This is the last chapter of this story.
Thank you to all my newest followers, I hope you enjoy the story.
Thank you so much to everyone already following or just reading as well as those who have favourited my story. I hope you enjoy this last instalment, please let me know. Thank you.
I do not own anything by Gaston Leroux, Susan Kay or Andrew Lloyd Webber, everything else is my own work.
Don Juan Triumphant again!
The following morning, Erik was in the bedroom getting dressed ready for rehearsals, when Christine came in from her own dressing room and noticed something strange regarding his choice in clothes.
"Erik, those trousers seem a bit tight?" Christine carefully questioned as she watched her husband with his back to her holding his breath to fasten the opening of the trousers. Then Erik turned around and with the snug fit of the trousers it was quite apparent to anyone who glanced down that Erik was indeed well built in one aspect other than his height!
"Seriously where did you get those trousers from?" Christine asked, her hands on her hips.
"This is my Don Juan costume from last year," Erik informed his incredulous wife, "I am not wearing someone else's clothing!" He replied indignantly, seeing the look on Christine's face, before continuing, "I seem to have put on some weight since I last wore them," he admitted reluctantly.
"Erik, they are now almost skin tight and cling everywhere, I am going to have to beat the Corps de Ballet and half the female cast off you with a damned stick, if you wear those!" Christine informed him with a large amount of jealousy in her voice.
Erik snickered, "One I do not appreciate my angel using such language and two it will at least take people's attention away from…" he gestured vaguely towards his mask.
Christine huffed with annoyance, "Three, I learnt most of my bad language from you! And four I refuse to be anywhere with other women drooling at the sight of my husband's groin!"
Erik was not really paying attention to the dangerous tone in Christine's words when he replied, "It will make a change from me watching other men salivating at my wife's… bodice! And besides, is not my fault most of the corps de ballet are about five foot in height!" he finished as he adjusted the cuffs on his shirt.
"Oh!" Christine yelled as she stamped her foot "You arrogant and infuriating man, we shall be late!" she declared turning to head out the house.
It was a very sulky and silent Diva and Divo that made their way to Christine's dressing room that morning to start the day's rehearsals.
ooo
The day was not going well up in the opera house either, Nadir took his seat in box five; hoping Erik had not noticed his friend arriving late and gasping with exertion. Nadir settled down and started to eat a large sweet pastry whilst at the same time, trying to drink the Turkish coffee, that Delphine had given him as he went to dash out; as a late morning awakening in her arms meant no time to stop for breakfast. On stage an accident with the scenery had left a hole in the back drop that made up Don Juan's house.
"I swear this opera is cursed!" Andre declared from his seat in the stalls as he reached into his pocket for a small flask of brandy and a little box that contained the pills for his nerves.
"Alas our Prima Donna, was insistent that we perform Don Juan, and… as far as I can tell Monsieur Jardinier has done an admirable job making the Ghost's Opera more palatable for our audiences," Firmin replied from his seat beside Andre, as they watched a junior stage hand climb up into the flies with his tools, to repair the damaged back drop.
ooo
A few moments after this exchange, Erik and Christine arrived and Reyer requested that they go straight into the one area that was causing most trouble, the Seduction scene. Christine took her place behind the table, on stage and Erik was waiting for his cue, looking around he noticed the stage hand up in the flies and; to his horror saw the young man fumbling with the hammer he was holding… Time slowed for Erik as he realised the hammer; if dropped would fall directly onto Christine and without a second thought he dashed across the stage leapt over the table grabbed his wife and they both rolled to the ground a few feet away as the hammer that had been dropped; landed with a sickening thud, claw side down in the floor of the stage.
Erik sprang up and helped Christine to her feet, guiding her to Madame Giry for comfort, before striding over to the hammer now embedded in the stage floor and bending down he ripped it from the floor with a savage jerk. Erik then glared up at the now terrified stage hand, seriously considering throwing the hammer directly at him, when Christine suddenly started to chuckle. Turning to face her Erik dropped the hammer and looked puzzled. Meg was trying not to giggle as she noticed something, even Madame Giry was struggling not to snigger.
