Sorry it took so long for me to get this chappie up people... it's long (at least, for me) and I have had 3 projects to do (and I just finished 2 of them! Yay, go me! LOL). Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chappie, whereJane will meetour Phantomin person...
Disclaimer: I don't own PotO.
Three nights later, Jane and Meg Giry were wandering together down the hall.
"Yeah, and Joseph Buquet said, before the ghost killed him, that the ghost had a great black hole instead of a nose. Maman always told him that he should keep his mouth shut, but he never did... until the ghost shut it for him," little Meg was telling Erik's story (again) to Jane, who nodded and shivered in excitement.
"Oh, he sounds horrid!" she exclaimed with another shiver (Erik, of course, who was watching from the shadows, opened his mouth in surprise, but knew that Jane didn't really know him, and that her conclusions were of Meg's stories, so he shut his mouth).
Meg nodded in agreement, then checked her watch, "Oh, my watch has stopped. Is yours still running?"
"Yes. It's about nine o'clock... and I should actually be getting changed. I'll see you in the dormitories in a little bit, alright Meg?"
"Sure. See you there."
"Bye." Jane waved to Meg and entered her dressing room. Erik ran down some secret passageways behind the walls and stood just beyond Jane's mirror in her dressing room. As he expected, she was sitting in her chair, slowly removing her toes shoes and singing.
"When you find that once again you long
To take your heart back and be free-
If you ever find a moment,
Spare a thought for me..." Erik reached out a hand and touched the cold surface of the mirror's back lightly. Jane was Christine. She was like a clone, a carbon copy. Erik couldn't take it anymore, watching her from behind the mirror as he had Christine. Jane had to love him... He had to see her... he had to hold her. Now... yes, he had to hold her now...
Jane opened her eyes slowly and sat up in the chair. If only my voice were a little better... maybe I would be able to be a lead soprano, instead of just a dancer...
A soft knocking was heard at her door, and she stood up with a quiet groan to answer it. She opened the door and took a surprised step back. There was a man at her door.
"Mademoiselle, Madame Giry has asked me to escort you personally," Erik spoke, his hood covering the right side of his face. He extended his arm out to Jane, and she looked at him quizzically and nervously.
"Where are you to escort me, monsieur?" she asked him, barely mastering the urge to slam the door in his face and lock it securely.
"Madame Giry has asked me not to say; she wanted to surprise you," Erik answered falsely, his arm still extended. Jane glanced at his arm, then gingerly took it, suddenly remembering that she was still in her dancing costume. She thought about going back to change, but Erik led her on in such a commanding manner that she decided against it. Well, at least I'm not in my tutu, she thoughteyeing the fringed fabric that hung from her waist and swung slightly as she walked, That would get in the way.
Erik led Jane down many passages, finally coming to the main doors of the Opera Populaire. He led her outside, then around the corner of the opera house to the side, where there was a small window. Erik remembered the first time he had been through that window: When Madame Giry had saved him from that traveling circus...
"Through that window?" Jane asked fearfully, "Doesn't that lead below the opera house?"
Erik sighed. He had known all along that this was going to happen. He would have simply taken Jane through her mirror, but he had been afraid that she would think him to be the Opera Ghost (which he was, but he didn't want her to know that). He also would have taken her through the hallways of the Opera Popluaire instead of outside and around, but he hadn't wanted to be seen.
"Come along, mademoiselle. Once we go in through here, it won't be much farther."
Jane struggled silently, then screamed. Erik quickly covered her mouth with one of his gloved hands, then retrieved a chloroformed rag from his pocket, putting it over Jane's mouth and nose. She resisted sleep for several seconds, then fainted away in his arms.
Interesting... not many could struggle against chloroform for even a few seconds... She has a fire in her... Erik hoisted Jane into his arms, balancing her head on his chest so that it wouldn't flop around. He took a second to hold her tightly to him, savoring the feeling, then he opened the window and stepped back into the opera house. He carried Jane down the passageways quickly, marveling at how light she was.
