AN: The old thing: is anyone willing to beta for me? If yes, then please contact me at gottabelikeyou at hotmail dot com. I promise not to disappear for several months…
Disclaimer: I'm still waiting for the miracle to happen. Until it does, I don't own POTO. It still belongs to Messieurs Leroux and Webber and Madame Kay. Mademoiselle McLachlan owns the song used.
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A Whole New World
Chapter 6
What
ravages of spirit
conjured this temptuous rage
created you a
monster
broken by the rules of love…
Do What You Have To Do by Sarah McLachlan
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Christine Daaé.
For a moment, the world around him seemed to stop.
At that moment, all his painful memories came back. Her voice, her face... The way she smiled, the sound of her laughter…
The feeling of her lips against his…
… and the hurt and betrayal as she had ripped the mask from his face. The fear in her eyes as she had looked at him. She screaming at him, she kissing Raoul on the rooftop…
Stop it.
He forced himself to read the paper again. Perhaps he had been wrong. Perhaps it was some other name; perhaps he had imagined all this.
But no such luck. It was clearly written there: Mademoiselle Christine Daaé
That's when he understood the reason for the nagging feeling in the back of his head.
It was the wrong name.
Christine no longer was Daaé. She had married that wretched boy, Le Vicomte de Chagny.
She was the Vicomtess now.
This woman on the list was someone else, who just happened to have a similar name. But of course the wretched girl has to end up in my household…When will you stop haunting me, Angel?
He signed the paper and handed it back to Mr Harris.
The little nervous advocate sighed with relief as he watched Lord Destler sign the paper. The strange masked man had hesitated, if only for a second. But the time was enough for the advocate to start to worry: maybe something was wrong or…
But he had signed.
Thus, Mr Harris decided his work was finished.
Taking the paper, he muttered a few remarks about having to hurry home and so on and had already opened the door to exit, when lord Destler's voice stopped him.
"What can you tell me about the background of these people I have hired?"
"Their background? Er… Well, they are all very respectable and I can assure you they don't steal or-"
"I was thinking more along the lines of where they come from, who are their parents."
"Well, er, they're all from France… Probably daughters and sons of peasants or something like that. Lower class people, of course. I… I don't know much more."
"I see. Thank you. You may leave. " The last sentence was accompanied with a dismissive gesture. Taking the hint, John and Amanda left, too, having first made sure that their Master didn't wish for anything more tonight.
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Erik found it hard to concentrate that night. No matter what he did, her image was always on his mind.
For three years had he fought for freedom. Freedom from those memories that kept coming back. And yet it seemed as nothing was achieved. She was still there, a constant presence in his mind. Always torturing him.
He had tried to forget her. Oh, how he had tried!
He had discovered that there were women who were willing to touch him. Even kiss him, had he allowed them to. It cost, of course, but such a trivial thing didn't matter to him.
So, for the one and half years he had spent living in this house countless women had shared his bed. First for the money, of course. Later he learned to use his spell on them, making them want him.
Looking back, he realised that he couldn't name one out of them all.
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Instead of going to his bedroom, he went to the music room. Not the one in which he composed all his new operas. No, this one was a secret room no-one knew about. Except him, of course.
He took the key from his pocket and opened the door.
In the middle of the room a great black piano stood proud and alone. Various papers were scattered on top of it.
Other than he piano, the room was empty.
He walked over to the piano and sat down. It was long since he'd last touched it. Lifting the lid, he was surprised to find his hands shaking.
He knew that was not supposed to be doing this. But the man who could so easily make others do exactly what he wanted them to do, had no control over himself. He was powerless if front of his inner fears and wishes.
So he laid his hands down on the smooth ivory keys.
One by one, seemingly on their own accord, his fingers started to press the keys. One, another, a whole bar now, and another, and the first song was soon followed by another and yet another.
Before he even noticed, he was drowning in the music, letting it wash over him.
There was no way he could stop now…
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In the other end of the house, a young woman opened her eyes having no idea what had waken her.
It was a few moment later when she started to hear it. The music.Beautiful, intoxicating music. Played so passionately that she thought she would cry.
A smile spread across her face. She knew that music.
Thank you, my Angel. I shall sleep well tonight.
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Thank you very much to all who still continued to read even after such a long absence.
I know that it was very short, too short probably, but other ways you would've waited forever for this chapter. I thought sooner but shorter was better…
I'm back from Vienna (as you can see), it was great. So great actually, that I decided to write down the drafts for this story. From now on I'll try to update biweekly, or at least once a month.
One more thing: no matter whether you love it or hate it or something in-between, or whether it left you completely cold, please review. Feedback is extremely important, because without it I don't understand whether what I do is good or crap. And I don't know what's wrong, then how am I supposed to improve this?
Oh-kay, forgive me my ranting, let's move on, shall we? Time for review responses.
PS: Did I mention that I bought the sheetmusic for the POTO film? I can play Learn To Be Lonely on my piano now…
Twinkle22: I hope I didn't disappoint you. But I promise they will meet and Erik's real reaction will come, too. Probably in the next (or at really extreme case the one after the next) chapter. I hope this time was better? I mean, two weeks is better than five months, right:D Thanks for reviewing and I hope you enjoyed this!
Pertie: It's great that you liked it!
Yes, I absolutely love travelling. I travel as often as possible (and sometimes even when it's not possible:D). But then again, show me someone who doesn't like travelling…
Actually, no, I'm not English. English is my second language. But yes, I've learned British English and my English is more British than American. Or at least it's supposed to be…
Thank you for reviewing and I hope you liked this chapter!
Moderndaybattosai: Thank you for the compliments! Not such a long wait, this time…
