Disclaimer: I absolutely do NOT own, nor do I gain any monetary subsidies, for this fan fiction story. The characters, setting, names belong to the author that created them (Leroux, Kay), BUT the plot is all mine!
Author's Note: Again, I am taking a reprieve from Midnight Music Mystery to start another story since it is nearing its end. I would classify this story as a psychological thriller set in the early 1900s. This Erik is a dark/Leroux one. Please R&R!
Summary- Dr. Serene Willows is an aspiring psychologist, who against her husband's wishes, goes to France to help find out what happened to Christine Daae. She must find out from the person responsible: Erik Desslar, who currently resides in an insane asylum.
The Sanity of the Insane
Chapter One- Warning and Foreshadowing
---In Manhattan---
Dr. Serene Willows was a relatively attractive woman with long wavy brunette hair and fair emerald green eyes. She had a round face and a body that was neither fat nor skinny.
She had a fiery temperament that usually hid beneath a kind and intellectual exterior. Having gone through years and years of school as well as criticism from a dominantly male prejudiced world, she was able to obtain her degree and become a psychologist.
Most jobs were located in the local insane asylum, and as many in her profession, Serene desired to be remembered for that one case. Well, little did she know, her one case would come very soon.
She was recently married to Spencer Wilhelm Willows, a tall man of lithe stature. He had hazel eyes of honey and chestnut brown hair. He had a strong jaw structure and a muscular body that many would have overlooked had they not seen it personally.
He had a creamy complexion much like his wife's but they struggled to be together. Spencer was named after his mother's surname; his mother and father died soon after Spencer was born in a tragic house fire. A nanny was able to save the infant. He soon was left an orphan at a poor orphanage.
Growing up had been extremely difficult, suffering from bouts of illness, unsanitary conditions, bullying; Spencer had grown into a quiet and reserved man. Throughout those tortuous years, piano was his only solace.
He threw himself into the works of Mozart and Tchaikovsky, earning a meager salary at a local pub, but he was content. At the age of eighteen, however, Spencer had accumulated a large debt that he owed to some men. He had to get another job to pay the debt back, so he soon sought work.
He ended up getting a job at the Healdsburg Mansion. The Healdsburg family was rich after Theodore Healdsburg created a prosperous business (horse racing at that). The family soon traveled overseas to America in hopes of a better life free from oppression. There was only Theodore Healdsburg and his sixteen year old daughter Serene; the mother had died of tuberculosis when her daughter was eight.
Theodore tried to give his daughter everything she could desire, but she missed her mother. Serene became catatonic after her mother's demise, which resulted in eight years of silence.
Theodore was desperate to hear his daughter's voice, so he moved to America, thinking a new environment would change his daughter's condition. Sadly, that notion failed.
Spencer got a job working as a stable boy, much to his despair. His hands soon became raw and calloused, rendering him unable to play the piano for a long time. Among the many horrible memories, he smiled whenever he remembered the first time that he laid eyes on Serene.
She never spoke, but she never needed too; her eyes and facial expressions said it all. She often came down to ride her brown horse, and he always watched at a distance. Embarrassed and ashamed of himself, he never made his presence known to her until the day of her accident.
While riding, her horse spooked and threw her off; consequently, Serene's body was hurled into a tree. Dropping the bridles and halters, Spencer dashed out to her aid. The horse ended up running back into the stables while Spencer lifted the unconscious girl in his arms.
A vague thought went through his mind, 'She will be horrified when she realizes that a dirty, destitute man dared to touch her, but I cannot leave her outside when a storm is coming.'
Setting her form on some hay in the barn's safety as rain and lightning raged outside, Spencer tended to her wounds and scratches. She had been lucky to survive with minimal injuries.
It was not long after that night that the two fell in love. They married later and moved to Virginia. Spencer reminisced more before Serene called out to him. Standing up, he went inside their cottage home.
Her appearance was frazzled, as she rushed into his arms. His heart nearly stopped with fear that she had been hurt, but he sighed with relief when he realized that she was only excited about something.
She threw her hands up in the air and he noticed a letter with black cursive on it. Serene grabbed his hands, laughing. As he sat down, she kissed him with utter glee. Her merriment was contagious as he soon smiled with her.
"My darling whom I love with my entire being, I received a letter from a colleague that I met in school. He is in Paris, France and he wants me to assist him with a case he is working on with the French police. Here let me read this letter to you!"
Spencer coughed, trying to relieve a lump that had developed in his throat, but he still had a grave feeling about where this was going.