Erik turned his back to the auditorium to stare at the three ladies in his life, when muffled choking noises arose from the orchestra pit and Erik turned around quickly to see the members of the orchestra all suddenly looking down furiously checking their scores and Monsieur Reyer holding a handkerchief to his face trying to turn a laugh into a cough.
Christine could see Erik was getting seriously annoyed so calming her own giggles she walked over to him, "Erik, when you leapt over the table to save me from that hammer, you split your trousers from the back waist band to the fastening placket," she informed him in a whisper, I told you they were too tight, and we can clearly see your undershorts!" she finished as Erik's ears blazed red and his hands clamped to his backside to feel a large hole where the seam of his trousers should have been.
"Oh no!" Erik whispered, his ears glowing red with embarrassment, his hands clutching his posterior and his voice low, "I am wearing those damn sheep shorts!" he finished with horror in his voice.
Up in box five Nadir still high on love and the large very sweet Turkish coffee and pastry he had consumed for breakfast spotted the new pattern on Erik's trousers and with the aid of his opera glasses realised what he was looking at. Normally sober and sensible around an irritated Erik, a sniggering Nadir, high on sugar, caffeine and love forgot his normal stance on personal safety and yelled down to the stage, "Those trousers will be great if your legs ever have a row and split up!"
The cast and orchestra burst out in shocked laughter as Erik spun around to face box five and shook his fist at the lone occupant, before grabbing the black embroidered shawl from Christine's shoulders and tying it around his waist to hide the hole in his trousers from further view.
"You!" Erik yelled "You just wait until I get my hands on you!" he barked as he leapt from the stage and landed in the auditorium before heading at a fair rate towards the rear exit that would lead him to the stairs for the boxes.
Nadir's sense of self-preservation; which had enjoyed a metaphorical lie in woke up with a start as he watched Erik heading rapidly towards the back of the auditorium. "Oh, Bugger!" a now sober Nadir remarked dropping his opera glasses and dashing for the door of box five hoping to out run Erik.
ooo
Raoul and Meredith had just entered the grand foyer and were heading towards the auditorium eager to see how the rehearsals were going when a sudden flurry of footsteps on marble stairs alerted then to a very harried looking Nadir dashing down them as if his life depended on it. As he dashed towards the Vicomte and Vicomtess, he tapped his hat,
"Hi! And Umm Bye, must dash!" Nadir yelled as he shot past them and disappeared through another door, just as the loud bang of different door being slammed open caught Raoul and Meredith's ears, they looked towards the grand staircase to see a furious looking Erik charging out of the door.
As he passed the puzzled pair Erik yelled "Which way did the Daroga go?"
Raoul had his self-preservation fully awake and pointed to the door that Nadir had disappeared into, "That way!" Raoul declared as Erik shot off in hot pursuit.
"Raoul!" Meredith started, "I know you said that strange things used to occur in this opera house… I think they still are," she declared, "and why was Monsieur Jardinier wearing embroidered Roses on his Derriere?" she asked thinking about the shawl Erik had tied around his waist.
"I do not even want to consider an answer," Raoul replied with a shudder, "Come let us see how the rehearsals are progressing," Raoul said changing the subject rapidly as he took Meredith's arm and went to escort her to the auditorium.
Meredith looked over her shoulder at the door through which the two men had vanished, "This would never happen at Covent Garden," She declared shaking her head.
ooo
Nadir had not stood a chance of out running a peeved Erik and with that knowledge he comforted himself as he once again swung upside down in the breeze on the roof of the opera house, noosed by his ankles from Apollo's Lyre.
"Seriously Erik, I said I was sorry will you please let me down?" Nadir asked, starting to feel a little nauseous from the swinging.
"You are not going make fun of any more losses of my dignity, are you?" Erik questioned, his hand still holding the Punjab lasso from which Nadir swung.
"No, I will never make fun of you splitting your trousers again!" Nadir declared vehemently as Erik lowered his friend back to the floor.
Nadir had just released himself from the lasso and was standing up when the roof door opened with a bang and Christine came striding out.
"When you two children have quiet finished playing stupid games!" She declared loudly as she climbed up onto a statue's plinth which made her nearly the same height as Erik and Nadir. "I have a rehearsal to complete and you are both wasting mine and the cast's time!" she snapped at the two men now looking more like chastised naughty boys then powerful men of the world.
ooo
They say curiosity kills the cat but, in this case, it lead to Madame Giry, Jean, Meg followed by Raoul and Meredith to trail behind a very cross Christine to see why she was heading to the roof.
