Masterpiece
A Love Never Dies alternate universe sequel.
This is an alternate universe set about two years after Christine Daaé arrives in New York. Christine is now divorced from Raoul. She lives in New York with her son, Gustave who is still unaware of his true parentage. Though he is about to find out...
The main characters are Gustave, Christine, and Erik/Mr. Y. Along with some appearances by Madam Giry, Meg, Gangle, Fleck, Squelch, and others.
This story is rated T for Teen for language and mentions of sex.
* I have a few ground rules for this story. Basically the end of LND never happened. Christine does not die and Meg never kidnapped Gustave. Also Meg was never pimped out.
Love Never Dies is said to take place in 1905. Again, this story takes place two years after Love Never Dies. The first chapter starts off with Gustave.
Chapter One
Gustave
September, 1907
Brooklyn
Gustave Valérius sat against the side of the school building.
The bump and thump of the basketball over on the court.
His classmates' shoes scuffing against the pavement.
Water dripping from the guttering.
Drip.
Thump.
Scuff.
Thump.
Scuff.
Drip.
Drip.
The strange, but harmonic sound they made when melded together. Gustave found it quite relaxing. Unlike most students, he would prefer to stay inside for recess. He would love to play the piano on the music stage, draw, or even read a good book in the library. However, all students had to go outside for recess. He could a bring a book outside, but quickly learned when he first started school here that books might be taken away or torn apart by bullies.
"What are you doing?"
Gustave opened his eyes to find Danny, the closet person he had to friend here at school. "Listening," He gestured at their surroundings.
Danny looked around then shook his head. He was clearly thinking how weird he found Gustave.
Gustave shrugged and wore a somber expression. Knowing it was true. He was weird. Even his name was weird. He had been born Gustave Phillipe Erik de Chagny. However, to protect him from reporters, his Mother had enrolled him as Gustave Valérius. Which Gustave understood, but it made matters complicated when some of his teachers would not accept his work if he accidentally wrote Gustave de Chagny.
Danny sat down on the pavement next to him. "I swear you think every sound on Earth is amazing."
Gustave couldn't help but smile. It was his Mother and Grandfather's fault. "Where've you been?" He hadn't seen him since they let everyone outside.
Danny looked over his shoulder.
At first, Gustave wondered what he was doing then saw the harmonica Danny pulled out of his pocket.
Gustave raised a brow, "I thought Coleman confiscated—"
"It was," Danny mischievously smirked, "And I just confiscated it back. It's been over a week." On the first strike, they were supposed to hand things back at the end of the school day, but Danny had never gotten it back. He had been complaining all week. "Turds!" Danny put the harmonica to his lips and began to play.
Gustave looked around. Hopefully all the playground noise would cancel out Danny's harmonica.
No one seemed to notice, Gustave sighed and began to relax as Danny played a somber tune, but it quickly faded.
Gustave and Danny looked over to see the basketball game had come to an abrupt end. Some of the boys were leaving the court. Most were gathered around in a growing circle.
"What's going on?" Gustave hadn't been playing attention.
Danny shook his head. "Nothing good," He shrugged and tried to start playing again.
Gustave sprang to his feet. "Come on," He started sprinting.
Danny slid his harmonica in his pocket, "Uh..." He didn't seem to like that idea very much.
As Gustave ran closer he saw what was going, past the crowed of people. One student had knocked another student to the ground.
"Hey! Hey!" Gustave shouted as he saw what was going on.
Why wasn't Mr. Coleman out here? Wasn't he or one of his pets supposed to monitor the playground?
"Hay is for horses," Said the bigger boy. Standing over another boy with two large fists.
Gustave brushed the comment aside. "Leave him alone!"
Gustave couldn't recall the larger boy's name. He was in second sixth grade class and he was over a year older due to being held back.
Something Gustave sensed he must have been teased for.
The larger boy looked like he was almost ready to pounce on Gustave.
"Coleman's coming!" One of the 5th graders shouted.
Everyone began to scatter as the large man marched towards the basketball court.
The boy started walking away, but swerved, hitting Gustave in the shoulder. "Piss off!"
"Alfred!" Mr. Coleman shouted.
Ah, so that was his name!
The larger boy suddenly looked very small as Mr. Coleman took him by the arm.
Gustave rubbed his shoulder and looked over to see the boy on the ground trying to stand. It was his classmate, Tommy Murphy on the ground. He felt bad for Tommy, he knew had a rough time lately.
It started weeks earlier when his father had very publicly fallen from grace. Months ago, Mr. Murphy was one of the top critics at the New York Post. Then he released a very nasty review of Phantasma, an amusement park on Coney Island. He was mysteriously sacked shortly afterward. Due to inappropriate behavior in the workplace. There were now rumors Tommy's mother had taken him, his siblings, their belongings, and moved out of their apartment.
Again, Gustave sympathized and understood all too well. His own parents' divorce had been finalized late last year.
"Are you alright?" Gustave offered Tommy a hand.
Tommy gave Gustave a disgusted look. "Leave me alone." He sneered as he tried to stand on his wobbly legs. Blood was starting to trickle down his nose. "Get lost!"
Danny ran up beside Gustave. He looked concerned, "Come on, let's get out of here."
