The Phantom of the Opera: Henri's story.
1: Henri Ferino
Henri stood outside the doors of the opera house. The hard fall winds whipped his face red raw and stirring the leaves under his feet. He opened the doors and found himself in a magnificent theater. Rows and rows of scarlet seats lined the floor as large magnificent box seats hung from the walls curtains of velvet hiding the inside from view. In the middle of it all was a large ornate stage. If he remembered correctly there was to be a show performed in a few weeks. No doubt why the young ladies of the ballet were practicing what seemed to him unnatural feats. They twirled and kicked and hopped all over the stage in perfect unison. It was a wonder to Henri how they managed to remember all those steps and not nock into each other.
Henri didn't want to disturb the practice so he sat in one of the third row chairs and watched the dancers practice. After what seemed to him to be hours they got the signal to take a break. Almost immediately they all immersed themselves in deep conversation, the subjects of which Henri could not begin to fathom. Then someone from behind him caught his attention by saying.
"Enjoying the show?"
Henri wheeled around in his seat to find a woman standing right behind him. She was about middle age and had a stern face with commanding eyes that seemed to be scanning him inside out.
The woman considered Henri and said nothing for what seemed an eon. Finally she broke the silence.
"Ah, you must be the new stage-hand we've been expecting."
"Y-yes." He said shakily. The woman made him feel a little nervous.
"I'm Henri Ferino."
"Madame Gery." She said simply. "Come I will show you to your room. I suggest you get some sleep, dress rehearsal starts tomorrow and stage hands must be there."
As she led him up on to the stage Henri wondered why Madame Gery was watching the ballerinas too but that question was soon answered in the form of a girl with black hair. Meg had noticed the new face as she was dancing and saw it as an opportunity to make a new friend. She caught up to them and said gaily.
"Hello my name's Meg." And she held out a hand. Henri took and gave it a polite shake
"Henri."
"I see you already have met my mother she said sending a quick glance in Madame Geri's' direction."
"She's your mother?" Henri sound a little more surprised than he would have normally but Meg and her mother almost seemed like polar opposites.
"Yep I'm Meg Gery. So what position are you filling?"
"I'm the new stage hand."
"Ah, that's right. Ever since Mounsier Doling went missing the stage master has been looking for a replacement."
"Huh?"
Madame Gery must have heard Meg for she shot her a look that was sure to kill anyone who was not used to it. Meg quickly covered her mouth with her hands. They must have reached their destination for Madame Gery pronounced.
"This is your room Henri. You'll have it all to yourself, and remember not to go wandering the halls at night."
But before he could ask her why, Madame Gery and Meg were walking back to the stage.
"What was that about?" He asked himself. Shrugging he turned around and saw his new room for the first time. It had two single beds, no doubt incase of a roommate. A small bed side table with a gas light separated the beds, and there was a wardrobe on the opposite wall. Henri grinned a little a removed the bag from his shoulders. The bad carried all his possessions, some clothes and books, and a few francs.
When he had finished unpacking he looked out the window and saw that it was already dark outside. He looked at the small cloak next to the gas lamp which read eight o' clock. He wanted to see more of the opera house but he was already getting tired and decided to go to bed early.
2: The Catwalks
Henri walked to the stage to find that most of the stage-hands were already getting the scene for the first act of the opera. It appeared to be some sort of garden flowers of every shape and size seemed to be on the huge piece of canvas set for the background. Henri hurriedly found the stage master who to Henries' delight gave Henri the job of exploring the parts above the stage to get use to being up there.
Henri rushed to his task with great enthusiasm and quickly found the stair that lead to the balconies and cat-walks. Henri decided to work top to bottom so he started with the cat-walks. There was nobody on this section; everyone else was two levels lower were all the scene-shifting equipment was. The cat-walks were very narrow if two men were up here they would have to travel single file. Henri spent this time examining and inspecting all the various ropes and pulleys that he didn't know what was at the other end.
As time went on he could hear the orchestra striking up a lively tune. It was no doubt a dance section. He looked down and was amazed at the view he could see everything, the stage-hands sipping little bottles of booze, the dancers twirling this way and that, the orchestra playing the fast paced song and the singers preparing to sing their parts. And Monsieur Erik sitting in his normal seat to supervise the rehearsal. Henri sat down legs dangling from the cat walk and watched the rehearsal. About half way into it the front doors opened and two men stepped inside.