The friends stood in shock by the door onto the roof as Christine called Erik and Nadir closer to her and then cuffed both of them smartly behind the ear before stepping down from the plinth.
"Erik!" Christine demanded "go and change your trousers, before you return to the stage, currently you have three roses across your posterior and it looks sillier than your undershorts!" Erik nodded unwilling to anger his angel anymore.
"Nadir!" Christine continued wagging her finger directly at the penitent Persian, "No more upsetting Erik, you will sit with Raoul and Meredith and behave yourself, I want no more interruptions during rehearsals understood!" Nadir nodded, noting to himself that Christine was now actually just as scary as Erik when annoyed.
Like two scolded children Erik and Nadir looked at each other trying to decide who was to blame. Christine was resolute and pointed to the door indicating that they were still wasting time and she was not impressed. Erik took the lead and left the roof top, Nadir kept his eyes to the floor as he walked over to Raoul and Meredith. Christine turned on her heel and headed to the door and with that everyone else trooped back downstairs.
ooo
Erik was back on stage in a fresh pair of trousers and conversing with Monsieur Reyer when Christine arrived back on stage and with Erik handing her the shawl back the rehearsal began again.
The rest of the rehearsal went without a hitch, now there was just two days more full rehearsal until the gala night.
ooo
Two days of nearly constant rehearsals flew passed and in the last few moments before curtain up, Erik sat in the Divo's dressing room checking his makeup that made his skin an olive tone and look more like the Daroga and less like himself, as well as ensuring his wig and mask were secure. Erik recalled the discussions shortly after the trouser splitting incident with Christine and Nadir where they had all agreed amongst other things, that Erik would sing the role in the style of Antonio rather than letting the full power of his voice flow. And in rehearsal so far, this had worked it was a pleasing tenor that Erik let forth rather than his normal hypnotic angelic tones.
Nadir had then added another spanner in the works when he pointed out that Erik would have to attend the post Gala soiree, in costume and keep his temper in check as he mixed with the patrons… It was a shocked Nadir that suddenly found his stubborn and normally arrogant friend on his knees begging Nadir to dress up as Don Juan and attend the soiree as the star of the show. Erik had had enough of up close crowds and his friend understood why. Nadir had also thought it would be quite fun to do, so he eagerly agreed.
"Beginners on stage!" was the call that heralded Erik's true debut as an opera singer, and with a shudder of nerves, Erik stood up and made his way to the wings. Onstage Andre and Firmin were announcing to the audience that due to Antonio Giordano's sickness the role of Don Juan was going to be sung by a gentleman who wished to remain anonymous. As they left the stage the orchestra struck up the overture and the opera had begun.
ooo
The performance was going splendidly, with ear splitting applause at the end of each of the first three acts and a standing ovation for both Erik's aria about seducing women and never finding true love in act two and Christine's aria about seeking her one true love at the start of act three. At last the final act was upon them and the seduction duet, now heralding the end of the opera.
As Christine began Aminta's recitative about acknowledging that she knew Don Juan was going to seduce her and was anticipating it, Erik stood in the wings and let Christine's voice enchant him.
Stepping out to begin his own recitative, enraptured in Christine's voice as he opened his mouth, Erik completely forgot the agreement to downplay his voice and as he launched wholeheartedly into his part of the seduction duet, his true spell binding singing was all that was heard, and over two thousand people became entranced in the power of his song.
ooo
Up in box five, Nadir noticed something peculiar, Delphine suddenly started panting quietly whilst staring at the stage becoming quite flushed and fanning herself vigorously. Then Nadir looked into the auditorium and noticed that almost every woman and several men wore the same flushed complexion as Delphine and the number of fans fluttering back and forth now sounded like a thousand butterflies taking flight.
ooo
In box eight Raoul winced, as Meredith too flushed as Erik sang and started fanning herself, her eyes never leaving the stage. Raoul cringed, he could not help it. He also had some very naughty designs about the masked man suddenly crowding his thoughts as Erik sang of desire. Shaking his head with a shudder and snapping himself out of it Raoul just had to sit there and wait for Erik to stop singing before he could get his own English Rose back from wherever she had gone.
