Chapter Four:
All I Ask of You
"C'etais stupide!" Marik muttered backstage before the performance, "Yugi, you can't tell me you're pleased with your role."
"It's not my place to say either way," said Yugi quietly, "I'm not a director…besides, they obviously had a good reason to make me the Page Boy."
"Yugi, you're too innocent for words," laughed a voice from above them.
Marik almost jumped. "Tristan, you imbecile!" he snapped.
Tristan, the main stagehand, was hanging upside down from a stage light, grinning down at them.
"Really, Yugi, do you think the directors needed you to play the Page Boy?" Tristan asked, ignoring Marik.
Yugi blushed shyly. "Well…"
"Of course not," Tristan interrupted, "In fact, the Phantom of the Opera wrote them a letter telling them to cast you as the Countess."
"The Countess?" asked Marik excitedly.
"The Phantom wanted me to play the lead?" Yugi whispered.
"Yep," replied Tristan, jumping down beside them and flipping the right way up, "But the directors didn't listen to him."
Marik looked terrified. Yugi, however, looked rather mellow.
"C'est trop mal," shrugged the tricolor-haired boy.
"'Trop mal?'" Tristan repeated in revulsion, "It's not too bad! It's awful! Think about what the Phantom is going to do when he doesn't see you as the Countess!"
Yugi shrugged. "He won't hurt anyone, Tristan…"
Tristan shook his head, before climbing back up into the rigging.
Yugi looked at Marik. "What's up with him?"
"The Phantom of the Opera is very dangerous, Yugi," Marik whispered, "He does back up his threats…"
"But he won't hurt anybody," Yugi repeated, "Marik, you know I've met him. He didn't hurt Tea, did he? I know he'd never hurt anyone."
"How can you?" asked Marik, "You've only known him for less than a day…how can you know him?"
"He would never," Yugi said firmly, "I know he'd never."
Marik still looked worried, but he only sighed and muttered, "C'mon, let's get out your costume…"
The performance of "A Tale of Errors" started like all other shows at the Opera Populaire before it. Kaiba and Pegasus were watching from their private directors' box and Joey was sitting in his paid box seat, which tonight was box five. Tea was stealing the show, and no one was even attempting to stop her.
The story was unfurling, with the young Countess in love with a mute Page Boy named Serefino, when she's already married to a very foolish old Count (being played by the lead Tenor, Duke Devlin). To hide her relationship with the Page Boy, she disguised him as her maid, as to keep him around.
Right now, the old Count was spying on her, as the Countess (Tea) spoke to Serefino (Yugi).
"Serefino, away with
this pretence!
You cannot speak, but kiss me in my husband's
absence!"
The audience had a good laugh as Tea forced a kiss on Yugi, who felt himself blush with complete and utter embarrassment.
Tea shoved Yugi out of the way as she started his main vocalizing part of laughing at her foolish husband…but she stopped in the middle of it when a frightening voice echoed through the theatre.
"Did I not instruct that Box Five was to be kept empty?"
The audience as well as the cast muttered furiously.
"It's him," Yugi whispered in amazement.
"Your part is silent, little toad," Tea snapped at him.
"A toad, Mademoiselle? Perhaps it is you who is the toad."
With a feeling of uneasiness still resting in the audience, Tea called for her lady-in-waiting for some of her purple-colored atomizer so she could start again. But Yugi noticed the atomizer the lady-in-waiting had was a bright red.
"Tea, I don't think-" he started.
"Your part is silent!" snapped Tea again, before spraying some of the atomizer into her mouth and shooing the lady-in-waiting away.
The conductor started again, and Tea sang,
"Serefino,
away with this pretence!
You cannot speak, but kiss me in my-
CROAK!"
Instead of singing, Tea let out a big croak similar to one of a bullfrog.
The actress clapped a hand to her mouth in shock, before trying another part in the song.
"Poor fool, he makes me- CROAK! CROAK, CROAK!"
Tea kept trying to sing, but the croaks became hoarser and worse-sounding each time she tried. In the background, the Phantom's laughter became louder and more hysterical until it almost shook the room.
Tea looked tearfully up at the directors' box and shook her head.
