CHAPTER 28
Lisa reached her room and changed quickly, choosing a light blouse and skirt with a simple coat. In less than an hour she was out on the street waiting for the hansom she'd called for. Kara had not been around to see her sneaking out of the mansion, not that she would have been able to stop her.
A moment later the vehicle pulled up and Lisa jumped in without waiting for the driver's help. When he asked for the destination, she didn't have to think about it.
"The Coney-Island ferry please. Do you know when the next launch leaves?" she inquired.
"Yeah, should be in about 20 minutes. I'll get you there in time Missus." And with that they were off. It had been a long time since Lisa had left her sanctuary to go any farther than midtown to the lawyer's office. So now she was seeing a world that had become wholly foreign. Under normal circumstances she might feel intimidated or intrigued, but her mind could not let go of her purpose.
In no time she was on the ferry heading to the lonely island. The waters were calm and the early afternoon light shimmered beautifully over the boats wake. The atmosphere helped to relax Lisa's nerves a bit, though it could not alleviate her angst.
At the dock several carriages waited to take those who could afford it to the various amusement parks, like Luna and Phantasma, but there was a substantially larger crowd heading to the latter. Lisa hired one of the taxis, offering the remaining seats to a small middle class family with a small and wiry child that was already over excited by the days outing.
She chatted amiably with the young mother as they made their way till they parted at the park entrance. Lisa paid her ticket and entered the gates along with the throng. She was immediately taken aback by the enormity of the place. It was alive with a roaring coaster, and a Ferris wheel that reached up to the heavens. Another ride took patrons high into the air on suspended seats and swung them in a wide circle. At every turn there was some amazing contraption making the park goers squeal, gasp or scream.
There were games of chance or skill being announced by rows and rows of carnies. Lisa passed through sections of the park like they were districts of the city. Very quickly she felt like she'd been a fool in coming here, for thinking that he was better, for daring to care, and then she felt a tingle in the back of her mind like someone was watching her.
Erik had been touring the attractions for most of the day to make sure that everything was running smoothly. He moved from place to place through a series of back alley passages or underground hallways that had been built under the floor boards of the board walk. There was no way he was going to move among the multitudes of people outside and withstand their gawking, pointing or comments.
But there were ways he enjoyed interacting with the public. The hall of mirrors he'd designed was homage to the work he'd done in earlier years. Unlike other fun houses, his had rotating panels and hidden illusions. He liked teasing the confused and frustrated people stuck in the constantly changing labyrinth. That's when he saw her passing by the front entrance of the building, looking in through the first set of clear glass partitions.
The moment he recognized her it felt like he'd discovered a rare gem in bedrock of hard earth. Without thinking he immediately gave chase. There were many gasps as he passed people, making his way effortlessly through the corridors, his white mask a blur as he disappeared into what seemed nothing. It took only a moment and he was outside under the full light of day and standing among patrons, looking around wildly.
A moment of panic set in when he thought he'd lost her, but something pulled his attention down the track. A lone figure stood still among the passersby. He knew, before she began to turn around it was she, but when her face came into view it was like he'd seen the sun burst onto the horizon.
In a moment they were face to face, standing only a foot apart. No words were spoken; Erik just reached out and took her hand. Lisa didn't resist as he began to lead her away from the rabble of people. She saw only him, noting only how lithe his movements were, how tall he seemed and how warmly the long fingers of his hand curved around her own paw.
Suddenly they were someplace free of any other company and dark compared to the sundrenched walkway of the thoroughfare.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, having leaned down so close to her face she'd thought he was going to kiss her. At first Lisa felt deflated, than angry with herself for being so easily led.
"I need to speak with you." She responded, sounding more composed than she felt.
"Really, about what?" he was coming closer, so slowly it was barely perceptible.
"About Christine and Meg Giry." she said. It was like dropping an iron portcullis between them, making Erik step back. He'd always known there would be more to say, but he'd hoped there would have been more time, if ever. Until this moment he'd almost convinced himself that knowing Lisa had only been some kind of fantasy, like the fairies dancing in the artificial breeze of her studio. Now he was right back where he'd been a week before, aching, needing and wanting.
"Why, what else needs to be said that hasn't already been?" he asked her coldly.
