The Phantom's Return
Chapter One: Paris
12/3/11 9:23pm
Well, I guess I should start this by saying hello. My name is Amelia Knorr and I am 16 years old. I currently go to Carlotta's Performing School for Girls in London with six through ten year old ballerinas. But I am not from London, I am actually from New York.
Well you are probably thinking why am I in a school full of ballet girls? Well it's because I am one of the teacher's assistants and also one of the prima ballerinas in our Holiday recital. So I have to be in a class full of little ballerinas. Is not like the place is full of little girls in white tutus. No the school is for girls from the age of 5 through 18 that wanted to dance, sing or act. I am a dancer, but I also love to sing and act as well, it's just that I am just not a great singer or actor as some of the other girls at the school.
Now I decided to buy a, why I like to call, a "Travel Journal" to write down all of the things that I will be doing when we go to Paris. I am so excited. For the first time in my entire life, I get to go to Paris, France. I was at class teaching the younger girls a warm up routine, when our teacher Ms. White comes in and told us that she had some good and bad news.
"Bad news? What kind of bad news?" one of the ballerinas Sarah asked as I looked at Ms. White, confused. "Well the local theater were we are supposed to be performing our Holiday recital is shutting down." The girls started groaning. "But Ms. White, we have been rehearsing for the show since November. How are we going to perform it now?" a girl with blonde hair and freckles asked. "We can use the auditorium." Sarah suggested. "No the auditorium is used for the Drama department's production of 'A Christmas Carol' " the blonde-haired girl replied.
All of the girls kept talking and complaining, so I had to get them to settle down. After all, it was part of my job. Once they were quiet, Ms. White spoke.
"Now it is a shame that our local theater is shutting down, but I spoke with one of my dear friends, and she found an old abandoned opera house in Paris, so I contacted the owner and bought it for a very affordable price."
"So we are going to perform in Paris?" Sarah asked. "Yes we are performing our recital in Paris."
All of the girls squealed and jumped for joy. I kept my cool, but I was like one of those girls on the inside, jumping, my heart full of excitement. I was actually going to the city of love.
So here I am, in my dorm room, packing my stuff, as I am going to be heading for Paris tomorrow. I hope something fascinating happens. Maybe I'll meet the love of my life, or maybe I will meet a talent agent and will become famous. All I know is that I have a feeling that something good will happen in Paris. I just know it.
12/4/11 3:34pm
Gosh I am bored out of my mind. Well that is what you get when you're spending a lot of time on an airplane. Well the good thing is that the captain just told us that we are preparing for landing.
Well during the plane ride, Ms. White told me a bit about the opera. Apparently it is called The Opera Populaire and its has been abandoned since the late 1800's. Apparently the place had burned down because of a chandelier accident, and they didn't have enough money to rebuild it. The owner had been one of the descendants of the owners and the opera was inherited by him. She had also told me a rumor was heard, that there was a ghost haunting the opera house. People call him the "Opera Ghost." Others called him the "Phantom of the Opera." Maybe that's why she got the opera house so cheap.
"Do you believe in those stories? Do you really think there is a ghost at The Opera Populaire?" I had asked her, but she just laughed and said that ghosts aren't real and that people were stupid at the time. "Besides." Ms. White added. "Maybe it was just someone playing pranks on the people at the opera." she shrugged and turned back to reading her book.
I'm not gonna lie. I do feel a bit uncomfortable about performing at a haunted opera. But maybe Ms. White was right, maybe there are no such things as ghosts. Maybe it was someone pulling pranks at the opera house. But I still feel a bit uncomfortable. Oh well, I just hope the girls don't find out about it.
12/4/11 10:47pm
"Wow" was the first thing I had said when I stepped into the Opera Populaire. It was stunning, beautiful, and ancient. It felt like I was literally stepping back in time. That is until we saw the stage. It was covered with dust, ash and debris. There was a huge hole in the middle, were the chandelier used to stand. So the stories are real. The chandelier did fall down. The orchestra pit looked as if all hell burned over and if you looked closer you can still see some of the bones from the musicians that could get out in time.
Thank god the girls didn't notice that, Ms. White had stopped them from coming over to the stage. So from what Ms. White told me some mayor rebuilding was going to happen.
I also made a friend, well sort of. We kind of bumped into each other when I was looking around the opera. His name is Kris, he is one of the stagehands that will be working for us when we start rebuilding the opera. He is 17, so he is one year older than me. He has dirty blond hair and chocolate brown eyes. His hands were dirty from all of the hard work he had been doing at that time, and had beads of sweat stuck in his forehead. We didn't talk much, he just said if I was new and that if I was going to perform at the opera.
