All That I Ever Loved

The Marriage of Outcasts

It's the day of your wedding, a day when a new family will be born, but to you, it felt like the death of your entire world.

After your breakdown last night, you exhausted yourself enough that you had slept through the night. Reenergizing yourself with dreamless sleep. You were woken up from this sleep by your sister shaking you, yelling at you to say it wasn't true and that you weren't going to marry the hunchback. You said nothing as you let her shake your body back and forth, only willing to stare into the distance as Esmeralda cried out, begging you to tell her the truth. After a while of this begging, you got up. Esmeralda sat next to you on your bed, holding your head and staring at you with tearful eyes. Once more, she asked if what Clopin told her was true. You looked at her with tired, dead eyes and told her the truth. You told your sister everything, about the Archdeacon, about being held captive by Quasimodo, about your attempted murder, everything.

This leads you to where you are now, sitting quietly as your very pissed-off sister sat on her bed across the tent. You hung your head low as she stared at you, too ashamed to show your face. Esmeralda had her arms crossed, her leg shaking from anxiety. The tension was almost suffocating, you could feel your sister's harsh glare on your disheveled form, but you couldn't bring yourself to care. All you could think about was how as of today, you were going to be the unwilling bride of a man you didn't love.

Esmeralda was the first one to speak. "You shouldn't have done this," you could hear the frustration in her voice. She was disappointed in you, but it's alright. If you had the energy, you would be disappointed in yourself too. "You should just call it off now,"

You couldn't do that. She still didn't understand, even after you told her your plan. No one seemed to want to understand your reasons; Quasimodo would help you; he would help your people. You had to save him. His strength was too valuable, his heart was too kind, he was a crucial part of your plan, and you couldn't lose him. You couldn't call off the wedding because you weren't willing to let a friend and powerful ally die. No one understood that your family couldn't see past your dramatic actions and Quasimodo's face. All they could see was a woman about to destroy her life for the sake of an outsider.

You sighed and raised your head to Esmeralda. "You know I can't do that," Your tone was exhausted. You probably looked like it too.

Esmeralda sneered and stood out of her seat. "Why not! You say he can help us, but how could he? He's never even been outside Notre Dame!" She yelled, making large gestures with her arms.

Defensive anger sparked in you as you heard Esmeralda's words. You stood out of your seat, clenching your fists at your sides. "Yes, he can! Quasi will be able to get us near the Archdeacon! He can get us the information we need!" You shouted back.

Esmeralda let out an angry groan and threw up her arms in frustration. "Yo-You can't, you just can't!" your sister sputtered, jumbling her words together before taking a deep breath and looking at you with a snarl. "Why can't you stop being so stubborn!" She screamed at you, rage coming off her in waves.

Your face quickly morphed into one of rage. "I have to protect our people!"

"That's not your job!" Esmeralda screamed at you, her green eyes wild with anger.

A fire of rage filled you at her words. "That's a damn lie!"

"How?" Esmeralda shouted back. The tension was only increasing.

"Because I've been doing it all my life by protecting you!" You screamed and stomped over to your sister, pointing an accusatory finger at her chest. Esmeralda was taken aback by your confession, her rage quickly melting away only to be replaced by confusion. You frowned at your sister's confused face, and moving away from her, you began to yell once more. "All my life, I've had to protect you! Protect you from the gross men who leer at you like a piece of meat! You don't know what they've tried to do, but I do!" Your throat was becoming sore from your yelling, but you continued. "The way those pigs look at you sickens me. I've been able to chase them off most of the time, but they just keep coming back. Sometimes they follow us, you know. They see you dancing and try to follow us home. You know how I always ask you to race me home?" Your voice wavers as you speak, and Esmeralda's face falls into terror as she shakes her head. You take a shaky breath and continue. "It been happening less though...when you were younger, it happened almost every night." Tears welled in your eyes as you remembered the dark figures in the shadows, the footsteps behind almost matching up with yours but just a bit off, the feeling of hateful eyes watching you as you walked down the dark streets with your sister.