Echoes of the Opera
By Good Lady Grace
Chapter Five
Box Five Masquerade
"This is never going to work" said Adelaide exasperated. She slipped out of Andre's office and rejoined Roger in the hallway. They walked down it to return to the stage. "We do not really have any choice in the matter" sighed Roger, "it has to work". Adelaide looked incredulously at the eighteen year old next to her. "You make it sound simple!" she half yelled, "you are not the one risking your life!".
As soon as the words left her mouth, Adelaide wished she hadn't said them. Roger was risking his life, he and his mother had been for all the years they had helped the underground family. Roger glanced at her, slightly hurt, and picked up his pace a little. "I am sorry Roger, I did not think" said Adelaide, staring embarrassed at her ballet slippers, "I really am quite terrible". "Oh, yes" said Roger, teasingly, "I can barely put up with you". Adelaide smiled and they walked in silence for a while.
"But I still don't think it is going to work" said Adelaide with a sigh, "they will be expecting father and instead they will get a skinny little ballerina! Who will then be put in jail, might I add". "Well we cannot have that can we?" said Roger with a sly smile. "What are you getting at?" asked Adelaide suspiciously. "We shall have to make you look the part" said Roger, still smiling. "Oh come now!" said Adelaide shocked and annoyed, "what do you want me to do, dress up as father!"
"I cannot believe I'm dressing up as father!" said Adelaide shocked at herself for the eighth time. "All you have to do" said Meg as she helped Adelaide into the shirt that had been padded to make her slender form look like that of a man's, "is sit there and be quiet.". "Then when it is over" said Roger from outside of the curtain where Adelaide was getting dressed, "make a run for it and we will meet you down here". Adelaide raised her eyes to the ceiling silently praying that she would not be caught.
When she was done dressing, Meg eyed her costume. "From close up, you won't be very convincing. However, from a distance you're the spitting image of your father". "Good" said Adelaide. She forced her knees to stop shaking as she slipped out of The Sanctuary and into the hallway.
It was the night of Miserere. It was a full house as the play was one of the favorites amongst the aristocrats. Andre and Firmin sat nervously in Box 3 glancing up and down the hallways behind them. They did not see the shadowy figure drop down from the ceiling, slink across the hall, enter Box 5 and close the curtain behind it. Adelaide readjusted her father's white mask. It took a lot of self control not to sneeze, for everything was covered in time earned dust.
Both the white mask and the opera clothes had been locked away in a chest after Christine died. Her father normally had worn a dark brown mask and street clothes. Adelaide had a hard time picturing her father as the menacing Phantom of the Opera. This was probably the effect he hoped for as everything about the Opera Populaire and his alias was a stinging reminder of Christine.
Adelaide was jerked from her thoughts by the opening number. She shook her head, adjusted the mask yet again as it threatened to slip off her face, and tried to regain her nerves. "Come on, Adelaide!" she thought to herself, "you are suppose to be The Phantom of the Opera! How would The Phantom act?". Adelaide searched her memory for stories she had heard people tell about the terrible Phantom. He was supposed to be a raving lunatic, but this didn't fit her father's actions.
She ran her fingers gently over the mask. It felt smooth and leathery beneath her fingers. Suddenly, the mask took a life of its own. Adelaide felt a cool calm fall over her. She sat back in her chair. She almost felt like laughing. Everyone and everything about her seemed so inferior. She was in charge of it all. The power swelled up inside of her and threatened to make her burst.
The managers, at that moment, looked over toward Box 5. Adelaide revealed the masked side of her face and made a mock bow to the managers. The looked as though they had glimpsed the Angel of Death himself. They whipped around to watch the performance, faces white. Adelaide chuckled to herself and relaxed. She enjoyed the performance immensely, even though that repulsive Isabel was the star. She rolled her eyes when her number came. She was easier to listen to then Carlotta, but was no less pompous.
At the end, Adelaide stood and clapped with everyone else while hidden mostly in the shadows. Once the curtain calls were finally done, she slipped through the curtains.
She turned to see three men blocking the hallway. They all lunged at her at once. She leapt out of the way at the last moment and took off at a run down the hall, a string of curses trailing after her.
Adelaide turned sharply to the right. She could hear the men still following her. She felt the dagger in her pocket. She would show them who tried to ambush the Pha…
"Have you gone mad!" interrupted a voice in her head, "you are NOT the Phantom! Stop being so foolish and get home". Just as suddenly as it had come on, the power and bravery that Adelaide had felt moments ago left her. She was terrified. "GET HOME!" screamed the voice in her head. Adelaide ran as fast as her costume would let her. She jumped behind a statue and pressed a stone in the wall. Part of the wall slid away to reveal a large stone slide appeared. Adelaide threw herself down in and it shut behind her.
Cold, moist air beat Adelaide's face as she slid down. She landed with a thump on the cave floor. She stood up with some difficulty. She was shaking with fright. She spoke quietly to the cave. "There you are Monsieur Vicomte" she said as bravely as she could, "task one complete". Adelaide pulled off her father's clothes and slipped into a plain blue dress with a white cord around the waist.
She had just wound her hair into a bun when she heard a loud thud and running feet. "ADELAIDE!" came Roger's frightened yell. He burst into The Sanctuary. Adelaide barely got a look at his panicking eyes before he rushed over and enveloped her in a huge hug that all but screamed how relieved he was. "Bonjour to you as well, Roger" said Adelaide, smiling and winding her arms around him. Roger didn't answer, but nestled his face in her hair and continued to hold her tightly. Adelaide felt her heart flutter.
Suddenly, as though aware of what he was doing, Roger let go of her. His face was only slightly red as he looked away for a moment. When he looked back, it wasn't the same Roger that had just clung to her as though she was a life preserver. Adelaide felt disappointed, but she was not sure why.
Roger smiled at her and took hold of her shoulders. "You, Mademoiselle" he said in his brotherly way, "are going to kill me with fright". "I try" said Adelaide, giving him a slightly forced smile.
As if on cue to relieve the slight tension between the two, Meg dashed into The Sanctuary. "Oh thank God!" she said, relieved. She threw her arms around Adelaide like a mother. "We were so worried when we heard they had tried to capture you" said Meg breathlessly.
She was about to add that she had never seen Roger run so fast, but stopped at the sight of her son's slightly red face and Adelaide's slightly disappointed one. Meg didn't feel the need to question the matter and remained quiet.
After Meg and Roger had left, Adelaide took her father's mask in her hands. It glowed ghostly in the light of the candles. She pulled a sheet off of one of the mirrors and placed the mask on her face. Even thought it was fitted to her father, the mask looked as though it was made for her. Adelaide felt the power inside of her again. She wondered if this was how her father had felt all those years ago.
Suddenly, the same voice in her head screamed, "TAKE OFF THE MASK!". Adelaide ripped the mask from her face and jammed it back into the trunk. Shaking her head and trying to calm her heart, she said goodnight to the motionless figure of her father and climbed into bed where she was met with uneasy sleep.