"I've had the chance to think about things more clearly. I was quick to trust all that you told me because of my affection for Gustave, but I've been reminded… of certain things. I need to know more about how things happened and why?" she asked.
"Reminded by whom?" Erik's mind immediately starting working on the question, but it didn't take him long to fall upon an answer. There was only one person that knew enough about anything to make this type of trouble.
"That's not important Erik. Please, if you feel anything for me, tell me." Lisa's voice was borderline pleading.
The man took another step back, and she had the feeling he might flee at any moment, but he stopped. His eyes had started searching the empty air around them, as if he was seeing things that Lisa could not. After a few seconds his gaze met hers again. The look on his face wasn't hard, it was resigned.
"What happened between you and Christine in Paris? You told me she rejected you, but then how did she get pregnant with Gustave." She asked. It took a long time for him to put together what he would say, if he could say anything at all.
"She'd promised herself to the Vicomte. I was angry, so angry I was ready to take my revenge on them all. I took her away, as was going to make her mine whether she chose it or not." He said. Lisa held her breath. This was not what she had hoped to hear.
"But I was further betrayed, and the Vicomte followed us. I trapped him in my underground lair and I was going to make her watch while I killed him. But then I came up with the idea to give her a choice. She could either give herself to me willingly or condemn her lover to death. I was manic, desperate and crazed." He paused for so long, Lisa was afraid he wasn't going to continue. She wanted to reach out to him, but if she couldn't.
"His life was slipping away while we argued. The spell had been broken you see, and she saw me as nothing but a monster. The angel was dead. But then she did the one thing I didn't really expect. She kissed me. Never in all my years had I ever been touched that way. Then she kissed me again. The way she looked into my eyes, held my naked face in her hands; she wasn't afraid of me anymore, but she was afraid for me. So I did the only thing I could have." He trailed off again, reliving those excruciating moments.
"What did you do Erik?" Lisa was looking deep into his eyes, trying to bring him back from the barrage of memories swarming him.
"I let them go." He said it as if it were bile on his lips. "I watched them disappear into the night. I kept my eyes on her even after she was gone. Then I heard the yells of the mob coming to get me, so I fled down a secret path and hid myself in an abandoned house in a derelict part of the city.
No one dared to enter because it was believed to be haunted. I stared their several weeks, waiting for the hunt to be lessened or abandoned. Only two people knew of my ware bouts, but somehow Christine found me." He said, turning away from her. He placed his hand against the stone wall that separated them from the crowds and leaned on it for support.
"She came to you?" Lisa asked. Erik scoffed at her tone.
"Yes. I saw her coming up the empty lane, hooded and cloaked. So I put out all the lights so as to not give myself away, but as soon as she entered she sensed my presence. I wasn't angry anymore, but I was more broken then I had ever been. She told me that she was sorry, that she'd been miserable without me, without my music.
In the dark of that moonless night, she reached out and touched me, held me, kissed me. I tried to push her away, but she would not release me. I wanted to be free of the pain, of her lies and betrayal as well as the horror of what I was. But she would not let me go, and we… " a violent shudder passed through him.
"Just before dawn broke I awoke, it was so cold. I looked at her and I thought of what the future would hold from that moment on. I thought I'd known how our story would end, but the truth was my love could only condemn her. All that I had done and all that I was would become her burden too. So I whispered a declaration of my undying love and left her there." Stillness descended on them for a long time, like a thick fog.
"So you ran away, and came here." Lisa stated, drawing Erik back to the moment.
"Yes. I went to Giry and she helped me leave France forever. I brought with me the modest fortune I'd accumulated along with the ballet mistress and her daughter. Once here I immediately set about establishing my little empire. Madam Giry, Antoinette, and Meg helped me, but I was more focused to what I was doing and trying to forget the past that I didn't see what was happening before me.
Miss Giry had been giving her favors to my potential investors and some members of the press in exchange for their endorsement. She did it to help me and because she had come to… care for me. All she ever wanted was for me to notice her, but I never saw her as more than a means to an end."
"Was there ever anything between you too?" Lisa asked.
"No, I never wanted her. My heart was always with Christine, even with an ocean and a decade between us. I couldn't let her go and without her my suffering was an unyielding torment, so I brought her too me. I was so confident in my position that I didn't consider anything more than my own wants."
