Chapter 2
The muted footsteps of the trio echoed softly in the dark, otherwise silent hallway. Zelgadis glanced about him furtively from the circle of light cast by the lamp.
'There's something not altogether right about this place,' he noted silently, watching the sinister shadows slide over the walls. 'I get the sense that something is going to happen before we can get out of here tomorrow morning. Possibly something horrifying. But, more likely, it'll just be something ridiculous, like everything else that seems to happen me since I joined up with these people.'
"Hey, Zelgadis?"
He turned to the swordsman.
"What is it, Gourry?"
The blond man's uneasy whisper continued.
"Do you get the feeling that something really horrible is going to happen before the night is over? Or maybe something stupid?"
"Don't worry, Gourry," Zelgadis replied with a slight smile. "I'm sure it's nothing Lina can't blast into next year if the need arises."
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel much better. Lina blasting things into next year is how a lot of the stupid things that happen to us get started," Gourry muttered.
"That's a good point, Gourry. Well, we can hope that she'll be too busy with that sleepover the girls are planning to get into undue amounts of trouble."
They both glanced forward again as Meg murmured something to herself.
"What 'other room' could Monsieur Firmin have been talking about? Here's the boarding room, second from the end of the hallway, but the only other empty room near it is.oh, no! Monsieur Firmin couldn't possibly mean to put one of these men in THAT room!" She laughed to herself at the apparent absurdity of the mere idea.a laugh that was, Zelgadis noted, rather wild and hysterical. He sighed and shook his head.
"Is anything wrong, Meg?" Gourry spoke up nervously. At the sound, Meg gave a startled shriek and whirled about.
"Oh!" she gasped. "Mr. Gabriev! You startled me. Um.no, nothing's wrong. I'm just trying to figure out which rooms Monsieur Firmin could have meant for me to put you and Mr. Greywords in for the night."
"Could it be." Gourry glanced quickly about the hallway, dismissing several doors with light shining from the crack beneath them, as well as one door barred by planks of wood nailed across it, before finally pointing to a closed door much like the one that they were currently standing in front of. ".that one?"
"Well, I had thought that that room was still being used, but maybe the gentleman using it left today?" Meg pondered, her brow wrinkling. She approached the door and knocked softly. A groggy voice from inside the room slurred out something incomprehensible.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Monsieur," Meg called softly. "I didn't know if someone was still using this room. We won't bother you any further."
She turned away from the door with a sigh and walked back over to where Zelgadis and Gourry were standing.
"I suppose you two may have to share a room after all," she informed them apologetically, unlocking and opening the door to a room much like the one given over to Lina and Amelia, but with one less cot and no window.
"Hey, no problem," Gourry replied nonchalantly. "I can sleep on the floor, if you wouldn't mind getting me a blanket and a pillow."
"My good sir," a voice exclaimed from behind the small group, causing the swordsman, the sorcerer, and the dancer to utter startled shrieks and jump about a foot in the air, "you will do no such thing!"
Gourry, Meg, and Zelgadis all turned slowly to behold the face of the aforementioned Firmin, alternately smiling politely at Gourry and Zelgadis, and frowning sternly at Meg, who shrank back with a frightened squeak.
"Hey, Zelgadis," Gourry whispered to the chimera. "That's the noise that Amelia always makes when she's just said something to make Lina really mad."
"So it is," Zelgadis replied with a small smile.
"Meg," Firmin turned to the girl, shifting a large crowbar from one hand to the other. "Did I not tell you that we had a room for each of these gentlemen in this hallway?"
"Yes, you did, Monsieur, but I couldn't figure out which rooms you meant. I only found one that was free. All the others are in use, except.and you couldn't possibly mean to put him THERE." Meg infused so much genuine fear and nervousness into that 'THERE' that Gourry and Zelgadis involuntarily shivered.
"Such nonsense!" Firmin scoffed. "Of course that's where I meant to put him. What, did you think that room was never to be used again, just to satisfy the whim of some overly-sentimental madman?"
He shook his head and, walking over to the door decorated with wooden planks nailed over top of it, chuckled and called over his shoulder to Gourry and Zelgadis,
"Don't worry about a thing, gentlemen. I'll have the door open in a moment." Then, lifting the crowbar, he proceeded to pry off the wooden planks.
"Um.Mr. Firmin," Zelgadis began nervously, "is there some reason that that door was locked and barred?"
"No, don't be silly, my good man!" Firmin drawled, tossing the last plank aside and removing a key from his breast pocket. Meg shook her head in despair.
"Monsieur Firmin, you aren't going to tell them, are you?"
"Tell us what?" Zelgadis demanded.
"Nothing at all," Firmin proclaimed, stepping aside as the door swung open. "Just some little.incident occurring with a singer that once used this dressing room." He raised his eyebrow. "I don't see, gentlemen, that you're in any situation to be picky about your lodgings at the moment."
