I had blacked out, I hadn't known where we went, how we got there, or even when we got there. All I knew was that I awoke in a bed of satin, and I no longer wore jeans and a t-shirt, but I was drapped in cloths of the softest silk, black as the drapes that hung about my head, and on my feet were soft slippers, red as the rose that lay in my fingers.
Here I was in the Phantom's Lair. But how would I be able to have been transported to France in such a short timespan? It was in-humanly possible! Unless the Opera Ghost, the actual Phantom, was able to find me here in the United States and then bring me back to the Paris Opera. No, the actual Phantom, Erik, is dead, isn't he? Of course. But then, who is it beyond the mask? I wonder.
What I had wa concerned about at the moment was getting away. A lot of people would probably push away my disappearance, but then again, after I sang the way I did, and a new Erik, old Erik as a ghost? came for me, I believe that there will be those who will want to find me.
I stood up and grumbled unhappily at a pain in my chest. A cramp, perect. I spread the curtains, and found that what had awoken me was the soft playing of an organ. This was too freaky, and now I just wanted to wake up. I had drempt of something a lot like this many a time, but that was just a dream, and I could control what happened there, normally. But now this? It was simply insane.
The music ceased.
"You have awoken, my divine angel." My eyes widened, as the figure in the chair spun to see me. "Bravi, bravi. You were divine at your singing at the school. That damned Birdie, or whatever the hell her name was, will not sing again."
I caught my breath. "What did you do to her," I asked, my voice rising.
"Nothing! That will phisically harm her, at least." He stood and walked slowly across the floor, pausing at a boat. The lake...the organ...the set of dolls, except...my head was there instead of Christine's. Bridget's, Thomas's. And the ballet dancers..Becca was there? She couldn't dance for her life. Then again, people can't go from America to Paris in a night. He walked forward still, finally reaching me. He reached out his hand to stroke my cheekbone. "Though you sang beautifully, like I said. She will be pushed to the bottom of the pole, and you shall be at the top. The best singer of them all. You will sing as Christine."
I was transfixed, and I couldn't move, though speaking I could manage. "Who are you? Not the true Erik, who had fallen in love with the real Christine Daae?" He chuckled softly and turned his back to me, I could move. I backed up.
"No...no...I am related though. And I was made a fool of as a child. Just because of...this." He pointed to his face. Apparently, he had an 'accident' as well. I wondered what had happened, and I wanted to ask, but when Christine removed Erik's mask, she got in trouble. Now, what would he do?
"What is your name?"
"All you need to know, is that I am the Angel of Music. Henceforth, you may call me, Angel."
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"Well, then," he said, turning and walking back to the Organ. "I suppose you should call me what you like."
He began to play a sweet tune on the organ that I couldn't help but listen to. It was very beautifull. I was transfixed, once again, and I wondered if I would be moving very much in this Lair. My eyes grew dreamy and far away at the song, I was being put in a trance. He called me to him, and I went to him, as he instructed.
"Angel I hear you,
Speak, I listen.
Grant to me your glory.
Angel of Music,
guide and guardian.
Enter at last,
Master."
