Here's another chapter. I've decided to try and update daily if I can. I find writing this story fun. thanks for the reviews...again.
He returned her to the dressing room and slipped away. Claire had been silent ever since his outburst and he hadn't said a word during the duration of their climb to the surface. It had not been an awkward silence, more like a thoughtful one.
Claire was now submerged in darkness. She began to grope around for a candle but was startled when one was suddenly lit. The darkness dispersed and Madame Giry appeared before her eyes. She sat in a large arm chair, her face contemplative.
"So, you have returned," Giry said, her eyes unblinking. Claire blushed and responded,
"What are you doing in here?" Claire watched as Madame Giry looked down at her hands and watched as they smoothed out wrinkles in her dress.
"It's early morning my dear. You never came to bed and I was worried," she answered, staring at Claire intently. Claire pushed her hair behind her shoulders and crossed over to the vanity table where she had sat earlier. She didn't sit down but merely stood there, her hands resting on it for support.
"I'm fine, I just couldn't sleep," Claire lied. Madame shook her head.
"I'm sure that's not true."
"And why wouldn't it be?"
There was a pause. Claire looked to Madame Giry who had now turned her attention towards the mirror.
"Because those who walk through mirrors are quite awake," she answered solemnly. Claire felt her blood run cold. How could Madame know this?
"What are you talking about?" she asked breathlessly. Madame Giry smiled weakly and stood.
"You know of whom I speak." Claire decided it would be wise to play dumb.
"And who is that?" Madame stared at the mirror, as if willing it to come to life.
"The Phantom." Claire was compelled to run over to Madame and shake her, make her revel how she knew all of this, but she kept her cool.
"Well, I've never met this Phantom, but I've heard he's quite cruel." She was of course referring to her earlier incident with him. She had never actually heard that he was a cruel apparition.
"He doesn't know better. He is blind to what is right because he has never had to worry about being right. He is a creature of loneliness, Claire, he does not know." Claire felt her heart break. She had known this, of course, but had never heard it spoken aloud. She wanted to run back to him in that moment, ask him why he chose a life of solitude. She wanted to know the whole story.
"Why me?" she asked, her voice barley above a whisper. She had just turned herself in with two words. Madame Giry now was assured of her suspicions. It was something she had to know, however. Madame Giry sighed.
"Your spirit I suppose. He's never allowed himself to love anyone Claire; he's bound to his music. For him to even show kindness to you must be difficult for him to deal with." Claire let all Madame Giry had just said sink in before she asked,
"But, when I first met him, he seemed so needy. Like I had no choice but to love or he'd die." Madame Giry turned from her vigilant watch of the mirror and walked over to Claire. She wrapped Claire in a warm hug.
"He might die," she said. Claire's heart stopped.
"What?" Madame Giry broke the hug and looked Claire in the eyes. She saw tears brimming there, threatening to spill over.
"When you loose something you love, a part of you dies. In his case, it might just consume him entirely, body and mind." Claire couldn't bear to look into those eyes anymore and see that sadness. It would kill her.
"He loves me?" That was when Madame moved away from Claire and towards the door. She opened the door and turned back to Claire.
"That is not for me to say," she responded, "Now come, eat breakfast with me. You must be famished, my dear."