After a long time, Jane came to. Before she could think clearly, Erik set her down on her feet, not wanting her to know that he had held her and carried her.
Where am I? Do I want to be here? Jane was utterly confused. She could not remember anything about what had happened in her dressing room and outside the opera house, and wasn't sure whether or not she was supposed to follow the man leading her. She pulled back slightly, just in case she wasn't supposed to follow.
Erik sensed her discomfort immediately, and transferred her right hand to his right, drawing his left arm around her waist (which, as he noticed with a strange pleasure, was bare, since she was in her costume still). In this way, he half-pulled, half-led her along.
Finally Erik and Jane arrived at the edge of Erik's underground lake. Jane almost gasped as the sight of the lake reminded her of Meg and the stories she had told. Meg was right; there is an underground lake! I must be with... the ghost!
Erik tried to get Jane inside the boat, but she dug her heels into the ground and did not move them. He sighed and let her go, and Jane thought for a second that she was safe, but he suddenly picked her up again and set her down inside the boat. He then stepped in after her and began to pole the boat along.
Jane made not a sound the entire time, and did not dare look back for fear that Erik would be staring at her. It took quite a long time to reach Erik's home, but they did reach it at last.
Jane had her face buried gently in her hands and did not look up even when she heard the soft sound of sand scraping against the very bottom of the boat. She trembled slightly, but curiosity got the better of her, and she raised her head.
The sight was enough to make Jane gasp in amazement. There were thousands of candles around the room, seeming to come up from the water. A giant organ rested against the wall on one side of the room, and there was a long hallway leading to several other rooms. The room was decorated in such a beautiful and elegant way; Jane thought that only royalty would have rooms such as these, and wondered why its immense beauty was hidden underground.
Erik stepped out of the boat, then deftly turned and lifted Jane, setting her down gently on the ground. He bowed slightly and spoke.
"Mademoiselle," he breathed, "Welcome to the to the kingdom of music, where music bestows great things on all who are loyal to it. Welcome to the room that very few people have set eyes on ever before. Welcome, mademoiselle, to your new home."
Jane blinked as she tried to process what Erik had just said, "My... my new home?" she whispered at last, her eyes large as she gazed around the room.
"Yes. Here is where you shall stay, with me, mademoiselle. I am afraid it may not be like anything you have ever seen before, or even what you are used to, but I will strive to make it as close as possible, and I think you will find it rather comfortable here," Erik spoke with such a steady, calm attitude, and Jane could not help but notice his manners, which he made sure were never forgotten.
"Why?" Jane asked timidly, taking slow steps back until her back bumped against the wall.
"You will know in time." Erik grasped Jane's hand, and led her down the long hallway and through a small door. Another room, lavishly furnished, lay beyond. There weren't so many candles here, but the light was comfortable, and Jane saw that the room was just as beautiful as the main one. A huge bed with maroon sheets lay in the middle of the room, and dressers and nightstands were positioned all over the place, against the wall. It was really a very splendid room, and Jane would, at any other time, have been delighted to even lay eyes on one like it, but, given her situation, it only confused her more.
"This, obviously, will be your room, mademoiselle," Erik told Jane, gesturing with his arm, "You will stay here, and may move the furniture around in any way that pleases you." Jane glanced at Erik, and saw that now his hood had fallen down, and she caught a glimpse of his mask.
"Do you... have a name, monsieur?" she asked with more composure than she would have thought herself capable of having.
"Yes. I am... Erik." Erik took Jane's hand again and led her to the main room. He sat down at a chair, his chin resting on the knuckles of his right hand and his face turned away from Jane in thought. Much of Jane's fear had long since disappeared, but it was all replaced by confusion.
"Erik, why am I here?" Jane questioned again, taking one step toward Erik. He glanced at her for a second, then turned away again. He tried to find a way to word his answer, but couldn't think of anything.
