Judge and Jury
Darkness continued to enfold around me and I blinked rapidly, desperately searching for light. I lifted my arms, feeling the movement but yet unable to even see my hands. Oh god, where was I?
I opened my mouth. "Hello?"
I sighed as the words echoed. I couldn't have been dead then. I imagined death was just a never ending blackness but I wouldn't have been able to talk or to move surely?
I felt surprisingly comfortable, as though I was sat on some type of chair though it didn't feel hard enough to be that. It was as soft as a pillow but as though levitated.
Quiet shuffling caught my attention from in front of me and I gasped, glancing around. "Is someone there?"
My arms waved, blinking rapidly again as I tried to see something, anything.
"She's becoming agitated." A deep voice complained, though I still couldn't see anything.
"Well it is hardly surprising; she has been here for over six hours." A feminine voice, voice number two, replied with a click of their tongue.
I could feel my forehead crease as I tried to work out what on earth was going on. Why was I in the pitch darkness like this? And who were these people?!
"Who the hell are you and why have I been brought here? Where am I anyway…heaven?" I asked angrily. I was frustrated at being ignored and I wanted answers. I didn't really believe this was heaven though. I couldn't imagine heaven being dark and unwelcoming. I imagined it would be completely the opposite.
"Not quite," the deep voice, voice number one replied. "You have finished your mission."
"What mission?" I scoffed in bewilderment. I didn't have the first idea on what they were talking about.
"Well technically, you haven't completed everything that you were sent back to do but you have done enough. You have become too personally involved in the assignment." Voice number two answered.
"Wait what? Are you talking about why I got sent back to 1870? I didn't think I was on a mission."
"Well you were," voice number one retorted. "Your mission was merely to alter certain events, not fall in love with that ridiculous Vicomte."
"How dare you talk about him in such a way? I don't even know who you are!" I exclaimed in fury.
"Go easy dear," voice number two added softly. "You cannot choose who you fall in love with. Though he's right, you weren't meant to become personally involved."
"You said it yourself that you cannot choose who you fall in love with. It's my life, how was I meant to know any of this?"
"Well either way. It is time for you to go home." Voice number one grumbled.
"What, n-no, I can't!" I instantly shouted, desperately reaching out in front of me.
I wasn't stupid, I knew what he meant by saying that. I didn't want to go back home, I wanted to stay in 1870. That was where my heart truly remained. I missed my family, of course I did, but I couldn't contemplate a life without Raoul, not anymore.
"Your mission is over." Voice number one insisted.
"I don't care! I need to go back, they need me there."
"Nobody needs you there anymore. You have done all that is required of you."
"Yes but I need them! I have a life there now; you cannot just send me back to my future home like this."
"But sweetheart, you weren't meant to live the remainder of your life there. If you were, you would have been born into that generation in the first place." Voice two uttered with more kindness.
"Well maybe I was meant to have been sent back there? I believe in fate, I always have. And I believe that I was meant to go into that dressing room to be sent back to the past and to help those who are important. But then I fell in love with Raoul and I tried so hard not to but maybe that was meant to happen too. Maybe that was why I was brought here. Surely, I would have just been sent back when…well whoever that guy was, touched me."
There was silence for a long moment and I prayed with all my might that they hadn't disappeared. I might have not been religious but I wanted nothing more than to return to my true home.
"Her point is valid-"
"Oh no, it is not!" Voice number one interrupted. "The only reason why she was sent here was for us to decide that she definitely needs to go back. She said it herself that she has fallen in love with that boy. That is not allowed!"
"Yes but what if she is right. What if she was born into the wrong generation and that was why all this happened? We cannot dismiss this if that was a possibility."
"But it is not! We do not judge, we simply send her home and move onto the next one-"
"No please-"
"No more begging!" Voice number one bellowed, instantly silencing me.
I could feel my eyes grow wide as tears slipped away from them without my permission. Oh god, I didn't want to cry but I desperately needed to go back. The thought of life without Raoul, without Christine, Meg or Erik was too upsetting to contemplate.
"But please," I mumbled desperately, ignoring his protest. "I need to go back."
"No enough, I will not hear anymore!" He exclaimed with the same ferocity.
The tears I tried holding back instantly slipped further down my face, creating salty trails in their wake. My cries refused to hold back and I welcomed them. It was the only memory I would have of my life in 1870, a life I wasn't even meant to have. I knew I should have thought myself lucky; I had my Mother to go back to. But it wasn't enough, no matter how much I tried to tell myself not to think so selfishly. There would always be a part of me missing.