Chapter Five
A/N: Okay, I've loved Michael Crawford's voice for years, as my parents introduced him to me through their CD when I was little. When the Phantom of the Opera movie came out I promptly searched high and low for that cd, finally finding it, and fell madly in love with the song "Music of the Night." Needless to say, I absolutely adore Mr. Crawford's beautiful, breathtaking voice. Now the point of all this: Has anyone seen "Hello Dolly" with Barbara Streisand? Michael Crawford was very young in that (and very adorable!) and I find it soooo funny that you see this lanky, almost geeky looking young man talking with a funny accent (I think it's an attempt at American… just makes me laugh) and then he starts singing and it's absolutely awesome! Sorry random
Angèl heard his voice but chose to ignore it as she flung open the doors to the opera house and ran inside. Everything was in chaos as the managers tried, with little help, to control the mob and her eyes finally rested on Christine Daaè and then to the people who screamed and wailed about the Phantom of the Opera.
"What's going on?" she demanded.
A man in the uniform of the head of police turned to her. "Mademoiselle, you should not be in the middle of this."
"No no! What is this! You must tell me!"
"The murderer has been found."
"Murderer? What do you know of it?" she demanded, turning swiftly away. "Mama!"
"Angèl, please, child, go with Leron. Leave this place now. I won't let him find you. I won't let him take both of my loves in one day," Christine sobbed, holding her only daughter to her for a moment. "Please, please…"
"I won't let them march into our home and take us hostage like animals! We are not demons! We shall not let them do this!"
"Angèl…"
"Mademoiselle Angèl," Raoul's voice came from behind her and she turned.
"You! You're in charge of all this, aren't you! Who are you!"
"Raoul… Won't you just leave?" Christine sobbed.
"I will not let him take you this time, Christine. I shall save you!"
"Raoul? Raoul de Chagny?" Angèl whispered. "No… No, you stay," she directed at her mother as she turned to retreat down one of the secret passages.
"Another child caught in his web," Raoul muttered under his breath. "Does this not end?"
"Monster," Christine hissed as she turned to follow, but Raoul caught her wrist in his hand.
"No, Christine, I am no monster. That thing you say you love is the monster!"
Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Lead me, save me from my solitude. Say you'll want me with you here, beside you. Wherever you go, let me go to. Christine, that's all I ask of…
Angèl was caught by a strong hand on her shoulders as she rounded the dark corner. "Papa!"
"Angèl, what is all the racket up there?"
"They've come! He's come for Mama! We must go."
"No," her father answered, shaking his head slightly.
Angèl finally looked past him, her deep green eyes taking in the damage that had been done to their home. "What happened?" she breathed, seeing things in shambles. Her eyes then met her father's, noting the pain that was visible on the left side of his face and the limp with which he walked.
"They tried to get in through the back entrance first. An explosion… Everything fell in around them."
"And you."
"Angèl, go with your mother, I cannot protect you."
"You have spent all the days that I have been alive protecting me, Papa," the young girl said as she reached for the mask she had hidden away in her garments and slipped it onto her face. "Now it is my turn to reverse that role."
"Monsieur!" Leron called, gaining Raoul's attention at last. The boy stopped, near out of breath, and caught Christine's eye. "What is going on?"
"We've found the Phantom," Raoul said with a small smirk. "Come with me, boy, and you can see what a true monster is. He's got that girl of yours down there, in his own personal hell."
"Angèl went down there? But there's been an explosion!"
Christine's face went white. "No…" she whispered. "Not them both!"
"Come, Leron, we must get to him before he escapes!" Raoul beckoned as he darted off for the hidden stairway in which he'd traveled down twenty years before.
They rushed down to the depths of the darkness, Leron making no word of what he knew. He followed closely, knowing that his love's mother would soon follow if she could. He felt himself shiver, his mind quietly asking him if perhaps the Phantom had finally lost his mind down in this dark place and stolen his own daughter away from the world to harm her. Erik had never let her go far away. It was unspoken, the rule to stay in the opera house. Fear kept her there, though Leron did not know if it was fear of her father's wrath or fear of the unknown that lay outside the doors. His head jerked up and looked towards Raoul as the elder man stopped, muttering to keep his hand at the level of his eyes. A figure moved in the darkness, then melted into shadows once again. A voice, like one of an angel's, echoed trough the room.
"Welcome to the dungeon of black despair. Down you plunge into the prison of our minds. Down that path to darkness deep as hell!"
"The Angel of the Opera," Leron breathed. "So different… She's so different."
"What?" Raoul demanded.
"Not my Angèl's voice, that is the voice in which she would never sing," he whispered, fear ringing in his tone. "That is the voice of one betrayed. Oh… My Angèl," he groaned hopelessly.
