Education of the Heart
Confrontation: Carlotta Guidicelli
The first person who agreed to speak to the Phantom was Carlotta Guidicelli. Dr. Benevole and his supervising colleague were not happy with that. As far as they knew Carlotta had been the main target for the Phantom's attacks but she was a difficult character herself. She was a self-centered primadonna and her temper tantrums were well known. The doctors knew they would have to watch closely for a direct confrontation between those two people would easily escalate.
Dr. Benevole decided to talk to Carlotta alone before she would see the patient.
Carlotta arrived in her carriage. She was dressed in orange and red and a bit too much make-up and jewelry. She was arrogant and screamed at the driver for the carriage ride had been uncomfortable.
"Madame Guidicelli?", Dr. Benevole asked and before he could say anything else Carlotta started yelling at him.
"Si! And you are the one responsible for my discomfort today? What did you think ordering me to come here, me, La Carlotta? I have business elsewhere!"
"Madame, I..."
"Yes, yes, yes, you thought nothing of it, I understand. You all think nothing of nothing. One wonders why men have heads at all if they do not use them. And women are even worse. Is there not one person in this world who understands what it means to be a singer? It is a job that requires 26 hours hard work a day!"
Dr. Benevole did not point out that a day only has 24 hours. Instead he said: "Madame, I appreciate that you are willing to help us. I wrote you a letter explaining what this is about and that you do not have to participate if you do not want to."
"Si! Writing letters! That's what he always did, for he is a coward, too cowardly to say what he had to say face to face. But not me! I am not afraid and I will say what I have to say face to face!"
Dr. Benevole wondered if it had been a good idea to ask all of Erik's victims if they wanted to confront the man who was the Phantom with what he did to them. If this woman would just yell at Erik he certainly would not react well to that. But then - this was an experiment. It might be interesting to see how victim and perpetrator would react if their roles would be reversed and he would suddenly be in the inferior position. He warned Carlotta that she would be disappointed for as far as he knew most victims hoped for a sign of remorse or an excuse but most perpetrators would not give that but hurt their victims further.
Carlotta gave him a smile that made the doctor shudder for it remembered him so much of a snake. "My good doctor, me might fool you but never me. I know exactly what kind of man I am dealing with. He's a coward, only feeling strong when he hides behind meter-thick walls and if I just look at him he will crumble." Dr. Benevole doubted this. The Erik he knew was no coward. But he definitely deserved to be cut down to size. He decided to have them talking in the hallway and having guards stand by and himself as well so they could interfere.
Erik was absolutely not willing to talk to Carlotta. He had agreed to meet his "victims" as part of his therapy after Dr. Benevole threatened that he would have to stop the experiment and send him back to prison if he refused, but Carlotta was certainly not on his list of victims. "I have never done anything to her," Erik scoffed, "On the contrary, she deserves to be placed in a therapy like this for she surely needs one."
Dr. Benevole pondered the unusual wording Erik had used. "Erik, we have talked about this. Everyone who feels he or she was your victim has a right to tell you what they think happened to you. You agreed to listen to them. Not defend yourself, not quarrel with them, just listen."
"And this is going to help me - how?" Erik asked, he had no idea what the doctor was up to. This was nothing the doctor had ever written about.
Dr. Benevole sat down on the couch in Erik's small livingroom. He could see that he had been interrupting Erik in some composition. It was good to see him doing something normal and right now Dr. Benevole couldn't help admiring the energy that man had. Erik was constantly busy and if they did not give him something to do he would find something himself. There were more than enough papers lying round in his room covered in sketches for architecture, stage sets, sheets of music. And sometimes he sketched technical devices no one understood. If that energy and recourcefulness would be used for something good that man could actually be a very helpful member of society.
Erik got up with a sigh. "If you insist..." he grumbled, "But if I can't endure her voice any longer I am free to go, am I not? No doctor is allowed to torture his patient, isn't it?"
"I understand that this will not be easy for you," Dr. Benevole answered, "And you will not be alone. I will be there and of course some guards, you have nothing to fear."
"Fear? Fear? You really think I would be afraid of that bitch?" Erik yelled and the doctor thought that Erik and Carlotta sometimes sounded quite the same. Maybe they suffered the very same mental illness but Carlotta never had the chance to become a criminal for she was not as clever as he was.