"Yes I am." I replied and he laughed a little and said. "Well good luck with that, Mademoiselle" he said in a thick French accent and went back to work. After a few seconds of silence, I asked "What's that supposed to mean?" but he just looked at me with a straight face. "Didn't you hear the stories? The rumors about the ghost?" he asked. "Well I heard that something or someone called The Opera Ghost used to haunt this opera."
"Not used to mon cher, he still does haunt this place." he said as he grabbed the latter and stepped on it. He reached his hand out towards me and I looked at him, confused, but I took his hand and he pulled me towards the latter that he was in. I climbed up and he pointed at a broken rope, dangling in the middle of some of the stage rafters.
"She that broken rope?" I nodded. "That's were one of the stagehands Joseph Buquet, got strangled and hanged by none other than The Opera Ghost." He explained as I deeply examined the rope. "Why did he kill him"? I asked as I looked at him. "No one knows. Some people say because he knew too much about him, others say because he enjoys killing people without having a reason. All I know is that after he was done strangling him, he dropped the body while it was still dangling on that rope, in the middle of one of the opera's performances. People started, umm how do you Americans say, freaking out."
As he helped me down the latter, I asked how did he know all about The Opera Ghost? "My father used to be the owner of the opera house, and my great great grandfather used to be one of the managers of the opera back when the Opera Ghost came to be." After that I heard Ms. White calling my name, so I introduced myself to him and we parted ways.
Mrs. White gave us our rehearsal sheets with times on when and where are we rehearsing. She was so certain that we were going to finish renovations in time for the play, which was due to open on Christmas Eve. She also told us the actors that performed at the opera used to sleep in here as well.
So she directed us to our rooms, will luckily enough, only needed some dusting. All of the ballerinas got this huge room that ballerinas and chorus girls from the 1800s used to sleep in. Since I was the teacher's assistant, I got the dressing room that belonged to the Prima Donna.
When I opened my room, I gasped. The room was absolutely breathtaking. The room had this sort of Victorian vibe to it. As I lowered my bags, I looked around the room. There was a huge canopy bed on the back corner of the room, along with a huge wardrobe, and vanity. Of course, everything was covered with dust, so I decided to try and clean as much as I could in a short amount of time.
During this time, I found a bouquet full of dead roses. It must have been from the last Prima Donna back in the late 1800's. There was a note next to the flowers. I picked it up and read it.
Christine
Good luck on "Don Juan Triumphant." I'm sure you'll do great. Whatever happens, just remember, we will always have each other.
Raoul
I wondered who Christine and Raoul were. From the note, I could tell that Christine was the Prima Donna and that Raoul was her fiancée or her husband. I decided to keep this as a souvenir and place it right here in my journal.
While I was cleaning, I found in one of the drawers of the nightstand, a black leather cover. I slowly picked it up and opened the pages. On the first page was the title cover "Don Juan Triumphant" in big cursive letters. So this must be the opera that Raoul was mentioning in the note. I should show Kris this.
I began to flip the pages, which was a bad idea because as I was doing this, one of the pages fell. When I picked it up, I realized that it was a music sheet from the play. The title of the song was called "The Point of No Return". I began to read the lyrics. It was so weird. From what I read, it appears as if Don Juan starts seducing the maiden Aminta, by singing this song to her.
As I read the music, I started humming the tune of the song. I had learned how to read sheet music and play the piano, so I knew how the song was supposed to go. The melody itself was very sensual. As I kept humming the tune, I felt something I had never felt before, I felt my insides starting to burn. The music seemed to surge through me and brought feelings that I still couldn't even describe what they are.
Out of nowhere I started singing the second verse of the song in my high soprano voice.
You have brought me
To that moment when words run dry
To that moment when speech disappears
Into silence
Silence
I have come here
Hardly knowing the reason why
In my mind I've already imagined
Our bodies entwining
Defenseless and silent
Now I am here with you
No second thoughts
I've decided
Decided
And the weirdest thing happened. Just when I was about to sing the chorus, I heard a deep voice echoing through the entire room, calling someone's name.
Christine, Christine.
I was so scared. I dropped the leather book and the music sheet. "Hello." I called out. "Is someone there?" but no one replied. Now I'm thinking it was probably Kris messing with me. I mean as Ms. White said, there are no such thing as ghosts.
But then I felt someone breathing down my neck, and a cool breeze ticking my shoulder, as if someone was trying to touch it. But when I turned around, no one was there. Talk about weird! So I shrugged it off, picked up the music sheet and the book, and placed it back where it was.
After I was finished cleaning the room, I put new sheets on the bed and tried to fall asleep. But I still can't get that song out of my head. So that's why I am here, writing, because I cannot fall asleep. And maybe because I need to let out all of the things that had happened.
I guess I'll stop here. I hope I can fall asleep.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pahntom of The Opera.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Forget about "Love Never Dies" when you read this story. Also R&R!