Sobs alot this is the last time sniff you are going to have to look forward to the next chapter, as the sniff next chapter is the last chapter...anywho...over 100k words now! Enjoy the second to last chapter...
Chapter 29- Pawns on a Chessboard
There was only one week left before the performance of 'Fires of Eden'. The time had passed extremely quickly for everyone, which was very annoying as everybody felt they did not have enough time anyway. It was that annoying feeling of when you wanted time to pass slowly it sped up, and when you wanted time to pass quickly it always seemed to slow down.
The amount of late night rehearsals that had been taking place was ridiculous. There were not only late night rehearsals either. They were also having to rehearse on Sundays, which was meant to be their day off. Everybody was fuming with the managers, yet who could blame them, they had not given them such a ridiculous time space to learn an opera in for eighteen years, and even then they hoped that that was going to be the last time.
"I think we are going to earn ourselves the title of the most hated managers of the Populaire if we keep this up for much longer." Firmin admitted to André. This thought had been on his mind ever since they had told everyone about the one month that they had to get the Opera ready and polished to perfection.
"I think you may be right there my good friend…" André agreed. He did not like the thought of everybody being glad to see the back of them but could not see how they were meant to change people's opinions of them. After all if they said anything to anybody about Draconosis then they would be killed with no second thoughts from the people that did it.
"Perhaps when this is all over we should have another Masquerade ball?" Firmin suggested, thinking that this worked wonders the last time they had done it, and would probably work again.
"That is if we are still here when this production has finished. Who knows, everyone may be looking for some other people to run the Populaire even as we speak…" André said. Firmin thought that this was a very unlikely thing to be happening. It was just André making something up to keep his mind off Draconosis, in his opinion.
"Well…" Firmin began, wondering if they should do what he was about to say, "…I suppose we should go down and oversee the rehearsals. At least then people will know that we are doing our job…"
André did not answer. It was as though he would rather just stay in their office and wither away than go and face everyone. "When was the last time any of them had a decent break?"
This question seemed to put everything into perspective for Firmin. "Good point, they probably think that we are in here getting drunk or something…"
Neither of the managers could honestly say that they would blame anyone for thinking something like this but the thought still was an upsetting one. "If they knew what it was we were going through then we would be fine… they would understand anyway."
"If you want to go and tell them and get us both killed then be my guest!" Firmin spat at him, obviously in a rage with André for even considering the matter of telling everyone how they were being threatened.
"I was not saying that we should tell them…" André said hastily, putting a particular emphasis on the word 'should', "…I was just saying that they would understand if we did tell them…"
Firmin did not say anything to this. He seemed to be much too upset to argue. He wondered if the production would even go down very well. About one week ago to his horror he found out that the opening performance was sold out, meaning that it was going to be another full house. He did not know why it had so much popularity, after all it wasn't an Opera anyone had heard of before as it was one of the Phantom's.
"I have the feeling that these Draconosis people have something against the Phantom…" André said and then realised just how obvious this must have been anyway.
"You don't say!" Firmin said sarcastically, putting a hand across his mouth as though shocked by the news. This infuriated André, "… now tell me André… why are we hated so much?"
André was now getting very angry with his colleague. He did not know why he had stated the obvious like that. He supposed that they were both thinking it so he may as well be the first one to say it out loud.
"I was only saying…" André began, now in a bit of a mood, "…I still don't see why they would want to use us to get to him…"
"Hmmm…" Began Firmin with an expression of mock thought plastered across his face, "…let's think… he came to us and asked us to put on his most recently written opera. Now correct me if I am wrong, André, but does that not look as though we are quite well connected to him?"
André could see exactly what he meant. Now that he thought about it they had probably had more contact with the Phantom than most people could say they had. That would make them the prime targets for people who wanted to know more about, or get close to, the Phantom.
Firmin got up and walked to a cupboard that stood in the corner of the room. "What are you doing?" André asked him, not knowing why he had gone over there all of a sudden.
"Well…" Firmin said, taking something out of the cupboard and then closing it, "…this is going to seem like a very random question that just came out of the blue, but I need to ask you something…"
"Being?" André asked, still in quite a bit of a mood with him.
