Chapter XVI.

A Silent Night In Paris

The sound of bells gently rang as I left the cathedral, and looking behind me, I could faintly make out Esmeralda high in the bell tower, waving to me. Soon Quasimodo emerged with her and he too waved.

"Ok, they're depending on me," I muttered to myself, and took a deep breath. "I can't make any mistakes about this."

I looked back at them and at Notre Dame one last time, before turning and deciding which would be the best, and safest way to get back to the Court of Miracles. I chose a empty street, that was dimly lit only by a few late night taverns. The sound of angry fights and smashing glass was heard as I walked past, and I shuddered. It was scary what alcohol did to people.

But leaving the tavern behind, it felt oddly silent. Not even the sound of soldiers on their late night patrols of the city was heard. How strange, I thought. It must be a holiday or something that I'm not aware of.

By now I had reached one of the bridges that exited the island in the middle of the river. I paused and looked back. The cathedral was far behind me now, but I could still see it rising above the other buildings like a giant sea monster emerging out of the sea. Back in Turkey, our father had told us many stories of sailing out into the ocean, and confronting all sorts of horrid creatures that had tentacles, lots of eyes, and sharp teeth. The purple rose windows of Notre Dame behind me gave it the look of one of those creatures.

Walking across the bridge reminded of the night not long ago where I had stepped on the fishing knife when Esmeralda and I had tried desperately to get to the cathedral for sanctuary. I looked down at my bare feet. The wound had healed, but a large scar still showed, evidence that it had been a painfully large gash. What a story I would have to tell everyone back at the Court of Miracles.

Leaving the ile de la cite (the island in the city that Notre Dame is located on), I was again puzzled with the fact that there wasn't a single sound tonight. What was going on? It was as if someone was following me…

I looked behind me. No one. I sighed. That was good. Maybe I was just becoming a bit paranoid and needed to calm down. Yet as I continued down a long dark avenue, I felt as if eyes were watching me, and I could almost feel them radiating off the back of my head. It was very creepy.

"Is anybody there!?" I asked out loud once or twice. No answer. Hmmm….

It was that same feeling you get when you know that you've forgotten something, but you can't remember what. Except that this time I knew I was being followed, but by who?

Because I was beginning to panic, I picked up my pace a bit. The Court of Miracles was near now, I recognized this familiar part of town. If only I could shake off my pursuer; hah! I didn't even know if I was being followed.

Finally, the gateway to the catacombs was in sight. I sprinted ahead and quickly opened the door, shutting it behind me as fast as possible without slamming it. That would only draw attention.

I took a deep breath. The chase was over. That was of course, if there had been a chase at all in the first place. After living in the cathedral for so long with Esmeralda and fearing that Frollo was out to get us every minute of our waking lives, I had probably gone a little crazy.

It was nothing, I thought to myself. You were not being followed, you just had a mental breakdown. It's ok.

Forgetting it had ever happened, I raced down the steps into the catacombs. As I sloshed through the shallow puddles of water here and there, I could hear the soft, distant sound of violins and mandolins playing. I had arrived!

The fear from a few minutes past was erased from my mind as I took in the feeling of being home again. I had forgotten how long it had been since I had been here.

I waded through the shallow knee deep water to the island in the middle of the catacombs that we made our home in.

"Julian?" someone asked. "Is that really you?"

The minute that question was asked, everyone suddenly stopped what they were doing and came over to crowd around me.

"Where have you been?"

"What happened to you?"

"Where's Esmeralda?"

These were among the many questions that all the gypsies suddenly bombarded me with.

"One at a time, one at a time," I said, raising my arms to let everyone settle down. "I'll explain everything."

"Please do, Julian," said the familiar voice of Clopin, who had just emerged from the shadows.

Everyone sat down in a circle around me. It was a bit overwhelming to see so many familiar faces all at once; Anisa, Marcel, Ramus, Heidi, Jasmine. They all crowded around, eager to know where I had been and what had been going on.

"Ok, so it's not exactly good news that I have, so be prepared for that," I warned. "I'll start from the beginning. You remember the night that Esmeralda and I disappeared, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"Well, she was framed for murder that night. What happened was basically this: she went to meet that stupid bastard of a soldier Phoebus at a tavern at the far end of the city. They met together upstairs. Well, Frollo somehow knew about this and followed them there, and I'll admit I did to, because I wanted to know where Esmeralda was going. Well, Frollo found them together, and out of rage, stabbed Phoebus and ran, although he left the knife in Phoebus' back. I rushed in and Esmeralda was desperately trying to pull the knife out, but that's when the other soldiers came in. When they saw Esmeralda pulling the knife out, they assumed that she had stabbed him. We were taken to the Palace of Justice in there carriage, but we managed to escape, and we fled to Notre Dame for sanctuary. We were living there the past few weeks. We knew that sooner or later we'd have to get out and let you guys know what had happened, so tonight, escaped the cathedral to come here. Esmeralda is still there and we have to rescue her before Claude Frollo does something terrible to her. You know how the saying goes, 'Gypsies don't do well inside stone walls'."

Everyone nodded solemnly. I had been wondering how they were going to take all of it. Though they didn't seem happy about it, they seemed to realize that they had to stay calm about everything in order to help Esmeralda. Even Clopin seemed strangely calm about the whole thing.

"We don't have much time," he said. "We must take action immediately."

Um, so that's that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it's been a really long time since I've updated it, sorry! Please review, and I'll try to update ASAP. Luckely it's summer break now, so that means more writing time! haha. Ok, that's about it. Sincerely, Rainforest Treefrog