ooo
In box five Nadir had given up, Erik's voice had not affected him in years and yet it drove him crazy to see his own fiancée so enraptured by the unearthly tones. However, one further look down into the stalls made Nadir; forgetting his agreement with Erik to replace him at the soiree, grin. When his friend's voice had enchanted Carlotta, her lustful reaction had scared the life out of Erik, how would he react to almost a thousand ladies all panting for him and his voice?
ooo
As the final notes of the duet died and on stage Aminta fell willingly into Don Juan's arms vowing acceptance, eternal love and other earthly pleasures. Don Juan closed the opera vowing to remain true to his Aminta, the woman who made a man from a monster. The final play was the kiss that sealed the lovers together forever.
ooo
The moment the curtains closed for the last time the audience exploded. A full standing ovation even before the cast reached the stage for their bows. Nadir had never heard anything like it, stoic members of society were wolf whistling and ladies were squealing and there would be a lot of sore hands from all the clapping after tonight he noted.
ooo
Back stage Erik and Christine had just reached the wings when suddenly there was an entire Corps de Ballet clustered mostly around Erik, with the biggest sets of doe eyes Erik had ever seen, trained directly on him. Then most of the female members of the Chorus joined them.
With his extraordinary hearing Erik picked out phrases from whispered female voices, such as 'sexually potent', 'lustfully powerful' and one even boldly stated she would not mind being seduced by him any day. Beneath his makeup and mask, Erik's face went paler than normal and he felt very faint as the adoring stares from all the female cast suddenly made sense. Erik rapidly realised at that point he had forgotten to shield his true voice during the final seduction duet and had inadvertently enchanted the entirety of the female…
And suddenly he realised: looking at some of the adoring stares, from behind faces with a shadow of a beard; Erik gulped… it appeared some of the male cast as well.
That was it; this was far too much attention for Erik's comfort and he shot off to his dressing room with such a turn of speed, it took Christine a few moments to realise he had vanished. "I think it is time for phase two of our plan," she said under her breath as she excused herself from her cast mates and headed off to find Erik.
ooo
Christine arrived at Erik's assigned dressing room the same time as Nadir, "Thank heavens you have arrived in time, she remarked as she looked at Nadir, then did a double take, "Your moustache and goatee are missing!" Christine quietly pointed out.
Nadir nodded "Well since my melodic friend does not need to shave, I had to remove my facial hair for this plan to work," Nadir replied as Christine; knowing the dressing door would be locked, dug a set of lock picks out of her gown and with some fiddling and assistance from Nadir she got the dressing room door unlocked, to find it apparently empty, except for a pair of patent leather boots poking out from the slightly shaking costume rail.
"Erik stop hiding it is only me!" Nadir instructed the wardrobe rail, as Christine exited and Nadir relocked the door behind her.
Erik's unmasked visage appeared between his costumes and the relief on his face was tangible.
ooo
Out on stage the cast were starting to filter out on stage for their bows and just before the stage assistant could knock on Erik's dressing room door. A masked Don Juan sashayed out. He appeared to be a swaggering, sexually charged, potent performer, confident to take his applause as was his right along with his Aminta.
ooo
Back in the dressing room Erik, sighed with relief, as he finished removing the olive toned skin make up and changed into his normal attire, finally replaced the missing black mask with his usual white one.
Nadir had always wanted to know what was so enthralling about performance and now he could find out.
ooo
What started out as looking like a lot of fun when it was initially planned, was now beginning to unnerve Nadir, as he had lustful eyes following his every move. This was getting ridiculous, "they are only staring because you are supposed to be the star of the show," he told himself quietly under his breath as, yet another gaggle of the wardrobe and make up ladies fanned themselves and stared in his direction, he had not even got to the stage yet!
Christine left her new Don Juan in the wings as she entered the stage to take her bows, the applause was deafening, and flowers were showered onto the stage as she curtseyed. But the loudest appreciation was yet to come.
A stage hand had to practically shove Nadir onto the stage, and as he appeared to the view of the audience, they went wild…
ooo
As Nadir was having second thoughts in the wings, Erik had made his way to box five. "It is a good thing I am sure of Nadir's feelings towards me," Delphine commented lightly as Erik took the seat next to her.
