NOTE: I own nothing except Orva.
Orva, Raoul, Christine, Meg, and one of the costume designers that was a friend of both Orva and Nathan(named Melody), sat in a circle near the stage. Raoul, Christine, and Meg all sat in respectful silence while the two friends sat in grief. Melody stared into the distance with her sad gray eyes, while Orva sat hunched over a mug of hot chocolate. She looked into the brown, steaming depths of the drink, while not really seeing it at all. Funny, how you never realize how much you care about someone until they're gone.
"Ah!" Raoul suddenly said, causing all the women except Orva to jump. "Orva, why don't you sing a song? I'm sure that'll help to cheer us all up."
"Raoul, I don't think she wants to sing," Christine said quietly.
"As if she could!" A couple of chorus girls had been overhearing their conversation. The one speaking had long black hair tied into a bun. "Haven't you noticed how much she stutters? She's probably too stupid to sing."
"That's not true," Christine defended. "She just sings in a different style from us. And she's not that bad."
"Hah! So says you. Why I bet she-"
"I-I w-want to s-sing," Orva said suddenly.
"What?" Chirstine asked, turning to face her. Orva looked up, a determined look on her face.
"I-I w-want to s-sing," she repeated, setting her hot chocolate down and pushing herself from the chair.
"Oh, this is gonna be good," the chorus girl commented as Orva walked past her to stand on the stage. For a few minutes, Orva stood there, gazing out at the empty auditorium, thinking of what song to sing. When she picked one, she closed her eyes and started tapping her heel. Soon the right music started playing, in tune with the beat her heel had picked.
"Sitting in the back
of the bus.
Talking about nothing
oh we're talking
about us," she sang, surprising them when she didn't stutter and actually sounded on key. Orva, meanwhile, was subconsciously grateful she could easily hide her stuttering problem in all the prolonged notes and sounds that often occurred in music.
"Watching as the world
goes hammering on
hammering on...
You say that you
got nothing left
there's nothing left
in you to find.
You're gonna ride it out
gonna wait it out
Living to die
you're living to die..." A small crowd started to gather, surprised that the stuttering stage hand could sing worth a bone in her body. Her voice echoed out, her eyes screwed shut in apparent emotion and concentration.
"No one's gonna
wait for you...
No one's gonna
wait for you...
So do it now...
Do it right now...
Don't waste a minute
on the darkness and
the pity sitting
in your mind and
Do it right now...
Do it right now..."
0-0-0
Suddenly, he overheard someone singing, her voice echoing all the way down to where he was. Erik looked up, listening curiously to the strange style of the song. Christine? he thought hopefully, grabbing his cloak and rushing out to go see her sing.
0-0-0
After waiting on the instrumental pause, Orva picked up on the next part of the song.
"Everything will stop
on a dime.
Everything will crash
into itself in good time," she sang.
"Do you want to
beat your own heart
beat your own heart
or leave it behind?...
Leave it behind...
No one's gonna
wait for you...
No one's gonna
wait for you..."
0-0-0
Keeping to the shadows of Box Five, his eyes immediately focused on the figure standing in middle of the stage, obviously the one singing. But instead of Christine, he saw Orva. Her? But, how-? His own thoughts were interrupted when she continued singing, her eyes shut in concentration.
"So do it now...
Do it right now...
Don't wast a minute
on the darkness and
the pity sitting
in your mind," she sang. Except, her singing sounded exactly how Christine had sung at the Masquerade, in exactly the same completely different and unique style that he'd never heard Christine sing– He gasped in shock, the puzzle pieces sliding into place.
"And do it right now...
Do it right now..." Of course! Now it all made sense. It'd never been Christine at the party, it'd been Orva. Orva, who'd somehow managed to disguise herself as Christine. The realization crippled him, making him grab at his chest in pain, tears stinging his eyes.
"I'm gonna get up
I'm gonna get right
out of my bed
get out of my bed." None of them, neither of them had ever truly cared for him. All of it, all of it had been just an act! Even Christine, his would-be savior, had been acting from the very start. He glared furiously at Orva, the puppet-master, the orchestrator behind all this.
"You're gonna stand up
you're gonna stand right
up again
stand right up again." Indeed he will. How dare she? What was she even trying to do? Get close to him so that she could kill him?
"I'm gonna get up
I'm gonna get out
of my bed
get out of my head." Nobody fools The Phantom! She would pay dearly for this.
"You're gonna stand up
you're gonna stand up
you're gonna stand up!...
You're gonna stand up..." If looks could kill, she'd have spontaneously combusted.
"So do it now!...
Do it right now...
Don't waste a minute
on the darkness and
the pity sitting
in your mind and
Do it right now...
Do it right now...
Do it right now," she seemed to finish, opening her eyes and standing up straight. The music soon stopped playing as well. With a flourish of his cloak, Erik decided to take her advice.
He would do it right now.
-0-0-
Satisfying though showing up everyone with the sudden and surprisingly well sung(even to herself it was a surprise) song, it changed nothing. She'd left everyone soon after finishing the song, and was now walking along an empty hall, her hands at her sides. She walked at a slow pace, her feet dragging on the carpet. Why did it even matter for her to show those girls up? Nathan was still dead, she was still going to have to confront Erik at The Point of No Return, and she was still going to be murdered in the end. She sighed. No sense moping. At least when she died, her death will have been worth something. She will be worth something.
Suddenly she felt a rope encircle her neck, and felt it pulled tight. She gasped in alarm, wheezing as her hands scrabbled at the tightening cord. She felt the presence of somebody behind her, actually bracing their arm against her back as they pulled tighter and tighter.
"You want me?" a dark voice snarled into her ear, pulling the rope tighter. Orva saw white spots. "Then you can have me." He gave another yank, actually causing her head to jerk up from the force of it. She knew she was going to die then. No matter how much she continued to struggle and try to pull at the Punjab Lasso, it just kept squeezing tighter and tighter.
How could I have let my guard down? she wondered desperately, the edges of her world turning black. As the darkness prevailed, enveloping everything, it occurred to her that she may have just reached The Point of No Return.
And then she was gone.