This is a Halloween Inspired One Shot inspired by the words of Edgar Allen Poe and the music of Erutan to the song of the same title. I hope you enjoy!
I do not own Phantom or the works of Poe or the music Erutan so naturally, I encourage you to check out my sources :)
Happy Halloween!
Come Little Children
By Edgar Allen Poe
Come little children, I'll take thee away
Into a land of enchantment
Come little children, the times come to play
Here in my garden of shadows
Follow sweet children, I'll show thee the way
Through all the pain and the sorrow
Weep not for children, for life is this way
Murdering beauty and passion
Hush now dear children, it must be this way
Too weary of life and deceptions
Rest now dear children, for soon we'll away
Into the calm and the quiet.
The girls of the ballet school speak of an unknown force that draws them beyond the boundaries of where the Opera ends and where Paris meets the underworld. Down in those dark cellars they say that if you're silent enough, a siren-like voice can be heard, quietly at first, until it becomes encompassing, and no matter where you go, it will stay in your ears forever. I guess you could say that's exactly what happened to me, except, I never ventured into that dark abyss. Instead, no matter how far I fled away into the light, the darkness came and found me.
It's been three months since anyone who heard the devil calling for them ventured down to find the source. Despite the siren, there are said to be ghosts of past performers and stage hands lurking to scare you into turning around and heading to the surface. The newest edition to these good Samaritan souls is the late Joseph Bouquet. Jammes said that she saw him walking the corridors with his head hanging to the side as if it could no long support itself anymore. She said that once his neck snapped in life, it remained that way in death.
Me? I keep to myself, not venturing into the gossip of the corps or the two faced performers of the chorus, I feel that I would be of no interest to any of the unseen forces of the underworld, especially as I find myself under the protection of the Angel Of Music. He has told me that so long as I stay away from such features that I will be safe with him forever and that no otherworldly things will come for me.
Yes, the first time I heard him, I was very afraid. There I was in my dressing room. The rehearsal I had just come from had been horror. It had been the anniversary of my father's death and I was not allowed leave to visit his grave as we were only a week away from opening a new opera. Of course I understood why, and I knew Pappa would understand as well, but it didn't make things any easier. I made many mistakes that day. Maestro had to stop the orchestra at one point as ask in front of everyone if I was serious about keeping my position in the chorus. It has hard to hold my tears in the rest of the day and no one was happy with me making them have to repeat things. It would have been one of the worst days of my life if I had not heard the Angel's voice. How could a voice that pure and lovely be bad?
My voice has made plenty of progress since then. I feel like I owe all of my being to him for having given me so a glorious gift that I know my pappa would be proud of. The Voice says that in time I will bring this gift to Paris and that they will weep when they know what true music is. If that's what the Voice wants then I will do it without question. As strange as the entire scenario may sound to someone outside of it, these experience has been the only thing to really matter or make sense in my life since Pappa died.
Therefore, it is necessary to believe him with all of my heart and soul when he says that such things as ghosts and sirens are all of fiction. Ever still, there is such doubt within me recently and I fear of what would happen if I were to ever let him know this truth. As I walk the dim hallways behind the stage, there is a coldness there, an almost presence that I feel just beyond my vision. I have taken to carrying matches with me for the gas lamps will sometimes get so dim that I cannot see anything of the halls themselves, only the next intersections that I need to make far beyond me.
As my visibility fades, so does the temperature and I can feel my skin closing in and goosebumps cover all my arms and up my neck. At first I stopped and looked around, terrified by my terrible luck. If was then that I sensed I was not alone. Have you ever closed your eyes and walked around a room slowly, somehow sensing where the furniture and walls were before knocking into them? That's how it felt. It felt that something was coming closer to me even as I couldn't see it. I was paralyzed as I could see the next intersecting hallway just could of the reach of my heavy feet.
Whatever it was must have been less than an arms length behind me, but I could not turn around. I did not want to see anything that could have made this necessary trek any worse. It wasn't so much that I heard a sigh, it was that I felt it on the back of my neck. That's what finally cause me to run, nearly tripping on my hem as I fled forward. When I got to my dressing room, the Angel asked me if anything was wrong. I told him that the gas lights were shutting off, but that was all. He sighed and told me not to worry.
A week went by with no issues of this happening in that long corridor, but I knew something was wrong when I saw up ahead of me that the lights in the intersecting corridor had faded to hardly flickers. My pace increased, but just as I had seen the following hallway do, my current walk way faded into darkness. But I was ready that time, and despite shaking to my core, I struck a match and kept my pace as best as I could. As the corridor was long, the match eventually burnt out and I reached for my small holder.
But the holder was no where in my purse. I immediately dropped to the floor to see if I could feel if they had fallen out, but all that was felt below my fingers was the cold stone floor. My surrounding was dark as pitch and to make matters worse, after dropping to the floor and circling a few times, I was now disoriented. On shaking legs I stood and reached out to the wall. As I did, my fingers felt a light breeze, as if someone had fanned them once and stood away. I wanted to believe it was a draft of some kind, but I only felt it once.
The feeling that I was not alone was stronger than ever. The coldness in the air grew and I wrapped my arm around me tighter as my other head glued itself to the wall. I had found the wall. That was important. Now, no matter which was I was going I could escape this darkness and I could run if I wanted to. Yes, I wanted to run.
"Where are you going, child?"
The low breathy voice sounded just in my left ear and I had the instinct to try and swat it away, but I found myself transfixed in knowing for certain that I was no longer alone.
"I need…I have to be somewhere." I answered to the best of my ability.
This time, the voice was in my right ear, "Where?"