"Dear Doctor Serene Willows:
I pray that this letter finds you in good health. Since our time spent at the academy, I have made a successful asylum. I am writing in reference to one of my patients. It seems that this patient knows the whereabouts of a missing girl, named Christine Daae, who is presumed to be dead. No one seems to know what happened to her, and the French police are at their wits' end. I have been enlisted to help find out what happened; however, I will need an assistant to help me with this case, for this man is an enigma. His name is Erik Desslar. I have mailed a boat ticket for you, and it is my hope that you will accept this offer. I expect you to be paid handsomely for your work, and this case will surely set your career off. Give Monsieur Spencer Willows my highest regards. I will give you a full report once you arrive within three weeks from now. Please accept my offer.
Cordially,
Dr. Jacque L. Belier
Isn't this wonderful, darling? I can finally get my notification with this case. Jacque is world renowned, so if I am affiliated with any of his cases, I can get noticed by larger institutions!"
Spencer smiled a devastating smile while worry etched itself across his handsome face. He ran a hand through his hair; an unknown fear was eating away at his heart.
"I understand your excitement, angel, but I have a bad feeling about this."
"What do you mean, Spence? This is our chance. If I can get known, we do not have to worry about money anymore; we can pay off your debts and finally be free! Why wouldn't you want that?"
"It's not that at all, Serene. I cannot leave, so you will be going alone. I don't want to be apart from you."
She smiled, which added to the growing ache in Spencer's chest. Grasping his hands, she brought them to her lips. Kissing them, her green eyes stared into his hazel ones as he stroked her cheek reverently.
"Serene, we have not been apart since our marriage, and now you desire to leave. I do not like not being able to be with you in case you need my protection or support. Please, can you not wait until my theater is opened? Do you not know that you will be missing our first anniversary? I had something planned for us that would have been special."
Her eyes lowered in guilt, and she planted herself into his arms. Muttering her apologies, she tried to soothe his anxiety.
"Serene, I know that part of the reason you are going is my fault. Had you not married me, then your father would not have disowned you and have us struggling for money."
He ceased his rationalization when she brought her lips to his. Immediately, his resolve began to crumble as he deepened the kiss. Entwining their hands, he held her as he lowered them to the ground.
He thrust his tongue into her mouth, stroking hers as he explored passionately and groaned within her mouth. She moaned as he rubbed her arms with his hands. How he loved her!
Serene brought her hand to the back of his head, her fingers threading his golden hair, and she pulled him deeper to her. How she loved him! He was always so gentle and kind, but she knew that he would do anything to prevent her from leaving. She lowered her mouth to the nape of his neck. As she kissed and nipped his skin, she felt his pulse quicken. He moaned with desire when she nibbled his ear lobe.
She whispered, "I love you so much. I do not regret one moment that we have shared together. I want you now, but I have to go."
Suddenly, he pulled away as surprise flashed in Serene's eyes. She felt naked without his warmth and embrace. Apparently, this decision was going to ignite a fight between them. He sat up, his long legs extended, as she sat next to him, a look of irritation passed across his features.
She turned to look at him and noticed his face was flushed from desire and anger. Spencer was torn in his heart. He admired and supported her for her independence and determination in regards to her career; yet, he had an ominous feeling that this case would end badly.
"I know that you think this case would advance your career and ease us from our monetary ailments. However, I could care less about money and your career, for it is you that I care most about. I love you! You would be an ocean away, and if you were in trouble, I could not be there."
Her heart felt crushed when he did not speak for five minutes afterwards. His eyes stared forward, glazed with tears and pain. His pain and anxiety emanated from his aura when Serene attempted to reach out to him.
"Oh my darling Spencer, I know that you love me. Please try to understand that I have to do this. I will be leaving in three days. We can celebrate our anniversary early before I leave. Spencer, please say something. I need to hear your voice."
He turned his tanned face towards her, his mouth set in a firm line. His face was stony, yet his eyes brimmed with tears as he opened his mouth and spoke apathetically.
"I am going to bed, and I will speak no more. You have made your decision, and I have no choice but to accept it. I love you, but I am tired."
He rose while Serene grabbed his hands trying to make him stay. Spencer pushed her hands away and traveled upstairs where a cold bed awaited him.
----Meanwhile in Paris, France---
A dark room with a tiny barred window held the infamous Phantom of the Opera. The man simply named Erik was wrapped in a straitjacket and a full face black mask that hid his hideous face.
He had overheard Dr. Belier was seeking an assistant, and he found one in an old colleague of his who lived in America with her husband. Many times the masked man could have escaped the hell hole that was the asylum, but there would have been no point. He had no place to call home…no place to go…no one to go to.
Everyone that he had known had abandoned him and gone about their daily lives.
His two glowing gold eyes were the only light in the padded four walled room. He laughed maniacally in the quiet solitude of the room at the irony of his situation. He had given up his fine tailored suits for a white straitjacket. He had given up his fine home filled with riches and books and music for a white washed asylum with the smells of disinfectant and urine and screams of the mentally incapacitated. He had given up hope and love for a life in a place where hope and love was lost.