"So you lured her back to you."
"Yes, and she rebuffed me for abandoning her, letting her believe me dead after having given herself. She refused to sing for me, so I did what I always did. I threatened to take from her what she loved most." He stated. Lisa gasped, knowing exactly what that was. He'd threatened to do harm to Gustave. Erik turned when he heard Lisa's reaction and walked carefully towards her. She moved back, just half a step, but it was enough to stop his advance.
"Please believe me it was an empty threat. As soon as I listened to him play the piano I realized that I he was mine, and when Christine confirmed my suspicion I was immediately changed. In that moment the phantom was gone, and I was made a man; a living man." He turned away again, unable to face the depth of that guilt.
"I pledged myself to giving my child everything I had, even though I was unworthy of him. I made Christine promise never to tell him, but he would be my reason for living; for him and for Christine. It might have all worked out, but I wasn't the only one to have guessed the truth.
Madam Giry saw it too, and she told Meg. They believed that I would abandon them, replace them for Christine and my son. Maybe they were right. It drove Meg mad and she stole Gustave on the very night that Christine decided to stay with me. So she took the boy, planning on drowning him
We chased Meg to the pier, and to convince her to release Gustave. But then she pulled out a gun and turned it on herself. I don't know what compelled me, but I tried to reason with her. I couldn't let her take her own life for my sake. She was about to releasing the pistol to me, but then I made the mistake of mentioning Christine and she struggled against my grip. The gun fired, but it went past me and found my angel." Erik's voice broke, and his head fell as the sound of that shot echoed in his mind once again.
Quietly he sobbed, forgetting everything around him, even his audience. The one responsible for making him go back to those moments. Lisa stepped forward and placed her hand on his back. When Erik turned to look at her it was like he was seeing her for the first time. It pulled at something deep inside her, a place where her own pain and horror dwelled.
"Tell me." She whispered.
"I held her. With her dying breath she revealed me to Gustave and he ran off. I tried to comfort her. She asked me to kiss her, one last time. And I did, and I taste her last breath." It was a moment like none he'd ever experienced in his life when Lisa moved forward to embrace him. He didn't know how to move or what to feel.
It was only when she moved to step away that Erik was able to act. He caught her before she could break the contact and held her tightly in his arms, crushed against his chest, like a child holding on to its doll for comfort.
"I'm sorry." She said into the fabric of his coat. It was she who had forced the retelling of his most traumatic moments. Though Lisa had needed to know for her own sake, she could only regret the agony it had caused him.
The sound of the outside world started to leak into the bubble that had formed around them, and soon it seemed like a din of noise was crushing in. Vendors were making their last call to customers for games, shows and rides. The sun hung low on the horizon and a shroud was falling on the park.
"Come, I need to take you home." He said, releasing Lisa. He took her hand again and led her away. They wound their way through the park's back alleys until emerging onto a gravel road that was only a few hundred feet from the dock.
They didn't board the passenger boat with the rest of the crowd. Instead he led her onto a small vessel that seemed to be left waiting for him. An old man welcomed them aboard. He was wizened with a long unruly white beard that was so bushy it nearly disguised his entire form But as she boarded the boat Lisa saw that the sleeve of his left arm had been rolled up revealing a stump from which two stunted and oddly shaped fingers protruded.
She'd seen men like this before, so it didn't shock her. She accepted his welcome and he took the helm, guiding the small steam powered vessel though the channel to the opposite shore. No one spoke, but Erik watched Lisa intently as they journeyed.
At the dock Lisa was led to a carriage that was also waiting. It didn't take long before they were pulling up to the mansion. Erik played the gentleman as he led her down from the carriage and walked her to the door. Lisa stopped at the threshold. She knew that Kara was probably just on the other side, waiting to scold and further accuse. She turned once last time to Erik, not knowing what either of them could say.
"In a week, Phantasma will be holding a special concert for All Hallows Eve. Will you come?" he asked. Lisa nodded without thinking, avoiding his persistent stare. Slowly he approached her, and without further hesitation on either end he brought his lips to meet hers. The kiss was sweet and tentative. It wasn't the heated and passionate interlude they'd had before, but it was nearly as intense.
"Goodnight." And he was gone, like a smoke on the wind.
