Chapter III
The air on the lake was heavy and cold. The boy's wet shape was a blot in the charming, shimmering light that reflected from the slick waters of my lagoon. Had he braved those waters and swum across to reach Christine? So he had not been as serious as she had thought in the brash statements she'd recounted to me. So much for wishing.
I watched him from where he could not see me as he scrambled to search for my door. It did not look to me as if he planned to knock before entering…My, but how easily he became frustrated! Soon he was shouting vulgarities that echoed in my cellar and cursing my name, demanding his fiancée be returned to him.
"Demon! Beast!…Christine, are you here? Can you hear me?…Monster! I demand that you release her!"
After several minutes, I did not think I could stand much more of this. How many marks against yourself should I allow you, young man, before we turn up the heat? Shall I be generous? Shall we say, perhaps, seven? It is said to be a lucky number. But whose luck: Yours or Mine?
"If you are wise, you will shut your mouth and go back the way you came."
He was startled by the sound of my voice, glancing in every direction. He would not find me. I was closer to him than he ever could have suspected.
"Where is Christine? I demand to see her!"
"She is not here. If you value your life, you will leave immediately."
"I know she is here!" he yelled furiously into the air, turning and glancing behind him towards the still water. "She told me she was coming here, and now you are keeping her prisoner! Release her at once!"
Really now…I would hardly consider Christine sleeping peacefully in her own bed a prisoner. And I, of all people, her keeper? No, her devoted slave. That was One, boy.
"Then she never made it here. Perhaps she became lost on her way out of your estate."
His face reddened to a shade of enraged scarlet that was intelligible even in this mute light. I could not help laughing at his spectacle and he scrutinized the air above him, attempting to pinpoint the location of sounds of my mirth.
"Jackal! I want to see her!"
"Oh, but she does not want to see you."
He took a step back towards the water and attempted to mask his distress at the sudden change in my voice.
"Then she is here with you!"
That idiotic look of triumph on your face just bought you number Two, Monsieur.
"Yes, and I, Mlle. Daaé's humble envoy, do bring you a message from her own lips."
"Where is she? I demand to see her!"
"She does not wish to speak with you and bids you depart."
"These are not her words! You are keeping her locked away inside that madhouse! I refuse to let you torture her. If you do not let her go, I will return with police and make you release her by force!"
I believe I hear the clock striking Three.
"If you think you will live to accomplish such a feat, you are fatally mistaken. Christine wants never to see you again. She has come to me of her own wishing and stays of her own need. You have lost all right to make demands."
"She is my fiancée! And she will be my wife! You, beast, are nobody! You cannot keep us apart! You! Decrepit lunatic who will not even face me like a man!"
Father Time is ticking to Four.
"She is no longer your fiancée. She asked me to give you that."
As the jeweled ring fell at his feet, he bent swiftly to retrieve it, staring with spiteful gaze in the most opposite direction of where I actually stood.
"Be glad I simply did not throw it away. Perhaps you may yet return it and be reimbursed for your ten francs…Do not look so incensed! I do not think I will be able to prevent giving way to laughter!"
He had to struggle to speak calmly enough to be understood and was incapable of subsiding the tremor in his voice.
"Viperous magician. I am too strong to walk away and let you win. My love for Christine is too strong! As is her love for me! You are nothing but a blight in this hell!"
And the Fifth bead of the abacus is slid to the left. But he had not finished:
"I will find a way to destroy you!"
"Well," I answered with untailored words, "Would you be so kind as to find it within the next ten minutes? I do have other appointments to keep."
"Demon!"
"You young men these days, always assuming you are the only schedule on the agenda."
"Fiend! Beast! I demand to see Christine!"
I must count that as Six, Chagny; you are becoming far too repetitive. You are wasting your marks…And there is only one left! My, you do go on…And how many synonymous names you seem to know for the word Erik…
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I was hidden but dared not so much as breathe. That intractable viscount might as well have been calling out to death itself as I watched him shout his curses and threats into the empty dark…But he knew as well as I did that the dark was not empty even though the hollow echo of the demon's voice had not resounded for several minutes now. This impertinent silence infuriated Chagny more than any hostile answer could have. He choked and sputtered on his words; I had never seen such fury in him even when, together, we had traversed the monster's lair in search of Christine Daaé. This time, though, he had been wise enough not to land himself in that chamber of tortures…but as this display progressed, I was no longer sure how wise I had been to follow him.
I had not seen or heard of Erik since the day he came to my flat and told me the death of the Comte de Chagny had been an accident. I believed him then, for he was wretchedly miserable, but now, as I watched this pageant of Cat and mouse, I was not so sure that it had not, after all, been the siren who pulled count Philippe into the dark waters of the lagoon…That sill, silent lake from which the heavy odor of oil drifted…It was a strange smell that I had never noticed before, but I did not have the time to dwell on that as the sudden silence in the tomb called my attention back to the Vicomte. He shook with anger in the pale blue light of the cellar, his cache of oaths and demands evidently run dry.
The silence was more threatening than any words and I was possessed with the feeling that this was the calm before the storm. I knew Erik must have been enjoying this game he played…but Chagny was a poor sport, and he did not last long.
"Coward!" The young man's word was spat into the air, an ultimate summation, and I thought he would leave now…And perhaps he would have…but for the long awaited disembodied reply:
"Are you yet here?" The monster's voice was so filled with a denigrating tone of patronizing annoyance that Chagny flew into immediate fury.
"I will die before I leave here without Christine Daaé!" he exclaimed, every word more passionate than its predecessor.
Erik's voice was dark and chillingly close…"You should have said so before."
