Music or the Misery

Chapter 1: Out There, With Her

"Who was that woman?" Frollo demanded, as he stood tall over Quasimodo's quaking form.

"J-just a f-f-friend, master, she w-wants me to go to the f-f-festival," Quasimodo stuttered out.

"Lies!" Frollo roared, making to strike his ward, but stopped when he saw Quasimodo shaking in fear. He had made his point.

"I didn't mean to upset you, master," Quasimodo knelt at his master's feet.

"Quasimodo, can't you understand? When your heartless mother abandoned you as a child, anyone else would have drowned you. And this is my thanks for taking you in and raising you as my son? Secrets and lies?" Frollo sat at the table in a high seat, motioning for Quasimodo to come sit on the lower stool.

"I'm sorry, sir," Quasimodo hung his head in shame, as he sat on the stool across from Frollo.

"Oh, my dear Quasimodo, you don't know what it's like out there. I do... I do..." Frollo moved to stand at the balcony once more, "The world is cruel, the world is wicked, it's I alone whom you can trust in this whole city, I am your only friend. I, who keep you, teach you, feed you, dress you. I who look upon you without fear. How can I protect you, boy, unless you always stay in here, away in here? You are deformed"

"I am deformed," Quasimodo agreed solemnly.

"And you are ugly," Frollo stated without hesitation.

"And I am ugly," Quasimodo agreed once more.

"And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity. You do not comprehend," Frollo looked out over the square as Quasimodo moved to stand next to him.

"You are my one defender," Quasimodo supplemented, the feeling of loneliness beginning to overwhelm him.

"Out there, they'll revile you as a monster," Frollo gestured to the square below them.

"I am a monster," Quasimodo muttered to himself.

"Out there, they will hate with scorn and jeer," Frollo looked to him, feigning sympathy.

"Only a monster," Quasimodo repeated.

"Why invite their calumny and consternation? Stay in here, be faithful to me," Frollo looked at him with accusing eyes.

"I'm faithful," Quasimodo pleaded.

"Grateful to me," Frollo continued.

"I'm grateful," he pleaded once more.

"Do as I say. Obey, and stay in here," Frollo commended, leaving Quasimodo alone on the balcony.

"I'll stay in here," Quasimodo said as Frollo makes to leave, "You are good to me, master. I'm sorry."

"You are forgiven. But, remember, Quasimodo: this is your sanctuary," Frollo said over his shoulder as he began to descend the stairs of the bell tower.

"Sanctuary," Quasimodo replied, his head heavy with sorrow.

"Safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone, gazing at the people down below me. All my life I watch them as I hide up here alone, hungry for the histories they show me," he moved to his worktable, where a miniature replica of the square was carved out of wood, including figurines of all of the townsfolk.

"All my life I memorize their faces, knowing them as they will never know me. All my life I wonder how it feels to pass a day, not above them... but part of them..." Quasimodo walked quickly to the balcony before climbing the walls of the bell tower onto the roof.

"And out there, living in the sun! Give me one day out there; all I ask is one, to hold forever! Out there, where they all live unaware. What I'd give, what I'd dare, Just to live one day out there!" Quasimodo stood, running across the rooftops of the cathedral onto the bridge that separated two of the bell towers.