As soon as the door was closed, Meg leaned up against it, trying to take in all that she had just seen. The whole theatre had seen the Phantom steal Christine from the stage, but nobody knew exactly where they had gone once they had disappeared from view. They had been done here at some point, or at least one of them had been, for how else would Christine's costume have come to be there? The costume had been so neatly folded and Meg felt certain that it meant that Christine had been here, since she was always so tidy when it came to her costumes.
Meg knew how much Christine had adored her angel of music and she had seen the attraction that was evident between the two on stage, but how did everything that had occurred in the past months fit in. Would Christine have come down here and then left with her angel of music or did the Phantom force her? She tried to tell herself that the folded Aminta costume meant that Christine must have been acting of her own free will at some point. The alternative was too horrifying to consider.
The sound of shattering glass from the other side of the door made Meg wince. She felt certain that the door was entirely hidden, and no one would find it unless they knew to look for it. Still she instinctively took a few steps away from it.
From the sounds that the mob was making she didn't think their aim in being down here was to find Christine. Meg wasn't even certain if Christine would be safe if the mob happened to find her, especially if she was still with the Phantom. The same could be said for her, she realised. There would be very few women in the mob and if anyone found her it wouldn't take long for them to realise that she hadn't come down with them. If they though she was aiding the Phantom they could just as easily turn on her. Since she wasn't achieving anything by remaining in the lower levels, she decided that her safest option would be to return to the surface and see if her mother knew anything further.
As she started climbing the ladders and then stairs that would take her up out of the cellars she was grateful for the extra warmth that each level presented. As she moved further away from the underground lake the smell of moisture disappeared from the air, only to be replaced by a closed in, musty smell. The silence was starting to become unnerving, the shouts of the mob having quickly disappeared as she made her way down the passage that lead away from the hidden door.
Meg decided to rest for a moment once she had reached the second level. Even with her dance training it was tiring work getting out of the cellars. The staircases on the lower levels were crudely made, with uneven stairs that made climbing them even more difficult. She allowed her gaze to drift around the room before they came to rest on an old backdrop. She indulged in a small smile as she took in the painted vista of a grand country home, with a long sweeping driveway and a lake at the front. She remembered her mother allowing her to watch the dress rehearsals for that particular production as a child if she promised to be on her best behaviour. She had decided that day that when she grew up she was going to live in a home that looked exactly like the one in the painting. Looking at the painting she realised that she had almost forgotten that dream.
She was pulled from her reminiscing by the sound of a voice calling out. The voice was muffled by the stone walls and she couldn't make out what it was saying but she immediately started looking for somewhere to hide, in case the person came any closer. The voice was getting louder and Meg tried to concentrate on the sound to work out what they were saying, and more importantly who they were.
"Where are you?" Was the first thing that Meg could clearly understand.
"Christine? Christine! Please answer me." The male voice cried out desperately.
Meg started moving slowly away from her intended hiding spot and towards the voice. The voice sounded familiar but she couldn't imagine that he would be down in the cellars of the opera house. But when she peered round a corner she saw that she was correct and the Vicomte de Chagny really was standing in the second cellar of the opera house calling out for Christine. His hair was hanging around his face and his once crisp white shirt was now stained and damp. Even in the darkness Meg could tell that he was ready to drop from exhaustion and it was only sheer stubbornness that was allowing him to continue on.
Not giving herself too much time to think about the consequences she stepped out of the shadows, softly calling his name so as not to startle him too much. "Monsieur le Vicomte?"
He was obviously on edge as he jumped and immediately whirled around to face her. For one brief moment Meg thought that he was going to attack her before he realised who she was, "Mademoiselle Giry?"
"Yes." She confirmed, stepping closer to him.
"What? What are you doing down here?" he asked, "And why are you dressed like that?" he continued, indicating the shirt and trousers that Meg was wearing. He normally would have been appalled to hear himself speaking like that but it didn't even register with him that he shouldn't have been asking questions like that of a lady. He did recognise however that it was a very strange thing to be asking in the circumstances, considering the many more important questions he could have asked of her.
Meg looked down at her outfit, slightly amazed that he would notice something as trivial as her outfit at a time like this. "It was my costume for later in the opera. With everything that happened I haven't had a chance to change. What are you doing down here?"
"We had almost reached the dressing room when she ran away from me. I tried to call her back but she just told me to keep going. I couldn't just leave her here so I tried to follow her but she was so quick and I haven't been able to find her." He rambled.
"You and Christine were down here, together?" Meg struggled to make sense of what he was saying.
"Yes. He let us go and we were almost at the first cellar when she started getting nervous or upset and she ran away from me." This made only slightly more sense to Meg but she realised that whatever had happened to the Vicomte and Christine had obviously impacted on him tremendously.
"Monsieur, the Phantom took Christine from the stage. What happened next?" she coaxed.