"Again, you will know in time," he sighed finally, turning back to Jane, "And if you do not mind, mademoiselle, I would appreciate it greatly if you did not ask me that again. The temporary answer to your question is that you will know in time, and that will only change when you find out the real answer." He used words that would have normally expressed authority, but his tone was gentle. His eyes met Jane's, and she swallowed and nodded.
There was something about his eyes that intrigued Jane deeply. She could barely see them in the candlelight, but they seemed... different. They seemed as though they had seen all the sorrows of the world but refused to close. Jane gazed at those blue orbs (at least, they seemed blue to her) even after they looked away, but turned her gaze to the floor after a while.
Seconds ticked by slowly and in silence. Jane longed to break the silence by doing anything, but hadn't the faintest idea of what to do. She looked around the room, but found that she could not concentrate. Erik stared at her, unblinking, and something about his gaze was unnerving.
"What do you do down here, Erik?" Jane asked, meeting his eyes, "Do you have a... hobby?" She was very desperate to begin a conversation, and she had found that many people (including herself) loved to talk about themselves.
Erik let out a breath, then began. "That all depends on your definition of a hobby, mademoiselle. The projects that I busy myself with down here could be considered hobbies, but that's not usually what I choose to think of them as."
"What kinds of projects?"
"I am a composer, an architect, an artist, an inventor, a ventriloquist, and many other things I will not mention."
Jane's eyes were now wide in amazement. "Wow... You must have had quite an unusual upbringing," she remarked, "If you learned to do all that."
"Yes," Erik nodded slightly, "Quite an unusual upbringing indeed..." He shifted his position in his chair. "What about you, mademoiselle? What interests you?"
Jane was normally a very talkative person, but for some reason, she didn't want to say anything. She just wanted to hear Erik's voice. It seemed like a wonderful thing to her, and she didn't want him to stop using it, even if it meant that she would be talking.
"Different things," she answered lamely, trying to avoid having to say anything else. She also tried to avoid looking at Erik's eyes, but her own seemed drawn to them. She couldn't keep from looking at him for more than a minute or so.
"What kinds of things?" Erik asked, tilting his head a little in a questioning way.
"I'm mostly a dancer, but I do like singing. I don't sing much, for I have a horrible voice, but I do like it. I love everything about the theater, just like my mother before me." Jane kept trying to say as little as possible, for every time she stopped, Erik asked her more questions, and she wanted to hear his voice as often as she could.
"Where is your mother now?" Erik asked.
"I don't want to talk about it." Jane muttered bitterly, looking away.
"Why not, mademoiselle? You really shouldn't keep sadness and grief inside you. Believe me, mademoiselle, when I say that it will cause you to do horrible things. You should talk about it."
Jane looked back at Erik, and they stared at each other for a few silent moments. After a while, Jane decided to tell Erik about it.
"My mother... died. When I was very young, my father left us. I don't know why he left, because my mother never told me anything about it. For a while, my mother tried to raise me by herself, but it was hard to both work and raise a child. When I turned ten, she became very sick. My relatives told her to stop working, but she never did. I remember that I would stay with my aunt and uncle for days at a time, while my mother worked and went to the doctor. One day, my aunt told me that my mother had passed away, and I just... I'm not sure what happened. My aunt told me that my mother had wanted me to become a famous performer in the an opera house, just as was my mother's dream when she herself was young, so my aunt taught me how to dance, since was voice was very feeble. Dancing has been all I have ever known since then, pretty much."
Erik sat in silence, taking in everything that Jane was telling him. He felt tears come to his eyes, but he did not dare to let them fall. Jane stared at the same spot on the wall for a few minutes, until Erik felt that he had to say something.
"I'm... terribly sorry, mademoiselle," he murmured.
"Don't be. It wasn't your fault."
