Chapter 3
A Palace can also be a prison
Phantom is still not mine. Mwhahaha.
**Another Enormous thank you for how many awesome reviews I'm getting. I honestly did not expect this much pouring in, and so many of you clamouring for more! *Bows low* you are all too kind! Xxx It is lucky that I have had a lot of time to write and update, (and your reviews only encourage that!) but once more I will say that I might have to disappear at any time and go back to haunting my own opera house. (And do work LJ) I will write whenever I can, but still, thank you for sticking around. **
I was walking through the gardens at home, my fingers scudding gently through the slithers of overgrown grass. I did this so much during the summer, and missed it now that winter had come with shocking speed and closed me indoors. Mist swirled around me, concealing everything around me. I could only see something when it had blown forward to stand in front of me.
But I found this comforting.
The mist protected me, wrapping its cool vapours around me with gentle kindness.
I turned a corner, my lips filled with a song that trailed through the rock pools of my memory. The mists parted a little, and I saw my parents, waiting for me with smiles on their faces by our favourite fountain. Mother's face was whole and healthy, her golden hair regrown, and her laughter dancing back in her eyes. Father's face was no longer aged with grief and suffering, but painted young again with joy. Summer wreathes hung around the necks, the kind the village children would wear for festivals. And more Flowers bloomed from the crumbling cracks in the stone spring. Bright colours of yellow, peach and turquoise. My lips broke in a smile to see this perfect vision, happy tears pooling in my eyes.
"Isn't it perfect?" I laughed, turning away from the pretty flowers to look at my parents.
Their smiles stayed.
But their eyes never moved.
The wreathes were red.
Their necks were coated in blood.
"NO! PLEASE! NO!"
The nightmares smashed into oblivion as something shook me awake.
"Violet!"
I opened my eyes.
Erik was sitting opposite me, leaning forward slightly to touch my hand.
Clearly the nightmare had not ended.
I wrenched my hand away, my heart choking my lungs.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Erik drew back at once, eyes widening.
"It was only a dream," He said, trying to sound soothing
"Was it?" I whispered hoarsely, my chest rising and falling
"If it was only a dream, then why am I still here?"
There was a very long pause.
"I feared you would be ill," Erik's brow furrowed
"The cold from last night. And how wet you became! You have mostly likely caught your death of cold!"
I stared at him.
"Here, take my handkerchief," He took out a silken square of white from another one of his many pockets and offered it to me.
"I admit it is not much, but once we arrive home I will have a doctor come at once."
"What about a policeman?" I asked cuttingly, ignoring the napkin of insanity.
"Why would I need to call a policeman?" He chuckled
"Oh, my dear, you are not well at all."
My fists clenched around a corner of my blanket
"You make me sick."
"Sick?"
He swooped off his fedora and laid it out like a waiter with a dish:
"You can use my hat if you wish. It is quite alright, I have plenty of money to purchase a new one,"
"I'd rather be sick upon your face."
His feline like eyes twitched, then a dark laugh arched from his mouth. He replaced his hat and gave me a smile that held a great degree of maliciousness.
"Believe me my dear, I have no face. So that, in its entire essence. Would be pointless."
"No face?"
I regarded his mask with a gulp.
"I would rather believe that you have no sanity."
Erik scooped out his pocket watch again, entering back into his other extreme.
"I did not want to wake you until we had arrived at the gates, but when you began to suffer with your nightmares I had to. I could not stand it."
"That's kind of you," I drawled
Once again he ignored me, delving the watch back into his breast pocket
"But it was a pity. I wanted to give you the surprise."
"Surprise?" I lost my height and trembled
He swept his gloved hand out at the window between us, and just like magic, the curtains threw themselves open.
"Look outside, Violet."
I lowered my shielded hands down slightly, still blinded from the light.
"Look!" Erik pressed
I gave up.
I shuffled forward an inch or two and leaned over to see what this surprise was. And could not supress my deep intake of breath.
The carriage was trundling along a winding road, and straight ahead, through a great gap in the trees was an enormous castle. Built upon a sweeping lawn, it was a vision of a gothic fairy-tale. The stones were dark and dusky, the towers shot high up into the sky with pointed roofs, and battlements crept round every rooftop. There seemed to be no end to it, the closer I looked, the more layers climbed out from it…more towers, more windows…It looked like it had risen from one of the illustrations in my childhood storybooks.
Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Erik's lips lift at my reaction.
"This was a mere ruin when I found it. And now it is my masterpiece."
There were a couple of narrow openings cut into the walls, memories from those medieval days where soldiers would have shot their arrows to defend their kings and Queens.