"Of course not," Zelgadis sighed.
"Very well, then," Firmin clapped his hands. "I bid you goodnight."
Meg glared after his retreating back, shaking her head.
"I really don't think either of you want to use that room," she whispered.
"Look here, Meg, we're both tired. If you can get us some more blankets and pillows, Gourry and I will share a room, as long as we can get some sleep some time tonight," Zelgadis huffed impatiently.
"I think that's probably best," Meg replied, drawing a relieved sigh and setting off down the hallway.
"Well, I don't know what she was talking about, but the whole mystery's got my interest," Gourry commented, idly sharpening his sword as he sat, leaning up against the wall across from the small cot.
Zelgadis, from that same cot, replied irritably,
"Look, Gourry, it's very late, and we have to be out of here as soon as possible tomorrow morning, right?"
Gourry nodded hesitantly. Zelgadis continued.
"Thus, we want to be well-rested. Now, if we are to have any chance at that, there is not a moment to waste in getting to sleep. Meg will be back soon with your blankets and pillows, and then you can go to sleep and forget all about the room across the hall."
"But, Zelgadis," Gourry protested, shifting to lean forward slightly, "that Firmin guy was gonna put one of us in that room. Aren't you at all curious about why Meg didn't want him to? And the "sentimental madman" business? And if it was perfectly safe, why did they bar it in the first place?"
"I don't know, Gourry," Zelgadis replied with a sigh, pulling back the blanket and sheet and climbing under the covers, "but try to forget about it, alright?"
"Aw, c'mon, Zel."
"Gourry, look. You mentioned the uneasy sensation that something really stupid was going to happen before we got out of here. Now, if you go play detective and try to investigate that room, the chances of it happening are increased tenfold. If, on the other hand, you just forget it and go calmly and sensibly to sleep, it decreases. Do you see the pattern?"
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Gourry admitted, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Thanks, Zelgadis."
"No problem," the pile of covers replied in Zelgadis' voice. Then the pile of covers made an irritated noise, again in Zel's voice, as a soft knock sounded at the door. Gourry climbed to his feet and swung the door open.
"Hi, Meg," he greeted the small dancer with a liberal armful of pillows and blankets.
"Hello, Mr. Gabriev. Here are you blankets. Goodnight!"
"Yeah, g'night," Gourry replied cheerfully, glancing briefly after her as the bubble of light cast by her lamp grew smaller. Turning to re-enter his room, he halted suddenly as something caught his eye. 'Hmm...that door's open. I guess that Firmin guy mustn't have shut it earlier,' he thought, then shrugged. 'I guess I'll go do it.'
The swordsman had barely taken a step from the doorway of his own room, however, when the talking pile of blankets spoke up again.
"Gourry!" it called. "You're staying away from the room across the hall, right?"
"Oh! Uh, yeah," Gourry called back, jumping guiltily back into the room. With a shrug, he shut the door to their own room and set about preparing for slumber.
'Oh, bother,' Meg lamented silently, 'I don't believe I remembered to close the door to Christine's dressing-room.'
Thus was it always still, always would be known to the young woman. She turned on her heel and crept back down the hallway. As she approached the door, some of the more frightening stories of the Phantom came back to haunt her...so to speak.
Now, Meg was a rational girl...sometimes. She knew, logically, that nothing bad could possibly come of her being near enough to the room to shut the door. After all, no one had heard from the enigmatic tenant of the depths of the opera house in several years. It was exceedingly unlikely that he would return just at the moment that she, Meg, decided to close the door. And even if he did, what could possibly anger him about the simple act? Nothing!
Of course not! Meg knew all of this. But recalling the truth and logic of certain facts is much easier during broad daylight, or when one is alone in one's own safe, lamp-lit room, than when one is creeping down a long, dark silent hallway in the dead of night, lurking just outside a room with which a frighteningly intelligent and severely misanthropic Phantom was closely associated.
Thus, Meg felt no shame in the sudden increase in tempo of her heartbeat, in her palms becoming so clammy that she was hard pressed not to drop her lamp and end everyone's life in a blazing fire, in her breath coming in shorter gasps the closer she came to that accursed door.
Almost there...just one more step and she could nudge it closed, then go calmly and sensibly to be. Perhaps she could even be so lucky as to get a few hours of sleep tonight. Slowly, she raised her foot, reaching toward the door - and stumbled back as a soft squeak of bedsprings in a nearby room, which was the chilling and maniacal laughter of a dangerous madman in her ears, sounded nearby. Stifling a scream, she leapt from her prone position on the floor and bolted down the hallway as swiftly as years and years of ballet training would let her.
In the hallway, the still-open door to the mysterious dressing room creaked softly as it swung slightly to and fro.