The sound scared my connect to the wall away, "Someone is waiting for me."
"Someone or something?" It said behind me in a crackled voice that reminded me of embers on a fire.
I looked behind me and there, maybe three arms length away were two levitating golden orbs and were slit down the middle like a cat's eyes. My mind went blank. I wanted to scream and cry and die, but nothing of me could move to do any of it.
"Who are you?" I managed to whisper.
"Why do you not visit me as the other curious girls do? As Joseph Bouquet did?"
I gulped a large bump down from my throat that threatened to cut off air flow, "But…but you can't be the Siren. Angel says you're not real."
The laugher that came from the thing in front of me bellowed around the hall and filed my ears with its poison. I dropped to my knees and covered my head as he spoke, "And what if I said the Angel isn't real? Wouldn't he have kept you from meeting me? Would he not have protected you from the devil if he were real?"
Tears falling down my chilled cheeks as I pleaded, "I don't understand. I've never gone down into the cellars. I stay where I'm supposed to be. I have been good."
"And so you have made me have to come up and find you. Now is your time to find my way."
"But-but the Angel is waiting. He is expecting me to meet him."
"An angel who will never show himself, never let you touch him?
I didn't answer. I didn't want to humor the devil. What the Angel did was his business and while I yearned to meet him beyond simply hearing his voice from my dressing room walls, I knew that such thoughts displeased him.
"I however," he continued, "am real and just before your eyes. Your trust should lie with me for I am not a hoax of smoke and mirrors"
Tears fell, my body shook, and suddenly I began to fear what would happen if death didn't come swiftly. I asked, "What do you want from me?"
"Come little child, I will take you from this darkness and into a land of enchantments."
His words were senseless and I whispered my final plea, "Oh, where are you Angel?"
It was then that from his cracking throat music was produced and he sang a lullaby softly, "Come little child, the time's come to play, here in my garden of shadows."
That voice, that unmistakable voice, it couldn't be, "Angel?" No, no, no, it couldn't be. There was something too sinister in this voice, something that was upsetting and sad to hear. Was this devil able to take my cherished Angel's voice and make me follow it so blindly? This was truly a siren to be able to do so and my body trembled from feeling the danger grow from my stomach like a sickness.
"Come sweet child, I'll show thee the way, through all the pain and the sorrow."
While my eyes were still blinded in darkness, I felt a hand before me, holding out an open palm my way. I felt my body being lifted to my feet by a force not physical. HIs voice was lifting my limbs and urging me towards it, farther from light, but closer to the golden orbs. Thoughts were flying from my head, all that was left was the voice. The voice that I knew, the siren, and the devil, now all in one.
As my vision failed me further, I felt the force closing in around me, like arms, ghostly thin, but strong arms, wrapping around my back, pulling me into another being as my head came to rest against something…something that reminded me of the space between a collar bone and protruded ribs of a man, just as my thin father felt before he died. Still, I could not see any of this. I could not generate conclusion on what was happening. There was only a gentle humming in the air to calm me and I did not move without his will to guide me.
The encasement around me soon lifted and I was being lead by the hand forward into the blackness, following the voice that so faithfully knew even as it came from what I had been taught to believe was an evil one. As he continued to sing, my feet slid forward. The floor beneath me no longer smooth, but covered in pebbles and cobble stone. I wanted to look back, I wanted to find my matches and run to my dressing room and tell the Angel the truth so that he knew something was very wrong and that I was afraid, but my body did not follow my mind. I was trapped in the Siren's net and was pressing forward with him. All I could control were my tears and when I saw his eyes turn to me again, he sang, "Weep not dear child, for life is this way, murdering beauty and passion."
In seeing his eyes, a part of me yearned to flee and my head looked backwards into the darkness, "Angel…"
He continued, "Hush now dear child, it must be this way, too weary of life and deceptions."
Just as my numbness became unbearable, my legs were lifted and I felt arms holding me to the bony form. This thing cradled me against him, one arm under my back, the other under my knees. My head found the similar place to rest as before, this time atop what must have been a bony shoulder. As my physical abilities gave out, my sense of smell seemed to pick up and something of sulfur met my nose. I pulled my head back, trying to flee once more, but he held me tightly in place.
A whimper fell from my lips. I felt so small and helpless. Even my words were failing me and I felt I had nothing left to keep my death from coming like all those other unfortunate people below the opera house. As he continued to hum, my mind began to muse at wondering if this was what death felt like, if this was all I had to worry about, and I admitted that if this was it, it wouldn't be so bad. I could handle this much.
The last thing I could remember was looking up to see the glow of the golden cat eyes above me as he sang, "Rest now dear child, for soon we'll away into the calm and the quiet. Here is my garden of shadows."
"Is that the entirety of your nightmare, dear girl?"
"Yes Angel. The next thing I knew I was in here lying on the sofa. I'm so sorry my Angel, I don't know where my mind was going and for your gifts to be tied up in the work of the devil…Oh please forgive me! My mind is a terrible thing, I will be better, I swear I'll be better!"
"You are forgiven, my sweet, but do not hold such stories from me again. You must be completely honest with me, there can be so secrets."
"I swear, I swear no more secrets."
"There is a good girl. And you were very correct in your dream, my dear, I will always be with you to keep you from harm. My eyes are fixated on your excelling in my music and art."
"Thank you, Angel, thank you."
"Perhaps it would be better for you to take the north side street and into the carriage entrance from now on instead of the west corridor."
"Yes, of course…but tell me Angel, how did you know it was the west corridor? That's not the only way here…only the fastest and I don't always take it either."
"Enough inquiries, we need to begin you lesson."
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