A/N: Wow, I was truly amazed by the amount of reviews I received overnight for this fic! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, the response was heartening and has influenced me to write another chapter. I can't say I was as amazed at the number of typos that all of you found and that I found on my own. I'm kind of a reckless typist. Needless to say I did replace the last two chapters with revised versions, they're probably not perfect but they're better. I'm especially ashamed of my use of "to" instead of "too." Sigh...oh well...I hope you enjoy this new chapter, I'm feeling a little pressure, haha.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Leroux. This is not meant to make money. Etc.
Chapter Three
Little Meg was "marching straight to her room" as she had been instructed by her mother to do immediately following lunchtime. This was a part of her punishment, she supposed. On the inside she was shaking her fist at Erik, outwardly she was pouting. As she walked into her room something caught her attention right away. It was a bright purple stuffed bunny sitting atop her pillow with a note attached to it. The note read:
Little
Giry-
He
is for you. Forgive me, but you cannot keep
visiting
me like you have been. You must do what
your
mother tells you to, she really does know
what's
best for you.
-Erik,
O.G.
Meg placed the note reverently on her night stand and glanced at the rabbit.
"Hmm...what shall I name you, Monsieur Rabbit?" Meg asked aloud. She picked up the stuffed animal and hugged it tightly."Erik."
As the initial happiness at receiving a gift wore off, Meg felt melancholy sink into her. It was strange that even though she'd known Erik for a short time and he had been mostly either mean or confusing to her, she was going to miss him. She sighed and decided to introduce Little Erik to the rest of her stuffed animals.
After that Meg didn't see Erik. Not that she didn't know he still thought of her. Every once in a while Meg would come into her room at night and find some chocolates left for her beside her bed. And once when she'd awoken from a nightmare and had been crying she felt his presence in the room. What might have been frightening to most felt comforting to Meg that night.
As it goes with small children, Meg soon moved on from her sadness in missing Erik. Years went by and though she still thought of him as somewhat of a friend because of his occasional gifts, Meg began to once more thrill at the chance to tell a story of the mysterious and deadly Opera Ghost. She was tempted back into the habit by the lure of horrifying her audience of little ballerina girls. One night, however, she went too far.
It was after a big opera production and 8 year old Giry and her friends were not allowed to attend the after show party, so they were all gathered together in Meg's room sharing horror stories. As one girl finished her tale of the Phantom of the Opera with a flaming death head atop his shoulders Meg felt the urge to tell her own story.
"Oh, Diana, I think you are taking the legend too seriously. I know for a fact that the Opera Ghost does not have a death head. I have seen him!" Meg spoke rashly.
At once the flock of girls erupted in gasps and urges for Meg to tell her story.
"Quiet down now...," she spoke to call their attention,"I will tell you what happened."
Meg took on her most theatrical of voices,"I was wandering the halls of the Opera House when I came across the queerest room. It was dark and dank, dust filled the air and all the furniture was covered in sheets. The forms the sheets took on looked like ghosts. It was in this room that I found the--"
Suddenly Meg realized what she had been about to reveal. The girls begged her to continue, but she merely sat speechless and panicked, wondering what to do.
"It was a trap door wasn't it?" one girl asked.
"No, no it was a passageway!" another insisted.
Meg was lost in the whirl of enthusiasm and still didn't know what she should do. At last she refused to finish her story.
"No, I cannot go on," she insisted to her tortured audience,"I have been sworn to secrecy by the Phantom himself. If I were to go on with my story I would be endangering both your lives and mine."
"Oh at least tell us what his face really looks like, Meg!" one girl implored.
Meg glanced at her audience dramatically,"Very well...It is perfectly handsome on one side. The other is covered by a snow white mask. I suspect that beneath the mask lies his monstrous side. That side of his face must be very ugly."
The girls did not seem very satisfied with this description, and so the group slowly began to disperse a few girls at a time until Meg was left alone in her room. That's when she heard the noise.
Soft and distant it sounded at first but it's pitch and intensity grew louder and fiercer with each passing second. The sound was of a giant's footsteps echoing through the hallway and they seemed to be getting closer to Meg's room. Terrified, Meg leapt beneath her blankets and pulled them up to her chin. She stared at her door as the footsteps grew louder and seemed to shake her walls. At last they reached Meg's door and stopped. For a moment there was no sound and during this moment Meg's horror only grew. At last a voice sounded from all around Meg.
"I told you to keep silent, young Giry," the voice was thunderous and harsh."I do not like being spoken of. I told you to keep silent!"
For several minutes Meg was silent and the voice said nothing, but she could still sense it all around her. Finally she spoke in a meek whisper,"I-I'm sorry, Erik! I d-didn't mean to...it just happened..."
For a few seconds the voice hesitated and the feeling in the air told Meg that he was about to speak, but then there was nothing and Meg knew that he had gone.
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