The meeting in the hall of the house was more than icy. Erik refused to greet her and Carlotta was as stubborn. They stood there, glaring at each other and refused to back down. Dr. Benevole was forced to interfere and introduce the two formally so it would not escalate before one of them had even said one word. To the doctor's annoyance Erik wore his Phantom-attire, white mask, black hat, black cape, tuxedo.
"Monsieur Morriere," Carlotta said, her voice icier then absolute zero, "I thought you were taller. Did you wear high-heels at the opera?"
Erik flinched as he was called by his name. He really felt smaller and weaker than before. He was completely at the disadvantage here. But he would not back down before that siren, never. "Madame Guidicelli," he answered with much contempt in his voice, "It is good to see you here. As long as you are here you can't terrorize the opera."
Carlotta was speechless at this audacity and Erik couldn't help a brief but triumphant smile. He had left her speechless which was a rare accomplishment. Dr. Benevole sat on a chair and hid his face in his hands. This was going completely wrong. He had wanted Erik to feel guilty for what he had done to that poor woman and not humiliate her further!
Before the doctor could interfere Carlotta had found her voice again. "Terrorize the opera? Look who's talking - what are you? Afraid of competition? As if I would be that desperate!"
Erik shrugged, seemingly calm: "What else have you done in the last three years? You, Madame, are past your prime. You have been a tolerable soprano once, but now you are not. You know that and therefore you terrorize every girl who sets her foot in the opera house. Tell me, La Carlotta, how low can you go to even terrorize the charwomen? Are you really that scared one of them might sing better than you?"
Carlotta attacked him, her long nails polished in shining red outstretched like cat's claws. Erik caught her wrists and held her effordlessly as she screamed vulgar insults at him. "It seems I hit a raw nerve," Erik smiled mockingly. Carlotta tried to get free but his grip was like iron.
"Madame, please, calm down," Dr. Benevole tried to interfere, which was difficult, for it was not Erik who acted aggressively. Carlotta spit at Erik who stayed perfectly calm but did not release her. "Madame, please."
Carlotta took a deep breath and sat down. "How dare you?" she spat at Erik, "How dare you mock me even now?"
Erik stood still, crossed his arms and smiled. Carlotta reacted exactly as he had thought he would. "Madame, I understood that you feel like you were my victim - care to enlighten me, what have I ever done to you?"
Carlotta, who had already been fainting, was suddenly on her feet again and yelled: "What have you done to me? Do not pretend you do not know! You have been terrorizing me for three years! Three years! You created all these stupid little accidents which could have cost my life! You tried to murder me! You dropped the set on me! You made me croak in front of a full house! Don't you dare tell me you forgot all this!"
"Murder you?" Erik was genuinely surprised. He had tried to frighten her, but he had never even thought about killing her. "I did no such thing."
Carlotta stood only inches from him and glared up at his face. "You stupid bastard! You just wanted to get rid of me for you wanted to replace me with that talentless little whore of yours!"
Now Erik lost his temper. He did not physically attack her, no, he raised his hands as if he was going to strangle her, but he did not touch her. "Christine Daae is the better soprano by far! You are jealous and you use the influence of your lovers to hinder her rightfully earned career!" he accused, "If anyone is a whore, it's you!"
Carlotta slapped him and in the process got hold of his mask and ripped it off. He lost his wig as well.
Suddenly all were silent staring at the horribly deformed face before them. It was so silent you could have heard a pin drop.
Carlotta was the first one to recover from her shock. She backed away from Erik, grabbed the back of her chair and stood behind the chair as if it was a shield. Erik bent down and got his mask and wig, turned away and put it back on. "I see," Carlotta said, "I understand. You are just a freak. That's why you hid in the vaults of the opera! You are just a rat from the sewers, pretending to be human. You had no chance to get any woman - not even a harlot would ever stoop so low as to spend time with you. So what price did Christine Daae pay for your futile try to scare me away?"
Erik could take no more. He had never planned to kill Carlotta - not even physically harm her - but now he could no longer endure her taunting. It was one thing to be exposed, mocked and humiliated - it had already angered him - but to hear Christine being verbally abused was more than he could take. Within a split-second his hands wrapped around her neck as he tried to strangle her. He would have killed her in his rage had not Dr. Benevole and the guards grabbed him and forced him to let go of her.
