Chapter Six

Threshold of the Dead

Disclaimer: I don't own phantom, and I'm just saying this now: there WILL be bits of Sweeney Todd, mostly because I lurve that movie so good.

Thinking about going in to find her stuffed Raccoon seemed like it was easier said than done really. The idea that one is brave enough to go through a mirror into a thick labyrinth and seek out a phantom who stole their grown-up and taken child's raccoon toy was simply that. An Idea.

Olive stood before the mirror. Her mind told her to go on ahead and get it over with, while her body was resistant, saying it was the worst thing she could do. What if Christine was right and it was deadly? Oh well, the only thing she had to live for was finding Johanna and avenging Benjamin's death. Her own death would solve half her problems.

Biting her lip and swallowing her fear, she pulled the mirror aside, and saw a doorway leading into a dripping, wet, dark void. It wasn't the dark, the rats, or the idea that she could get lost and never find her way out that frightened her, it was what the man below could do. She was more afraid of being raped and tortured by him rather than being killed. She wasn't afraid of death.

It was terribly depressing to be thinking about death as she was inching her way along in the cold, stony, dark maze. But it was all she could do. All she could think of was the way death didn't care if you were a mother, a father, a baby, or an old woman. He didn't care if you were the wealthiest man alive or a homeless beggar woman. It was all the same to death, he didn't discriminate great or tiny. He took everyone and anyone at all.

Swallowing the need to turn around, she preceded foreword. There was only one thing more frightening than both dead and the Phantom's Labyrinth, and that was the Prison Isles. They mixed the male prisoners with the female ones, and most got raped. Olive was one of the many who had, but she'd lived through it. She lived through that, so she could live through most anything.

Ahead was nothing but blackness, and it seemed that the deeper she got, the colder she became. She didn't know her way around, so it would be a lucky fluke if she found her way there without getting lost. She'd never be able to do it again, but she really doubted she would be able to do it in the first place. It was a long shot, a very long shot considering how deep down she was going.

She stepped off the stone walkway and landed in a pool of water. Coughing and then getting up and continuing on. Shivering hard, and chattering her teeth. How could someone live this far below and not be frozen to death? Part of her wanted to say Phantom, Ghost, O.G., Take your pick sweetie. But she refused to believe he was a ghost. Christine had confirmed he wasn't. Or at least…he wasn't when she was with him…

It wasn't too long before Olive came to a gate standing angrily in front of her. It seemed to say "Thou shalt not enter! You are not welcome here, stranger." And it couldn't be farther from the truth. She was not welcome. Not at the very least.

But it didn't matter, she had to get Johanna's raccoon back, it belonged to her and should have been left out of the prank war all together. The raccoon was a .P.O.W. you could say.

The bars were thick, and grid like so sliding through would probably not be an option. Scratch that, sliding through them was not an option at all.

She hated being out of ideas. It was like being left completely helpless by your once close companion—your mind. Olive always had an idea for how to get out of a situation, even if it wasn't exactly a good one. She could think her way out of almost any problem. The almost came with the iron grid bars in front of her.

If she squinted her eyes she could see the Raccoon sitting peacefully on a table in the main room of that beautifully decorated island. After starring at it in awe, her mind went back to trying to figure out a way around her problem.

As she ran through impossible plans in her mind, she began to feel like a lab rat trapped in the maze. She could see "the cheese" in the scenario, but a wall prevented her from reaching it. She slammed her fist on the grid bars and swore very loudly.

"Who dares enter my domain?" Shouted a voice behind her, jumping nearly out of her skin; Olive whipped around quickly and saw a man in a fluffy white shirt and a half porcelain mask standing in front of her, his blue eyes dancing with the flames of hell.

"You gave me a fright!" She gasped, placing her palm over the upper part of her breast, signifying her heart. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind that the man standing before her could be the phantom—not right away anyway.

"Get out," He barked loudly but not loud enough to frighten Olive away. As The man before her shouted and swore at her lack of fear, she realized quickly who the man was. She remembered the mask all-of-a-sudden from the stories.

"The Phantom..." She breathed and saw that the phantom looked surprised that she figured it out. Why was that? Did he think her stupid? Possibly. Who was to say she wasn't? It was stupid to go down to the phantom's lair, unarmed, to search for a stuffed animal.

