"I can save you from the flames of this world, and the next. Choose me, or the fire."

Esmeralda looked down at her people, locked up and afraid. If she died, things would only be worse for them. She then looked back at Frollo, who was smiling evilly, holding the fire that would burn her flesh and send her to her afterlife in between them. Never in her wildest dreams would she trade her life for this man, the one who had plotted against and killed hundreds of her people for twenty years. Esmeralda hung her head in defeat. "You," she whispered sadly, fighting back tears. She saw Frollo give her a menacing smirk before announcing to the crowd, "The gypsy Esmeralda has chosen to repent her crimes!" All the faces in the crowd- particularly those of the gypsies and Pheobus- dropped. They couldn't believe, nor understand why she had gave up so easily. No one in the crowd knew what would become of her; she hadn't told a soul about the offer Frollo had made her in the dungeon early that morning.

Esmeralda was so busy watching the crowd's reaction that she hadn't noticed that one of the guards had untied her until she was sitting in Frollo's carriage, with him sitting across from her, looking as evil as the devil himself. "My dear Esmeralda, I knew you would come to see it my way sooner or later," he said, reaching out to stroke her cheek. She jerked away from him, only to have him brush it aside. "The first order of business is to have you become a member of the Catholic Church. Your baptism will be tomorrow. After that, I have plans to attend a wedding at the Cathedral. The invitation has been extended to you, and I suggest you come. And after that, you're MINE."

The carriage halted to a stop in front of the Palace of Justice, the only building in Paris with its back to the great cathedral. It was a dark, depressing place, not like the cheery villages surrounding it. The interior contrasted its ugly exterior, with fine wood furnishings, generations old, but still new-looking. Still, Esmeralda couldn't call it her home. She would wait until later to explore her new surroundings. After her day today, all she wanted was to go to sleep and dream that this whole situation was a nightmare, and that she'd wake up a free, careless gypsy.