Puzzled, Gustave continued to offer Tommy a hand.
When Tommy finally stood, he wiped his nose and put his hands on his hips. "Did you not hear me? I said get lost!" He shouted. "I don't need help from the son of a whore!"
Horrified and hurt, Gustave took a step back.
Danny grabbed Gustave by the arm and led him away from the gathering crowd. He led him to the nearby trees their class had planted in science class back in the springtime.
Gustave sank down to the ground in defeat. Pulling some grass out of the ground.
Danny crouched down to get eye level with his upset friend. "That was...really uncalled for," Said Danny. "You did nothing wrong. Tommy never should have said that. You were only trying to help."
Gustave finally looked up at his friend, "W-what was he talking about?" Why would Tommy call his mother such a vulgar word? As far as he knew, they never even met. Granted, his Mother had been called many things the past year for divorcing his father. But this was more than that. He and Tommy never had any problems before. In fact, they played a game of kickball weeks. Why would he do that? Gustave did not believe Tommy was just taking his frustrations out by calling his Mother such a thing.
"Hm?" Danny tilted his head, "Wait, you don't know about..." His eyes widened. "Oh," Danny looked absolutely horrified. He looked past Gustave at the door to school. He clearly wanted to make a dash for it, but they still had ten minutes left.
"Who?"
"Oh...uh, well," Danny's eyes twitched. He did this when he was very nervous. Desperately, he looked around. Probably trying to think of another subject.
Gustave narrowed his eyes. "Does this something to do with that review?" The one written by Tommy's father.
"It's probably nothing," Danny shrugged as he stood and started to back away. "Just gossip. Bull." He shrugged again. "By next week, everyone will find something new to talk about." He tried to smile.
Gustave stood up and grabbed his arm. "Tell me." He demanded in a serious tone.
"Alright, alright," Danny put his hands up defensively. "Some say that the real reason Mr. Murphy got sacked..." He looked very uncomfortable. "Look, I don't know much, but my brother's remarked how late Ms. Daaé's rehearsals run in the evenings." Danny's brother, Ralphie worked at Phantasma for extra money. Ralphie ran some of the rides and sometimes even cleaned after closing.
Gustave was confused. Rehearsals? His mother, Christine performed at Phantasma every weekend. She had rehearsal with the owner, Mr. Y every Friday evening and sometimes other times throughout the week.
Gustave made a face, "Wait, you mean..."
Danny gave a sort of nod.
"Mr. Y?" Gustave's face grew from confused to repulsed, "Mr. Y and my mother?"
Danny looked away, but said nothing.
Gustave made a disgusted face as he shook his head, "That's a lie!" He said irritably.
"My brother's no liar!" Danny snapped. He quickly frowned. Regretting his tone. "That's just what he heard."
Gustave started to pace. There had been a lot of whispers about his mother. Even on Coney Island, but Gustave had tried his best to ignore them. Coney was the one place he went to escape all of it.
"Look, I don't blame ya." Danny put his hands on his hips. "Ralphie's told me about Mr. Y." The mysterious masked man who ran Phantasma. "Says he's a real freak." Danny gestured at his face. "Says his entire face was—"
"Well, it's wrong!" Gustave raised his voice as he continued to pace.
He was no mood to hear about Mr. Y. He had seen the monster's face first hand.
Now people were saying Mr. Y and his mother were...involved?
Gustave clenched his hands into fists. He was so sick of people talking about his mother all the time. His parents' divorce had been finalized for months now. When would people talk about someone else? "Mr. Y is just Mother's employer." And friend, he silently thought. Trying to push those thoughts aside, Gustave went on, "Nothing more." Though he didn't know who he was really trying to convince. "She wouldn't..."
"Yeah, yeah," Danny said, though he obviously didn't believe him. "Alright. Come on," He put a hand on his shoulder. "It's about time—"
Why did Danny believe this sick lie? Overcome with anger and frustration over the last two long years, Gustave put out his hands and shoved Danny to the ground.
Danny looked up completely shocked at who he thought was his best friend.
"Danny?" Gustave quickly realized what an awful mistake he just made. "I'm sorry. So, so sorry. I—"
Rage blazed across Danny's face. He leaped up and shoved Gustave to the ground.
Gustave looked up and furiously got back up.
The boys started waving their arms and fists.
Gustave hit Danny on the shoulder while he took a hit to the mouth.
The boys continued hitting and kicking each other for at least a few moments.
Gustave could hear footsteps. Voices. Cheering.
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
Suddenly the cheering down.
There was pacing and footsteps, but they faded away.
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" Boomed a voice.
The fighting ceased.
The boys looked up to find their classmates gone and Mr. Coleman's cold, disapproving glare.
Poor Gustave. Thoughts? I've worried some will be lost while reading this chapter. If one is, I think it will be much easier to form an opinion after next chapter.
Trivia: Madame Valérius was the name of Christine's guardian in The Phantom of the Opera novel.
Inspiration for this story came from a Star Wars fic from many years ago, which has sadly been taken down.
Next chapter will feature Christine and more details about the events that have taken place the last two years.
** And to all readers, don't worry. I haven't given up on my Star Wars stories. I've been taking a break from them. I need a break from Star Wars. **
Please leave a review.