"He took her down to his...lair, at the very bottom of the cellars. I don't know what happened when they first arrived but by the time I arrived he had forced Christine to put on a wedding gown. I tried to convince him to let her go but he was too crazy to listen to me. He attacked me and tried to strangle me." He unconsciously rubbed at his neck, the feeling of the rope against his skin still there. "He told Christine that she had to make a choice, he would only let me go if she agreed to stay with him and marry him. I told her not to agree, that it wasn't worth it. But she didn't listen. She told that thing," he spat, "That she would stay with her. I don't understand what happened but he suddenly told us to go. Christine managed to free me and we ran. I didn't trust that he wouldn't change his mind again and wanted to get Christine out of there as quickly as I could. But as we got closer to the surface she started slowing down, then she started saying that she couldn't, and she needed to do something and then she ran away from me. I tried to follow her but she moved so quickly and she disappeared. I have to find her!" His voice rose slightly at the end, betraying his fear.
That certainly explained why Meg had found the Aminta costume down in the Phantom's lair, although she was at a loss to understand why Christine would run away from the Vicomte when she was so close to being safe. But when she looked up at the devastated man in front of her she knew that she shouldn't voice that particular opinion. She decided not to speculate on why Christine had run and instead focused on what she did know.
"I don't think that Christine is here, in the cellars at least." She ventured.
"What, how do you know that?" he asked sharply.
"I was just there, in the Phantom's lair. I found Christine's Aminta costume but there was no one there. I think that somebody had been there and had left quickly, because some of the torches had only just been extinguished. I had to leave when I heard the mob coming."
"But that's just the bottom level; his lair, of course Christine wouldn't choose to go back there. But maybe she's lost on one of the other levels." He argued.
"If she was on any of the other levels she didn't make any noise when I was there." Meg said dubiously. "I don't believe that she is here. Maybe she found a way out and is waiting in the theatre for you."
"Perhaps." Raoul sounded equally as dubious, still convinced that Christine was in the cellars.
"Follow me." Meg instructed, heading towards the flight of stairs that would lead them to the highest level of the cellar.
Although Raoul hated the idea of potentially leaving Christine down in the cellars he had to admit that what Meg was saying made sense. Surely if Christine was looking for him, which he naturally assumed that she was, she would have been calling his name, just like he had been calling her's. If Meg had heard him calling for Christine then she would have also heard Christine calling for him. Christine had most likely just become overwhelmed by what had happened on the stage and in the cellars when she had run from him, but once she had calmed down she had probably made her way back to the theatre and was now waiting for him.
He followed Meg out of the cellars, slightly ashamed that both she and Christine were able to navigate the cellars whilst he had become hopelessly lost on only the second level, but pushed the thought from his mind to focus on finding Christine.
Once they reached the surface, Raoul quickly took the lead from Meg and practically ran to Christine's dressing room. Again ignoring the etiquette that had been drilled into him as a child he barged through the door without even pausing to knock and came to an abrupt standstill. Meg peeped around his shoulder to see that the room empty and dark, the lamp having burnt down to nothing.
"She's not here. He took her again. I knew that it couldn't be that easy. He's obsessed with her, he isn't just going to let her go." Raoul said furiously, clenching his fist and punching the door frame.
"You don't know that." Meg said, discretely trying to check his knuckles for damage. "She could be anywhere in the theatre. I saw a large group of the girls in the stalls or perhaps she is with Maman."
Raoul took a deep breath. "Right, of course. I apologise, I just hate the idea of that thing being anywhere near Christine. He's already put her through so much."
"We'll find her quicker if we search separately." Meg decided, "If you search the theatre, the foyer and public areas, I'll search backstage and in some of the less frequently used parts of the theatre."
Raoul obviously wasn't convinced and when Meg saw the look on his face she attempted to reassure him, "I grew up in this theatre, I know every hiding place there is. Besides, there's more than one entrance to the cellars and I want to check that Christine didn't use one of them instead."
They started their respective searches and whilst Meg started to become concerned that perhaps the Vicomte was right and the Phantom had taken Christine again, the worry that Meg had managed to briefly temper in Raoul once again grew into complete panic. There was nowhere else that Christine would go, the theatre was her home and everyone she cared about was here. They each held out the slightest hope that Christine would have been found by the other but that hope was quickly dashed when they met in the theatre foyer.
"This cannot continue." Raoul declared, seeming much more confident now that he was out of the cellars, "We need more people to help search for Christine. The Phantom won't be able to keep her hidden away if everyone is searching for her."
"Monsieur, tonight was...very strange for everyone here. Not everyone knows exactly why Christine was given the lead role. I don't know if many people will be willing to help. Not tonight." Meg explained, trying to be tactful.
"They will if I tell them to." Raoul said arrogantly, assuming that his status as patron was going to aid him. "I'll speak to the managers about arranging search parties at once." With that he started walking back to the stage, where he had last seen the managers. Meg quickly followed after him, concerned that this wasn't going to turn out the way the Vicomte expected.