This surprised the Vicomte and he took a quick step back towards the lake as the darkness came alive around him. I pressed myself back against my hiding place, watching with horror as part of the blackness itself seemed to detach and thrust the unaware Viscount up into the air and, with a rush, far off into the lake.
The blow had been unexpected and Raoul rose to the surface of the water, splashing and gasping for air. I saw Erik, distinctly now, turn on the edge of the lake as he was suddenly illuminated by the flash of a small flame, like that of a newly lit match, that appeared in his hand. He casually lifted his head and looked to the floundering young man and then, with equal coolness, tossed the burning ember onto the water.
"And saved me the trouble…"
He finished his phrase from before, though I was not listening…My eyes were trained on that discarded light, for, instead of being extinguished by the water, the surface of the lake was immediately aglow with flame! The air rushed around me, and the fire quickly grew to mountainous proportions and spread across the lake. In the bright glow which illuminated every crevice of the cellar, now, I beheld the Vicomte's eyes grow wide with fear as the fire ravenously engulfed him. He must have had the sense to submerge himself, then, for he disappeared from my sight.
My gaze then went back to where Erik had been and I was surprised to see that he was still there. He stood with his arms folded, watching the fire as calmly as if it were in a hearth.
Monster! So this was your plan! That smell of oil was the scent of expectation! You had deceived me; you had deceived all. What I had taken to be your final fall was only part of your scheme! The sense of security and finality I had gained and held for these past few weeks had been exactly what you wanted me to feel! Erik, you viper! You were only laying in wait to strike! You were only waiting this whole time for the chance to bite! It was not over then! It has never been over!
A flaming body emerged at the edge of the pit of fire some twenty feet from Erik who watched it as it thrashed about like a thing possessed in attempt to extinguish the scorching fire from its oil-soaked clothes. The devil did not move until the Vicomte had all but nearly rolled out the flames and lay gasping for breaths of air. Even had I the will, I was completely helpless to move. I prayed Erik would be merciful. It was all I could do…but it was not enough. Erik lifted the helpless Viscount once more and heaved the young man, like a child's doll, back into the hellish waters.
The fire was not as strong as it had been beforehand as the oil in its limited life burned off into a hazy smoke that muted the light and wrought shadows where none should have existed. But the death of the flames was of no help to the hapless victim as he sunk like a stone. Both my eyes and the monster's stayed on the pale, submerged shape as it eventually broke free from its stillness and began to struggle with short spurts to the edge once again. That brainless, foolhardy boy! He must have been devoid of his mind to have not fled in the other direction! Was it his love for Christine Daaé that drove him forward still, or now his own personal vendetta against her captor?
Whatever made up his will, it was fading with his strength. The flames on the water had died to small, blue patches of fire, but it was too late. Chagny's body had ceased to move with life. Billowed up by the water, he floated, a dead man's face down float, toward Erik who waited with infinite patience until the body stopped at the edge where he stood. Erik did him the kindness of turning him over with the edge of his shoe and then examined the drowned man's face. I could not see what Erik saw from where I hid, but whatever he saw satisfied him and he stepped back into the dissipating smoke. I did not move. I did not dare to breathe. But I watched. I watched until he was gone, and though I could not be sure he was truly gone, I could not remain hidden any longer after the terror I had just witnessed. If he was not yet dead, I knew Chagny's life depended upon my action!
I was at his side in only a matter of seconds and pulled him onto the hard surface of the floor. All was dark in the cellar now that the fire had burnt itself into oblivion and its remnants of smoke blotted the eerie blue light that usually sifted from its unknown source. The Vicomte's skin was black and scorched with the fire, but that was not the cause of his immobility. I could tell he had inhaled a great deal of water…
So you would have left him here to die on his own, Erik? Suffocate on his own because he hadn't the superhuman strength that would be required to escape from your deathtrap? Do you think this will free you of responsibility for his death? This does not free you of the title of his murderer! I refuse to allow technicalities! You have broken your word for the last time!
But if I did not act quickly, the Vicomte de Chagny might never breathe again. I knew how to revive someone who had inhaled water…After all, had not Erik saved my own life this very same way so many years ago in Mazanderan?
As I worked to resuscitate the young man, I began to realize that it might be too late. The asphyxiation from the water in his lungs combined with the suffocation of the smoke he had breathed had already done its work. But just as I had recognized the uselessness of my efforts, he defied all odds and was suddenly wracked with breath. He choked, coughing and shot up, leaning over, his hand pressed to his chest and gasped in quick gulps of air.
"Not too quickly," I said, pulling him back into a seated position. "Take long slow breaths."
"Who…" he looked at me, choking for air and I thought he did not recognize me at first nor comprehend what had just happened to him. Then I saw the understanding flash across his burned and drowned features and he jumped to his feet. "Where is he??" But he was no sooner up before he staggered and fell to the ground.
I pulled him up again. "Not here. Listen to me: we need to leave this place immediately."
"Not…without Christine…" His words were but rasps of choked sound as I held his stumbling form from falling once more.
"If we stay here any longer, we risk both our lives. There is nothing you can do for her in this condition. We are at his mercy, but, with any luck, he does not know you live. But you may not live much longer if you do not receive immediate aid! No, do not go toward the wall-Yes, lean on my arm…Now stop being a stubborn ass, boy, and come with me."
I led him to the boat, which had been moored out of the water. I was thankful for this for, had it been left on the lake, it would be nothing more than soaked timbers by now…He was too weak to resist my urging but his twisted lips murmured her name desperately and he slipped into delirium with gasps of "Sweet Christine…"