One of the men was tall and strongly built with a black goatee and graying black hair. The other was shorter and had blond hair smoothly slicked back, he also wore glasses and had a pencil thin mustache. They both walked toward mounsure Erik with a brisk and meaningful stride. Everyone had gone silent even the rowdy stage crew had but down their booze bottles and paid attention to the newcomers. When they reached Erik everyone could here the conversation taking place between the three men.
"Mounsures Gaston and Luis. What prey tell are you gentlemen in my Opera House?" Erik sounded a little miffed which everyone knew was a bad sign.
The tall man cleared his throat.
"Well Mounsure Erik, as you surly know me and my associate Mounsure Luis have been trying to get our hands on this magnificent Opera House for some time now. However you kept turning down our offers. So we were forced to take extreme measures."
Erik raised an eyebrow.
"And what measures would those be?"
"I'm glad you asked." Gaston said taking a piece of neatly folded paper out and handed it to Erik who began to read it. His eyes flew quickly down the paper and the farther down they went the more pronounced his frown became. When Eric was done with Gaston grabbed the letter back from Erik and put it back in his breast pocket.
"As you see you are no longer the owner of the Opera Populair. We expect you out by tomorrow and now later."
And with that they left leaving behind them a very subdued air. Erik turned back to his loyal employees and dismissed them early which in itself was very odd. No one moved a muscle or spoke. It had to be a joke they just knew it Erik might have been a little tough true but he was always nice to them and none of them wanted him to be replaced by two other men. After a few minutes people began to start talking to each other, mainly in anger at the two business men for throwing Eric out. Indeed almost everybody seemed upset or irritable, except for most of the stage hands.
Henri just stayed up on the cat-walks, he didn't really believe that Erik would just leave that easily and wondered if he had anything planned. As he was thinking about this Anna came up to tell him how he thought about all this. Anna was one of the dancers and had met Henri only a few days after he started work. She was fairly pretty with long dark hair that she usually wore down and beautiful blue eyes. As soon as she reached the cat-walk she started.
"I can't believe they did that to him!" She exploded all the while heading in Henri's direction. "And you, why are you so calm? Our boss just got fired."
"What are we going to do?" Henri said calmly. "Protest? Not work? Even if we did it won't change the fact that those two men are our new bosses."
Anna thought about this for a moment and seemed to reach the same conclusion as Henri.
"You're right." She said. "But I'm still mad at those two." And she left it at that which Henri was glad about usually she'd go on forever when she was miffed.
He decided to go down to his room to catch up on his reading. He went down the door to the dormitories but must have taken a wrong turn for he ended up in an area that he had never been in before. He walked further down the empty corridor until he began hearing voices through a door. Henri was able to read the sign on it that read "Manager's office." Henri peeked through the keyhole to see what was going on.
It was hard to make out but he could see an angry figure moving around in a huff. And when he wasn't blocking it Henri could see Meg Geri sitting on a chair trying to calm the man down, it didn't seem to work.
"The audacity of those two!" the man shouted to the heavens, and Henri could tell it was Monsuire Erik. "How dare they kick me out of my own opera house."
And he flipped over an empty chair sending it smashing to the ground. Henri and Meg both gave a little start thankfully at the same time, but Meg had gotten use to Erik's tantrums and calmly tired reasoning with the ranging ex-manager.
"Please Erik calm down, maybe there is a way we can work this out."
Erik turned on his heels on Meg.
"Those two morons kick me out and you want me to reason with them!" He knocked over a candle stand that spilt candles all over the floor. To Henri it almost seemed like Erik might try to hurt Meg and almost and was about to turn the door knob when suddenly Erik stopped. He now turned on the very door that Henri was looking through, and with almost super-human speed walked over to the door and opened it. Erik looked up and down the corridor but there was no one in sight. He closed the door and went back inside, not noticing that Henri had moved behind the door in the knick of time, and could still hear the conversation going on inside.
"What was it?" Meg asked trying to get off the subject of the new managers.
"It was nothing…" Erik replied as he picked up the chair and sat in it.
"See Erik all this stress is making you hear things now." She said as she sat down next to him.
"Maybe you're right Meg." He sighed
Seeing enough and not wanting to get caught out of bed Henri left Erik and Meg alone and tried to make his way back to his room.