"I apologise for the singing," Erik replied looking embarrassed.
"Please never apologise for your voice, or for you!" Delphine scolded, "You were as enraptured by Christine's singing as everyone else was enraptured by yours." Delphine remarked as the roar from the audience indicated that Christine was taking her bow.
With a flick of his wrist, his signature rose appeared and was tossed to his beloved wife as she grinned up at him in his new location of box five.
The noise then became deafening as Nadir appeared and took Erik's well deserved bows for him. Delicate ladies started screaming at him in rapture and fainting. Normally dignified patrons were wolf whistling and the applause threatened to shake the entire building.
"I think Nadir regrets agreeing to take over from you, so you could avoid the attention as the star at the soiree post performance," Delphine pointed out as the curtains closed for the final time.
Picking up her fan and stole Delphine allowed Erik to escort her to the Salon du Glacier where the reception for the Principals and Patrons was being held.
ooo
Christine was already there, still in costume, chatting happily to Meredith and Raoul, when Erik and Delphine arrived.
"Where is Nadir?" Erik asked as Christine rushed into his arms,
"He is hiding behind the drapes!" Christine replied as Erik kissed her cheek.
"The drapes?" Delphine enquired,
"Over there," Christine replied, discreetly pointing to a pair of shoes sticking out at the bottom of a large set of drapes by a window.
It took Delphine several minutes to convince a nervous 'Don Juan' to come out from his hiding place. Apparently, there was a group of the Patrons wives that were really keen to get rather too up close and personal to Don Juan and Nadir felt the need to protect his virtue, so he hid until the group moved away.
ooo
Nadir relaxed as more of the senior cast came in to greet and thank the Patrons for attending the gala. Christine; supported by Erik; the cause of Nadir's distress, was courting the majority of the attention, so Nadir felt safe enough to hide in plain sight with Raoul and Meredith, along with Genevieve and Aristide, accepting the praise that was really for Erik, he even helped himself to a glass of champagne, as he basked in the adoration. Yes, he could now understand why some people loved being on the stage.
ooo
Meg, Madame Giry and La Sorelli, were chatting amongst themselves as to who the replacement Don Juan was, when Erik was clearly seen in box five. They made their way to the Patrons reception, as Jean joined them en route and as the four entered the room Meg saw Erik and Christine talking to a group of Patrons and then her eyes spotted 'Don Juan' still in costume, with Delphine talking to Genevieve and Aristide and suddenly Meg realised who the man was behind the black mask.
"Oh goodness me!" Meg exclaimed as she pointed at the apparent star of the opera, "Nadir is Don Juan!" her voice seemed to silence everyone else in the room including the group of ladies huddled together trying to figure out where their masked hero with the angels voice had gone.
Nadir froze in fear as the group of ladies on hearing Meg looked over, saw where she was pointing and as everyone else including Erik stared on, they turned as one woman, dashing across the room to surround the suddenly very flustered object of their hypnotised affections.
"Oh, Help!" Nadir squeaked as the enchanted ladies descended upon him…
ooo
After the soiree finished and having returned home, Erik lay in bed and breathed a large sigh of relief, thank heavens Ettore was back to resume the role on Monday. He could take the hordes of screaming lustful women. Erik decided that he had the one woman he loved and that was more than enough.
Though, it was funny to see Nadir in the remains of the Don Juan costume after the horde of enchanted ladies had finished ripping off pieces of his clothing to take with them as a memento. Especially at one point, when Delphine had to ask for assistance and Erik had to step in to prevent his newly masked friend from being physically carried off by the group led by the Comtess de Avignon. Nadir truly had never looked so scared, and to think he thought it was hilarious when Erik had to fend off Carlotta, it was not so amusing when the shoe was on the other foot.
ooo
As Christine shut the bedroom door, removed her robe and clambering in bed beside him wrapping him in her embrace, Erik thanked the stars and anything else he could think of, for his life had really begun only this last year and with his true love, his only love, his Christine beside him, there was nothing he could not do.
ooo
FIN
Erik and Christine as well as all their friends will return for more adventures in the next tale:
Symphonie d'un Poltergeist Parisien
Thank you for reading my first ever story…
The English Phantom
