Sing Sweetly, My Phantom
Chapter Eleven: How Did Erik Meet Samantha And Why Did He Reject Ariadne That Night?
One Year Later...
Numb, heartbreak and despair. That's what I felt that very day when Ariadne said goodbye to our forbidden passion that didn't really linger but if it did, who knows how long it would last. Watching her shadow fade away to nothing, I returned to my lair and cried thousand tears until I couldn't weep no more. Loneliness and pain echoed the place I called home, no more words were going to be said or a pair of eyes staring into my very soul werrn't to be seen. I was alone for good, she will never return just like Christine.
As time went by, my mourning slowly ended and I had to carry on. No matter how many times I wanted to die, my body couldn't succumb to Death's cold arms. A dream told me to move on, one that would haunt and destory everything I felt for Ariadne. I was prepared to find her again, a box of a golden engagement ring in my pocket and a mask that would fool any person was placed on my face. I headed towards her house only to find a horrifying discovery, something that made everything shatter to nothing. Ariadne and Matthew were kissing, dressed in wedding clothes and their rings sparkling like dimonds. Then I heard her words that made my body cold, my mind filled with murderous thoughts and bile rising in my throat. "Thank you everyone for coming to my wedding, if things were different, I would be marrying a disfigured man that cruelly rejected me when I was a child. If you are out there, Erik, see me as a grown woman you lost out to because of your cold heart!" I sunk on the pavement, feeling the pain overflowing that my body slammed so hard with my blood flowing for no-one to notice.
I awoke in shock and terror, shaking like a leaf and sweat consuming my body. The dream seemed so real, so lifelike. Would she really say that on her wedding day? All thoughts of postive words like: No, she loved you and did fall for you were replaced by negative thoughts. She would pay if I ever found her again, I would prove to her that I moved on with a Opera that would premire the very place we met: Opera Poplaurie. A wicked grin came across my face, I could feel a hint of red appear in my eyes that would horrfiy any weak woman like she. That's right, Ariadne was a weak and a stupid bitch. I was never in love with her, just a another cruel figment of torrtured mind that had promised so much more than Christine would ever give. But now she was the same as she, willing to fall in a another man's arms and would run off with him than a disfigured mad genius. I threw off the sheet that covered my nude body, placing on only a nightgown and rushed to my organ where I began a tale of forbidden love and betryal.
It was finished in September and added the title in October: The Winter's Rose. I could've called it The Cruelist Heart but it didn't have the same ring though in my mind it was that title to prove to Ariadne that she did have a cruel heart like in my dream. I made a mask that would fool anyone, using several materials that no one thought it would work. For the first time in a while, I studyed myself in my mirror. Yes, I could fool anyone and looked normal like everyone else. I would woo a woman to place at my side, ridding myself of the constant names like Opera Ghost and Phantom Of The Opera. That was in the past, forgotten and never to be mentioned.
I left my lair for what I would thought would be the last time, heading my way up to the Opera Poplaurie where a young gentleman named Gaston was the manger of the theatre. A meeting and becoming friends soon came between us, he thought my opera would be a perfect premire and began casting the characters. It was when I met the beautiful Samantha, golden and beautiful with a figure that would rival any woman out there. Only turned nineteen and ever so inocent, she was wooed by my so called "looks" and my charm of entertaining her by my powerful voice. She demanded Gaston that I would be cast in the forbidden love role, after many times I rejected it I soon gave on. We kissed and made love that day, not once did she ask about my past which I truely admired about her.
A month before the premire, I surpised Samantha with a propusal of marriage up above the Opera Poplaurie which she instanly said yes. For the first time, love was healing my angry thoughts of vengance and Ariadne faded away to nothing. It seemed like life had moved on, I was happy with Samantha and no other would break our pairing. She was in love, not in a silly girly way but like a proper mature woman that questioned her true age.
It was Saturday night. Week after week of constant reading the lines, singing the songs and making everything one hundred per cent, the day had finally come. Though I had done this before in my darkened past, I was nervous that perhaps not everyone would love my opera but I had Samantha and Gaston's support no matter what. I looked at myself in the mirror, checking out myself with a smug grin. I looked heathly and attrative to my thirty-six years, in a way I could see why those two did fall for me. At that time, I would think of it as madness but now I felt happy in my own skin. My disfigurement will never be known ever, I will win the hearts of Paris and all around the world. No one else will stop that, not even myself.
Wrapping Samantha's hand around my arm, I stared deeply in her hazel eyes. She truely loved me like I always wanted in this life, her bright smile made her face even more beautiful. I whispered sweet nothings in her ear, she blushed and laid her head on my shoulder. We would be strong no matter what, I was going to marry her in the summer and we would bare children when she was ready. That I promised her, I would never lay a another touch on any woman because I had her and she was my saving grace from my blackness.
It was time, the lamps dimmed down like I wanted it to and to hear Gaston's booming voice made me chuckle, I gave Samantha one last kiss before we went out there and patted her hand on my arm. When he called out our names, I could feel the heat of the lamps lit back up with lush passionate music playing as we made our way down the staircase. I looked around me, baring a smug grin on my face as the women and men were in lust with me and Samantha. But I noticed one figure that was in shock of what she was seeing, it was Ariadne! I let my eyes burn into hers, pure hatred poured inside me again like it wasn't gone after all. So she was with Matthew but was holding his arm, she just stood there in pure horror. I turned away from her to look at Samantha, so beautiful and so real.
We reached the doors and I cut the ribbon, letting out a booming voice "The opera will begin in ten minutes, please enter." I said with a smile. The crowd rushed in, giving out a final look at us and headed to find a seat. Even that bastard along with Ariadne's sister and husband stared at us, barely rememebering what I did to their preious Ariadne. I let Samantha go next like a proper gentleman, she whispered softly in my ear: "Meet me at the top, I will be waiting" A wicked grin came across my face, I knew what she was planning but tonight my thoughts were of the opera and how it will go down with the public. As I was about to enter, I heard two words that made me stop and freeze on the spot. "Why, Erik?" She asked, her voice breaking and near in tears. I turned to look at her, my blood boiling at the sight of her. "Because I could, Ariadne." That's all I had to say, she would understand now that I had moved on and didn't need her anymore. Within that, I walked in and shut the door behind me.