Firmin placed what it was he was carrying down on the table. "Would you like to have a game of chess?"
-
"One week…" The boss said to Glacier who had, as she had hoped, become first in command, "…do you think that we will be ready by then?"
"Well, yes…" Glacier replied, obviously confident in her own abilities as an assassin, "…why shouldn't we be? I mean I am far better than Crimson was by a mile…"
The boss thought that she was being quite full of herself for no good reason. He went over to the chair in his chamber and sat down, thinking. Glacier still had not seen what type of mask he wore, which was amazing as she had been first in command and therefore around him more often for the best part of a month now.
"Can I ask something important please sir…" She said to him, as a thought just came across her mind which she saw as quite annoying not to know, "…who was Crimson Nightshade? I mean I took off his mask but his face was still in shadow, and he has never said who he is… and now that he is dead."
"I am afraid Glacier that I cannot tell you that…" He said, not wanting to answer her, "…you should have asked Jacques when he was still alive. He after all was the one who recruited him."
"Yes but surely you know!?" Glacier asked. She was annoyed with herself for not lowering his hood when she took off his mask to slap him.
"Of course I do, but I cannot tell you if I want to keep this organisation safe…" He informed her.
That must mean that he was someone very important when he was alive… She thought to herself but then she thought that he could not have been that important if the boss had thrown him in the Liars Labyrinth himself.
"Why can't you tell me? I mean he is dead now after all…" She asked him but thought that she must be trying her luck by pushing him into telling her something he did not want to.
"That is for me to know and for you to hopefully never find out. You see, as much as you did not like him in life he was a valuable asset to the group and even now he is dead he is still a valuable asset, only in a different way…" This seemed to be enough to stop Glacier from asking any more irritating questions that he did not want to answer.
"Ok… is there anything else that needs to be done before we strike?" She asked. Glacier had of course been asked to assist the boss in the assassination of the Phantom but had not been entirely sure of what needed doing in preparation for it.
"Nothing that I can think of right at this very moment…" He replied, getting up from his chair and moving over to the door of his chamber, "…though I am not sure if we are going to be able to do this with just the two of us…"
Glacier seemed to be shocked at these last few words. "Oh come on sir! You are probably the strongest out of all of us and I am second strongest. Surely we will be enough to kill the Opera Ghost…" She tried to think of something to reassure him that they would not fail, "…he must be quite old by now. I would be able to do it on my own if you let me…"
"You are wrong in several different ways…" The boss told her, making her fall completely silent, "…Crimson was the strongest out of all of us, and if he were alive then we may just be able to do it…now that he is gone though it could be much more difficult than I had hoped…"
Glacier seemed to be in a state of shock at the boss's lack of faith. "Are you regretting killing him?"
"I don't think he deserved to die…" The boss admitted, making Glacier scoff, "…now listen to me, nobody who has told a lie has managed to get out of the Labyrinth. They had been too preoccupied with the thoughts of their lie… When you went in there you had not lied, meaning that you made it out. When Crimson went in there he got out, just with a spider on his shoulder…"
"Meaning that he was lying and therefore deserved to die…" It was as though Glacier was trying to gain a higher status than the boss himself by proving him wrong.
The boss looked as though he was about to hit her, yet he did not seem the type to hurt women. "You are going to have to remember your place before disagreeing with me…"
Glacier did not say another word. She did not dare say another word for fear of being thrown in the Labyrinth again. They stood there looking at each other for a few minutes in total silence, then at last the boss seemed to find something to say.
"I want you to go back to the Populaire and make sure that the rehearsals are going smoothly… after all if there were no rehearsals there would be no production, and no production means no Phantom…" He told her, trying to stay calm even though he was quite annoyed with her, "…and no Phantom means no money…"
Glacier nodded at him and then made her way over to the door. She did not know why she had just had a little argument with the boss but now she knew that it would be a very bad idea to do so again. He was not the sort of person you wanted to get on the wrong side of.