"I am still sorry that that happened to you." Erik muttered, and he chuckled to himself. Yes indeed, this child has a fire in her... he knew that she was trying hard to not cry, and was impressed with how well she was accomplishing it. "And one more thing, mademoiselle, regarding your voice. It isn't horrible." Jane gave him a perplexed look, for she had never (as far as she knew) sang in front of anyone except her aunt, ever.
"Now, mademoiselle, I think you should be getting some rest. It is very late, you know." He stood up and took Jane's hand gently, and led her to her room. "Goodnight, mademoiselle," he breathed, and he left.
It was then that the thought really hit Jane. Her new home! No, that wasn't right. Jane knew that that place wasn't her home. Blindly, she ran out into the hallway and searched for a way to escape that place.
Her first thought was to cross the lake, but as she could neither swim nor pole a boat, she kept looking. There was a door down the hall, and quickly Jane went over to it and tried the knob. Locked! There was another door further down the hall, but it was slightly ajar, and Jane felt sure that Erik would have at least kept any door leading out closed.
The passageway was long, and dark at the opposite end. Jane went back to her room and grabbed a candle, and then started down the passage.
The first wall she hit went off in two directions: left and right. The right passage seemed to slope down a tiny bit, so Jane took the left one.
Right. Left. Center. Left. How many different ways to go were there? Was she going the right way? After a while, Jane gave up, and turned to go back. That was when she realized that she didn't remember which way led back. Had she gone left first? Right? Jane's breathing became frantic as she sprinted down the corridors, hitting two dead ends.
Jane put her hand on the wall beside her to steady herself, and felt something crawl across her fingers, most likely some kind of insect. Jumping away from the wall, Jane let out a piercing scream.
Erik heard the scream, cold and high-pitched, as it filled the air around him. He looked up from his drawing with wide eyes, and turned sharply around. Jane! He crossed his gigantic room in four steps, grabbed his cloak and threw it around his shoulders, and exited his room.
Suddenly, Jane heard footsteps coming toward her. Jane could see a faint beam of light in an adjacent passage. Her first instinct was to blow out her candle and hide, but she was too desperate to get out to do anything.
"Hello?" she whispered, trembling, "Is someone there?" She turned a corner and bumped into something... or someone.
TheAngel'sMaggie- Yay! I'm glad you like it, and thank you so much! I swear, you are one of my fave reviewers! But... liking Raoul... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... -cough- you're crazy! -cough- Naw, I'm just kidding, it's probably infatuation... right? LOL Anyway, I still love you (but not like that, of course LOL), don't worry! And I think Erik's eyes are blue-ish green-ish personally, as Jane says in this chappie... gold just seems a lil weird to me (no offence to Leroux, whom I almost worship, along with ALW). But yeah, that's cool that you're writing a fan ficcy with all those similarities, I'll read it when I get a chance! Thank you for being so dedicated!
xxXGoddessXofXdeadXloveXxx- HaHa I'm glad you liked those last chappies, how did you like this one? You are definitely one of my other fave reviewers, I just love getting your reviews, they make me feel special! HaHa anyways, thank you for being so... cool. There's really no other way to say it! You rock!
Louie O'Malley- Thank you, I'm glad you like my story! We'll see what happens with Jane, though, to tell you the truth, who can really doubt that she'll fall in love with him eventually? I mean, seriously, how could I be so mean as to break Erik's heart again? Well, we'll see, I might get evil all of the sudden, or... dare I say it?... find someone I love more than Erik so I won't care about him? -gasp- NO WAY! LIKE THAT'LL EVER HAPPEN! LOL but anyway, thank you so much!
Son Ange- Thank you, I'm glad you like my story, and I'm sorry that this update took so long, but I hope you enjoyed it! I promise I'll be quicker with updates in the future, especially now that my stupid projects are finally finished!
Hope you guys like that, and again, sorry it took me so long to update, I'll be faster in the future! Review, please!