The Midnight Rose
Perhaps it was the light of the crescent moon, but Christine could swear the shadows on her wall had not been there before.
Raoul murmured something in his sleep as he sat guard outside her door. Christine didn't know how he could fall into slumber so quickly. Maybe she was the only one who tossed and turned each night with questions of where her heart lay. She dared not tell him of her fears, however. Raoul had only begun to realize her tutor was not a figment of her over-active mind.
The door to her room creaked open, and for a wild moment, Christine imagined the shimmering pair of eyes and sculpted white mask of the Phantom, sending a jolt of terrified and unwarranted delight through her. She was disheartened for a moment when the culprit was revealed to be a small, tan cat, which stalked across the floor.
It wore something around its neck: a black ribbon.
She recognized this cat. Amongst the piles of sheet music and the towering organ of the Phantom's lair, she had seen it perched, watching his master's new guest with rapt interest as he led her through the most awe-struck moments of her life.
"Ayesha!" she whispered, recalling its name. Orb-like eyes swiveled to observe her, before leaping upon her bed.
As it settled onto her stomach, she slid beneath her covers, frowning slightly. She had not seen her tutor for weeks, not since the night of the Bal Masque, and his disappearance was troubling her more than the threats that frightened the managers and her fiancé.
Since the death of her father, Christine had been afraid of losing the people around her. This was much of the reason she had clung to Raoul's offer of marriage, desperate to find something to remind her of the past. How could a silly young heart have known her past and what could have been her future had already been found?
She stroked Ayesha subconsciously. Where had he disappeared? At the times she needed him most he seemed to vanish into thin air. She had spent hours trying to force her way into the mirror passage, her only knowledge of how to reach him. It was pointless to try the chapel, she knew their days of student and teacher had been lost to time.
Raoul was kind and sweet to her, but she grew tired of his constant shower of presents and flowers. She found she yearned for The Phantom's angelic voice to inhabit her mind, to release her from the world she knew into a paradise of music that floated upon a murky lake.
His heart had once been hers, a privilege she barely knew she had until she abused it. She smashed his carefully crafted dreams, destroying everything with her foolish search for love. How had she been blind to his affections, after all that he had done for her career and her well-being? She deserved none of what he gave her, and she didn't know why he still fawned over her.
A terrible thought gripped her heart with icy claws. What if this silence in her head was a punishment for her crimes against him? Shut out of his world forever. Images of a new ingénue filled her head, one that would capture his music and – this thought filled her with horror – his heart.
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she embraced Ayesha tightly, burying her face into her fur. The cat, disgruntled by the sudden contact, surprisingly did not struggle out of her grip.
A crash from the level below startled her, and Ayesha sprang out of her arms. She stepped out of bed, and opened the door. Raoul, other than a few rumbling snores, was unaffected by the noise, and the hallway was silent.
Christine wiped her eyes and decided she had better rest. Turning back, she made to go to the bed but stopped in her tracks.
Resting on the bed sheets was a blood-red rose, wrapped with the black ribbon Ayesha was no longer wearing.
Her wide-eyed expression soon transformed into a smile. The Phantom had not forgotten her after all.
