The Outside Characters Chapter 26

I didn't know how long I was standing in the middle of the stage. With my iPod charged thanks to Discord and us at the center of the stage, it was impossible for me to turn back and run. I heard Alicia whisper to me, "Hannah, play a song!"

"Which one?" I asked her. She hissed at me, "Any song! Just as long as it sounds real!"

I scrolled through the library on my iPod to look for a song for us to dance to. AC/DC? No, they'll be startled by the music and it would make us look ridiculous.

"Hannah, anytime now!"

Green Day? Skillet? Three Days Grace? I couldn't find anything!

"JUST PRESS PLAY!!" Alicia hissed in impatience.

I finally found a song; Edward Maya's "Stereo Love". With the gentle beat to start with and the soft voice of the singer, I began to follow the rhythm through my dancing. The others followed along with their own twirls, graceful steps, shaking of their hips, spins, leaps, and waving of their arms. Dawn even joined in by pouncing around us to the beat of the music. The crowd seemed to be enjoying our dancing, because they started wolf-whistling at us. But I doubted they were cheering for me because I was far from dancing gracefully like everyone else, and Victoria was dancing with perfect ease while I was almost toppling over and tripping over my own two feet.

As I was struggling to keep myself from tripping and avoided heading to the edge of the stage and fall, I noticed Alicia skipping and twirling towards Frollo's stand.

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Third Person POV

Frollo watched from his throne as a large group of nine girls appeared on the stage instead of Esmeralda. He had already heard the news from the soldiers that she and Phoebus were now married and expecting their first child, which was due any day now. Although he didn't want to go to the Festival of Fools this year since his purgatory, hating the festivities more than he had hated Gypsies in the past, the only thing he ever enjoyed was Esmeralda's dance from the year before and he hoped he would enjoy his day out from being put under house arrest with a different dancer. Hoped that these nine girls were as good at dancing as Esmeralda was.

The girls and the crowd remained silent for a little while until the sound of what he thought was accordion and woodwind music was finally heard in the air, and each of the girls began dancing one by one. He noticed one of the girls in black was struggling to stay on her feet as she danced. He looked closely at her physical features, and he remembered her from last night. The very same woman he saved from those three dog-faced thugs and she saved him after that. He never thought he'd see her again after their encounter, and he was surprised to see that she was with many other girls that looked close to her age.

He and the rest of the crowd were too busy watching the girls dancing, they all failed to notice a cloaked man hidden on one of the rooftops of the buildings.

The Master Villain mentally chuckled cruelly as he readied his crossbow while watching the show. He said, remaining quiet so he wouldn't be heard by the people still in the building, "That's right, Frollo, old chap. Watch the little 'saviours' as they dance... for your doom." He snickered quietly as he waited for his chance to strike and kill his next victim.

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Alicia

I kept playing along with the charade as I went over to where Frollo was. All I needed to do was get as close to him as I could and figure out what his Horocrux was, destroy it, and get answers where Jenna was. I danced around his throne to distract him and the other people in the audience so they wouldn't get suspicious. As I leaned over to Frollo, I said to him in a voice that the people in the audience wouldn't hear, "I know you have it."

He looked at me with a raised brow and asked dryly, "What do you want?"

I said to him, "Your vessel."

"I'm not sure what you are talking about." he replied. I pointed my pin at him and glared, "Don't play stupid with me! I know the girl who brought you back to life gave you one of those things to stay alive, and I want you to hand it over!" Frollo backed away from me and said with a glare, "I don't have this so-called vessel or know any girl who gave it to me, and I don't know who you are, but I suggest you leave me alone immediately!"

I scoffed, "Or what; you'll burn me at the stake? I'd love to see you try. Right after I get some answers from you!" I fired my pin at him and the psychic beams blasted out of it, shattering his throne when he avoided it.

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Hannah

The girls and I stopped dancing when we saw Alicia blasting at Frollo. I called to her, "Alicia, stop! We're not supposed to attack him!" I avoided a blast from her pin, but it hit Discord instead, who was standing beside the stage and watching us dancing. He crashed into one of the tents nearby and Lulu gasped, "Oh no! Discord!"

We watched as he lifted himself up from the destroyed tent, and he groaned as he rubbed his head, "Ugh, my what a powerful blow Alicia packs there." The crowd watched him coming out from the tent, and a woman screamed, "Monster!" She held her child closer and other mothers began doing the same. Men and women were all screaming and running away.

"What's their problem?" Discord asked with a confused look. Rose answered, "Well, it's because you're not a human anymore." It was true. Discord was no longer in his human disguise, and he was back to being a draconequus again. Victoria frowned at him, "I thought we agreed that you would not be seen in this form by anyone here?"

Discord protested, "Look, it wasn't my fault! Your friend blasted me, and for some reason, my disguise wore off! But forget about me. Alicia's the one you have to worry about. Last I saw her, she was chasing Frollo into the alleyways." He pointed towards the buildings and the alleys between them.

"We have to go after her before something happens to Frollo! The Master Villain could be anywhere waiting to strike!" I said to everyone. I looked back at Discord and said to him, "You should go back to being human again. And this time, don't get hit by Alicia again!" Discord nodded with an embarrassed grin and snapped his fingers, returning to his human façade. We ran through the deserted festival grounds until we saw another familiar face.

"Quasimodo!" Victoria called. Quasimodo looked over at us and exclaimed, "Victoria! Girls! What happened here? What was going on and why was the crowd in a panic and screaming all of a sudden, and why did Alicia attack Frollo?" Victoria explained to him, "Alicia was trying to get something that would have killed him from him, but Alicia must have went too far."

