Gore! Among Other Things...

"It looks like you've had an accident!" Meg Giry cried out, having seen the rather prominent gash that was currently situated on right half of Christine's head.

"No no!" Christine insisted, shaking her head, causing blood to ooze down her face.

"Gross," Raoul commented, still situated atop Erik, with his hands still firmly placed around the singer's neck. Erik nodded his agreement. He then rid himself of the fop with the use of a forceful shove.

"I've honestly, truly, had the most brilliant of revelations!" Christine brayed happily. "Truly!" She added uselessly.

"What exactly is this revelation?" Madame Giry asked carefully.

"OH OH OH!" Christine cheered crazily jumping up and down, "Raoul and I must get married!"

"Gee, what a glorious announcement that was." Came flat sarcasm from Erik.

"So you actually do want to marry me?" Raoul asked blatantly.

Christine shook her head up and down furiously, causing even more blood to ooze. Looks of disgust were made.

Erik scowled, "I'm nearly strangled to death, and you decide to announce something this asinine?" he then went scoff scoff scoff.

"I hope you realize just how ironic that statement is." Said the Persian.

"How so?"

"Well, considering that the question came from a man who spends his time choking people to death—"

"Okay okay," the phantom interjected bluntly, "I see your point."

"But I wasn't finished—"

"You are now." Erik finished coldly.

The Persian huffed irritably, not especially happy about being forced to say less…even though he wasn't supposed to be especially talkative anyway.

"We should probably get Mme. Daae bandaged, or stitched up," Madame Giry commented, whilst watching Christine sway in such a way that she could be used to demonstrate resonance.

The lot of them decided to herd Christine somewhere to be fixed up and put to rest. For some inexplicable reason they chose to go to Erik's little lair/home/whatever under the opera house.

After many trials in the labyrinth that was the cellars; several dragons, a bewildered hobo, ten merciless hot dog stand vendors…and but one encounter with Jennifer Connelly and a goblin prince…. The group had found the phantom's cozy little abode.

Once they had dealt with Christine and stuck Raoul in charge of carrying her off to bed, the lot of them all crashed in a nicely furnished room.

"This is a lovely living area you have M. Erik," said Meg admiring the couch she was situated on.

"Thank you," Erik said, despite the fact that he had no idea why he even had such a finely furnished living room in his home, seeing as he doesn't get much company.

"So is it always that troublesome to navigate through the cellars?" Philippe asked Erik.

Erik nodded, "Yes, but quite luckily we didn't get caught in one of the goblin prince's songs," he took a moment to discard of a stray string sitting on his pant leg, "the songs always make the trip longer."

"Ah," Philippe said, to let the phantom know that he understood what he meant.

There was an uncomfortable silence for time.

"…So, what now?" Meg asked nobody in particular.

It was at this point the author decided another event had to occur, mostly because writing such 'witty' dialogue was tiresome. The event went as follows:

The silence took the room once more, however, it did not last terribly long. Most abruptly, a deranged looking teenager entered the room.

"LIKE O-M-G!" She shouted obnoxiously, "IT'S ERIK!"

"Oh lord…" the poor phantom muttered to himself, cradling his head in his hands.

Almost immediately, the most-definitely-not-appropriately-aged girl made an attempt to physically violate the musician. Fortunately, Giry used her diamond-studded cane to beat the girl into submission.

"But I want to have PHUN with my PHANTOM!" The girl screeched in the most annoying manner, "I am his biggest PHAN!" Giry then proceeded to deal out more diamond-studded pain.

"How does everyone know where my home is?" Erik asked in exasperation.

Yet another chapter...my my...what has gotten into me? (Labyrinth references and physics analogies, apparently).

Anyway, matters not, I have a challenge for my dear readers:

Can you identify the allusion to A Clockwork Orange? Just pick out the sentence where I made use of a similar style...and then next chapter, you can find out if you were correct!

Yeah, not only am I lame, but I'm lame whilst being an English geek simultaneously. Fancy that.

Fun Fact: The author actually decided to use the word 'betwixt' instead of 'between' in an informal, personal essay for her English class.

Until the next installment! Good Night, and Good Luck!