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Belle's Adventures in Notre Dame Part 9

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Belle paced in her room, thinking hard. She had been locked in there to await her fate. Quasimodo could have easily broken down the door, he was that strong, but he wasn't here. The window had been barred from the outside, so even if she broke the glass she wouldn't be free. It was approaching dawn; she knew that Phoebus and the gypsies were already being led out into the square in a cage on wheels. She too would be brought down there soon to be executed.

Belle bit her lip. She couldn't break down the door; she couldn't escape from the window and she certainly couldn't dig any kind of escape tunnel. Logically, if she couldn't open the door, she would have to escape when the door was already open. But there would be guards standing there then. So, logically, she had to think of a way of dealing with them rather than the door.

Frollo's voice came drifting into the room; her window was open slightly, in spite of the bars so she could ehar what was happening in the square. "The prisoner Esmeralda has been found guilty of the crime of witchcraft. The sentence: death!"

Belle shivered, The guards would be here soon. Think, Belle, think!

There came a sound as if someone had just spat at Frollo. Belle couldn;t help but smile. "You go, Esme!"

"The gypsy Esmeralda has refused to recant. This evil witch has put the soul of every citizen of Paris in mortal danger..."

Soul? Soul! Belle remembered her Bible; not a passage in it, but the Bible itself; that great thick tome the size and weight of a paving stone. Frollo had given it to her when she was a child - "To save your soul from eternal damnation" he had said.

"Damnation be damned!" Belle muttered now, seizing the tome from where it sat at her bedside. She had never used it, unless Frollo had been around, but now was the right time to use it - for more than what it was created for. She could hear the guards outside the door and as they unlocked it, she poised herself ready.

The door opened, one of the guards stuck his head around the door and Belle brought the Bible down on the back of his head with as much force as she could muster. It did the trick. The guard fell like a stone to the floor. Thinking quickly, Belle seized his sword as the second guard let out a cry of "Hey!" and charged into the room. She ducked out of his way, pivoted around and held the sword to his chest. "Back!" she cried. "Back!" The guard looked at her in alarm, and it was no wonder. Belle was so angry, she felt like she was on fire. Belle backed towards the door, with the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other. "Tell Frollo I quit!" she snapped before she slammed and locked the door. Quasimodo was being held in chains at the the top of the belltower, she knew, and so she made her way up there as fast as she could manage.

"Quasi! Quasi!"

"Belle?" He looked up in surprise. "How did you escape?"

"No time for questions, Quasi!" Belle seized at one of the chains. "Come on, we need to get you out of this!"

"What's the point?"

"What?"

"Come on, Quasi! Snap out of it!" begged Hugo, also grabbing one of the chains.

"You gotta break these chains!" Laverne exclaimed.

"I can't." Quasimodo snapped. "I tried. What difference would it make?"

Belle stared at him. "But you can't let Frollo win!" Victor cried.

"He already has."

"So, you're giving up? That's it?" Hugo cried, in disbelief.

"These chains aren't what's holding you back, Quasimodo," Laverne began, sternly.

"Leave me alone!" Quasimodo snapped.

The gargoyles backed off. "Okay. Okay, Quasi, we'll leave you alone," Hugo said.

"After all, we're only made of stone," Victor agreed.

"We just thought maybe you were made of something stronger," Laverne said as they turned back to stone.

Belle turned to Quasimodo. "Quasi, we can't give up now! We have to save them!"

"It's too late for that, Belle; face it!"

"I will not!" For the first time in her life, Belle was angry at her best friend. "I can't believe you'd just sit back and let Esmeralda die - and Phoebus - and the rest!"

"Belle-!"

"I know! I know how you feel about her, Quasimodo - because it's exactly the same way I've felt about you for thirteen years!" Belle paused to draw breath. "I love you, Quasi; I have always loved you, and even if you never feel the same about me, I always will! So be the man I know you are now and just do the right thing! You can't let Frollo win! He's just evil and cruel and..." Belle threw a glance down at the square and gasped. "And he's about to burn Esmeralda! I'm coming, Esme!"

With or without Quasimodo, Belle was determined to help her friend, but just as she turned her head, Quasimodo began to break the chains trapping him. The bells began to quietly ring as he shook the very building, ripping out pillars of stone. Belle lost her balance amidst the shaking and as she looked up, she smiled as Quasimodo was free. "I'll save Esmeralda; you free Phoebus and the others!"

"Right!"

Belle ran from the room and as she raced down the stairs, passing a nearby window, she watched Quasimodo swing down into the square, snatch up the now unconscious Esmeralda and swing back to the top of the belltower. "Sanctuary!" he bellowed for all to hear.

Belle smiled. "There's the man I love!"

