautier hissed without a trace of sympathy in his eyes. He grabbed the dagger from Clopin's hilt and held it high over his head. "Let me end your suffering, gypsy." With that, he plunged it downward.
"NO!" Diamanta screamed. Both Clopin, who was still untouched by the blade, and Gautier looked up. Diamanta began to cry. "Gautier, I'll be yours if you promise not to lay a finger on Clopin."
"What?" gasped Clopin, Gautier, and Esmeralda all at once. Diamanta nodded. "I will respond to your every demand if you promise to not hurt Clopin or any other gypsy."
"Dia, no," Clopin whispered. Diamanta gave him a sad smile.
"This is all for the better, Clopin. I know what I am doing," she said. Indeed, she did know exactly what she was doing. Little did Gautier know, every sensible gypsy woman kept a dagger under her skirt in case someone as vile as him would come along and try to take advantage of her.
So she put on the act of the pathetic woman who was going to become Gautier's whore. She let him open the jail cell and kiss her. She let him free Esmeralda and Clopin. She even let him grab her by the waist and lead her into his bedroom. It was when he threw her onto the bed and laid on top of her that the act ended.
"I knew you would stop being such a fool and come to me," Gautier whispered into her ear with his vulgar breath.
"Some part of me always knew I would give in," Diamanta whispered back as she reached under her skirt and took the dagger in her hand. "However," she said as she held the dagger high over his back, "there was also a part of me that never wanted to give up." Before he could respond, she drove the blade into his back.
"Murderer," was the last thing that escaped his lips before his life drifted away from him. She quickly pushed him off her and pulled the dagger from his back. After wiping the blood off with his shirt and hiding the dagger under her skirt again, she fled from the monstrous building and into the Court of Miracles.
Meanwhile, Clopin lay on his mattress inside his wagon, tears streaming down his face. The last time he cried was when his mother died. He remembered her last words before she committed suicide.
Today when that cruel man told me to go back to where I came from and threw me down onto the cobblestone streets, he may have made me bleed in pain, but no matter how hard he may try, he never took my dignity. I want you to be strong, Clopin. Not weak like me. She had spoken to him about how she saw a pretty little girl with wavy brown hair looking down at them in horror from her window. Now, if anyone comes to you for refuge, I want you to remember that little girl I told you about. I want you to remember that even the smallest things still need love. Strangely, that was the same night when Diamanta came to him. Clopin wiped a tear from his face.
"Yet another woman I love taken away from me," he whispered before drifting off to sleep.
The next morning he felt something brush against his lips. He opened his eyes to see two of the most beautiful golden eyes stare him in the face.
"Wake up! We've got a long day ahead of us," Diamanta said before leaning in to give him another kiss. Several thoughts rushed through Clopin's mind. How did she get here? How did she survive? Is Gautier still alive? However, only one reached escaped from his lips.
"You're back."