A.N. – Yes I am back after a very long time and I pray you to not be too upset with me but there was much I had to do and so to not waste any further the little time we both have, ladies and gentlemen, the chapter.
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All of them were relieved that Miro's breathing had regulated during the night and she slept into the next evening and until the middle of that night as well.
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I awoke at eleven in the night. Everyone was asleep and all those by my bedside were slumbering, hunched over, in their seats. All with the exception of the pregnant Madame DeChangy, who was sleeping in Jacques' cot and Chief, slept in his own.
Sitting up in bed, I turned myself so I could lean my back against the wall and loosely crossed my legs upon my own bed. With that I sat there and looked up the room when my eyes finally fell upon the mirror and that is where they remained.
Little did the young, American detective know that the infamous, and allegedly dead, opera ghost was watching.
I sat there wondering whether the happenings of last night had actually occurred or if they were just a hallucination? It is a possibility that it could have very well been a hallucination but there is also the possibility of it having been real. As an English associate of hers once said, 'When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains must be the truth.' I was thinking long and hard about this as I stared at the mirror but was soon brought out of my thoughts by a small girl no older than three, came in through the now slightly open door. She seemed a little shaken, she had her orange hair in a braid that topped under her shoulder blades and the light of the little candle she held reflected in her big, brown eyes. The small girl walked over to where Madame Giry was sleeping, her green nightgown swaying around her tiny ankles with every step she took and in her hands she clutched a small sky blue blanket. The poor girl just stood there, not wanting to wake the ballet mistress but needing Madame Giry near for comfort. I heard her sniffle, the whole time she didn't notice me until I spoke to her softly from my position on the bed.
"What's the matter pumpkin?" The small girl jumped slightly as I spoke to her in English, she seemed to understand me and walked over to my bed.
"I had a nightmare." She said in a small voice and at this point she was trembling terribly.
I Cooed to her and patted my blanketed lap and told her that she could sit with me. Before I knew it she rushed into my lap and me close to her as tears silently rolled down her freckled face and accompanied by more sniffles. I wrapped an arm around her to hold her close and then rubbed my other hand up and down her back in a soothing rhythm.
"What's your name?" I asked her when her crying finally faded into nothing. She looked at me as I held her in my lap.
"My name is Annaweese." I could tell by the way she spoke she still had trouble pronouncing some of her letters and I could tell it was mainly her 'L's. Her name was Annalice, it suited her and she seemed like a very sweet but fragile child.
"Well my name is Miroslawa… Annalice would it help you go back to sleep if I told you a story?" I said to her. She smiled and nodded, resting her tiny head on my right bicep. Then I began the story as all stories begin.
"Once upon a time, in a land across the sea, there was a young princess who loved her family with her whole heart. And one day the royal family departed for another kingdom far away where the queen's family reigned. They enjoyed themselves greatly but when they had to return to their kingdom they stopped in another kingdom along the way to rest and then carried on until they returned to their kingdom but not yet home. But a knight in black armor, who loathed the princess's father, got rid of the whole family except for the princess who he hurt badly and left on the road alone.
Then a knight and friend of her father, with armor of animal skin, came to where she was and took her back home and took care of her. The princess grew to be a woman and soon went back to the place where she had lost her family and claimed for herself a fortress there. Soon she met a band of knights whose pledge was to seek justice for those who had been wronged. The princess, with the help of these Knights of Justice, found the black knight and made him pay with his life for the wrongs he committed and the princess was knighted.
The knights and the princess have many more adventures and one day the princess starts to fall in love with one of the knights. His name was Sir Nicola and one morning as the sun began to rise, he met her on top of her fortress and the princess for her hand in marriage and she accepted the proposal joyfully. But later that day, the knights and the princess were chasing an evil lord and in the chase, Sir Nicola was shot in the heart with an arrow and he died. The day he had given the princess his heart was the day he had to give hers back. But even then the adventures of the princess don't stop there, a few years later she is called away across the sea to help people, and past starts to grow restless and makes itself present."
By the time I finished the story Annalice was asleep, so I simply sat there in the silence with my head leaning back against the wall. I did tear up a little during the story. I missed my family and Nicola. I felt eyes on me but I brushed it off and I stayed awake the rest of the night thinking.
Soon the early morning rays of colorful sun penetrated the dim gloom, and one of the first to wake was Papa Chief. He smiled at me and then went to the W.C to change. Slowly the others in the room got up as well and were happy to see me looking much better and healthier. We all had breakfast with each other but once we were done I scurried off as quickly as possible in search of more secret passageways.
Miro ran to her room and grabbed the case-file, a lighter, her brown jacket and with that she put it on over her beige blouse and ran from her room, through some hallways and up a flight of stairs until she reached the ever daunting, Box V.
She opened the door and began her search of the opera box. Miro groped around in the dark box until she found a latch on one of the protruding wall sconces. She steeped into the passage and felt along the wall for a torch, once she found one she lit it with the lighter Anderson gave her, it was his own prototype based off another inventor's design. Finally, with torch and case-file in hand, Miro began her descent into the Opera Ghost's lair.
A.N. – Hope you liked it it's all I can give you right now for this one but I'm updating more for my other stories so be on the lookout for more chapters for my other stories! Read on!