Below in the square, the battle was breaking out. Belle had just reached the cathedral door, when it shook like thunder and she almost dropped her weapons, with a squeal. Someone was trying to break down the door! Many someones by the sound of it; Frollo's guards! Belle sped back up to the tower in time to see Quasimodo seize a great pillar, ready to throw down onto the guards. "We're being besieged!" she informed him.

"Then we'll fight here!" Quasimodo offered her a quick smile; the first she had seen in a long time. Belle grabbed the other end of the pilar and they both flung it over the side of the tower. How many people it actually hit, Belle had no idea. All she did know was that whilst they may be two humans (three if Esmeralda came around in time) and three gargoyles fighting to the teeth with all their strength, they couldn't hold off Frollo and his men for long. But when she next looked up, Phoebus had somehow released himself and his companions from their cage and was rallying the citizens of Paris to fight back against Frollo.

"Phoebus!" Quasimodo cheered him.

Belle flung down the Bible with all her strength. It hit one of the guards, much to her satisfaction. Victor followed her example and dropped a brick on one of the guards. "Sorry! Sorry!" he cried, guiltily, afterwards. The five of them continued to fling whatever they could find that was heavy enough onto their enemies.

"Fly, my pretties!" Laverne commanded her pigeons, setting them on the guards. "Fly! Fly!"

"Boiling lead!" Belle cried, the idea hitting her like their weapons had hit the guards below.

"Way ahead of ya!" Hugo cried, already stoking the fire beneath the cauldron. Together the five of them tipped it into the square. What a sight it must have been to those below, Belle thought afterwards; Notre Dame as if it were on fire. The guards battering the door ran for it, but Frollo made his way into the cathedral. Belle seized her discarded sword and ran to the stairs. "You'd better get Esme out of here, Quasi!"

"Belle-!"

"You love her!" Belle cried. "You save her! I'll hold off Frollo!"

"Belle!" She turned. "Good luck!"

"You too!"

Quasimodo ran to help Esmeralda whilst Belle hurried down the stairs. Halfway down, she gasped as Frollo met her, with a sword in his own hand. His eyes were ablaze with fury and something that looked like insanity. "You've always been a disappointment to me, Belle!" he snarled. "I knew I'd have to save your soul for God one day!"

"What you're doing isn't salvation!" Belle cried. "You think you're purging the world of sin but what you're really doing is killing innocent people for the flimsiest of reasons!"

"Innocent? The gypsies are not innocent!"

"Yes, they are! You think that just because someone's a bit different, an outcast, they deserve to be killed!"

"They do if they're anything like you!" Frollo's mouth twisted, cruelly. "You and the hunchback have been nothing but trouble from the start! When you're gone, God will reward me!"

"You're wrong!"

"Wrong?!" Their swords clashed as he lunged at her and Belle leapt to defend herself. "You defy me, now, Belle? You want Satan to take your soul?"

"I don't care about my soul!" Belle shouted as they fought. "I have never cared about whether there's a heaven or a hell! You've been telling us to hide away from the gypsies, but we really should have been hiding from you!"

"You dare compare me to the gypsy scum?" Their swords met repeatedly and Belle knew that this wasn't just Frollo in one of his rages; he was literally trying to kill her.

"You're mad!" she cried. "Mad and cruel and wrong about the world!"

"And you're a traitor and a fool for trusting in the likes of gypsies and hunchbacks!"

"Damn you!"

That did it. Frollo pushed against their swords; Belle felt her foot slip on the stairs and she tumbled downwards, rolling painfully over and over until she hit the locked door at the bottom and lay there for a second, temporarily winded. Frollo left as she raised her head. For a second, disoriented, she had to think about what was going on. "Quasi?" she murmured, rubbing her head, and then, realising the danger he was in. "Quasi!"

It took what felt like a lifetime for her to scramble to her feet. Belle staggered and rubbed her sides. She would have plenty of bruises there tomorrow. With trembling legs, she stumbled forwards up the stairs but as she reached the corridor below the highest room of the belltower she ran into someone.

"Phoebus!"

"Belle!"

"Where's Esme and Quasi?"

"I think they're upstairs!"

"So is Frollo!"

Suddenly something shot past the window, tumbling downwards, at the same time as a loud scream errupted around the cathedral walls. Belle and Phoebus ran to the window. It was Frollo, clinging onto a stone gargoyle.

"He's not any more!" Phoebus joked as Belle drew back, wondering where Quasimodo and Esmeralda were.

"Noooo!" Esmeralda screamed from above and as another body fell, Belle shrieked.

"Quasi!!!"
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Comments7
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Shellquake's avatar
Why are they looking at each other so angerly? I mean, she's all "mature" and imaginative, and stuck-up when the mood suits her. And he's mostly sensitive and shy. Are they having some sort of argument?