Christine's Madness
Chapter 7: Departure
It was the morning of Christine's departure and she had suffered from a long and unsettling nightmare. Christine dreamed that she was alone on a stage trying to sing. There were people in the audience but none of them would listen to her. They were filing out the doors turning their backs on her. A particularly elegant gentleman stared down at her from the box seat above the stage. He shook his head, put his top hat on, and turned away from her. She moved to make them come back.
"Please stay. Please listen to me." No one would stay with her. No one would listen. They all turned their backs and exited until she was the only one left in the theater. The lights dimmed around her. Fear began to take hold as she sensed something in the darkness was stalking her. Christine took a step forward and the floor beneath her disappeared, plunging her into darkness. She fell deeper and deeper into the black. Christine awoke with a scream.
Lucia dressed the Vicomtesse as best she could but Christine was being very bad that morning. Christine kept begging for more and more lamps to be lit. She was afraid of the dark she said. Lucia paid little attention to Christine's ramblings since this was finally the day they would be rid of her.
Erik's return to the sanitarium was marked with both a quiet fear and celebration. Those few who dared peak out at him in the courtyard felt terror at the sight of him and yet gratitude for his taking Christine away. They reprimanded themselves for thinking so lowly of the Vicomtesse that they should want to hand her over to the demon pacing the front courtyard. And yet the alternative of having to care for her themselves was none that any of them wished to entertain.
Lucia and Bill entered the courtyard caring Christine's things. As the couple placed the baggage into the carriage they both looked apprehensively and Erik and they very dodgy looking girl that stood near him.
"She is a very odd looking maid do you not think?" Lucia whispered to Bill.
"Not as odd as a masked doctor." Bill retorted back.
Erik did not want to have a maid for Christine. He wanted her for himself and he could care for all her needs. But the demands of society dictated that servants should surround a woman of Christine's ranking. She herself had asked for a girl to care for her in her seaside cottage. In his efforts to proceed with things slowly and correctly, Erik relented to having a girl travel with him and Christine to the coast. A real maid would not do. He needed a girl that was expendable. In the darker corners of Paris he found such a girl.
Colette lived on a street populated by murders, thieves and prostitutes. The bastard daughter of a tavern owner and long forgotten whore, Colette had spent her existence thus far serving the drunkards in her father's tavern. Colette was a saucy girl and greatly enjoyed talking back to the drunkards. As she grew older her retorts to them became quicker and more pointed. Her sauciness with the drunkards made her a bit of a celebrity, particularly amusing the prostitutes who enjoyed seeing the men made fools of.
It was a talent that soon got her into trouble however. One night a very dangerous sailor became very sick of the sound of her voice. When Colette was not looking he thrust her down on a table and sliced part of her tongue out. While her mutilated tongue healed over, Colette never spoke again. The incoherent moans that came out of her mouth disgusted everyone including herself. While she was not entirely mute, she may have well been. She longed for death or for escape. Her desperation and silence appealed to Erik.
Colette was no fool. She knew she was making a deal with the devil himself when Erik first appeared her. He said would pay her to travel to the northern coast with him and a lady. Once there Colette would be left on her own. No doubt this masked man would kill her, but she felt herself clever enough and believed she had a sliver of a chance surviving. If she truly made it to the coast alive, perhaps she could find passage to England or even to America. Such an opportunity would never again present itself to one such as her. So she shook hands with the devil, stole as much money as she could sew into her skirts, and ventured into the unknown.
As the clean maid and stable-hand put bags into the back of the carriage, Colette gave the man a leering look she had often seen prostitutes give potential customers. The clean maid looked shocked and grabbed the stable-hand dragging him back towards the fancy building. Colette smiled sheepishly. It was exactly the sort of rise she wanted out of the clean maid. Serves her right for being so disgustingly prissy.
Dr. LeCroix led Christine out into the courtyard. She looked as if she had been heavily drugged. Christine stumbled and swayed, looking as if she may vomit at any moment. Erik's stomach twinged with anger, but he held back. Perhaps it was for the best she was so heavily drugged. He did not want her to recognize him in front of these people. If she screamed out his name, screamed out his identity, it would reach Raoul. It was not that he feared Raoul. He could kill the vain aristocrat in an instant. No Erik feared the sway Raoul had over Christine. He wanted Christine completely this time. Raoul must give up on her. Dr. LeCroix helped Christine into the carriage and Colette scooted in beside her.
"If she needs to stop bang on the carriage door." Erik order Colette. She nodded in recognition and he slammed the door shut. Erik climbed into the drivers seat and whipped the horses into motion. The carriage disappeared over the horizon much to the relief of Dr. LeCroix and his staff. The greatest challenge that Dr. LeCroix had to deal with for the remainder of the day was finding Madame Ardant's missing bottle of lavender water. It was peaceful in the sanitarium once again.
