I ran out of the room as fast as my feet could take me, even though my damned dress would drag at my heels so that I had to hold it up constantly like some hapless belle with my now sore, bloody hands.
Between the spaces in the wall I could feel a breeze and see that, outside, night had fallen. I had the sense that I was high up somewhere. Other than that, I knew the phantom had taken me to an area of the theatre I had never been to before.
Reaching a dead end, I look back - the phantom was not in sight. He must have really let me off the hook after all.
But I wasn't about to wait around and test my luck after what he did to me.
Feeling along the walls and the ground, my fingers eventually grasp a handle. I pull on it, revealing a trap door.
My heart threatens to burst from my chest as I descend on a ladder, that creaked and groaned under my weight. I found myself thinking about the phantom - wondering about its motives, and how long it had lived in the theatre.
It wasn't until I reached the bottom of the ladder, that a thought struck me. It was when the Luxury Ball which contained my Alexis pokes against my hip that I realized she had been with me all this time. Perhaps, I mused as I held the capsule in my hand, I could have bested the phantom with her help...
I quickly remind myself that I am an actress, not a Pokemon trainer, and stow it away.
This room was familiar to me. Margaux had shown us through some of the sidelining areas that formed a shell around the central auditorium, mostly out of concern to prevent any future fires from spreading.
I remembered the way through to the stage from there, wiping away the blood that kept pouring from the open wound across my face as I went. It stung terribly, and I was anxious to get home to inspect the damage.
From there? If I ever saw this blasted theatre again it would be too soon. I would simply call the police to inform them of the Palais Thornier's unruly resident. Doubtless, the villain would have to find another location in which to haunt and thrash defenseless women. And before you ask I couldn't care less if Margaux were to go out of business without her star actress, and that is the naked truth.
Once I made it past the rows of seats, brought my hand up and clasped it around the doorknob, the phantom's last warning had finally acquired meaning.
"But I promise you...without me...you will not get...far." He had said, but at the time I thought the fallen Poke opera star was merely being dramatic.
The reality was that the mahogany double doors - the ones that were included in the original construction, with the cute Roselia engravings Théodore had recognized - were locked.
I was trapped in the Palais Thornier with the phantom until Monday.