The breeze swept around them and several candles lit as if of their own accord, showing the lake to their right and a figure dressed all in black with a black mask covering half her face, long ebony curls cascading down her back and sharp eyes that drove into their souls. The Angel of the Opera stood before them in all her fury.
"Angèl," Leron breathed quietly.
"You dare speak my name?" she demanded coldly. "You who walk with him! You who left with him, knowing! Knowing! You who followed him! You who took me away when you knew I could not leave! We shan't be gone long, of course," she growled. "LIAR!"
"I had nothing to do with this!" Leron argued. "I would never-"
"Speak no lies." A chilling smile crossed her lips. "Papa," she called, "I think we have guests." She turned to Raoul with an almost child like delight dancing through her eyes. "Sir, this really is an unparalleled delight. I'd rather hoped that you would come. And now my wish comes true. You have truly made my night."
"We came to free you from this," Raoul answered her, not yet grasping onto what had happened.
"Ah? From what? My home?" She giggled at the expression on his face and took one step forward, the candle light glinting off the black mask. "Monsieur, I bid you welcome to our labyrinth."
"Our?" Raoul managed.
"Angèl, come with us, please," Leron pleaded. "This can all be worked out. Perhaps Monsieur is right."
Green eyes lit up with blazing fury. "Have you no faith in me?" she demanded. "No, no, of course not. You! It was you who made me leave!" she screamed, then her voice turned to an angel's once more. "This world it's given me nothing I can find. And only the Phantom of the Opera may hear me sing. This, the only rule I've ever known."
Leron's eyes widened. "Please, Angèl, let us not talk of such things. It is so dark down here… Come back up."
"Shall I give my soul to darkness? Shall I breed hate? Outside of her, all I've known! But in this labyrinth, where night is blind, the Phantom of the Opera is here, inside my mind." She moved closer to Raoul, who instinctively moved away, and spoke lowly. "Did you think he would harm me? My own father? Why should he cause me harm?" She ducked her foot down in the edges of the underground lake and pulled a rope up from it, looping it around the elder man's throat. "Where are your threats now? Raise up your hand to the level of your eyes! Nothing can save you now! But perhaps to leave us alone. This is the choice. This is the point of no return!"
Raoul's eyes flared with his own fury. "'Poor Erik!' she cried! 'Poor Erik!' No 'Poor Raoul!' No 'Poor, sweet, lover!'"
"Tears I might have shed for your sad fate grow cold and flow as tears of hate!"
"Angèl!" Leron cried.
She turned to him for a moment, locking eyes. "There's no point in striving! Any way you see that you cannot win! Angel of Music, I should have listened! When you told me of our cruel fate! Angel of Music, the world is truly cold. There's no point in hiding. The light that my hope held now grows dim."
"Angèl!"
The green eyed angel looked back to her father who stood, leaning heavily on a wall, eyes locked on the scene. Such memories it pulled! He watched her carefully as tears streamed down her face and her hands shook. Voices clattered from overhead as Christine was the first to make it down to the site, followed just behind by Lisette and Meg, Madame Giry with them as well as the police. "ERIK!" her voice sounded through her sobs, and she saw her daughter's tear stained face.
The lead officer stepped forward. "Release him, child!"
Angèl turned her eyes toward him, filled with the sadness that she had never understood as she pulled the mask off, revealing her angelic features. "We are creatures of darkness. You can't imagine the life that we've known. Now I can see that we are forever alone!"
"Let my daughter be!" Christine screamed as the officer's gun went off high above their heads, silencing everyone, though sending debris falling from the ceiling.
Angèl's scream echoed through the open room as several bits of rock fell around her, slicing their way down. She heard Raoul's gasp of "Daughter?" as all went black.
A/N: Okay, I had a bit of fun with Phantom lyrics and twisted them around to suite my chapter and it was suppose to, mostly, match up with "Down once more/Track down this murderer", except for the set that starts out "This world had given me…" which is set to the "Phantom of the Opera" theme. Anyway, this entire scene is really what I had running through my head when this began, and I wanted the confrontation between Angèl and Raoul. If it got confusing, I'm sorry, it was trying to come from my head and sometimes that is best left in that mass of chaos than on paper. Haha, so let me know! Please!
Elle1617: I know that you reviewed for chapter one, but I can really only respond to you here… I'm not even sure if you'll see this since you wanted me to email it to you, so I'll send you one just to make sure. :) thanks for reviewing
Lynx Ryder: I'm really worried about this chapter, so I'm highly looking forward to your feedback! It looked so nice and dramatic in my head with the CD running behind it to back up the switch of lyrics, so I just hope that it'll look that nice written out. Let me know! Thanks for reviewing so faithfully :)
