People, people, people! I have an actual plot now! And in this next chapter, the plot thickens! It's gonna be so cool! Heh heh heh...Alright alright, I'm shuttin' up. Go on, go on! Read!
"Well Will," Elsa announced, bursting into Christine's dressing room via the big mirror, "I have perfected my voice to sound like Erik's-slightly higher, that is, but still -I can pull it off damn well, if I do say so myself!"
Through Elsa's speech, Danielle had jumped ten feet off the ground and ran to hide behind a large flower arrangement.
"What in bloody hell are ye doin'?" asked Elsa, confused.
"Dammit, man! I thought you were him-Again!" she said, appearing from behind the blooms. "Can't ya gimme some warning before you burst in on me? What if I had been dressing?" she hissed.
"I'm me, Will," Elsa sighed. "Let it go."
"Grr."
"Come on then! Phantom's expectin' us," she said, pulling her friend towards the mirror.
"But I have to tell them I'm leavin'. They'll freak out if I don't." She was referring to the de Chagny's, no doubt.
"Write them a note," suggested Elsa, pulling a pad of paper and a pen from her vest.
Danielle frowned, taking the writing implements. "Where did you-? Why do you have-?"
"I'm a magician," Elsa whispered.
"You're insaaaane!" Danielle whispered back.
"And a genius. And an architect and a composer and so on and so forth. Geez, listen to Madame Giry why don't you!"
"Eh..." Danielle whined, scribbling down a few things on the pad of paper.
"Phantom taught me," Elsa continued. "He's really amazing. And we've become really good friends." She had decided not to tell Danielle how she had come out and said she loved Erik. She wouldn't know how to explain her forward actions, even though Danielle was her best friend...
"That's so cool Jack," Danielle smiled. "And Christine helped me hit those opera notes in 'Phantom of the Opera'. We're really good friends now, too. Raoul's just..." she pondered. "Raoul's just Raoul, really."
"Yay! We have friends! Who are cool!" Elsa laughed, taking the pen from Danielle and scanning her note. "All right then...Hmm...One thing-" she said, scribbling some words herself.
Danielle looked at the new note and read: "Don't worry, mon gars, we'll take magnifique care of Mademoiselle Danielle. Your obedient servant, O.G. JR." She laughed and placed it on the desk.
"Ah, wait!" Elsa said mysteriously. Then she pulled a rose-with a black silk ribbon tied to it-from the inside of her vest and placed it on top of the note.
"I love you," laughed Danielle, amused.
"Hah, indeed you do. Now come away with me, Christine. To my batcave-basement-lair-thing!"
Elsa said, whisking her behind the mirror.
As they walked along the dark corridors of the Opera House, Danielle started humming, then sang, "In sleep he sang to me...In dreams he came...That voice that calls to me...And speaks my name...And do I dream again? For now I find...The Phantom of the Opera is there...Inside my mind..."
Elsa laughed and continued the song in her 'Phantomesque' voice, "Sing once again with me...Our strange duet...My power over you...Grows stronger yet...And though you turn from me...To glance behind! The Phantom of the Opera is there...Inside your mind..."
Danielle stared at her friend in amazement, thinking, Damn she can sound like him! Too weird!
Elsa assisted Danielle into the small gondola docked at the edge of the lake. Danielle squealed, almost falling in the water.
"What, no horsey?" asked Danielle when she was situated.
"Ay yi yi," Elsa groaned. "You gonna finish out the song or not, sweetie?"
"Oh yeah!" said Danielle. "Those who have seen your face...draw back in fear...I am the mask you wear..."
"It's me they hear!"
"Your/My spirit and my/your voice...In one combined...The Phantom of the Opera is here/there...Inside my/your mind."
Sitting at his piano, Erik could easily hear the two singing as the came closer to his "batcave-basement-lair-thing".
"Is she serious?" he muttered, putting down his quill and music. "Is the little nutter serious?" He was referring to Elsa. She had told him that she and Danielle frequently sang Phantom songs, but he didn't believe her. Well...he hadn't believed her-until now.
"Sing my angel of music!" Elsa laughed, as Danielle sang her incredible, ear shattering octaves as well as any Christine Daae. The iron gate came up and they sailed into the lair with their little gondola. "Sing for me!"
Elsa lost her composure laughing and almost tipped the boat over as Danielle hit the very last one. Danielle whacked her in the leg and Elsa hopped out of the gondola and "whooshed" her cape off.
"I have brought you," she sang, "to the seat of sweet music's throne/To this kingdom where all must pay homage to music..." She looked up at the piano and gulped/sang, "Hi Erik."
The Phantom laughed and laid his head down on the keys of the piano, eliciting a loud mix of notes.
"Erm..." Danielle said, still sitting in the gondola.
"Brilliant!" Erik gasped through his laughing. He banged his head on the keys.
"Gee. Thanks," Elsa said sourly, picking up her cloak and dusting it off.
"No, no, no-Really!" he said, calming himself. "That was really good. C'est mangifique!"
Elsa bowed.
Danielle suddenly screamed, a loud splash following.
Erik and Elsa looked down at the boat and saw Danielle bobbing in the water. Upon seeing this, they burst out laughing.
"Heeeey," Danielle said, climbing out of the lake sopping wet. "Shut up Jack."
"Eh heh heh," Elsa said, holding out her hand to help her friend up.
Danielle squinted evilly and threw Elsa into the lake.
"Not the trousers!" Elsa squealed. She sighed and floated out into the middle of the lake. "Dammit," she muttered.
"No matter," Erik laughed. "There's another pair you can wear."
