----Ch 4-----

She woke to strong sunlight streaming across her eyelids, burning painful spikes behind her retinas, and a gentle breeze floating across the room to caress her face tenderly with the free-floating strands of hair that always seem to get in her face. Birds chirped, a soft breeze almost lulled her back to sleep, and all was great with the world; especially this silky blanket she was wrapped up in.

"Wait a bleedin' mo---" she muttered to herself, sitting up, and struggling to unwrap herself from the winding sheets. She glanced around wildly, her arms flailing about as she reorinitated herself with the surroundings. A window, its double-sided panes open to allow the French air in; a dusty full-length mirror, slightly tarnished, but still usable; a wooden bureau, with its own mirror that was cracked in one corner; and this bed. She looked down at the winded sheet, turning the material over and over in her hands. One side was black, the other red. Standing up, she realized that it was no sheet, but a cloak. A cloak. Who would wear a cloak like this in this day and age!

Slowly she began to remember a voice, a voice as deep and mysterious as night itself and strong warm arms, when she heard thunderous footfalls.

"Angel? Angel!" A male voice called, and as her head snapped towards the doorway (which included a doorframe, but not a door), Marius appeared. She was still lost in thought as Marius rushed up to her, grabbing her in a bone-crushing hug. "Angel, what happened? When you didn't show up back at the hotel, I got worried."

"Everyone was worried, Marius." Crystal followed up, entering in right after the over-zealous man. The words Crystal spoke had a slight under bite, as if they conveyed a secret and unhappy meaning. She just glanced at Crystal over Marius' shoulder, the world hazy and uncertain. Slowly, she pressed her cheek to Marius' and cupped her hand against his neck, still trapped in thought.

"Its ok, Ange' baby. Its ok." Marius whispered, but she wondered if it really was. Pulling away from Marius, she sat back down slowly and began to fondle the folds of the cloak again. If it wasn't Marius who brought her here last night, then who? Who else knew about her being in the Opera House late last night? Who else knew how to get in? "Ange?"

"Was everyone back at the hotel?" She asked, her voice in a hushed tone, as if afraid to speak out loud.

"Except when we all went looking for you." Crystal confirmed. "That was about...well, two in the morning? We tried the Opera House first, but it was locked. We assumed that you had left for something to eat, and forgot to come back when you said you would. Why?" Crystal asked, peering oddly at the quivering girl. There was something about her that Crystal automatically knew was wrong, something disturbing her, but knew not to press it with Marius here.

"Oh...no reason..." She replied, gently folding the cloak into one square. Looking up, she smiled at her two worried friends and thought up a lie quickly. "I was working late last night, and wasn't up for the trek back to the hotel, so I crashed here."

"Up for the walk to the hotel? Ange, the hotel is just around the corner. Do you know how hard it was to find this room back here! Its up so many flights of stairs, in this maze of hallways, and some of the floor is rotted out! How you managed to get up here without killing yourself when you were half asleep is beyond me!" Elizabet crowed, walking in behind Crystal.

"Well, it didn't seem that far last night! In fact, it was easy...like floating." She gave an uneasy laugh, realized that the last comment disturbed her friends more than reassured them, and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be more careful from now on."

"How about heading back to the hotel and crashing on the beds for a while?" Marius suggested, smiling at her, but was only addressing empty air. "After all, this nasty old thing couldn't have been very comfortable."

"Actually, it was kinda nice." She found herself saying, and realized that it was the truth. The mattress, although old, was old in a soft and nice way. Looking around once more, she stood up and decided out loud, " I think that I'm going to move my things in here, actually. Its quiet here and I'll be closer to my work. That is, if its ok with everyone else." It was obvious by the looks on her friends' faces that this wasn't ok by them, but they let the decision go without comment. As she followed them out of the room, she could have sworn that she saw a flash of white in the dusty gloom of the catwalks right outside her doorway.