"Did you see where they went?" Kayla asked.

Lulu added, "Discord said they went into the alleys."

Quasimodo thought for a second, then he said to us, "Follow me. I'll locate them from the rooftops." We ran towards the alley where Discord showed us, and Quasimodo climbed the buildings and jumped from roof to roof as we followed him. As we ran, Victoria said to Alex with a stern look, "Alexis, I've been meaning to ask you earlier. Did you turn into a dog in the middle of the night in the cathedral vestibule? The Archdeacon said there were people there who saw you causing trouble."

Alex began to get nervous and said, "Look, I didn't mean to! I was trying to be quiet and not get caught by those noble twits. Didn't you see how those guys treated Quasimodo last time?" I said to her, "That's not the point! We have to keep our powers a secret or they'd see us as witches!" Alex snapped, having a nervous look on her face, "Look, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I couldn't help it!"

Victoria looked at her and said, "Well, lucky for you, Quasimodo told the Archdeacon it was only a dog and not you, so remember to thank him for standing up for you later." Alex nodded as she started to smile a little, but she couldn't make it a full one from all the anxiety she was having after what we said to her. Yvette smirked, "Looks like the little dog is in trouble."

"Shut up, Yvette!" Alex snapped at her. "You're the one who told us not to tell anyone where we're really from and when we're from!" Discord chuckled as he made a bottle appear in his hand, "Looks like you could use some sunscreen, Yvette Dalane." Yvette looked at him with a raised brow and asked, "Why?"

"Because you were getting yourself burned there!" he laughed. Yvette shot a glare at him. We continued to follow Quasimodo until he called to us from the roof, "Girls! I found them!"

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Third Person POV

Frollo stopped running from the insane blonde witch with the magic pin. As he struggled to catch his breath, he wondered how on Earth that the blonde girl knew about the angel who brought him back to life. He said to himself, panting, "Thank the Lord I lost her."

"Guess again, Frollo!"

He turned around and his pursuer was standing a few feet away from him. The blonde girl with the pin was trying to catch her breath from running after him and she placed her hand on her chest where her lungs would be. She said through her pants, "You'd better... give me your... Horocrux, Frollo. It's for... your own sake."

"Alicia!"

She looked over and saw the others coming over from in the alleys and Quasimodo climbed down one of the buildings and back onto the solid ground to join the girls. One of the girls in the black dress, the one he ran into and saved the other night, said to her, "Alicia, what were you thinking? We're not supposed to attack Frollo unless he's threatening us!"

"He was asking for it! He's not giving us his Horocrux and he's lying about Jenna!" the blonde girl, Alicia, argued. Frollo frowned at them, "I do not know what this thing you call a 'Horocrux' is, nor do I know anything about this Jenna you are talking about!"

The blue-eyed brunette woman in purple scoffed, "Yeah, right! Like we'd believe that from a corrupt judge!"

The brunette in blue with the brown eyes looked at the other girls and asked, "What do you think, girls? Is he talking bull crap or what?"

"Talking real heavy load!" the girl dressed in green with the black cat agreed. The black cat hissed at him. Even as a man with a strong mind, he had hated black cats because of the bad luck they would bring to anyone, and he tried to remain unafraid of the tiny creature. He noticed something strangely odd about the black cat. The ones he had seen in his younger days had mostly green or brown eyes, but this one had eyes as blue as the Seine river. He still never let his guard down though as the other women had him cornered and began agreeing with each other with some words that he had never heard of before, but he believed them to be the most vulgar he had ever heard.

The only ones who didn't seem to be trying to confront him were the grey-eyed young woman he met, his reluctant foster son Quasimodo, and the strange looking man with the colourful outfit, red eyes, and long visible tooth. They all just seemed to look like they wanted to say something, but they couldn't get the chance to because of the other women.

While the women were confronting Frollo, a figure was hiding in the shadows, readying his weapon and preparing for the kill. He snickered wickedly as he aimed it at Frollo's chest where his heart would be. Fast and painless or slow and painful, he didn't care. He wanted to have the judge dead in front of them.

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Hannah

"I will not tolerate any of your foolishness!" Frollo snapped at us.

"Look pal! There's a psychopath out there going on a killing spree!" Yvette exclaimed in annoyance. "Give us your Horocrux or else!" Frollo disagreed with her, and she was about to lose her patience as she took out her wrench. I took her arm and said to her, "Calm down, Yvette." I looked at Frollo and said to him, "Listen, we mean you no harm, and our friend didn't mean to try and hurt you, but you have to listen to us."

I stopped talking when I suddenly saw something shining from the sunlight in the distance. I took a closer look and realized someone was about to fire an arrow at us. I moved my eyes in the opposite direction and realized it was going to hit Frollo!

I could feel my heart racing and my eyes widen in alarm when I heard the arrow being fired. Without thinking, I darted over towards Frollo and shoved him away just as the arrow came towards us. I gasped in pain and shock when I felt the feeling of being stabbed in my shoulder. I could feel tears of pain leaking from my eyes as I felt the arrow piercing through my skin.

I heard the girls' screams of horror and alarm as I was starting to lose balance. I looked back at Frollo, and he had a look of shock on his face. I felt myself losing my strength in my legs, and the next thing I knew, everything was starting to go black. Before I blacked out, I felt someone catch me from falling.