"You're wearing his pants?" asked Danielle. "Ooo!"
Erik frowned. "You really think I'm handsome?"
"Uh..." Danielle turned beet red. Again. "Yeah, uh huh..."
Erik grinned.
Awww he's so cute! Danielle thought and smiled.
Elsa trudged to the shore and hopped up onto the stone floor silently, then wrung out her shirt and took off her mask, wiping her face dry. She looked at Danielle solemnly.
"Now, let it be war...Upon you."
"Ha!" Danielle said. "Loser."
"Ass."
"Shit head."
"Mother!"
"Alright, ladies, ladies, please," Erik said, laying a hand on each of their shoulders.
Danielle made a happy surprised sound.
"I'll go get your trousers. My trousers. The trousers I'll be letting you wear which are mine...?"
"Erik please go," Elsa sighed and brushed away his hand. "Always makes everything so difficult for himself, the poor dolt."
"He's like you!" snickered Danielle.
"I'd hit you, but you'd cry."
Danielle stuck out her tongue at her.
"Don't make me chop it off, boil it, and force it down your throat!" Elsa growled in her piratical accent.
"You know how to do that too?" asked Erik surprised, showing up, a new pair of black trouser's in hand.
"Of course! Pirate!"
"I thought you were a phantom?"
Danielle laughed.
Elsa sighed, "So many alter egos...Thank you," she said as she was handed her new clothes. "Gonna go put these on now. You guys think you can be here alone for a little while? Without kissing?" she teased Danielle, while she really wished she could kiss him...
"Jack!" Danielle squealed and turned red AGAIN. She tried to hit Elsa but her friend had already retreated to her room.
"She's very interesting," mused Erik. "Like me, only much more..." he pondered the word. "Exuberent."
"Uh huh..." agreed Danielle. After a while, Danielle looked at Erik and said, "Sooo...How are you?"
"Fine thank you. Yourself?"
"I'm fine...Really amazing place you've got here."
"Elsa said you'd like it," Erik smiled.
"What the hell!" Elsa was heard yelling from her room suddenly.
Erik frowned and Danielle ran to the room.
"What the-?" Danielle gasped.
Erik ran into the room behind them and stared wide eyed at the room. It was torn up. The sheets had been thrown on the floor, the curtains were torn from the ceiling, the furniture was upturned-the whole room had been thrashed.
Elsa looked around at the room she loved. She thought of the time Erik had spent making that room emmaculate for both Christine and herself to use. She felt herself tearing up, so she turned away from the two of them, pretending to go through some things lying on the floor.
"Who would do this?" asked Danielle, shocked.
Erik clenched his fists. "I don't know," he muttered. Then he glanced at Elsa; he didn't see her face, but he felt her pain. "Danielle," he said, loosening up and speaking in a soft voice. "Would you go into my room, into my dresser, and find the spare bedhseets? Just look around for them. You'll find them."
Danielle nodded and left the room.
"Elsa?" Erik asked, kneeling next to Elsa when Danielle was gone.
She was crying. "Why can't people just leave you alone?" she whispered.
Oh, God, his aching heart. Her voice brought him close to tears himself. "Elsa...We'll straighten everything out...It'll be back to normal in an hour..."
She rubbed her eyes and sat on the floor, leaning against a wall.
"People just don't understand...People need to just leave you the hell alone..."
"This isn't all about me is it, darling?" he asked, soothingly.
She blushed at the name he called her. She loved him so much...But how did he know?
"What do you mean?" she stuttered, looking away from him.
Erik looked at her, studied her. "You've been hurt too haven't you?"
"No..."
"Yes. A lover, perhaps? Is it heartache?"
"No," she sighed. "I've never been in love," she half lied. She loved Erik. But she'd never had a real relationship. And she was 17. But she didn't trust men. She didn't want to.
"Ah," Erik mused. "Then people don't understand you, and treat you differently?"
She remained silent, thinking, Hit the nail on the head, Phantom.
"You're intelligent and they don't like that?" Erik continued.
Elsa nodded, eyes watering again. "Why won't they leave us alone? Why can't we be accepted?"
My God...he thought. She is like me...
"I don't know. But they don't either. If they can't accept you-us-then we'll just prove our worth in other ways. It seemed to work for me...Until..." There was the subject of Christine again. She was accepting...But she went with Raoul. She loved Raoul. Anger and sorrow mixed in his heart, and he bent his head.
Elsa read his actions as he had with her. She placed her hand on his knee gently.
"I know. I hate that. You've been hurt worse than I have...I'm only 17...I don't know the heartbreak you've known...But I still feel for you."
His eyes locked with hers. She shivered. He had such a power over her. He was so...She had no words. Just an amazing man. And he made her feel like she was important.
He smiled. A genuine, caring smile. He raised his hand to her face and brushed his fingertips softly down her cheek. She blushed and looked down, but he raised her chin up with his fingers. He brushed away the tears from her cheek gently.
"No more tears..." he whispered.
She leaned in...
"I found the sheets, people! Have no fear!" Danielle announced, walking into the room with a bundle of cloth in her arms, obscuring her vision, thank goodness! Erik stood up and straightened his vest; Elsa rubbed her eyes and got up.
"Finally woman!" Elsa barked, silently cursing Danielle for coming into the room too soon. "Now! Let's get to cleanin' this mess up! And look for clues on who the perpetrator is!"
Ooo! What's gonna happen? Who did this! What's gonna happen between Phantom and Phantom JR.! (Heh heh...) Stay tuned and I'll have an update soon! (I hate rhyming when it's completely unecessary...)