The carriage drove the corner and pushed upwards towards a huge twisting iron gate. I squinted, and perceived something set in the middle of them.
A mask with slit like eyes.
I withdrew my head again.
The gates swung open to let us through, pulled by another four serving men. We advanced inside, the horse's hooves clip-clopping on the ground. One of them let out a whinny, and I heard the gates groan and then smash together behind us. My heart sank right down to my knees and desperately I forced myself not to cry. We approached two big gate towers that were a lot more decayed than the rest of the estate, coated in tumbling ivy and weeds, but as we rumbled past I saw something seated inside, observing the world quite calmly from their guarding position. I could still sense Erik's eyes rooted to me, glued into the side of my head.
"Try to remain calm," I quivered to myself as the castle loomed up higher and higher, nearer and nearer.
"You will find a way to escape."
The carriage came to a halt in the drive, perfectly in line with the timber front door. The horse's stamped their hooves, some of them bucking restlessly against their reins. A footman sprang from his seat at the top of the carriage beside the rider, falling to his knees and laying down a blood red carpet on the ground. Erik clicked the door open and hopped out, his cloak swirling with him, clinging to his dark suit. The gravel crunched under his boots as he orbited round, and stretched out his hand, offering it to me.
My eyes flicked down, gazing at the deathly black leather glove, then back up again into the auric eyes of my captor.
I slid from my seat and opened the other door, glimpsing Erik's hand fall back to his side out of the corner of my eye. I let myself out, hassling a little with my skirts and then stumbling slightly onto the gravel on my high heeled shoes. I brushed myself down, flushing furiously.
Erik traipsed around the carriage, handing his fedora to a page and smoothing back his ink like hair. The early morning colours filtered on his sallow skin, contrasting his gothic silhouette with the fiery oranges, yellows and pale peaches of the sunrise.
He came to stand next to me and gestured up at his home with a flourish, sparks dancing in his eyes.
"Magnificent is it not? When I took this place on as my own, I designed most of the new additions myself."
I lifted my eyes up at the towering building, my lip wobbling. I began to notice things that I had not seen on our way up. Gargoyles, hundreds of them. Sinister and grotesque. Stooping as they held up window sills, hunched under the battlements and flying buttresses. They were made of marble and stone, but I swore that I saw their snake like tongues and ugly eyes scintillate and flicker in my direction. Angels joined them, creating a heavenly variation. While the gargoyles seemed clumsy and brutal, rough around the edges…The angels were smooth and proud. Carved to perfection, their mouths twirled in almost smug smiles, completely satisfied with their own beauty and virtue. Erik was speaking of majesty and imperial beauty, a house dedicated and built upon the arts…but I only saw the iron gates stretching around its enormous perimeter, spiked with thorn like spears. The forest that concealed it from the outside world…And these hundreds upon hundreds of monstrous carvings that had joined the cast of my custody.
"What do you intend to do with me Monsieur Destler?" I asked hollowly
He blinked, faltering in his speech.
I rotated my head to fully look upon him,
"Why have you brought me here?"
He seemed staggered, almost confused. Then he drew himself back up to his full height, composing himself:
"You have come here…for one purpose and one alone."
I waited.
He struggled, then pressed his lips together in a firm line
"In time you will understand,"
He strode past me, his black cloak billowing out behind me, and I shuddered as his chill slapped against my skin. His shadow stalked towards the enormous doors and two more servants opened them for him to allow his prestigious and imperial entrance.
"Well that is reassuring."
I scowled and glanced viciously over my shoulder to see the sixteen servants huddled in a ring outside the carriage, watching me silently…waiting for me to run.
I winced. Aside from memories of the previous night there was something quite decrepit about them.
I gazed out at the dawn breaking over the tree coated horizon, longing blossoming through my heart.
"Violet."
Erik did not call, with that terrible voice he did not need to.
I removed my eyes reluctantly from the sky, and moved towards the front door, dragging my blanket closer around my shoulders. I felt disgusting. My dress was completely ruined, my gloves were gone, and my hair was still damp and sticking to the back of my neck in filthy trails. The demon waited for me in the arched frame, penetrating me with his unblinking stare.
I refused to acknowledge him as I passed.
But despite my efforts in trying to strain myself away from him, I caught his scent.
It was a mixture that detached me monetarily from the place around me. Intense, swirling and sharp. I detected fir, like the towering pine trees surrounding the castle.
I shook my head to clear my nostrils of the repugnant stench. It was only another metaphor for my imprisonment.
