DaaebyDay-Thank Antoinette. You can write awesome stuff too, you just don't admit it (darn you)
onelastchance-I am so glad to see that you enjoy the story so much . I'm updating as fast as I can. Hope you keep reading
phantomess08-Thank you for your wonderful praise! Reviews like yours
and onelastchance's make me feel all fuzzy inside (did I just say that
out loud...?)
KrazywithaK-Roaine, I am going to go out on a limb and say that you
were sugar high when you wrote this. You had me laughing for a while.
And I for one would find being called a ham sandwhich quiet insulting
so keep up with the good insults
Many thanks to all of you
Your obedient phriend,
Good Lady Grace
Echoes of the Opera
By Good Lady Grace
Chapter Six
The Second Task
Adelaide was dreaming.
She was running along the walkway that went around the dome of the theatre. She was panting. She stared at the beautifully painted wall in front of her and saw the door. She pulled out her knife, opened it and walked through a small circular room. Gazing around it momentarily, she heard the swish of the cloak and dashed out another door.
Now she was above the stage. She could see the dancers bellow her. She wiped the perspiration off her face as she looked around. She didn't see anyone. She turned to look back at the room. It was still empty. Turning back to the front, she found herself staring into those hellish yellow eyes. She saw the face hidden behind the white mask, the black cloak.
She was staring into the face of the Phantom of the Opera.
She let out a cry in a deep terrified voice and took off on another one of the bridges. The Phantom didn't follow her. She was about to run to one of the ladders when she saw him right across from her on a parallel bridge. Whichever way she moved, so did he. She took a chance and ran towards another bridge. She felt it rattle as he dashed after her.
She was coming to a gap in the bridge. She fell. She felt the feet walking up to her as she cried out in the deep voice and tried to get up. She felt the lasso close around her throat. She gasped and tugged at it, but the Phantom was to strong. The lasso tightened as he pulled harder and harder. As the world started to become cloudy before her, Adelaide reached up and pulled off the mask. She cried out again.
Staring back at her was not her father, but herself.
The Phantom Adelaide tied the other end of the lasso around the bridge. "Au revoir, Monsieur Buquet" said the Phantom Adelaide with a slight bow.
The Phantom pushed Buquet off the bridge and heard the screams from bellow.
Adelaide sat up quickly. She was panting, her eyes were wide and she was sweating. She rubbed her hands frantically over her neck and face. She found neither the Punjab Lasso nor the mask. Adelaide half fell out of her bed and ran over to a mirror. Her white, sweaty face stared in horror back at her. She sighed with relief and laughed slightly to herself. "Only a dream, Adelaide, it was only a dream" she said, shuddering slightly.
It was only then that Adelaide realized she was holding her hand at the level of her eye.
"Oh don't be so STUPID" yelled the voice in her head. Adelaide let her hand fall. She looked over toward her bed and saw the note bound in a red ribbon…
"Roger, I need you to go find Adelaide" said Meg to her son. Ballet lessons had been going on for 15 minutes and still no sign of Adelaide. Roger nodded and left the stage. He trudged through the backstage area making his way around the many stage hands and seamstresses and scenery designers. He finally got into the deserted hallway where one of the five immediate entrances to The Sanctuary was. Yanking on a statue, he revealed the dust covered passageway and entered.
"Adelaide!" he called once he was in The Sanctuary. He could hear her voice. She was yelling angrily. He walked into her father's room to see her pacing and ranting to her unconscious father. "This is ridiculous!" she yelled furiously, "he wants me to sing as Elisa in Hannibal! But that is not the half of it! To play Elisa, Isabel has to be out of the way. And the only way that Isabel will not play Elisa is if you, or rather me pretending to be you…".
"Get her out of the way" said Roger. Adelaide spun around and saw Roger standing in the doorway. She put her hand over her heart. "Must you!" she said, upset. Roger smiled and said, "You are late, Mademoiselle". "I do not think I am going to be able to dance today" said Adelaide falling back onto the bed. "Alright, but Mother is not going to like it" said Roger. He turned to go, changed his mind, and sat down on the bed next to his friend.
"You know you have to" he said. "I know I have to, but it is a questions of how" said Adelaide miserably. "Not only will I have to pretend to be father again, but if another chorus girl comes out suddenly and becomes the star of an opera, they will get ideas". Roger opened his mouth, closed it, then got up and left his friend alone to think.