The muted footsteps of the trio echoed softly in the dark, otherwise silent hallway. Zelgadis glanced about him furtively from the circle of light cast by the lamp.
'There's something not altogether right about this place,' he noted silently, watching the sinister shadows slide over the walls. 'I get the sense that something is going to happen before we can get out of here tomorrow morning. Possibly something horrifying. But, more likely, it'll just be something ridiculous, like everything else that seems to happen me since I joined up with these people.'
"Hey, Zelgadis?"
He turned to the swordsman.
"What is it, Gourry?"
The blond man's uneasy whisper continued.
"Do you get the feeling that something really horrible is going to happen before the night is over? Or maybe something stupid?"
"Don't worry, Gourry," Zelgadis replied with a slight smile. "I'm sure it's nothing Lina can't blast into next year if the need arises."
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel much better. Lina blasting things into next year is how a lot of the stupid things that happen to us get started," Gourry muttered.
"That's a good point, Gourry. Well, we can hope that she'll be too busy with that sleepover the girls are planning to get into undue amounts of trouble."
They both glanced forward again as Meg murmured something to herself.
"What 'other room' could Monsieur Firmin have been talking about? Here's the boarding room, second from the end of the hallway, but the only other empty room near it is.oh, no! Monsieur Firmin couldn't possibly mean to put one of these men in THAT room!" She laughed to herself at the apparent absurdity of the mere idea.a laugh that was, Zelgadis noted, rather wild and hysterical. He sighed and shook his head.
"Is anything wrong, Meg?" Gourry spoke up nervously. At the sound, Meg gave a startled shriek and whirled about.
"Oh!" she gasped. "Mr. Gabriev! You startled me. Um.no, nothing's wrong. I'm just trying to figure out which rooms Monsieur Firmin could have meant for me to put you and Mr. Greywords in for the night."
"Could it be." Gourry glanced quickly about the hallway, dismissing several doors with light shining from the crack beneath them, as well as one door barred by planks of wood nailed across it, before finally pointing to a closed door much like the one that they were currently standing in front of. ".that one?"
"Well, I had thought that that room was still being used, but maybe the gentleman using it left today?" Meg pondered, her brow wrinkling. She approached the door and knocked softly. A groggy voice from inside the room slurred out something incomprehensible.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Monsieur," Meg called softly. "I didn't know if someone was still using this room. We won't bother you any further."
She turned away from the door with a sigh and walked back over to where Zelgadis and Gourry were standing.
"I suppose you two may have to share a room after all," she informed them apologetically, unlocking and opening the door to a room much like the one given over to Lina and Amelia, but with one less cot and no window.
"Hey, no problem," Gourry replied nonchalantly. "I can sleep on the floor, if you wouldn't mind getting me a blanket and a pillow."
"My good sir," a voice exclaimed from behind the small group, causing the swordsman, the sorcerer, and the dancer to utter startled shrieks and jump about a foot in the air, "you will do no such thing!"
Gourry, Meg, and Zelgadis all turned slowly to behold the face of the aforementioned Firmin, alternately smiling politely at Gourry and Zelgadis, and frowning sternly at Meg, who shrank back with a frightened squeak.
"Hey, Zelgadis," Gourry whispered to the chimera. "That's the noise that Amelia always makes when she's just said something to make Lina really mad."
"So it is," Zelgadis replied with a small smile.
"Meg," Firmin turned to the girl, shifting a large crowbar from one hand to the other. "Did I not tell you that we had a room for each of these gentlemen in this hallway?"
"Yes, you did, Monsieur, but I couldn't figure out which rooms you meant. I only found one that was free. All the others are in use, except.and you couldn't possibly mean to put him THERE." Meg infused so much genuine fear and nervousness into that 'THERE' that Gourry and Zelgadis involuntarily shivered.
"Such nonsense!" Firmin scoffed. "Of course that's where I meant to put him. What, did you think that room was never to be used again, just to satisfy the whim of some overly-sentimental madman?"
He shook his head and, walking over to the door decorated with wooden planks nailed over top of it, chuckled and called over his shoulder to Gourry and Zelgadis,
"Don't worry about a thing, gentlemen. I'll have the door open in a moment." Then, lifting the crowbar, he proceeded to pry off the wooden planks.
"Um.Mr. Firmin," Zelgadis began nervously, "is there some reason that that door was locked and barred?"
"No, don't be silly, my good man!" Firmin drawled, tossing the last plank aside and removing a key from his breast pocket. Meg shook her head in despair.
"Monsieur Firmin, you aren't going to tell them, are you?"
"Tell us what?" Zelgadis demanded.
"Nothing at all," Firmin proclaimed, stepping aside as the door swung open. "Just some little.incident occurring with a singer that once used this dressing room." He raised his eyebrow. "I don't see, gentlemen, that you're in any situation to be picky about your lodgings at the moment."