To distract myself from his presence I placed my attention in the hall surrounding me.
Polished black and white alabaster floors, with pillars constructed from the same stone. I regarded the fawn coloured flesh of them, seeing their surface rippling with dark red veins, holding up the room with great, magisterial ease. There was a grand staircase, lined with shining golden candelabras that were detained up on the backs of more winged spirits, and these trinkets of gold were finer than any of my family's dusty ornaments at home. Two more staircases cut into the first one either side, though where they lead to was a mystery for now.
The celling stole my breath away. It was like someone had zoomed up into the depths of heaven and brought a jigsaw puzzle piece of it. An exquisite painting of shimmering halos, dancing cherubs, soft plush clouds and mountains of colour and light. You wanted to examine every detail of it. Every archangel you looked upon held an instrument of some kind. From violas to cellos, the entire plafond was an orchestra to God, and growing in its middle was a chandelier of such greatness you withered beneath it. Finally in the centre of the floor, just below the chandelier, was a great mosaic. Enthralled by its beauty, I tiptoed forward to observe it, and saw that it was of a rose. Its petals billowed out like a ballerina's skirt, bleeding out cardinal flames, its dazzling green stem barbed with thorns. It was set on a background of diamond and robin egg blue, and I was compelled to kneel down and touch the gorgeous colourful tiles.
"I knew you would love it."
Erik's voice snapped the spell and my fingers sagged away from the vision.
He stood beside me, the visible slant of his face illuminated, his voice dipping into a tone I did not like one bit.
I gazed at him, my fingers locking round the only possession I still had. My locket.
"A prison is still a prison," I whispered
"No matter how beautiful it is."
Erik's eyebrows drew together.
"I don't-"
His pupils skittered around
"I don't under-"
"Monsieur!"
A butler hurried up to him from the other side of the hall, and bowed respectfully
"You have a call from Paris."
The master's shoulders tensed even further.
"It can wait," Erik flicked his fingers at him dismissively
"But monsieur it is-"
"IT CAN WAIT!" Erik roared, throwing his torso round, his eyes exploding with fire. Every servant standing present in the hall fell to their knees, and my body gave me no other instinct but one:
Run!
I sprinted across the mosaic rose, snatching up my skirts and flying past Erik through the doors. Servants leapt upon me, their arms straining out to grab me, but I dodged and ducked underneath them propelled by my blind fear. I rushed outside to wear the servants were unreining the horses.
My father had taught me to ride during our time in Italy, I had proved myself then, and I only hoped it would help me now.
I chose the nearest unrefined horse and slapped the servant across the face as hard as I could, causing him to tumble to the ground with a yelp. I threw myself upwards, scrabbling desperately, finding it a lot harder without stirrups. More servants came running and one even snatched at my leg. I kicked him, the impact back on the horse's flank causing the steed to shriek out a whinny and rear. I dug my fingers into the horse's mane as tight as I could, squeezing in my thighs to stay atop of the horse. The servants were driven away by the horse's flailing hooves.
I slashed the reins round to the left, and instantly the mare landed her hooves on the ground and swooped into a gallop across the drive, and down the path. I kept my hands rigid and tight around her neck, keeping my back down low as I could. I was petrified that I would be thrown from the horse at any moment
My brain whirred as I pounded up and down on the back of the flying filly, overwrought with finding an escape. There was no way I could get back out through the main gates, and they were too high for any horse to jump over. Through the forest? It was too thick, the mare's hooves could never get through that kind of undergrowth, or pass through with speed while those trees stood so close together. I managed to comfort myself with the thought that I would be nearly half way down the colossal road, and this had given me extra time before they could catch me.
I think I saw a wall earlier, a lower wall than any of the iron gates…If I could only get to it-
And then I heard it.
Hooves chasing me behind.
I threw my head round to look over my shoulder, and felt my entire being become throttled and paralysed with horror.
Erik was riding on the back of a stallion that was as black as hell's nightmares, bent low in the posture of a preying beast, his mask whiter and starker than a vein, his eyes no longer gold, or even yellow…but red.
I screamed and the mare panicked.
She launched her hooves into the sky, and I was thrown off with a shriek that set my throat on fire.
I was mangled to the ground, and my entire body howled with anguish on the impact. Rolling over onto my side, I let out a screech that resounded across the entire grounds.
The sound of boots tumbling to the ground.
Darkness spreading.
"VIOLET!"
Kneels falling to my side.
Cold hands scooping around me. Touching my neck and forehead, feeling and seeking out the pain.
"No…What have I done?
My eyelids flickered, and everything was submerged into nothing.
