PART 28 – NIGHT WANDERING
Christine happily skipped back to the dormitories, thinking of her angel and his promise that she would always have him near. After so many years under his guidance, she now felt that to lose him would feel like losing the air to breathe. She just couldn't imagine how she would cope without his loving guidance.
"Christine"
Meg rounded the corner and stood with her hands on her hips, staring angrily at Christine. Christine couldn't help but chuckle at how much Meg reminded her of her mother at that moment.
"Don't you laugh!" Meg frowned, her delicate petite features looking troubled and confused "I have been looking for you for the past hour. Where have you been?"
"I was praying to my father" Christine's smile faded as she started to feel angry at Meg's inconsiderate intrusion into her thoughts "Why were you looking for me anyway?"
"The chapel is that way" Meg pointed to the opposite direction "And I was looking for you because I was worried about you. You shouldn't wander around here alone, not whilst the Phantom is around"
"I wander around every night and have never had the pleasure of his acquaintance" Christine shrugged and tried to pass her.
Meg's frown deepened as she watched her friend walk slowly away from her.
"You wander around every night?" She gasped "But why?"
"Because it is required of me" Christine spoke impatiently as she walked on "I need to sleep now Meg"
"Christine" Meg pulled her back by her arm and sighed "What is wrong with you? Every now and then you seem so distant and tonight…….well right now there is such a faraway look in your eyes that…"
"I am tired Meg" Christine spoke firmly "That is all"
"And what did you mean by that your nightly wanderings are required?" Meg ignored Christine's protests of tiredness "Required by whom? Mother certainly wouldn't encourage you to stay out of bed and not get any sleep"
"She also wouldn't encourage you to keep seeing Henri Girard behind her back either" Christine threw back, glad to have something to hopefully redirect the conversation.
Meg had been seeing Henri Girard, the man who had shown such interest in her at the bistro 3 months ago, casually ever since that night and had sworn Christine to secrecy, worried that her over protective mother would not approve.
"I knew you weren't listening!" Meg rolled her eyes "I stopped seeing him last week and told you all about it but you had that look in your eyes, the one that you have right now, the look that tells me that you are not entirely with me"
"I'm sorry" Christine rubbed her eyes, vaguely remembering that Meg had spoken of her boredom with Henri Girard "I don't know what's wrong with me lately Meg, my mind is just elsewhere"
"Seriously though, you really shouldn't wander around here alone at night" Meg shuddered "Not with all the accidents that have been happening lately at the hands of the Phantom"
"Oh Meg!" Christine chuckled "There are no phantoms here, we would know if there was. We live here, we would have seen him by now!"
"Buquet knows of two old Opera Populaire workers who have seen him" Meg spoke determinedly "And one of them didn't live to tell the tale"
"And I suppose the other never saw him properly?" Christine guessed cynically
"Well he saw him, but not properly" Meg thought back to Buquet's endless tellings of his former colleague's encounter with the infamous Phantom of the Opera "No-one has ever seen him properly, he wears a mask"
"A mask?" Christine frowned
"Yes, the rumour is that he has severe disfigurement to his face" Meg sighed "And he always wears a mask"
Christine felt a chill run down her spine as Meg spoke of the Opera Ghost although she couldn't imagine why the myth chilled her so much. It was only a story invented by overactive and intoxicated imaginations after all.
"Have you never listened closely to Buquet's stories?" Meg enquired
"No because that's all they are" Christine shrugged "Just stories to scare the young ones"
"Oh lets go back to the dormitories!" Meg glanced anxiously around them "Just talking about the Phantom gives me chills"
"Well please feel free to never speak of him again" Christine rolled her eyes and followed Meg back to the dormitories.
Despite the interruptive conversation with Meg, her angel was still very much in her mind and she smiled as she could clearly hear her voice, entwined with her angel's in her mind.
