Chapter Twelve
A/N: I would say 'Happy Good Friday,' but that sounds kind of odd, doesn't it, considering Good Friday is the day that, traditionally, we celebrate the death of Jesus Christ. It's Sunday that is really the wonderful part of it all though. Though, all and all, Happy Good Friday and may God bless you.
The world came slowly into focus and Erik groaned. He blinked twice, his eyes eventually focusing in on the area surrounding him. Bars met his vision. Bars of a cage. They'd tossed him into a cage. His breath caught in his throat and panic began to rise. Of all the things they could have done! Of all the horrors to inflict upon him! He began to struggle, finding his wrists chained to one bar above his head.
"Erik?"
Raoul de Chagny was in no better position across from him, though his eyes were calmer. Of course they were. He had no idea of what it was liked to be caged like an animal. Stripped of all human dignity and chained up to be mocked and jeered at. The aristocrat could have no idea. "What… did they do with everyone else…?" The Phantom managed, forcing the fear and panic out of his voice.
"I don't know. They weren't brought it in with us. Can you get free?"
Erik forced his eyes upward to look at the chains. No, they weren't even chains. They were ropes, tied far too tightly around his small, fragile looking wrists. Did they think so little of him? He turned his attention to the other man, his rival, tied to the other side of the cage. They had a good eight feet between them, but it did neither any good.
Raoul seemed to be avoiding direct eye contact with Erik and it took a moment for the Opera Ghost to realize why. The panic he had forced down returned in full when he realized his mask was not in place. A cage had been bad enough. It alone would haul old nightmares to the surface of his mind, but the cage combined with the thought that anyone who entered could see his face sent him into such a panic he could barely keep it below the surface.
The memories of the cage and his humiliation flashed through his head with such intensity that he had to close his eyes against it. Children poking him with sticks as if he were some stray dog. Javert in all of his perversion. The screams and the laughs. You raised more skirts than Don Juan himself! Erik shuddered.
"Erik?" Raoul's voce was unsure and he now watched the Phantom closely. It was a horrible sight, the other man's face. He could not deny it. Half of it was normal enough. The half he showed to the average person, but the other side that he kept hidden by the mask was worse than the vicomte had remembered. True, he hadn't been looking closely as he had begged and pleaded for him to release his Christine below the opera house. It had been dark and he had been angry, but now they were, more or less, on the same side and he could barely bring himself to look at the horribly disfigured sight. Though as it was, he also found himself staring with a sort of curiosity. It had been that horrible curiosity that brought his eyes resting on the tormented figure and brought the name from his lips.
Erik looked up, shivering. He looked as if he was forcing his breath in and out of his body. "What?" he growled out.
"Are you ill again?" was all the younger man could ask. He didn't know what was going on, but it couldn't be good. The Phantom was his one hope of getting out of this alive so that they could save Christine.
"I…" Erik began, breath coming in short gasps now. He lay his head back against the bars and turned his scarred cheek against the bars. "I don't handle cages... well," he finished at length.
Raoul raised an eyebrow and left it at that. He turned his head as best he could to look behind him as footsteps echoed down the hall. The Persian that had taken them away entered, followed by two servants. He smiled a cocky smile. "Good to see you both awake," he said in perfect French. "If I remember correctly, Erik, you have a bit of an unhealthy fear of cages."
"Unhealthy for the person who thinks of putting me in one," Erik retorted, voice steady.
"The Grand Vizier Mirza Taqui Khan found that out the hard way, did he not?"
Erik raised his chin. "I did not kill him."
"No? Everyone thought you had something to do with it."
"Everyone was wrong," Erik snapped, voice echoing through the room. It faded out, leaving everything deathly still and his eyes blazing in fury.
The Persian man shrugged. "I was a child then. I do not remember it well. My mother, on the other hand, saw you leave."
The Phantom froze, his eyes fixed on the man outside of the cage.
"Yes yes," the other answered. "My name is Kashim Khan. He was my father. What? Sound a bit too dramatic? Something from the opera house, hmm?Yes, it does, doesn't? Perhaps you think I went begging the shah to let me have my revenge? No, that I can assure you I did not. What do I care if you killed him or no? It was so long ago… Even if you weren't responsible for his death, I wouldn't mind seeing you dead."