Chapter 3: The return
Erik had already left and it was around midnight. A thunderstorm had started up only a few hours ago filling the dark un-lit corridors with a sporadic flash of light and filled them with the sound of thunder and heavy rain. Despite the weather a window had opened on its own accord letting in the elements. Then two black-gloved hand gripped both sides of the window to help pull up a black figure. The figure stood on the window and looked down the corridor; despite it being pitch black and midnight the figure might have thought to see a late-night wanderer or someone trying to find their way to the toilet. Thankfully that wasn't the case tonight. The figure dropped down from the window and landed on his feet like a cat. He was completely covered in a black coat; the only other color you could see was just a sliver of white peeking out from under the hood. The figure moved instinctively down one side of the corridor to a dead-end wall. He felt the wall with his hands and after a little searching pulled out a key and stuck it in the wall. The moved on a pivot point silently to produce a passage way large enough for a fairly large man to fit through. Looking around again the figure moved through the wall which closed again as soon as he had entered, leaving a white envelope in front of the wall.
That morning the new managers arrived, no one wanted to tell them what they really thought of them for they didn't want to offend their new bosses. Madame Gery led the managers to their new office which was Erik's only a night before. When they got inside they found a fairly spacious room with two desks on opposite walls and a mirror on the wall in between them. The new managers had begun to get their office when Gaston noticed that there was a letter on his desk. He picked up the letter and examined it; the letter was blank except for a red skull seal. Intrigued he tore off the seal and read the letter, the farther he went down the faster his eyes moved and a slight frown began to form.
"L-Luis, you better see this."
Gaston walked over and took the letter.
"Dear Monsieur's Gaston and Luis,
First off I believe that congratulations our in order on your success of taking over the Opera Populaire. Even though you have kicked me out I do fell that you should be warned. There is a ghost who lives in the Opera that I'm sure you know of for he had made the papers as only rumor, this is false. He is very real and will become quite hostile if his demands are not followed. The demands are thus,
1) Box five is to be empty at all times for his use.
2) He takes a salary of 20,000 Francs a month.
3) Don't interfere in his affairs.
Also I know this is your first time but don't go too easy on the staff, they are good, hard workers who can handle anything.
Monsieur Erik"
Luis looked at the letter in disbelief.
"An opera ghost? Surely he's playing a game with us Gaston!"
Gaston didn't seem as confident as his partner. He did remember those newspaper articles about strange happenings at the same opera house that they were in now. He had thought of them only as rumor but maybe there was some truth to it.
"I'm not so sure about that Luis."
They just stood in silence not knowing what do believe.
Outside the office there wasn't much activity, rehearsals had been cancelled and everyone was just wondering around and talking. Henri just lied down on the stage his legs dangling over the edge just wondering what to do with so much free time. Some ideas floated in his head but almost as soon as they had taken root they were shrugged off. Then he got an idea that made him wonder how he didn't think of it sooner, he could explore. Sure he had been here for almost two months now but the opera house was huge and he was sure he had only scratched the surface. Excited he got up and headed towards the corridors that lead to the dormitories. He decided to start where he knew he wouldn't get to lost. He quickly found himself in a different larger corridor; the walls were made of exposed stone. The floors were also stone on the floor so his limp was echoed throughout the hallways. He wandered down hallway through hallway until he hit a dead end.
He looked around; he recognized the way back, so at least he wasn't lost. Henri was about to head back until he stepped on something. It was a letter, he picked it up it was a blank envelope with a red skull on it. He turned it over and saw his name on it in red letters. He wondered if it had gotten dropped by the sender, Henri shrugged and opened the letter. When he took out the letter a small brass key fell out onto the floor. He picked it up and twirled it between his fingers; he turned to the letter maybe there be the reason why a key came the letter in it.
"Dear Henri Ferino,
I humbly and gladly welcome you to the Opera Populaire, and hope that you're stay here has been pleasurable so far. As I'm sure you know by now about the 'return of the opera ghost'. I have a proposition for you, if you can find the lair of the opera ghost I may tell you more about it, here is a clue to its location. The place you seek is far yet near, you need to dig deep to make the path clear, and the skull knows the way.
Your obedient servant,
O.G"
Henri stared at the latter a bit confused. What did this know about the opera ghost that he didn't? What did the riddle mean? And who is O.G? Henri shrugged and but the letter and brass key back into his pocket, and headed off back to the stage. He found his way back to the stage just in time for supper he could smell the intoxicating aroma of tonight's dinner, roast beef. He headed off into the kitchen and almost as soon as he got his food he spotted Anna sitting with all the other little ballerinas. Henri walked over and sat next to her to tell her about the letter he found.