"Of course not," Zelgadis sighed.
"Very well, then," Firmin clapped his hands. "I bid you goodnight."
Meg glared after his retreating back, shaking her head.
"I really don't think either of you want to use that room," she whispered.
"Look here, Meg, we're both tired. If you can get us some more blankets and pillows, Gourry and I will share a room, as long as we can get some sleep some time tonight," Zelgadis huffed impatiently.
"I think that's probably best," Meg replied, drawing a relieved sigh and setting off down the hallway.
"Well, I don't know what she was talking about, but the whole mystery's got my interest," Gourry commented, idly sharpening his sword as he sat, leaning up against the wall across from the small cot.
Zelgadis, from that same cot, replied irritably,
"Look, Gourry, it's very late, and we have to be out of here as soon as possible tomorrow morning, right?"
Gourry nodded hesitantly. Zelgadis continued.
"Thus, we want to be well-rested. Now, if we are to have any chance at that, there is not a moment to waste in getting to sleep. Meg will be back soon with your blankets and pillows, and then you can go to sleep and forget all about the room across the hall."
"But, Zelgadis," Gourry protested, shifting to lean forward slightly, "that Firmin guy was gonna put one of us in that room. Aren't you at all curious about why Meg didn't want him to? And the "sentimental madman" business? And if it was perfectly safe, why did they bar it in the first place?"
"I don't know, Gourry," Zelgadis replied with a sigh, pulling back the blanket and sheet and climbing under the covers, "but try to forget about it, alright?"
"Aw, c'mon, Zel."
"Gourry, look. You mentioned the uneasy sensation that something really stupid was going to happen before we got out of here. Now, if you go play detective and try to investigate that room, the chances of it happening are increased tenfold. If, on the other hand, you just forget it and go calmly and sensibly to sleep, it decreases. Do you see the pattern?"
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Gourry admitted, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Thanks, Zelgadis."
"No problem," the pile of covers replied in Zelgadis' voice. Then the pile of covers made an irritated noise, again in Zel's voice, as a soft knock sounded at the door. Gourry climbed to his feet and swung the door open.
"Hi, Meg," he greeted the small dancer with a liberal armful of pillows and blankets.
"Hello, Mr. Gabriev. Here are you blankets. Goodnight!"
"Yeah, g'night," Gourry replied cheerfully, glancing briefly after her as the bubble of light cast by her lamp grew smaller. Turning to re-enter his room, he halted suddenly as something caught his eye. 'Hmm...that door's open. I guess that Firmin guy mustn't have shut it earlier,' he thought, then shrugged. 'I guess I'll go do it.'
The swordsman had barely taken a step from the doorway of his own room, however, when the talking pile of blankets spoke up again.
"Gourry!" it called. "You're staying away from the room across the hall, right?"
"Oh! Uh, yeah," Gourry called back, jumping guiltily back into the room. With a shrug, he shut the door to their own room and set about preparing for slumber.
'Oh, bother,' Meg lamented silently, 'I don't believe I remembered to close the door to Christine's dressing-room.'
Thus was it always still, always would be known to the young woman. She turned on her heel and crept back down the hallway. As she approached the door, some of the more frightening stories of the Phantom came back to haunt her...so to speak.
Now, Meg was a rational girl...sometimes. She knew, logically, that nothing bad could possibly come of her being near enough to the room to shut the door. After all, no one had heard from the enigmatic tenant of the depths of the opera house in several years. It was exceedingly unlikely that he would return just at the moment that she, Meg, decided to close the door. And even if he did, what could possibly anger him about the simple act? Nothing!
Of course not! Meg knew all of this. But recalling the truth and logic of certain facts is much easier during broad daylight, or when one is alone in one's own safe, lamp-lit room, than when one is creeping down a long, dark silent hallway in the dead of night, lurking just outside a room with which a frighteningly intelligent and severely misanthropic Phantom was closely associated.
Thus, Meg felt no shame in the sudden increase in tempo of her heartbeat, in her palms becoming so clammy that she was hard pressed not to drop her lamp and end everyone's life in a blazing fire, in her breath coming in shorter gasps the closer she came to that accursed door.
Almost there...just one more step and she could nudge it closed, then go calmly and sensibly to be. Perhaps she could even be so lucky as to get a few hours of sleep tonight. Slowly, she raised her foot, reaching toward the door - and stumbled back as a soft squeak of bedsprings in a nearby room, which was the chilling and maniacal laughter of a dangerous madman in her ears, sounded nearby. Stifling a scream, she leapt from her prone position on the floor and bolted down the hallway as swiftly as years and years of ballet training would let her.
In the hallway, the still-open door to the mysterious dressing room creaked softly as it swung slightly to and fro.