Music for Chapter: Psycho theme from the original Alfred Hitchcock (yes, I can see the smiles now. Just read it)
Chapter 7: Anguish, Escape and Fur
It felt like it had been a few hours since his escape from his room. Erik had quickly climbed behind the bed and out through the secret passageway. After he had climbed up behind the headboard and out into the hallway, there had been nothing but pitch darkness. The passageways were narrow, so narrow that even Erik's thin frame could not walk evenly through the walkway. He had to turn to his side and inch along, edging step by step. Anyone else would have actually inched at a very slow pace, but Erik's mind was consumed by the memories of the gypsies and the screams of the spectators. His urgent need to escape from the confines of his room had overtaken him as he blindly moved forward around the edges of the secret passageway.
"FREAK" they cried.
"Phénomène laid" they screamed.
"Démon" the voices accused.
Erik's eyes rolled into his head as he continued forward. His feet leading him away from the outraged cries from his memories ringing inside of his head. Tears streaming down his cheeks as he forced himself forward"Away, I have to get away." He whispered as he lurched forward.
As he moved onward, his feet tripped across a large object which sent him tumbling down atop his hands. His fingertips scraped across the woodboards, then palms met to the boards with the force of his weight behind it. The freshly scabbed flesh was torn off, and Erik let out a yelp of sheer agony.
Although he tried to pull himself back onto his feet, his body refused to be lifted. His sobs became more violent and louder, moving throughout his entire body. The darkness completely consumed his sight and seeped into his very bones. Within the inky blackness, the object he tripped upon was gone. It had mysteriously disappeared after he landed. However another figure moved about in the darkness. It moved up to his face, the soft fur brushed his cheeks and dried a few of the tears as the small felinic face brushed against his own.
"Meow" Shiva voiced while rubbing her face against his own. Her mews were soft and comforting and her mannerisms were close to what a mother cat would do for her own kitten.
Erik laid there for a moment in confusion in the darkness. Realizing that he was no longer in the bedroom, he found himself in the dark passageway with that damnable creature before him. Treating him lovingly as if nothing had happened, but Erik did indeed remember the first run-in with the animal.
"You." he hissed.
"Merowr"
Not waiting for another moment to pass, Erik leaped to his feet after the creature. Shiva, startled from his movement, and ran off into the passageways. She was desperate to get away from the brute that now leaped after her. Erik ran blindly in the darkness after her. He ran into walls, even fell down a few times, but persisted in chasing after the creature, listening for the pads of her paws along the planks. Up, down, and around so many bends and turns, Erik's sense of direction was completely off and he no longer knew where he was or how long he had been in those tunnels. But all that fed his mind now was to find that creature and break her neck. As he continued, he began to notice that he could no longer hear her. Frustrated, he ran to what he believed was another turn in the tunnel. When he turned the corner, his eyes adjusted to virtually no light (after so many years underneath the opera house he had no problem doing this) pin pointing the exact location of the animal. Her frightened green eyes were staring up at him from the corner she was backed into.
"Thought you could get away, didn't you" Erik sneered as he slowly moved meanancingly towards Shiva. His eyes were filled with rage and pain. "I have spent so many years being mocked, hurt, and I am not about to let a mere feline do the same thing. Twice at that." He then leaped at the creature to grab her. She leapt underneath him and fled down the hallway. Erik's strength had been depleted from his time in bed and the illness he refused to acknowledge, so his ability to dodge the wall ahead of him was gone.
He crashed through the wood; it gave way easily underneath his weight. The wood splinters went everywhere as he landed in a large kitchen area on the other side. The wood was a poor cushion underneath him as it was lumpy and the landing was not exactly the most graceful of Erik's career of tumbling. Beaneath him the wood moved roughly up and down.
Erik was losing consciousness; his hands had bled the entire time he had been running around in the tunnels and the impact of the wall was more then his body could take. His vision and other senses were leaving in the quickly enclosing darkness. He then felt the lump underneath him lift and cry out in agonized frustration.
"Diable s'est-il juste produit! Qu'a débarqué sur moi " (What the hell? What just hit me?). A masculine and yet humorously high pitched voice called out in pain. Jumping out from underneath the pile, a man of much smaller stature stood before Erik's vision before it faded out. A face of contorted rage and anger stared down at him as two small hands reached in front of his face. The hands were wrapped around his throat before long, squeezing as hard as rock.
"You" the voice cried out at him in recognition.
Erik then fell unconscious.