The next morning i woke up at nine. i left my raven hair straight with a black bow tying my hair back . my dress was black and white, and the collar was scoop neck with long sleeves. i also wore the choker the phantom gave me to hide my bruises. i leisurely walked out of my room and to the stage. were meg and the whole staff were practicing for the performance tonight. " hey meg, have you seen christine?" meg stopped and shrugged. " i havent seen her lately, but last time i saw her last night, with the viscount, she looked really shaken up about something." i sighed, " okay thanks i find her i'll tell you." we hugged and went our separate ways. i walked all the way to the front of the opera house and still, no christine. well i hope she will be here for the performance tonight. i burned a few hours by practicing my choreography on the stage. every once in a while i would sing the part of the countess. my stomach gave out a long low growl. i never even noticed how hungry i was until now. i decided to go to the kitchens to make me a yummy peanut butter and jelly sandwich! needles to say i demolished it. someone coughed behind me and caused me to jump five feet in the air! it was gustave. my mouth was still full of peanut butter and jelly, so i grabbed a glass of water and downed it. "Gustave! dont scare me like that. you know that i can get easily scared sometimes!" I playfully hit gustave on the shoulder and he acted to be in pain.
Gustave laughed and said " i'm sorry i startled you emma." i blushed tomato red and looked down , and he laughed even harder. He, as usual, his notebook and pen in his right hand. " well maybe if you made some noise before entering a room! i swear i' ll tie a bell on you!" He laughed again "ha! but i did make noise! maybe you need to get your hearing checked?" he tugged on my ear and i swatted his hand away smiling. Gustave was quick to change the subject once we were walking around the front of the opera house. "So, how do you feel? with the big opening tonight? i'm excited to see you preform finally." we turned right down the hallway where the opera boxes were. " i'm not going to lie, i'm nervous!" he nodded and replied, " ah yes, but there is nothing to be worried about, i am one hundred and ten percent sure you will be amazing!" i smiled. " thank you Gustave, that makes me feel better." there was a comfortable silence as we walked up and down the halls of the opera house. The comfortable silence ended shortly, and turned into an uncomfortable one when he asked me, " So, Would you happen to know anything of the infamous opera ghost that haunts these halls?" my heart skipped a beat as he asked the question. " i mean i have tried to ask madame giry but she told me it was not something i would be interested in and to go write about carlotta or something. can you believe that?" he scoffed and i nodded looking ahead, " well Gustave the only things i know about the opera ghost is that he has been in this opera house since i came to live here when i was small, maybe even longer." again he scoffed and looked at me, i ignored his stare.
"come on emma! surely you know more than that. you have been living in the opera house for ten years. what does he look like?" Gustave had his notebook open and pencil ready to write down anything i had to say. "w-well i honestly dont know anything else about O.G ok? i f you really want a story for your precious paper you should talk to boquete, head head stagehand." i began to get nervous the more he kept to pressure me into telling him more about the phantom.I finally snapped after being asked the millionth time. "No! Gustave, i'm telling you i don't know! i know just as much as you know about O.G! You need to stop trying to get information on the opera ghost, because VERY bad things happen to people who know too much about him!" he looked taken back at my outburst. " i wont stop until i find out who this oera ghost is, and when i do i will make shure everyone knows who and what he matter how long it takes." i sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose with my hand on my hip. " just stop...he will hurt you!" he grabbed my arm in a steel grip. his eyes turned cold, and felt like they were staring into my soul. "you know. im starting to think that you know a lot more than you're letting on, Emma." i tried pulling my arm away and the more i pulled his grip got tighter. "Gustave stop! ah! you're hurting me!" ignoring my plea he applied more pressure. "STOP!" i kicked him where the sun don't shine and ran. last thing i heard him say was "i will find out what you know emma!" i kept running till i reached christine's room and barged into her room, she had just exited her bathroom hmm a song and in her costume and makeup on. "emma what are you doing here? shouldnt you be getting ready? the Opera is going to begin in two hours." she sat at her vanity tieing her long brown locks into a bun. "um yes.. i just wanted to warn you to not answer any questions M. Lorex regarding the phantom. " she had a face of confusion. "why? Oh merde! what happened to your arm!? " she grabbed my right arm gently. my arm was bruising into the shape of a hand print. " Gustave is what happened. he was angry." …." What? how dare he hurt a woman! we need to report this to the managers right away." "no. we can't he suspects me chrissy! he thinks i know more about the phantom than anyone else." she huffed in disapprovement. "promise me chrissy that you won't tell anyone, and you wont answer Gustaves questions about the phantom." she looked down and nodded. " I promise." we hugged each other. why is it that i am the one getting injured? Did i walk under a ladder or something?
