Chapter 3:

The underworld becomes quiet very late at night. I would have never guessed that it ever would. After midnight, you can hear only the doors clicking shut and the demons coming out of the walls with their shrieks and moans, howls and cries. By the deepest depths of the night, all that can be heard is the occasional click clack of a woman's foot on the wet pavement, or a quick exchange of payment.

Most courtesans take payment in advance, but there are some who wait until the night is over, wanting to make sure that they get everything they deserve and more. Greed comes out in everyone; the courtesan, bargaining a steep price for something she knows the rich cannot live without; the rich, bargaining to keep some of their riches, but in the end, giving up whatever is asked of them just to have that one night.

After weeks in the alleys, I finally came out to the world above for a breath. I found my way to my garret and sunk to the floor. That was when I realized that I didn't have to sulk and drink my way to death. I had another option. And so, I decided I would become insane.

Two weeks later I admitted myself. I found the company of Satine returning to me as quickly as she had left. She was there in my dreams, but it was more than that. I could almost feel her, and for a while, I believed that maybe I really was insane.

"He came in off the streets, says crazy things about love and a girl, I can't recall her name," they said. "He sees things that aren't real."

I could remember other things that 'weren't real' that I had always believed in. Love, for example, was one of those things.

As my father said, "You can't waste your life looking for something that isn't there. You'll only find disappointment in its place."

Had Satine been a disappointment? Had I just imagined her as well? No, and yet, I found that there was no way to explain my feelings, to convince these lifeless, loveless beings that it had been real. What is a life without love?

And then that one lonely day I returned to the Moulin Rouge...