Yet, he knew he was not crazy. He was as sane as Dr. Jacque Belier and the staff that worked in Belier Sanitarium. Laying his head back on the wall while staring up at the ceiling, Erik knew that residing in the sanitarium was a better solution than to be hanged.
Music swirled into his head as the night passed on within each moment. It was almost unbearable for him to not have his instruments and music, but he was content on writing the songs on various furniture and walls of the asylum. It was the only way for him to express the one good part of him.
In the past three years, he had been questioned by every doctor and policeman in the entirety of Paris about what happened to Christine.
It was the only leverage he had, so of course, he would not tell them anything. Yet, amidst the sanitarium's patients who screamed and sounds of brutalization, Erik formed a plan. He could escape, and the American psychologist would be the key for him to leave.
Beneath the black mask, a smile spread across his malformed lips. His golden eyes twinkled with an evil tint. Ah, yes, it was all coming together.
As the night slowly ebbed away, the masked man's foreboding plan was one day closer to come into effect. It was only a matter of time before anyone would find out what really happened to Christine Daae…only a matter of time…
---Back in Manhattan, America---
Spencer lay asleep in the bed; his striking face was peaceful as he slumbered. Serene had sat in a chair next to the bed and just stared at her husband while he slept. She felt horrible for hurting him, but she needed to do this for the both of them.
If that woman, Christine Daae, was alive and she was able to bring her to her family safely, Serene would be content. She was jolted back to reality as her husband's features contorted in his slumber.
He moaned before he awoke from his bad dream. The candlelight was the only illumination in the room, and a soft yellow hue was radiating off his face. He slept often without a shirt and only pajama pants as he did this night.
He turned towards her, half his face covered in darkness while the other was alight from the candles. Serene stood, her nightgown pooled to her feet. He extended his arms as she came forward after blowing out the candles.
She pressed herself against his warm muscular chest as he stroked her back in slow caresses. She buried her head in his chest as he kissed the top of her head while they lay in bed.
"I love you, Spencer, and I do not want us to be upset with each other. God in heaven, I love you. It was because of you I found my voice. You gave me life when I had nothing. You are my heart. I would be nothing without you. Please do not be angry. I would not be able to function if I left with you angry."
Spencer sighed; his hot breath blew over her face, causing her to shiver. He pressed his lips in her hair, breathing in her scent while trying to steel his unsteady nerves.
He extracted her from his arms and stared at her round face, trying to memorize her every feature. She smiled softly, as he closed his eyes in pain.
"Oh, my dear, I could not stay angry with you. It's not you that I am upset with. I am upset with the situation. I have to accept your decision, but I will do so on one condition."
"Name it, Spencer. I will do anything for you."
"I want you to send me a boat ticket as soon as you arrive. Then, I will go to Paris after my theater's open night. I will disembark, and you and I will be together. So, in essence, you will be alone for two weeks before I am able to arrive on France's shore."
He could see her smile before he finished. She nodded ecstatically before kissing him lightly on the lips. After resolving the matter, she fell into a deep sleep. For the rest of the night, Spencer just watched her slumber.
As much as he loved her and as much as he seemed appeased with the decision, he knew in his heart that something about this specific case was wrong; and the more he thought on it, the more troubled he became.
---While tensions arose in Serene's home, a certain Persian began to develop anxiety---
"I cannot explain the anxiety, Darius, but I am getting this solemn feeling something is amiss."
The small Arab boy looked at his master. Nadir Khan, exiled from Persia because of Erik, had developed a comfortable but less lavish life in Paris, France. He had been there in the aftermath of Erik's madness. In fact, it was he who brought the masked man to the asylum.
In the three years since Erik's confinement, the Persian had aged badly. He had dark circles beneath his eyes and his once firm brown skin had begun to fade and develop age spots. His hair had dramatically thinned to the point; Nadir just cut most of it off. He still had the piercing beady brown eyes that was always discerning, a habit from the police force he had not outgrown.
Darius brought him some tea, which Nadir drank in one gulp, ignoring the scorching of his throat while his servant stared at him in obvious worry.
"Sir, do you think it has something to do with him? It has been three years and nothing has changed. He has not even tried to escape. In fact, he has not said anything about that girl. What do you think happened to her, if you mind me asking, sir? "
With a dismissive wave of his hand, Nadir elaborated on the feeling he was having. "No, Darius, I cannot explain it. It may well be Erik, but I…I don't know how to explain it better than just a menacing cloud that is hanging over my head. No one knows about the young lady. The only answer lies in Erik's ever complex mind."
His calloused brown hand flexed as he gripped the handle of the cup tighter while Darius stood next to the chair his master was sitting in, the ever obedient servant. He refilled the Persian's cup with more hot tea.
"What are you going to do, master?"
