Chapter Twenty-Four –

After So Many Years

-Ellexssya-

I smiled and stood back from my magic mirror, absently stroking the eel-like creature that had crawled up near my shoulder with one finger: running my index fingertip slowly along its silky and smooth violet-black scales.

Oh, this was working out so very well!

Events had turned even more in my favor than I had hoped…

"Ah, Erik…"

I sighed, shaking my head as I allowed myself a triumphant smirk.

I had earned it tonight.

"When will you learn, you great, arrogant fool? You're too ugly for anyone to love you…even that girl, whom you staked everything, all of your stupid hopes, upon! Neither she, nor anyone else, will ever see past your face."

My eel-friend made a faint purring noise, and I turned my attentions more fully upon it, saying as I continued to pet him—

"What do you think, Osthrax? Shall we go pay a visit to Prince Erik? We've left him for so long in that palace of his…he must be getting lonely for us! I think I shall go talk to him for a bit. Perhaps he's gained some sense, after all this time…"

I conjured a filmy dark red cloak out of the air, in a shower of glimmering black sparks, and pulled it around my shoulders. Then, I went on the journey through time and space to the prison of my cursed prince…Shadowrose Castle.

Erik awaited me.

When I arrived, however, I received a far less kind welcome than I had looked for. And I had expected him to be angry. 'Angry' was a very pale and weak word, I found, to describe his mental state at the moment I stepped into his castle. The arrogant fool was positively livid, and if I hadn't moved to the side at the very moment that he spotted me, I would almost certainly have been burnt to ashes by the blast of power that he immediately sent my way.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, YOU WITCH!" he roared, stalking towards me: his black cloak snapping and unfurling furiously in his wake.

I blinked.

"Why, your majesty!" I said, in an even tone. "You seem quite out of humor this morning! What could have possibly set you into such a mood?"

Erik stopped, instantly ceasing to move, and stared at me blankly for a moment. Then, his crystal blue eyes began to turn red, as if blood was staining them from the pupils outward. Power began to crackle in his hands as he faced me.

"You know very well what caused this, Ellexssya," he spat. "She saw me—she saw my face, without the mask, and now she's locked herself in her room, and refuses to come out. You did this to me," and he jabbed an accusing hand at his face.

I smirked again, at that.

I really had outdone myself, with that work of art. He was, quite possibly, the ugliest thing ever to walk upon two legs.

Certainly ugly as sin.

"You turned my life into a living hell. You destroyed everything."

"And you've only just now realized it, Erik?" I questioned, coolly as ever.

I stepped around him, and began to circle him. He watched me, wary as a wounded beast that had become trapped in a corner by its tormentor, and I smiled sweetly at him.

Oh, this was going to be too much fun!

"I told you, I think, all those years ago…" I purred. "You can end this, in a moment, my beautiful prince...All you have to do is say the words…you know that you want to say them, Erik: you can taste them, sweet on your tongue, even now."

I stepped close to him, and traced a line on his shoulder, slowly and deliberately. He was as still as stone beneath my touch.

"Forget the girl!" I hissed at him. "She can only mean nothing to you! And let me assure you, Erik—you mean nothing to her! She has already pushed all thought and compassion for you out of her childish little heart. She won't ever love you now…now that she has seen you. You know that, don't you? Say the words, Erik…and it can all end, this very moment…"

With an enraged growl, he suddenly whipped around and caught me by the wrist so quickly that I was surprised. He shoved me back, and stood furious and fulminating before me, his eyes now glowing red.

I watched him, breathing hard.

"And surrender to you, witch? Never!" he swore. "I'd rather die first—and I'd prefer death by her hand! She did nothing to merit this, Ellexssya! It was you and me who trapped her in this, and now her life is ruined, because of our folly!"

"No—it was because of you, Erik!" I replied, with cold anger. "You were the one who went out into the woods and saw her there. You were the one who foolishly gave your heart to her the instant you caught sight of her pretty little face. And it was you who nearly broke her mind with your fury last night. I did not cause any of that."

It is your fault…your doom…

I laughed.

Then he seemed to abruptly grow in size, towering over me like an enormous, bat-like shadow, and I took an involuntary step backwards, away from him.

"Get out of my domain, you abhorrent fiend," he snarled. "You've done enough harm here; go, and be happy—you've destroyed my life, again. Get out."

"Tsk tsk tsk, Erik," I chided. "That temper of yours is going to get you into some remarkable trouble someday, just wait and see! And oh, by the way…"

I paused as I was about to vanish into thin air, and return back to my own dark lair. He looked as if he was about to murder me, then and there, regardless of any repercussions that might arise from that sort of action.

"You might consider checking in on your precious little ingénue sometime soon…" I hinted, with malignant, singsong playfulness. "It seems that the handsome, brave knight-in-shining armor has found his way to the dragon's lair—with the help of a traitorous friend—and he is riding up on his white horse, even now, to rescue the poor, helpless princess. If you move quickly, you might be able to keep them from escaping your clutches!"

I stayed long enough to hear Erik's wordless and strangled exclamation as he tore out of the throne room in a swirl of black velvet. Then, as I looked on again from the confines of my own sanctum, gazing with a smile into my magic mirror, I observed as he ran to the ledge of his high tower, and looked down…

Three tiny figures—two male, and one female, all cloaked and hooded—were riding pell-mell through the tangled, vine-riddled grounds of Shadowrose Castle. Erik was powerless to stop them now: they were already at the gates.

Within seconds, they were entirely out of sight.

And then Erik threw back his head and screamed, in boundless, primal rage and despair: a caged beast in torment.

I just laughed.

Here ends Part Two of Le Fantôme et la Belle.