When he came close enough to be noticed however most of the ballerinas started giggling, and it annoyed Henri. Why did girls have to have to be like that whenever he and Anna were talking?
"Hey Anna." Henri said as he took his seat.
"Oh, hello Henri." She noticed the excited look on his face. "Anything new?" she added. Henri smiled kind of wickedly. And took out the key and letter under the table so nobody else could see it.
"I found this letter to me just lying around, go on read it."
He handed over the letter and Anna read quickly, her eyes dashing from one side to the next in seconds.
"I don't know were you're going with this Henri it's just a suspicious letter about the opera ghost." Anna whispered. "Besides this riddle doesn't make any scene to me."
Henri thought for about five minutes chewing on his roast beef as he did so, then he got it.
"I got it!" he exclaimed. "I heard the opera ghost used to live in the cellars of this opera house. 'far but near' could be talking about a place still in the building, and 'dig deep' must mean we have to go down."
Henri folded his arms triumphantly.
"That's all well and good but what about 'the skull knows the way.'?"
"Not sure." He shrugged. "But I bet we can work with what we have for know."
"What do you…" but before she could finish the sentence her question was already answered, she knew Henri to well when he got the expression that he now had on his face.
"No, not another one of your crazy schemes."
"It's not a scheme; it's more like an exploration expedition."
"Either way, I'm not being dragged along."
"Please." Henri begged butting his hands together in a pleading way. "Please." He repeated more desperate. Anna sighed.
"Fine but if we get caught you're taking the blame."
"Fair enough, meet me by the stage at about ten."
And with that he took his empty plate back to the kitchen and went to his room to await ten o'clock.
Chapter 4: The revelation
It seemed like forever for ten o'clock to come. Henri paced around the stage thinking about the rest of the riddle. What did it mean about "the skull knows the way"? He took the key out of his pocket for what seemed the thirtieth time and examined it again. It was exactly the same, just a small brass key. Then he noticed something strange on the end of the key was a small imprint of a skull. Before he could make anything of it Anna walked up onto the stage looking nervous.
"Right on time."
"Come on Henri let's just get this silly adventure over with. I almost got caught three times already."
"Alright."
Henri opened one of the many trapdoors that laid on the stage. The two kids climbed down the steps into the opera underground. The stairs seemed to go on for ever they went down one, two, three ,four flights of stairs until finally they reached what seemed to be a passage way. They felt their way down the stone passage way for it was pitch black this far down. Henri felt a wall in front of them and thinking there was a turn felt to the left and the right, there was no turn.
"What's going on? Henri, why did we stop?"
"Dead end." Henri replied still felling around the wall for some kind of switch or something else that might help them go on.
"Oh well I guess we just have back." She had already turned around when Henri found something.
"Wait Anna I think I found a keyhole."
He took the key from his pocket and put it in the keyhole, it was a perfect fit. Henri pushed on one side of the wall and it opened onto a light-light tunnel. Anna looked disappointed about the discovery, but she followed Henri into the tunnel.
"Why is this tunnel lit and the other one was dark?" Anna asked as they waked on the stone floor their footsteps echoing.
"Maybe the Opera Ghost is still here." He said half joking half excited.
"Don't joke about that!"
"Oh, you're not afraid are you?"
"A little yes."
"You're the one who said he was a myth."
"That's true, but it doesn't mean it can't hold a little truth."
And with that they continued down the tunnel not knowing what they were getting themselves into.
Chapter 5:
Erik strode around what until 3 years ago was his home. It was exactly how he left it, stacks of sheet music by the organ, smashed mirrors on the far side of the wall, and pictures and little statues of his lost love, Christine. Erik sighed; he never thought that he would ever have to come back here. It was filled with to many memorizes, painful ones, brightened only by the memories of Christine. However even those were beginning to darken and fade. He sat down at the piano that he had written his opera Don Juan Triumphant, it seemed like a life time had passed since then. Erik was broken out of his trance when he heard something unexpected. Footsteps and talking coming in his direction and fast. He swiftly hid himself just as two people entered the house.
Henri and Anna walked through the tunnel their footsteps magnified in the darkness. They had no idea where they were or where they were going, but the further they went the lighter it got. After a few minutes they found themselves at the shore of an underground lake.