In truth, he was there. Moving quickly by a system of pulley ropes, he kept up with the four adults, while remaining unseen. That boy, she thought that his serenade had been sung by that boy, that his caring actions had been delivered by that boy! No matter. It was obvious that she had realized her mistake when the two had embraced. Perhaps she was open to his suggestions...She certainly wasn't open to that cur's hints! He leapt onto one of the suspended planks, balancing himself precariously on the edge to lean down and listen in on the conversation.

"Ange...what really happened last night?" The red-headed one asked, keeping her voice low, keeping the words private.

"I told you. Let it go." She responded, head down and eyes cast onto the floorboards. Was this a trait from shyness or perhaps an avoidance of eye contact so the secret was prevented from being revealed? He was not sure just yet. Musing to himself as he stalked the boards above the two ladies, he kept only some of his thoughts on the conversation below.

"Ya, sure. That's really what happened..." The red-headed one sneered, placing a hand on the railing to keep from tripping on the narrow stairwell.

"It is. Crystal, you need to drop it. Nothing happened last night, so you can just stuff it already!"

"Nothing happened?" The woman, Crystal, repeated, her voice full of suspicion. "Nothing happened between you and who?"

"That 'you and whom' and it was nobody." She hissed as she stubbed her foot on a warped step, then stammered "Nobody because there was nobody there! I mean, it was no one---no, no one was there, all right! No one! I was alone and...and I---stop laughing!" She paused as Crystal, who had previously been stifling the giggles, burst into full blown laughter and sat down on the step. Rolling her eyes at her friend's antics, she frowned as she caught another flash of white above them. This time she was sure of it. There was something up there, something white, and there was something familiar about that white flash that nagged at the back of her mind.

"Hey, look at this!" Crystal whispered, crouching back down and peering at a banister. She turned to look at what her friend was pointing at, and, pausing only a second to double check that the white flash had disappeared, crouched down beside Crystal. There, engraved in the rotting wood, were two startlingly familiar names.

Christine Daai.
Meg Giry.

"Aren't those both your name, Ange?" Crystal whispered, gazing up at the shell-shocked nineteen-year old. "Christine DeRoset-Giry?"

"Ya...this must have been carved by my grandmother and my great-aunt!" She whispered back, lightly running her fingertips over the carved names.

"So, where did the 'Angel' come in?" Crystal asked, sitting back down on the step. Smiling slightly, she sat beside Crystal, her eyes still fixed on the hypnotic names.

"My middle name. Grandmother Meg wanted me to be named after her sister-slash-best friend, and mom kept the tradition of hyphenating the last name. So my dad got to pick my middle name, one he hoped I would live up to."

"And you have, of course. Christy, the perfect lil' angel!" Crystal teased gently, nudging the silently grinning friend. "Who happens to be turning twenty in a few days! So, what do you want to do? A big night out on the French town? A bash where we go crash someone else's party? A rave?"

"You know I don't dance!" She laughed. Jumping up, Crystal clapped hands loudly.

"That's it then! A dance! A themed dance to boot...lets see..." Crystal's eyes set to casting about, looking for something to inspire, while the mild complaints of being unable to dance continued on in the background. Suddenly, the roving eyes lit on a faded poster tacked up on the opposing wall. "That's it! A masquerade!"

"A masquerade?" She repeated, doubtfully.

"A masquerade..." He whispered to himself, and then smiled down on the two unsuspecting women before disappearing to prepare.

"Yes! A big masquerade, where we'll invite thousands of people we don't know to fill up these halls and wear foofy outfits! And dance!" Grabbing onto her arms, Crystal hauled the stuttering friend down the rest of the flights. "We'll need to prepare right away...and we have got to find you a dress!"

"But I don't wear dresses!" She cried in distress. Overhearing the last comment before the two disappeared, he smiled to himself once more. Didn't wear dresses? To her masquerade she shall. And such a fine dress it shall be.