The Hunchback

Don't read this post if you can't stand sad things.



There was once a Hunchback. He was a real beast-ugly, deformed, crooked,bent. Picture Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. No, not the Disney version.

He lived in the ice, this Hunchback. He killed what creatures he could find. He ate them. He did not bother with a fire.
He survived.

Several years passed this way.

One day, as he was making his way back to the hole he called home, he spotted a strange light in the distance. That was odd. He hobbled towards the light.

As he neared, the light became exponentially brighter. Shielding his eyes, he hobbled on.

When he finally found the source, he could barely see. Pawing at his streaming eyes, he cried out in anguish. He shut his eyes, and then slowly opened them again.

He stared. His skin began to burn.

He saw a strange being lying on the ice. It was taller than the Hunchback. It had slender limbs, dark, black long hair and pale almost translucent skin.

The Hunchback stared harder, transfixed.

It was a woman. But the Hunchback didn't know that.

He just stared, struck dumb.


Picture the scene then, if you will: The strange woman lying, apparently asleep on the snow; and the Hunchback. She-a creature from Heaven-ethereal, angelic. He-a creature from the farthest depths of Hell-a face that even a mother would have difficulty loving.

The Hunchback howled. How he howled! The fish in the sea heard him, and they dove deeper. The creatures of the ice heard him, and they lay still.

A cry of pure, inhuman pain tore through the Tundra.

He howled because he had nothing. He howled at the inequity in creation- that bestowed on him the form of the lowliest wretch that crawls in the mud, and on her the form of a God. He howled because the purity of her loveliness seared at his skin like a burning flame-scorching, throwing into sharp relief the shadows that marred him.


.....

She's so beautiful.

She's so beautiful.

She's so bloody beautiful.

Drunk, bereft of all reason, a beggar clutched at his chest and howled at the moon.

He clutched as if to tear out his heart and give it to her.

...

Take it.

Take everything I have: all that i am, all that I will be, the worlds i control. All i ask is that you give me a chance to be with you.

...

Who the F&^k is he? He knows nothing. Nothing of who you are, of what you deserve.

And yet, I know that you may never be mine.

...

I don't need to know how much.

But-

I don't need to know how much. I don't care. Take the money, just make sure she's happy. Anything she wants, anything she needs- she should have.

But-

Don't Argue.

Yes, sir.

And understand this, she should not know that it's me. Never. Let her think that she did it, or the Gods did it, or that he did it- I don't care. But she should not know it's me- understand?

Yes, sir.

....

And I knew, that he knew, that he could never have her.

...