She was very annoyed with herself for losing Crimson's mask. If there was anything that would have lifted her spirits a bit then it would have been looking at it and reminding herself that he was dead, and never coming back. She had tried to find it after she had lost it but had no success. The only thing that bothered her about this was not knowing who had taken it.
-
There was a very mixed mood among the Daae-Destler family. There seemed to be an air of sorrow about everyone, and the reason why was certainly not a mystery.
"There is still a chance that he will come home… I mean I doubt anything bad has happened to him. It would have been in the papers if it had…" Erik said. There was no need to either Christine or Carrie to ask who he was talking about.
"But he has not even said anything to us about… anything…" Carrie said, sounding extremely concerned, "…and he has been gone for nearly a month, police could just easily assume that he is…"
"Don't you dare say that he is dead!" Christine cut her off, there had been several times where Carrie had been about to say this, and as much as Christine was trying to think of how this could not be true the probability was that it was. "He can't be dead, he is much more careful than that…"
"But then again what else could have happened?" Erik asked, as though trying to prove a point that this was a very likely thing to have happened to him. "Jake goes away one day and then doesn't return, and as Carrie said, he has been gone for nearly a month…"
Christine could not help but burst into tears. Erik moved over to kneel in front of where she was sitting and put his arms round her. "He can't be dead… it would have been in the papers…"
Erik did not know what to say to cheer her up, there was nothing really he could say. Yes, but what if nobody knew that he was dead? It would not be in the papers then would it? He would just be forgotten somewhere… Erik felt a tear run down his face, he was not sure what to think himself.
All he could do was try to have faith in Jake. He kept telling himself that he must have found a job somewhere and had to go for an interview urgently. This job could be very far away, meaning that he could be travelling back home even as they discussed him at that very moment.
"Shall I go to the police and ask if they can search for him?" Carrie asked, trying to say something that would be slightly positive and helpful to the situation at hand.
"No… they would only say that we had to report it earlier…" Christine said, making herself even more miserable than she already did, "…they would say 'you would have to report it within twenty four hours after finding out that he was missing'…"
They were all silent. Carrie and Erik knew that this was more than likely going to be a very good guess as to what they would say. Carrie did not look as though she was going to give up being positive though.
"They don't have to know that we have known he was missing for this long…" She thought that this may shed a little bit of light on the subject, but it did not appear to do so.
"Oh you do what you like Carrie…" Christine said. She did not really seem to care what happened any more. She seemed to have convinced herself that Jake was dead, "…just do what you like, though I doubt that it will make the slightest bit of difference at all…"
Carrie did not want to stay in the room while her mother was in such a bad mood. She did not care what she said. She was going to go to the police and see if they did know anything about him, though in the back of her mind she knew that it was more likely that they would know nothing.
"Do cheer up Christine…" Erik said to her, not really knowing what else he could say. Carrie had left, both Christine and Erik could hear the door shut behind her, "…there is no point getting upset about something you do not even know has happened, is there?"
Christine shook her head. "No… I suppose you are right, I am just being so stupid…" She continued to sob into Erik's shoulder, and he continued to try and cheer her up a bit.
"'Fires of Eden' will be on in one week… perhaps he is going to go and see that. I mean he does know that I wrote it. Chances are he will hear about it and go and see it, right?" This seemed to do the trick and give Christine the hope she needed.
She looked up and Erik with a big smile on her face. "I will go and make us a cup of tea shall I?"
Christine nodded, then noticed just how dry her throat was from all the crying that she had been doing. They went through into the kitchen. Christine sat down in one of the chairs at the table, and Erik went over to the range to set the kettle to boil.
"What do you think I should wear to the performance?" Christine asked.
Now that sounds more like the happy, carefree Christine that I know! Erik thought to himself triumphantly, glad that she was able to take her mind off of Jake at last. "Well…" He began, putting on an expression of mock thought, earning him a playful swat over the head from Christine, "…ouch. Why don't you wear what you have always worn to the productions that have been on at the Populaire?"
Christine chuckled. "That would be the sensible thing to do wouldn't it?" She seemed to notice just how silly her question must have sounded. She had after all worn the same thing every time she had seen a performance.
