The steady rhythm of the sewing machine accompanied her as she sung a soft lullaby under her breath. She always sang when she sewed, it helped her concentrate. She put her soul into the costumes she made noticing that they turned out better when she was in a good mood than if she was sad or cross.
She stopped abruptly as she felt a presence in the room watching her. She stopped the sewing machine sitting rigid. She should be alone, Birdy had gone out on a long errand and would not return for hours. "Who's there? " she asked a little shakily.
When no one answered she decided that she was to worked up to continue her work on her dress for one of the most important characters in Hannibal, the lead female character who would no doubt be played by the Prima Donna La Carlotta. She left her sewing and decided to take a stroll through the opera house to see if she could find her friends.' What a pleasant voice' Erik thought to himself as the young women left the room. Erik had been on one of his nightly patrols of the opera house, after all it was his duty as the phantom of this opera house to protect his inhabitants he had thought with a wry smile, when he had been distracted by soft singing. He had followed the voice to discover its origin expecting to find that his managers had hired a new singer to sing in his opera house, but what he found had totally amazed him. It was a mere seamstress who had made such pleasant music.
Pleasant, but not beautiful.
He could tell that her voice was entirely untrained and also it had a very sad sound to it as if the person singing had gone through a lot. He must have made some small noise for just when he was starting to enjoy the little lullaby the seamstress suddenly stopped singing, became startled, and left.
'Oh well," he thought as he turned from the costume room and headed back to his lair beneath the opera. The opera was full of promising singers this one was no different. There was no reason she should stand out above any other hopefuls in the opera. Erik stopped abruptly in the dark passage rolling a new thought around in his head.
' Could it be possible she is not aware of the gift she had? No that would be impossible.' he thought as he resumed his journey into the depths. It seemed absurd that someone could not recognize obvious talent such as that, but it would explain why he had never seen her at any of the auditions for the productions. Perhaps he would keep an eye on her.Kaylen found Meg and Ashley at rehearsal and decided to take a seat to watch them practice. The rehearsal was split into two sections: one for the singers and one for the dancers. Kaylen sat in the middle of the seating area so in that way she could keep her eye on both Meg and Ashley at the same time.As the rehearsal progressed she began to see the wisdom in Megs words. Rehearsal was terribly monotonous and Kaylen pitied Meg and Ashley who had to endure much more of this than the sample that Kaylen got to see.
A silence came over the room as the Primma Donna, La Carlotta, stood up to sing one of her many solos. As soon as she started singing Kaylen got a weird feeling that was she ever to meet Carlotta face to face she would not like her. She shook her head of this thought. It was wrong of her to judge people before she met them, but she was often right about things like this. After a while all Kaylen could think about was wishing that Carlotta would stop her wretched singing. True she must have been good to rise all the way to Primma Donna but to Kaylen her voice was merely a musical knife trying to saw a path into her head. Carlotta's voice's assault was beginning to get more acute along with the headache it had brought with it. Just when Kaylen thought she could stand no more Carlotta ended her dreadful butchery of whatever she was trying to sing and sat back down in her place of honor directly in front of the instructor signaling the end of rehearsal.
" Until tomorrow ladies and gentlemen you are dismissed."
Kaylen went up to the stage to gather her friends and catch up on the gossip. She never asked for the latest news, she didn't have to. Somehow it just came spilling out of Megs mouth without her realizing it. So Kaylen would sit and listen to her friend go on and on about who was dating who and other such nonsense. It was sometimes a good way to get news, providing you could prove that the news was true and not just another figment of Megs overactive imagination.
She approached a group of singers and dancers consisting of Carlotta, Meg, Ashley, the instructor, and a few more ballerina rats and singers she did not know. She reached the group and gave a friendly " Hi" to everyone. She felt immediately welcomed by all except for Carlotta who merely turned up her nose at her and said to her instructor " Monsieur, is it now company policy to let any riff-raff off the streets come in and watch rehearsals for the greatest opera house in the world?"
The instructor merely offered an apology to the stuffy Primma Donna before ushering her off in the opposite direction to avoid further conflict.
Kaylen didn't let it show how much being called 'riff-raff' bothered her. Instead she merely shrugged off the comment and began to talk with her friends.
" Hi Ashley. Hi Meg. You both looked worn out. Would you like to go to my room for something to drink. "Of course both agreed at once and so they started off toward Kaylen's room. " So want to here the news." Meg asked with the sparkle in her eye that she only got when she was spreading gossip.
"Sure" Kaylen said
" Well, first off that new guy has been following Ashley around for the past week."
"Has not." Ashley denied the accusation with all the emotion she could muster.
" Has to." Meg countered.
"Well, even if he was I wouldn't think of courting him."
"Why not. He's perfect. Blonde hair, blue eyes, rich, nice smile, lead male singer, did I mention he was rich."
"Several times." Ashley answered " But I want more than the perfect husband and money doesn't matter."
' Oh, no Meg why did you get her started?' Kaylen thought as she listened to her friends philosophy on " why the 'perfect man' wasn't perfect after all." truth be told, If she had dared to, Kaylen could have made the speech a wonderful duet seeing as she had heard it so many times before and by this time knew it by heart.
Finally they reached Kaylen's apartment. Kaylen went straight to the pitcher and poured both her friends a glass of water seemingly unaware of the pair of eyes that watched behind the wall.
Erik had followed her and her friends. Meg Giry he knew well. She was the daughter of his personal usherette. Ashley as the other one was called he had not seen before but if she was worthy of being in the company of both little Meg and his new interest, Kaylen, she couldn't be bad.
Erik watched as Kaylen handed her friends their glasses.
"Any other news, Meg." she asked
"Umm. You know Christine don't you?"
"I think I've met her once"
"Well she is one of my close friends and it turns out that she has acquired a new tutor who has been giving her great instruction. Everyone agrees she is much improved."
"Well who is this new tutor?" Ashley asked.
"That's the mystery. No one knows."
Erik allowed himself a slight smile. He knew who the new tutor was. He had started training Christine after falling in love with her beautiful voice.
After a few moments of silence the conversation continued.
"By the way Kaylen," Ashley began" Carlotta had no right to treat you as she did. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize, it isn't your fault. Besides I could get back at her if I wished. Don't forget I'm making her dress for Hannibal. All I have to do is 'accidentally' leave some of the sewing pins in her dress."
They all laughed at this and the corner of Erik's mouth curled into a smile.
Not only was this new girl a person with immeasurable potential but she also despised Carlotta as much as he did.
Erik turned and headed for his lair.' If I ever meet her' he thought ' we will have much in common.Finally the presence she had felt while sitting with her friends had left. Meg and Ashley still being unaware of her sixth sense had gone on with their conversation without realizing their friends uneasiness. Kaylen had made it a point to ignore her paranoia. She had been wrong the last two times this time was no different.