"I am not certain, but I know that I will go see Erik tomorrow. Perhaps that will ease my mind and this feeling I have."
Darius nodded, saying he would take care of the preparations for tomorrow. All the while, he gave his employer a skeptical glance. There was no way that the masked man would ease the Persian's mind; if anything, it will only add to the disquietude the two had had for three years.
Sighing heavily, Darius set to work on getting the master ready for bed…however useless that was, for it was obvious there would be no sleep in the small apartment tonight.
-----In the Sanitarium----
I come up to see you
Red, red, red everywhere
They tell me you are dead, too
In my heart, I realize there's a tear
Where you used to reside
I am hurting in places I never knew I had
If you had died in my arms, perhaps it would not hurt so inside
Now I must let you go to the place where there's no bad…
Erik's voice died away into the stillness of the night while Dr. Belier listened outside his door. The masked man's voice had lured the doctor from his paperwork to the man's room. Was he admitting Christine Daae's death? No, this masked man was a genius, and there was no way he would reveal what happened so easily.
A chilling and haunting voice raised the hairs on the doctor's neck. It was not what he said, but the way the masked man said it in such an apathetic fashion that unsettled him. Never in his decade of practice had a patient unnerved him as much as this man did.
He was an obscure person, having once been known as the Opera Ghost at the Paris Opera House. Leaving in his wake a monumental amount of devastation and murder, this man was more dangerous than Jack the Ripper or those suffering from psychosis.
"Did you enjoy my performance? I daresay she was always entranced by my voice as well. Such a waste, doctor, don't you think…to have a voice to make angels weep and to be in place where voices are only heard in the patients' heads. Do you think that she would be disappointed with the result of poor Erik? She pitied me, true, but in the end, I am the one that pities her!"
"What happened to her, Desslar? Did you kill her?"
Dr. Belier had peered into the slot where the meals were served but saw the room was vacant. Where had that dangerous masked man gone?
"What the…"
Suddenly, his face popped in front of the doctor's, inches apart separated by a metal slot in the door. The golden eyes glowed with a dour glare. The doctor jumped back in fright, dropping his eye spectacles in the process.
"BOO! Ha ha, doctor, you seem to have nerves of glass, so easily disturbed. Christine? I do not know what you speak of. She is gone…"
Able to regain his senses, the doctor put on his medical exterior once more. The more he questioned the masked man, the more unnerved he became with each indifferent answer.
"Gone as in dead?"
"Oh, you miserable fool, gone could have several meanings…Why must you think the worst of me, Doctor? What have I ever done to you?"
Again, that maniacal laugh reverberated off the walls of the asylum, igniting the patient's raucous laughter down the hallways. Dr. Belier swallowed the lump in his throat and loosened his tie while he stood up. Having forgotten his spectacles, the doctor stepped on them. The masked man had moved into the corner of the room once more, settling in his usual corner next to the tray of uneaten food.
Leaning his head on the door, Dr. Belier closed his eyes as a migraine began to develop in the back of his head. He had been trying to get the truth out of Desslar for three long years and gotten nowhere.
"Have it your way, Desslar. I must inform you that during the next few sessions, I will have an assistant, Dr. Serene Willows who is a psychologist. She will be analyzing and interviewing you. I expect you to be on your best behavior."
Erik sneered underneath his mask as his used ventriloquism to answer the doctor's absurd statement.
"As you wish, Jacque…" was heard in several different areas as the doctor walked away, a little too quickly…
Erik lay down on the uncomfortable mattress under the barred window, a smile spread across his malformed lips as he reviewed his plan once more. It was a matter of time before he would be free from his personal hell, so he would be able to…Well, he decided it was best not to dwell on the future.
Closing his eyes, he managed to capture a little sleep as dreams now eluded him. The moon soon descended as the night began to ebb away finally into the dawn of a new day.
When Erik awoke a few hours later, he grinned when he remembered his plot to escape. He only felt sorry for those who would be killed for getting in his way. Well, he truly did not feel sorry for the idiots. Too long had he resided in the hell-hole! He had been waiting for a chance like this for three years, and no one would get in the way.
The smile faltered when a vague thought passed through Erik's mind like a lightning bolt striking a tree.
What if that meddling Nadir Khan tries to ruin his plans again?
Erik stood up, now agitated and began to pace the padded room. His arms had fallen asleep from being motionless for a long time. He did not know what to do about the Persian man.
Well, he figured the best way to deal with him was to manipulate Nadir into his plan. What the meddling Arab man did not know or find out, the better off they both would be in the long run.
Author's note: Well, I decided to end there. Please let me know what you think. First chapters are always pivotal, and I value critiques. Erik…well let me just say things will get interesting quickly! I will try to be better/more diligent in updates. Thanks for reading and Happy Easter!