Kaiba immediately reacted, coming down to the stage and gesturing for the crew to close the curtain.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize," he said as Pegasus joined him on the stage, "The…the performance will continue in ten minutes' time-"
"In which the role of Countess shall be played by Monsieur Yugi Mutou," Pegasus said quickly, his eye circling the theatre cautiously, "So…we humbly ask for a bit of your patience…"
"In the meantime," Kaiba took control again, "We shall give the ballet from Act Three of tonight's performance…" he looked at the conductor, muttering, "Maestro, le ballet…maintenant!"
The stage cleared, before the curtains opened and the ballet dancers started onstage.
Backstage, Ishizu helped Yugi into an extra costume.
"Yugi," Ishizu said quietly, "Are you alright, child?"
Yugi shrugged. "I…I do like this chance, Ishizu, I really do…but the Phantom really didn't have to…I mean, it was tres amusant seeing Tea croak…but…but she was so upset! I've never seen her so upset…"
"Yugi, the Phantom has taken a great liking to you," Ishizu whispered, "Take advantage of it…few have been able to melt his cold heart."
"Cold? Oh no," Yugi argued, "I've met him. He's not cold at all."
Ishizu sighed. "If you believe so, Yugi…"
Yugi struggled with the girlish costume, before rushing to the stage as quickly as he could.
The dancers were still dancing onstage when it happened.
Something came falling from above the stage on a rope: Tristan hanging by the neck. His eyes were open in ghastly death.
The dancers screamed; the audience panicked; a shadowed person up above disappeared in a wave of his black cloak.
But Yugi just stood there in horror, staring at his dead friend. Then he ran; up the stairs to the roof, he ran away from everything and everyone.
But Joey saw him, and followed him up to the roof.
"Yugi! Yugi, wait!"
Yugi turned to look at his friend. "Joey…why are you here?"
"We must return!" Joey took his hand, "Don't you see?"
"He'll
find me if I go," Yugi
protested, pulling away from his friend,
"He will find me
Even if he has to kill
every cast man,
The Phantom of the
Opera will fight
To the last man!"
"There is no Phantom of the Opera," Joey told him.
Yugi felt tears fill his eyes.
"Joey, I've been
there,
To his world of unending night..
To a world where I
could sing with the music of darkness…
Darkness...
Joey,
I've seen him!
Can I ever forget that sight?
Can I ever escape
from that face
Like a mirror reflection, yet handsome eternal in
darkness…
Darkness…"
Yugi sighed.
"His voice filled my spirit with
a strange, sweet sound . . .
In that night, there was music in my
mind...
And in his arms, I felt us start to soar!
I heard
him as I'd never heard before..."
"What you heard was a dream, and nothing more," Joey reproved.
Yugi knew in his heart Joey couldn't possibly understand how he felt, but he couldn't hold in his feelings anymore.
"Yet I could see his
pain hidden in the dark…
In my heart, he has
made his silent mark…"
"Yugi…" Joey whispered, "Yugi…"
"Yugi…"
Yugi whirled around, looking for the Phantom, only to be met with a hug from Joey. His friend's arms held him close, and despite his fear and foreboding, Yugi felt safer. He began to cry, as Joey sang comfortingly in his ear.
"No more talk of
darkness…
Forget these wide-eyed
fears.
I'm here;
No one will find you;
Your fears are far
behind you…"
Yugi looked up at him as Joey stroked away his tears.
"All
I want is freedom,"
Yugi sang quietly,
"A world with no
more night…
And you, always beside
me,
To help me and to
guide me…"
"Then
say you'll follow me out of your darkness,"Joey
smiled at him.
"Let me lead you
from your solitude.
Say you want me with
you there beside you…
Anywhere you go, let
me go too.
Yugi…that's all I
ask of you…"
"Say
you'll help me out of lonely darkness,"
Yugi sang,
"Say you'll be
there when I call for you…
Say you'll be beside
me always…
Do you need me?"
"You know I do," Joey nuzzled Yugi's nose.
"Joey…" "Yugi…"
"That's all I ask
of you."
Joey held Yugi close, before the boy finally pulled away.
"I must go," he remembered, "They'll be wondering where I am!"
Yugi left the scene, and Joey slowly followed him.
"Yugi, I love you…" Joey whispered so quietly that Yugi couldn't hear him, before he went back inside the building.
But unknowns to the two boys, there was another person hiding in the shadows, angry tears falling from behind his black mask.
"You will curse the
day you did not do
All that the Phantom
asked of you!"
