1482 Paris, France February 15
Quasimodo looked down over the balustrade. All he felt was emptiness. His eyes fixed on the poor gypsy woman who was still hanging from the gallows by her rope. A gust of wind here and there made her white dress flutter. Her initial convulsions of death throes had stopped. She hung there lifeless, almost like a flag in the wind.
The archdeacon no longer bothered him. Because he had taken the dearest thing the bell ringer had on this earth. The only person who had helped him... she had given him water...
Quasimodo didn't dare take his eyes off the gypsy until finally, an hour later, she was taken from the gallows and taken away. This gave the Hunchback a kind of jolt, for until now he had been standing petrified. Now he climbed over the balustrade down to the street and followed the men who had taken Esmeralda's lifeless body. They almost left Paris behind by the time they reached Mountfaucon. This was a mound where all the bodies of those executed were usually laid.
However, Quasimodo only entered the hill when the two men came out again and were far out of sight. Moving the heavy iron gate had been no problem for the bell ringer, he easily broke the chain that locked it. The Hunchback walked through many corridors and past many skeletons and half-decomposed bodies.
When he then saw the gypsy woman, a smile played on his face. He would never forget the moment when the gypsy showed pity. As the only one of all the people in Grevè Square. He lay down next to her with a sigh and a tear slipped from his one eye as he wrapped his arm around her. He had made the decision to die here beside her. What else was left to him in this world? So he closed his one eye and waited for the Lord to take him...
2017 Cologne, Germany February 15
Suddenly a bright light blinded him. He wondered where it came from, but didn't dare open his eye at first. But when the light didn't diminish in intensity, he opened his eye anyway and suddenly found himself in a completely different environment. He was lying on bare gray stone and worst of all... the gypsy was gone! Quasimodo slowly got up and looked around in panic. What had happened to her and where was he anyway?
Suddenly he saw a crowd of people dressed in alien robes. Many women wore trousers. What the heck was going on here? The only thing that seemed familiar to him here was a mighty cathedral behind him. But it was significantly higher than Notre Dame and had 2 pointed towers that almost disappeared into the clouds. Quasimodo had no idea where he was, but this cathedral was clearly more imposing than Notre Dame. Curiosity arose in him. He would like to see the cathedral from the inside.
Because Quasimodo thought he was just dreaming all this. That's why Esmeralda wasn't there and he didn't worry about it anymore.
As Quasimodo was about to approach the portal of this cathedral, a few men suddenly surrounded him. They looked dirty and stank of alcohol. But Quasimodo also knew such figures from home. He didn't understand what they were saying, his vision starting to blur from being punched in the face without warning. The bell ringer staggered but was still on his feet. He was about to hit back when he received another punch in the stomach. Now Quasimodo sank to his knees. From then on he felt countless blows and kicks. The pain reminded him of the scene at the stake. Was that some kind of deja vu? Would Esmeralda come and save him now?
He was saved. But not by Esmeralda. The punches and kicks stopped and Quasimodo crawled as fast as he could to the cathedral portal. There he then got up and staggered into the interior of the cathedral and hid in an alcove right at the entrance.
A short time later he felt the vibrations of many steps on the ground. 4 of them approached him. Suddenly he felt a touch on his shoulder. Then on the head. Now his vision began to clear and he saw two women face to face. One had brown shoulder length hair and the other had long black hair. Like Esmeralda...
But these women were strangers, and Quasimodo backed away, afraid they might harm him. But then he felt the brown-haired woman wipe the blood from his face.
She looked at him worried and he wondered why. The black haired woman behind her looked startled. But not out of fear of him. It was something else that he couldn't quite make out. The brown-haired almost treated him as if they already knew each other and Quasimodo didn't understand that either.
"I'm Regina and this is Jasmine.", the bell ringer read from the brown-haired woman's lips.
Queen... Thought the hunchback pondered the meaning of the first name. He had read the word in a book. But the name Jasmine was unknown to him. Maybe it wasn't derived from Latin...
Regina asked him if he knew how he got here. But Quasimodo couldn't answer that. Just something that had happened shortly before and it seemed like the two women couldn't make sense of it.
"Where am I?" asked the bell ringer.
"You are in the high cathedral of Colonge St. Petrus Anno Domini 2017." Regina said.
Quasimodo thought he hadn't understood her correctly and asked her to repeat the sentence more slowly. But she said it again. Anno Domini 2017. That would mean he is... he had... been transported to the future! He was more than 500 years in the future! How was that possible??? Could this still be a dream? Impossible. He had felt the pain. He still felt them now, from the punches and kicks that these men had inflicted on him. And in dreams you don't feel pain, or not?