i walked back to my room and and got in my costume. the makeup artist and hair stylist came moments later with pounds of makeup and hair irons. i don't really want to get into detail about me freaking out on the inside every time one of the hot iron curlers would come near my head. so were just gonna skip to the opening performance of ll muto. Carlotta was busy trying to balance her huge powdered wig that was on top of her head while i was just sitting on the fake bed running through the choreography in my head. we quickly got our cue from a stage hand and Carlotta sat on the bed next to me and held up her fan in front of our faces. the whole time the audience was seeing Carlotta and i 'snogging' with my hands on her waist, but in my point of view Carlotta was glaring daggers at me the whole time. " serafimo your disguise is- a perfect!" carlotta said. there was a knock at the 'door' and carlotta and i jumped off of the bed. i ran to clean something and i stuck out my tush while cleaning and started wiggling it comically. christine opened the door, piangi entered and smacked her butt "ooh!" she squealed and danced over by the fops. " Dear wife it is I your loving husband!" he sang in my perspective he looked like a clown at i childs tenth birthday. there was also another small man dressed exactly as piangi strutting around trying to look up all of the girls skirts. " i have come to tell you i leave on a fairs of state! and must leave you with your new maid!" he looked at the audience and said " though i would happily take the maid with me!" he let out a perverted laugh and I looked at piangi Acting offended. Carlotta then told the audience with very bad acting "the old fool is leaving!" the audience erupted with laughter. piangi and carlotta sang goodbye, giving me a headache in the process, thanks! i walked to stage right as piangi explained that he would hide and watch the countess. "Serifimo! away with this pretence! you can not - a speak but kiss me in my husbands absence!' and i threw off my skirt and feather duster. the three fops next to me gasped. with my hands on my hips i smirked. carlotta held out her hand and i took it and pretended to kiss it. i twirled her around as her sang, the maids and fops were dancing around as well. " poor fool he makes me laugh! ahahahahah!" the fops started waving around their silver and gold fans as she sang. "if he knew the truth he would never go!" carlotta screeched. "DID I NOT INSTRUCT THAT BOX FIVE WAS TO BE KEPT EMPTY?" the phantoms voice was almost demonic. there were screams and gasps coming from every direction. the music skidded to a hault. Meg and christine were hugging eachother screaming, "he's here the phantom of the opera!" i silently uttered "he's here" carlotta turned red in anger and grabbed my hair and my injured arm and pulled me close to whisper in my ear. "your part is silent, little toad!" i bit my lip in pain. " a toad madame?" the phantom yelled. carlotta ran to her possy and was spraying that weird stuff in her mouth. "excuse me, excuse me por favor - a! meister!" she said in a sickly sweet voice. We picked up from where we left off and something very interesting had happened. every time she would sing she would croak like a frog! " poor fool he doesn't know hAhAHAHA agrrrghhh!" she fled the stage in tears, while the audience were laughing their butts off. the curtains closed and everyone was going nuts! while the managers ran to the stage they uttered a few words the madame Giry. she hurried to christine and i and pulled us to the costume room. " Emma you are filling in for carlotta and christine you are filling in for emma." she said as i pulled the bright pink dress over my head. christine was getting dressed in my costume. i ran to the stage to see the curtains still closed, the wig was on the other side of the stage, once the managers told the audience they would be performing the ballet of act three i jogged across the stage weaving through the ballerinas. the curtain was rising and i was only half way across the stage. and then it all happened so fast. Something heavy hit me from above and i fell to the floor. It was the dead body of joseph bouquet. i let out a ear splitting scream. i hysterically tried getting him off of me but he was too heavy. two stage hands lifted him off of me and i jumped up and darted away. my eyes were blinded with tears. i didn't care where i was going i just needed to get out of here. i found myself on the snowing roof. i sat down on the edge of the roof with my legs dangling off the edge. i looked out at the busy city of paris and started sobbing.