Isabel Breton, self proclaimed leading soprano, stepped out to the center of the stage dressed in a ridiculous looking gold dress. She readjusted her 5 pound hat and cleared her throat loudly. She took her position in the center of the stage as the music began. In her soprano voice, she pompously proclaimed
Think of me, think
of me fondly when we've said good-bye
Remember me, once in
a while please promise me you'll tryWhen you find that
once again you long to take your heart back and be free
If you ever find a
moment stop a…
Isabel never finished her sentence. At that moment, a huge faux gold statue came crashing down right in front of her. She screamed. The organ in the orchestra pit then took a life of it's own and began blaring the music that all had come to associate with the Phantom of the Opera. The ballet girls screamed wildly.
Madame Facet, the ballet teacher stared at the statue, the organ, and then to the rafters. She caught the eye of one of the stagehands, a tall, well built young man with golden hair and dark brown eyes, and nodded slightly. He nodded back and disappeared behind the crowd thronging around the dismayed diva.
Monsieurs Andre and Firmin soon arrived on the scene. Their attempts to calm Isabel were in vain. "I will not stand for these things!" screamed Isabel in rage. She readjusted her hat which was threatening to fall off her head before continuing, "Signora Giudicelli stood for such things and look where that got her! Right back to Italy she went! I tell you I will not be so easily consoled!" Finally surrendering to her hat and letting it fall off her head with a thud, Isabel Breton stormed off the stage and out of the Opera Populaire.
"WILL SOMEONE TELL ME!" yelled Firmin in rage, "WHAT THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA HAS AGAINST HANNIBAL!". "Firmin! Pull yourself together man, you are making a spectacle of yourself!" said Andre hurriedly. After watching taking several deep breathes, Firmin and Andre along with Monsieur Reyer began to work on the problem at hand. They were so absorbed in trying to think of a way to keep the show going that they did not see Roger Facet hand a letter sealed with a red skull seal to his mother, or see a raven haired ballerina appear from the shadows of the stage and join her peers silently.
"Monsieurs?" said Madame Marguerite Facet to the managers. "Yes, Madame Facet, what IS it!" asked Firmin annoyed. Meg glanced at him with slight distaste before continuing. "I have a message from the Opera Ghost" she said. The three men stared at her. "Madame Facet" said Andre suspiciously, "it is curious that it is always a Giry who brings us these letters". "My mother and I were not always the ones to find them, but anyone who does simply gave them to her and now gives me" said Meg innocently. "Alright, alright, I apologize, now what does it say?" said Andre quickly. Meg read the letter.
Gentlemen,
Forgive me for making such a scene, but if I was to hear even one more note from that woman I think I would have jumped from the roof. I do apologize if this causes some unrest, but I would like to see the understudy you have chosen. If you have not chosen one, I must question if you learned anything from our last encounter. Warmest regards to you all.
Your obedient friend,O.G.
P.S. Firmin, I quite enjoy Hannibal, actually, but am disgusted by the repulsive pigeons you choose to cast for Elisa.
"We do not have an understudy…do we" said Andre quietly. "Mademoiselle Breton refused, Monsieur" said Meg. "Again" said Firmin furiously, "again that bastard makes us refund a full house! I do not believe this! This could stop productions for some time, Andre, if the press finds out". "What will we do?" asked Andre, panicking. "We must find a new lead" said Firmin. "Gentlemen" said Monsieur Reyer, "a lead soprano can not be found over night! It is impossible!".
"Adelaide Lebel could sing it, sir" said Meg casually. All the other ballet girls turned to look at Adelaide who had planted a very convincing look of shock on her face. "Not another chorus girl" moaned Andre. "Would you prefer to refund a full house?" asked Meg with a slight edge to her voice. "Well do not just stand there Mademoiselle!" said Firmin, "sing!". Adelaide walked to the front of the stage. She took several deep breaths and Monsieur Reyer began the music
Think of me, think
of me fondly when we've said good-bye
Remember me, once in
a while please promise me you'll try
When you find that
once again you long to take your heart back and be free
If you ever find a
moment, stop and think of me
Adelaide's angelic voice sang the words easily. Andre and Firmin looked at each other. "Here we go again" whispered Andre.