"Very good," He clapped softly; he was speaking to her in a tone that made her think he thought she had down-syndrome. Narrowing her eyes, she spat on the ground beside them.

"Give me the stuffed animal. The raccoon you took from my room. I want it back!" The Phantom's fiery blue eyes waltzed with amusement at her bravery, but Olive thought nothing of it.

Hardly anything frightened her anymore. What was there to be afraid of? Some mythological ghost? Hardly. She's learned about the world, and through her beaten, broken spirit's eyes; she sees that ghosts and priests are nothing to fear. They are nothing more than minor annoyances that must be overcome.

"Spoils of war, my dear" he said brusquely, his arms crossing his chest and a dark, amused grin tugging at his lips. Olive hated this man, she hated him!

Angry and gashing her teeth, Olive lunged at the masked man with a balled fist, aiming to hit him in his smug nose. He dodged out of the way, but she punched again. She kept trying and he kept dodging, he was swift. He had the lightning fast reflexes of an experienced ally cat, but that didn't mean that Olive was going to stop trying.

"Give it back!" She screamed as she threw punches at Erik, "Give it! It's Johanna's!" She couldn't even hear her own voice anymore. She was caught in a tide of hatred and remorse. She had to get her daughter's stuffed Raccoon back, without it she would surely lose her fragile tie to reality. "Give it back!"

The phantom caught both her wrists and kept them both from hitting him, and he could see the hate slashing in her brown eyes. It fazed him not.

"It's Johanna's…" She said, dejectedly quiet. "…give me back my baby's toy…" Harshly, Erik used her wrists and threw her down into the cold, soaking wet water and starred at her unconscious form. She'd hit her head on the hard stone floor, and the only man that could help felt no pity for her.

But the thing was; he knew she would wake up soon. Knowing his, He lifted her up, threw her (Literally) over his shoulder, and carried her back up to the surface.

She would be nothing but a bother to him if she stayed in the water below. In a better case scenario, she would get water in her lungs before she woke up and would drowned, but then he would have legions of policemen tromping through his private space again in search of the ugly woman.

He threw her down on her bed and wiped his shoulder of the water that she'd gotten on his shirt. Beside her bed on her nightstand stood a tri-fold picture frame with three black-and-white photos in them. The one on the far left was of a handsome man holding a beautiful little baby girl (Who he presumed was "Johanna"), a beautiful young lady who was standing with the man and baby in the center, and on the left was that same woman with the baby. No one in the photograph fazed him one bit, but he figured that it would be alright to give Olive back her doll. What was a doll to him anyway?

Approaching the doll back at his lair, he saw it was not in any condition to give back. A rat had gnawed a hole in the neck that had torn. The head was nearly coming off, with its stuffing entrails coming through the thin spindles of thread.

He glanced over at the pocket watch that sat on the desk beside the raccoon and in front of the charred set of Don Juan Triumphant said it was nearly two in the morning. Placing the doll back down on the desk and throwing away his idea of giving it back, he strolled into the bedroom where he tried to get some sleep.

The face of the lovely chestnut haired girl haunted his mind as he attempted at sleep. She always haunted his sleep and tortured his conscious mind. Every time he attempted to sleep there was a replay of the night she left him for the vicomte de Changy. That night, Erik lost everything. He lost his love, his life, and the thing he lived to protect. With her gone, who was he to love and protect?

What about that old, haggish woman? Olive was it?

Ha-ha! That's a laugh. Olive was old, ugly, wicked, nasty, had no taste in the arts, gruesome to be around, infuriating, and brainless. She was just like everyone else in the upper world. Everyone except Christine, who was so very beautiful. Olive couldn't hold a candle to Christine's smile, and no one could capture his heart like Christine.

Even though he knew Christine was gone and she was never coming back, he couldn't help but hope every day that she would. Or that his paintings, figurines, and everything else to do with Christine would give him the satisfaction that he lacked.

He was so blinded by his desire to have that which he couldn't have, that he was happy living in the fantasy that he owned her. That she had chosen him, and she was pregnant with the first of their many children. He wanted to happily live with Christine and love her with his entire heart. He wanted to show her that he wasn't an insane pyromaniac. He loved her, he always would love her, and no one; no matter how beautiful or smart they were, would ever get him to change his mind.

Sorry it took so long!! I had major writer's block and it totally sucked. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapty :D