Chapter VII: Genius or Insane?
Throughout the dormitories, Chouet's shrill scream was heard as she saw who was in her room.
There was a man standing in her room. He wore a great black cape, and his left face was hidden by a mask that covered the left side of his face. Chouet stared at him. "Wh…wh…who are you!"
The man watched her, his eyes blank with surprise. Chouet stared, and then realized something that frightened her more than anything that night. "Raphael…"
Raphael didn't look away from Chouet and didn't say anything. Chouet then continued. "Raphael…why are you dressed like that? Why...?" She couldn't accept it. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible… "…Why did you kill Monsieur Giovanni!"
Raphael stared at her, still silent. Chouet backed away from him, but found to her horror that the door was shut as she backed into it. She now began screaming at him. "WHY DID YOU KILL HIM!"
After a moment of painful silence between the two of them, Raphael finally spoke, seemingly emotionless yet filled with sorrow and agony. "Chouet, I love you."
Chouet froze. Had she just heard correctly? "Why did you kill him, Raphael?"
Raphael responded quickly this time. "I just told you! I love you, Chouet! Why…why can't you love me?"
Chouet was so frightened her voice trembled as she spoke. "You killed him. You…I…he…" She couldn't decide what to say. She suddenly exploded. "YOU'VE BECOME A MONSTER!" She finally turned around, opening the door, and shutting it behind her as Raphael simply watched her, stunned.
Chouet could see some men coming up the stairs, one of them Jacques. Jacques seemed extremely concerned, almost frightened. "Chouet, we heard you scream! Are you…all right?"
Chouet spoke, her voice shaking. "He's in here, good messieurs."
She stepped aside as the three men barged into her room. There was a moment's silence, during which the men looked around the room. One of them, Pierre, spoke. "He's gone! Not a trace of him!"
Raphael was back down in the catacombs, pacing. Why couldn't he win her heart? He loved her so dearly…but he now thought him a monster. Was this really the right choice?
His boot broke something under his foot and he stopped walking, looking under his boot at what he had broken. It was a piece of the shattered glass. He looked at his deformed reflection once again, made grotesque by the many shards. He stared at himself, completely transfixed by nothing in particular.
Suddenly, he jumped away from the mirror, giving an exclamation of surprise. Surely he had been seeing things. He looked behind him, just to make sure that he hadn't been seeing things. Nobody was there. He slowly turned back to the shattered glass, looking at his reflection.
Then, it happened again, but this time he was expecting it. In the shattered glass, Raphael could see somebody else standing behind him. He looked like Raphael in the way he dressed; only he seemed considerably older. But the thing they most closely shared in common was that they both wore the same mask. It couldn't just be a coincidence…
"I'm seeing things," Raphael said out loud. He turned away from the mirror, walking away.
Suddenly, he heard another voice, low and mysterious. "Maybe. And maybe not."
Raphael froze, and slowly turned back to the mirror, looking at the man that seemed to be standing behind him. He stared for a moment, and then spoke again. "Are…are you…?"
The man simply nodded.
Raphael simply stared, vaguely noticing the odd similarities between them, as if it was destined that they would become the same person. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Raphael. "How…I thought you died…"
The Phantom of the Opera simply looked at Raphael, their reflections equally distorted and disfigured. "True geniuses can communicate, no matter what realms separate them. Even the realm of death."
Next Chapter: Hated
"I don't understand. What am I to do? I love Chouet…so dearly…"
The Phantom looked back at Raphael, his face serious. "I, too, know how it feels to truly love. To love so dearly you cannot live without them. Do you feel that if you were not to share every moment with this Chouet your heart would stop beating and you would die?"
Raphael nodded. "I would die. Die alone and unloved."