Carlotta gasped for breath but it gave her incredible pleasure to see the once dreaded Phantom being forced to his knees, his arms behind his back by the guards. When Erik finally gave in to their superior number and ceased fighting she went up to him, slowly, deliberately. Before Dr. Benevole could stop her she unmasked Erik again and looked down on him. He did not look intimidating now, he looked pathetic as he knelt there, his arms securely held back by four guards. He could do nothing now. His eyes were filled with pure hatred like a volcano ready to erupt.
"So, Erik Morriere, that's how it is. You are just a crazy freak in an asylum. And I am the primadonna of the Opera Populaire. I could almost pity you - almost," Carlotta's voice was like honey - poisoned honey that is.
Erik tried to retort something, tried to get free, but he couldn't. Four guards holding his arms in a painful position, he thought his joints would snap any moment now, two more held his ankles and one held his neck, almost cutting off his breath. He could do nothing as Carlotta left in triumph, she had gotten what she had hoped for. Revenge.
"Erik, we are going to release you. Are you going to make trouble again?" Dr. Benevole asked.
"No," Erik choked out. He needed air, being strangled was horrible, he would have promised anything now. They did release him and he staggered to his feet, moving his arms to get the pain out of them.
"We should talk about this. Library?" the doctor asked.
Erik nodded. "If you take a brandy now, I think I could use one too," he answered.
The doctor frowned. "No. No alcohol. You are a patient, remember? All I can offer is some tea."
Erik sighed. "Better than nothing." His hands were still trembling and he would have loved to get something to ease the tension now.
When they sat together in the library Erik began with a sneer: "Do you understand now why I had to try to get rid of that awful woman?"
"No love lost between the two of you," Dr. Benevole replied diplomatically.
"I had no choice," Erik answered, "She was bullying everyone at the opera. Everyone was afraid of her scenes and dirty gossip. I had to do something, she was about to ruin the working atmosphere at the opera."
The doctor could not help but commend: "And what do you call what you were doing?"
Erik took a deep breath, trying not to become angry. "Me? I was being helpful. It could have been so much easier if they would just have accepted my friendly advice. Carlotta has had her career. Now she's past her prime and should step down to clear the path for a younger, better soprano."
"Christine Daae?"
"Yes, of course!"
"And what if Christine Daae grows old? She can't be in her prime all her live?" the doctor asked, "Would you advise her to step down too?"
Erik seriously had never thought about that possibility, but now that the doctor had named it - yes, even Christine would grow old and eventually a younger singer would replace her. "That would never have been necessary," he answered, "Christine is a honorable girl, not a whore like Carlotta who slept with many patrons to get her job. Christine would know when it would be time to retire."
"You have a very high opinion of Mademoiselle," the doctor observed.
"Yes, of course! She's an angel!" Erik answered, "Do you see now why I was forced to act like I did? Why I had to try again and again to convince them to listen to me? I could not watch them ruin the reputation of my opera house!"
Dr. Benevole fought the urge to slap his patient. That man was fully convinced he was right and it was his right to blackmail and threaten everyone. "Tell me, Monsieur Morriere, one reason why they should listen to you? You are not the manager, not the director, not the conductor and not even a hired advisor. You do not own the Opera Populaire. So why should they listen to you?"
"Because I was doing them a favour!" Erik snapped, "Because I know better than they do. The opera would not have the excellent reputation in Europe it now has if Lefevre had not listened to me. I simply have to protect them from ruining the opera."
"Why would it be your opera house?" Dr. Benevole asked.
Erik fell silent. Then he answered coldly: "Because I am the best one to manage it. Don't you see? They are keeping me from my rightful position just because of this!" He gestured to his mask that was again in place. "Because of this they are keeping me from the position that is rightfully mine. I am just acting in self-defense."
Dr. Benevole sighed. Now he wanted a brandy. That man was really getting on his nerves. He braced himself for many more months, even years, until that self-centered man would not be as dangerous as he was right now.
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So - the first confrontation backfired. Erik is more than ever convinced that he is in the right.
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