The Ghost That Haunts Notre Dame

Chapter 5 : Mysteries

Black. Everything was black.

Victoria was lying down and had no memory of what had just happened. She opened her eyes and sat up with a dull pain in her head. She looked around, scanning her surroundings, she was still in Notre Dame. She saw the remains of the spire, most pieces still burning. "What just happened?" Victoria whispered to herself, confused. She then stood up, and walked around slowly to get a better look at the scene in front of her.

Suddenly, her head started to hurt a lot more than before, and the memories of the last 5 minutes flooded her mind. Victoria groaned in pain.

After about 20 seconds, the pain faded away, but the memories didn't. Victoria was extremely confused. "But... The spire crushed me. So, how am I still alive? And without a single scratch." she tried to figure out what just happened.

Victoria tried to lean against the cement beam that was next to her, to try and think about what just happened, but oddly she fell through it like it wasn't even there. "What the heck?" Victoria said astonished. She started to put the pieces together, and tried to put her hand against the cement beam again. But her hand passed through it like it wasn't even there. She automatically shot her head up and checked where the spire fell. She saw something that made her start to tear up.

She saw the fireproof bracelet her mom gave her 9 years ago, when she turned 10. She walked up to it, heartbroken, but she had a blank expression on her face. She was interrupted by the sounds of sirens from multiple firetrucks. When the firefighters finally arrived, they started trying to out the fire out. That's when it hit her.

"I am dead!" Victoria shouted loudly. Even though the sound of the fire was very loud, her voice echoed through the hall. To her surprise, no one seemed to be affected by the loud noise. She walked up to the front entrance and just stared at the firefighter. He didn't seem to even notice her. "No, no! This can't be happening! There is no such thing as ghosts!" Victoria started to panic. She decided to run out of the door but something invisible stopped her. Before she could begin to think about the fact that there was an invisible barrier blocking her way out of the cathedral, she saw both of her parents crying their eyes out. Her heart broke. Tears blurred her vision as she tried to get their attention. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but they couldn't hear her. Her heart ached at the sight of her parents on such a broken state. But she knew there was nothing she could do about it. "There is nothing you can do about it Victoria. Now pull yourself together and try to find a way out of here!" she encouraged herself. Once she calmed down, she continued to try and find a way out of Notre Dame. She stepped back and studied the door for a while, then tried again. But she got the same result. There seemed to be a invisible barrier trapping her inside of the burning Notre Dame.

She tried all day to get out, because the building was on fire and she was scared. She tried to pick up a chair to throw it at the invisible barrier, but like the cement beam, her hands passed through it. She then thought if a crazy idea. "This is real dumb but it will give me my answer," Victoria said and began to walk up to the burning debris of the spire.

She slowly reached out to the burning spire, which was over 200°C, but she didn't feel the heat at all. "What?" Victoria was confused as ever. She then moved her hand closer to the spire's burning remains, and eventually got close enough to touch it. But like the chair and the cement beam, her hand passed through it. That's when she finally saw her hand. It was slightly transparent. She was shocked.

"What now?" Victoria kept saying in her head as she paced around, still petrified. The fire was getting worse by the second. She wanted to do something, but if she couldn't even lean against a cement beam without falling through it, how could she help stop Notre Dame from burning down? She tried to close her eyes, but even when she did this, she could see through her eyelids. She then tried to cover her eyes with her hand, but again, she could see through it. She has always been very interested in France's history, but now she is being forced to watch one of its most priceless pieces of history being reduced to ashes. Watching this horrific scene was just making her want to burst out crying, but she knew that would change anything. "I have to stay strong!" Victoria encouraged herself. Although she didn't want to cry, she couldn't help herself. She broke down, fell onto her knees and burst out crying.

All of a sudden, a ray of moonlight was cast upon her. She looked up and saw that the fire had burnt a huge hole in the roof. "No!" she cried out, still on her knees. She then heard one of the firefighters tell the chief that the fire is getting worse by the second. The firefighter spoke in French, but Victoria had been learning French since she was 15, so she could understand what he was saying. She couldn't believe what was happening. Victoria was very upset that Notre Dame was burning down, but she was more upset and shocked that she was a ghost now.

The fire continued until 22:40 in the evening. Once the firefighters had gotten the fire under control, Victoria took some time to think about what all had happened. She was pacing around in circles for about half an hour, until she finally thought about her parents. "Oh no! What about mom and dad?" Victoria cried out. She felt like she couldn't do anything, even though the fire was finally under control, she was more worried about her parents. For days on end, she couldn't sleep, not only because she physically couldn't, but also because she was in such shock.

2 weeks went by and she still couldn't believe what had happened. "So, the Notre Dame spire fell on me, killed me, and now I'm a ghost. Makes sense... Not at all!" She thought for days on end.
Before she knew it, 1 year had gone past, filled with the same, repeated, meaningless days. On the 1 year anniversary of the fire, at the exact time the fire got out of hand, she suddenly felt she couldn't move, and she started getting flashbacks of that traumatic day. She started to tear up more with every second that went past.

'The last thing she heard was her parents crying and screaming "No! Victoria!" from the entrance of the building. She looked at the petrified eyes of her parents, who were struggling to get last security, for the very last time... And then... The spire crushed her. "NOOOOOO!!!!!! VICTORIA!!!!!!" Clair and Paul screamed at the top of their lungs.'

The flashbacks caused her to break down and cry uncontrollably. "Why does it have to be me?" she shouted as loudly as she could. The day had been very cold, the sky was full of clouds, which did not make a difference for her already horrible day. She has been crying for 5 minutes, when a sudden clap of thunder reached her ears, which made her cry more and more. Once she finally calmed down, she sat still, with her back against the 856 year old wall, because that was the only thing she didn't pass through, for at least 4 hours, stone faced, as the rain kept on pouring down on her, even though the rain just passed through her.

The same day, standing up, walking around, sitting beside her fireproof bracelet and staring at it for 2 hours everyday, going up to the top of each bell tower and admire the beautiful view of Paris, repeated every day. She wondered every single day what her parents were doing. "Do they miss me? Did they forget about me? What are they doing now? How has work been?" Victoria said as the cold breeze hit her face; from the top of the South bell tower.

Whenever she was feeling down, she sang the lullaby that her mom had sang to her every night. 14 months and 28 days had passed from the tragic day of the fire, but for Victoria, it felt like it happened yesterday.

Another year passed and nothing had changed. The same day repeated. Nothing was different. Except the fact that Victoria was beginning to look at the bright side of being stuck in her favorite place in the whole world. Since she was 6 years old, she had been longing to go to Notre Dame de Paris. And finally, 13 years later, her parents had taken her to 856 year old building.

She sometimes just sat and stared at the Rose Window, and admired how much more beautiful it was in real life than in the pictures. On some days, she sat in the middle of the cathedral and looked straight up to where the spire formerly was. What she had noticed is that she wasn't getting older, she stayed 19 for the rest of eternity.

Renovations were still underway, but not one person could see Victoria, because she was a ghost. She felt more and more lonely everyday. She felt like she had no one. Because she didn't. Even though she was stuck in her favorite place in the world, who would want to be permanently stuck there for eternity. 2 more years went past, nothing different happened, the same meaningless days repeated, every. single. day.
She was feeling more and more relieved everyday, because the feeling of the renovations being over was growing stronger. The loud sounds of the hammers were getting very annoying for Victoria. The last week of renovations had finally come. "One more week! Come on Marshmallow, you can do it!" Victoria encouraged herself everyday.