"Wow." Henri was amazed the lake was large and the only things supporting the ceiling were several arched supports.
"What is a lake doing in the basement of an Opera House?" Anna asked felling the water almost expecting it to fake.
"I have no idea, but the main question is how are we going to get across?"
"We could swim across." Anna suggested.
"I don't think we should try that."
"Why not?"
Henri pointed to his left leg which was in its usual meat splint.
"Oh right I forgot." Anna blushed embarrassed
"Ah, it's alright." Henri said looking for another means of getting across the lake. "Look!" He pointed over to a gondola beached on the shore.
"We could use that to get across."
"I don't think we should..." Anna started but to late Henri was already in the gondola.
"You coming?"
Anna sighed getting into the gondola. Henri pushed off the shore with the paddle and they were off on the lake. They were amazed at what they saw as they went down the lake. There were not only vaulted ceilings and lit candelabras on the wall but also statues and amazing carvings everywhere. They were so busy that they didn't even know it when they crashed onto another shore. Henri helped Anna out and they continued there journey. It wasn't long until they came across another grate discovery, a house.
"Who do you think lives here?" Anna asked
"It's the Opera Ghost's lair!" Henri stated theatrically. "This is he comes to rest in his coffin and plot evil deeds for the people of the living!"
"Stop it Henri!"
"Ah Anna I'm only joking. Lighten up!"
They made their way up to the house and opened the door. It was surprisingly bright in the house. It looked like it had been empty for a while; everything was covered in a thin layer of dust and cobwebs. Henri strayed over to the piano and pressed a few keys, it seemed to still be in tune. He looked around for some sheet music but all he could find was something called "Don Juan Triumphant". Shrugging he put it on the piano and began to play a few notes on the keyboard. Meanwhile Anna was looking over everything else in the room, however she couldn't help but shake the felling they were being watched. By now Henri had finished with the music and began to wander. He found a mysterious room full of mirrors.
"Hey Anna come check this out. It looks like someone has a thing for mirrors."
They were still looking over the room of mirrors when they felt a hand on their backs pushing them both into the room and closing the door.
"What was that?" Henri asked as Anna franticly looked for the door but with no success.
"Henri I can't find door!"
"What? But it was right…" Henri couldn't see the door either. However he could see other things begining to take shape almost magically a desert hot and endless like an ocean of sand, and just as dry.
"What is this? What's going on?" Anna was clutching Henri's arm fearfully.
"I don't know but…it's so hot!" Henri began to sweat.
They tried to walk out of the dessert but no matter how long they walked they didn't seem to get any farther. Then night came to the dessert freezing and dark, however they kept walking trying desperately to get out. They spent about three days in the desert walking in the hot sand and sun. Some how though when they woke up on the forth day they found themselves in a rainforest green and rich with life.
"Were in a rainforest now?" Henri was confused how could they spend three days in a desert and suddenly be in a rainforest it made no since. Anna didn't care there was a small river nearby all she cared about was finally getting something to drink. She gulped down the water. Henri however wasn't fooled he sipped some of the water but then began to take a closer look at the forest and Anna laid on the ground looking up into the canopy. He walked towards a tree and felt something different. It was cold and smooth…glass. He took off the shoe from his good foot and smashed it against the tree hard enough to crack the glass. There at least now if he did start to go mad the crack would serve as a sort of "sanity keeper."
"Know how do we get out of here?"
He didn't understand how this all worked but he would think of something. Hopefully soon to he wasn't sure how much longer Anna would last. He started by pressing on the glass seeing if it would open up. No luck so he began to fell around the bottom for some kind of switch to open the door. Thankfully after a few minutes of searching he found what he was looking for. It was a small latch that when Henri pulled on it a door opened reveling the room were they were days ago.
"Anna, come on we're out of the forest."
"Huh?" Anna woke up and noticed the open door. "Oh thank god!"
She raced back into the room. "I never though I'd be so happy to get got of there!" Henri made his way out of the room and noticed that Anna now had a look of terror on her face. He looked behind him and gasped. Behind him was a man he was tall and yet somehow familiar to Henri but he could not make out his face for it was covered by a full-face mask. The man grabbed Henri by his neck and slammed him against the wall.
"So you managed to get out of my torture chamber eh?"
"Who are you?" Henri gasped groping at the man's hands hoping to