She and Erik had seen a lot of performances at the Populaire, this was mainly because of Carrie, yet also they had been requested to go and see it by Zurie, as she was more often than not singing the leading part.
-
"Check…" Firmin said to André as he took out one of André's bishops with his knight.
"Damn…" André said to himself, having just moved his bishop to take out one single pawn, an in doing so had just lost it.
"Losing your concentration are you André?" Firmin was very happy with himself for this amazing move of his. This was the first time ever in their entire lives that they had played a game of chess against each other.
André moved his rook in a castle kingside move so as to get out of check. "No, I always have a back up for every move I make…" He informed Firmin, as though very happy with getting out of check so easily.
Firmin moved one of his pawns which had not moved yet forwards two spaces. He waited for André to make his move, then thought of something that sounded very cryptic. "I suppose this is what we have turned into now…" He said, pointing at the pawn that he had just moved.
"Why do you say that?" André asked, taking out the pawn with one of his own pawns which was diagonal to it.
"Well, all we are doing is assisting the king and queen in winning…" He said, pointing at his king and his queen.
There was a clap of thunder, followed by a flash of lightening. Neither of them had realised just how long they had been playing the game for but did not seem to care either. It was now very dark outside…
"You are referring to the woman in white and Crimson Nightshade aren't you?" André asked, knowing that this was more than likely the case.
"Of course I am. They want us to help them take out the Phantom… making us pawns…" Firmin did not like the thought of this but tried to concentrate on the game nevertheless.
He moved his rook to take the pawn that André had just moved. This put him back in check. Firmin did not feel the need to say this however, it would be impossible to miss it.
"I have a proposition to make…" André said, moving his king one space to the right to get himself out of check, "…how about after this first performance we do what Reyer did after 'Don Juan'. In other words we leave…"
Firmin did not really like the thought of this. After all they had been at the Opera House for at least twenty years now and he thought that it would be very sad to part with it now.
"I suppose we could but…" He moved his queen so that it was diagonal with the king, "…check."
"Bu what?" André asked, he thought that it would be good to seek another business elsewhere, not stay here to be threatened by a league of assassins.
"Do we have to? I mean come on André, we have spent a very large part of our lives here. Why should we leave because of some people who want to take out a madman who was once a murderer?"
It was André's turn to put on an expression of mock thought now. "Because we have had our lives threatened, is that a good enough reason!?" Firmin could see that this was going to be the main reason, and to be fair it was a very good reason for wanting to leave.
"People would probably cheer us on our way…" Firmin said, looking very sad at this thought. André moved his second bishop in the way of the king so that he was no longer in check.
"Yes they would, but would people really want us to stay now anyway?" André was determined to get away from the Opera Populaire. He had seen enough of it to last him through six lifetimes before wanting to see it again.
"I suppose not…" Firmin admitted, and then he took out the bishop with the same knight that had taken out the last one. This however did not put him in check, "…but maybe we should wait for Draconosis to disappear, at least then we can explain why we gave them this time period…"
André scoffed. "And how do you know that this lot are going to disappear?" Firmin did not know how he was meant to know this, he did not know what the truth was, and he never would know, all he could do was hope that they would go.
"It would be better for all of Paris if they did go wouldn't it…?" Firmin said, knowing that this was a very obvious thing to ask. There would be more cheer in France if they were gone.
André moved his queen to take out the knight, Firmin cursed under his breath for not spotting this. "Check…" This annoyed him even more, he did not see that this would put him in check.
He moved his own queen directly one square in front of his king, meaning that if André took it with his queen he would lose it. André seemed to notice this, and therefore moved one of his pawns forward.
"We will just have to wait and see what happens after the performance won't we?" Firmin asked, and then noticed something. He got up and put on his coat as though he was going to go home.
"Where are you going?" André asked him, looking at the board, "…we have not finished the game yet…" He did not want to just leave it like this, he wanted to finish it, and he wanted to beat Firmin. After all he was so close to winning
Firmin let out a very small chuckle, then leant down and took out André's queen with his bishop. André looked at the board, and then slapped himself on the forehead with his right hand. "Checkmate…"