Erik pulled against the restraints that held his hands.
"Are you wondering what I've done with your pretty lady?" Kashim asked, voice taunting. "She is very beautiful and the shah said that I may use her against you until he calls for her. He will call for her, Erik, I assure you. She's still pure, no? Not for long."
Erik lunged against the ropes pulling as hard as he could, his eyes blazing with hatred. "Leave her be!" he roared.
Kashim let loose a hearty laugh. "Should I?" He snapped his fingers and Christine was brought into the room. Her eyes lit up when she saw the two men and Raoul too began to struggle. Their captor sneered. "Oh save your strength. You'll need every ounce."
"Erik! Raoul!" Christine called out. "Oh please!"
Kashim grinned at her. "Poor child. How can you love such a thing, hmm? I might understand the gentleman there, but the magician? What on earth can you see in him?"
Christine glared daggers at the man and held her head high in defiance.
"Answer me, bitch!" When she did not he slapped her, sending her reeling back.
Erik was free of his restraints and against the bars in a second's time. He shook the bars in a fierce attempt to free himself. "Touch her again and I'll kill you!" he yelled.
"Really? How might you do that?" the other man laughed. "Come now, Erik, you're smarter than that! Now, I must know, the other two women, are they friends of yours, Monsieur de Chagny?"
Raoul glared, saying nothing.
Kashim smiled again, motioning for them to bring Marie and Madeleine into the room. "Tell me, my dears, how do you know these gentlemen?"
Marie sniffled a bit. "My m-mother knew Raoul's aunt and M-madeleine is Erik's m-mother," she managed. Raoul looked up with a start, staring at one then the other.
"Is she now?" Kashim asked, eyeing the aging woman with mischief in his dark eyes. "Such a beautiful mother for such an ugly creature. One would hardly believe it."
"Be it your score or the shah's score to settle, it is all with me. Let them go!" Erik called to him from the cage. "They've caused you no harm."
"No, but seeing you hurt is an added bonus." He turned to his servants. "Put the ladies in with de Chagny. Take Erik." His eyes turned dark with hatred. "We'll show him just how far we've come with our torture methods since he last dealt with the shah. They have learned quite a bit from your methods."
Erik was dragged out of the cage, thrashing and cursing the entire way, trying to escape, though the poison that still raced through his veins kept him from doing so.The women were thrown in with Raoul. The man who had hold of Christine stopped a moment as they passed Erik. The diva turned tear filled eyes up to him. "I love you."
"And I you," he whispered, voice strained."I promise you, Christine, this will all be over very soon."
"For you at any rate," Kashim mocked. "Take him down stairs. You, m'lady, would do well to stay quiet lest we decide that you should be dealt with as well."
Christine watched with large, horror filled eyes as they dragged her angel out of the room and threw her into the cage. She felt Madeleine's hand come to rest on her shoulder. Tears were streaming down the aging beauty's face. "Erik's always been strong," she whispered through her tears. "He'll come back to you."
The diva gave her a strained smile. "I know."
LostSchizophrenic :You really don't get a good vision of Madeleine until VERY far into the book, but she is redeemed to some extent. I'm glad you got the book! You'll enjoy it! I'm really tempted to ask my library if I can just buy this copy from them for the price on the cover… I don't know if they'd do that.
GoldenLyre:Two people, yes, but come now, this is the Phantom of the Opera we're talking about. He'd have sent an army if he were smart! Glad you're enjoying it :)
Clever Lass:Hmm… That would be interesting. I've said since I first saw the movie "C'mon, Raoul, you can have any girl you want! Let Christine stay with Erik!" But nooooo! He wouldn't listen! Every time I go back to see the movie, guess what, she leaves with HIM:grumbles: I mean, c'mon, he wants compassion from Erik, but shows none to him. Typical typical. Maybe he will learn, who knows? I never know how stories will go. They write themselves. Glad you like the twists!
Lynx Ryder:Well, okay, I forgave Richard. Against my better judgment, mind you, but I forgave him in the end because as much as I didn't want it, he kept coming out better and better with each story! Well, maybe Madeleine will end up that way and maybe not. Who knows? I am at the will of my characters because they write the story, not me :)
