IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Don't you just hate it when people copy your stories? I read one a few days ago that took my ideas and exact lines from my stories 'Pleading Eyes' and 'Phantom's Dancer'. It was even a person that reviewed my stories. I just want people to know that I did not copy the ideas for this story. Yes, I used a magic bag, but it seems like everyone is doing that. About four other stories I read. These are my own ideas along with my cousins Tal and Bri. They were the inspiration for this story. We practically acted this out so I decided to make it a book. In real life, Talia is obsessed with Erik and says she is in love with him. And Brianna says she is in love with Raoul. How do I know this you ask? Cuz I hear it every single day I baby-sit them. She just doesn't shut up about him. It gets truly annoying after a while. Sorry about the outburst but it just needed to be said. On with the replies:
XoAnGeL-Of-ThE-NiGhToX: Okay, that took me a minute to type out correctly. LOL. There will be much more fluff parts to come. Erik won't ever truly hate Christine in my story though. Tal and Erik are…well, you'll just have to continue reading my story to find out. Thanks for reviewing my story. Newcomers are always welcome.
Heather: Okay, if this or any other anonymous reviewer is Misty Breyer, I just want you to know: I AM CERTAINLY NOT TRYING TO STEAL YOUR STORY! I love 'Phantom Companions' a lot and would never steal the idea. As for your accusations, the two girls are truly my cousins and I'm only writing this on the story that WE made up together this summer. If you don't like it then don't read it. I am the Authoress and I can make myself appear if I want to in this story. Many others do the same. No matter how childish the last two sentences sounded I am only trying to make a point. I love Phantom of the Opera and I love writing about it. Now don't take that away from me! Okay, done with my second outburst of the day. Anyway, thanks for reviewing.
des ires: I just wanted to be different. Why not let him use a dagger instead of a lasso? Do you remember the fight scene after 'Wandering Child'? Erik used a sword and actually cut Raouls flesh. Is that clean to you? It's not to me. Thank you for that interesting history on the Punjab Lasso. I mean it! Never knew there were actual positions on how to use it. Thanks for enlightening me. Also, thanks for reviewing.
Alright, now that I'm done giving my replies, on with the next chapter for my loyal phans. (Sorry, just taking accusations a little too hard. Bad mood, bad day for the most part.)
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Chapter Eight: The Opera
"Girls are you done yet?" came Eriks' annoyed voice from behind the door. He had been waiting impatiently for the last five minutes.
"Yeah, give us one more minute!" Bri shouted.
"I gave you one more minute five minutes ago! What in the world could you be doing to take you this long!"
"Well…girl stuff. You know, hair, make-up, and looking perfect," Bri said, opening the door revealing the two simple dressed girls. Talia was wearing a knee length green skirt that was made out of a soft material that flowed out around her. Her top was a plain white spaghetti strap shirt with lace trimming the edges. Her hair was pulled back into a lose bun with her bangs hanging down aimlessly in front of her face. Brianna was wearing a pair of black caprice (sp?) and a white and black thin striped shirt. Her hair was down and curled outwards a bit at the ends. She had dark eyeliner on and a black choker.
"What in Gods name are you dressed in, Brianna?" Erik said in shock.
"What?" she asked innocently.
"I told her she would look too Goth in that outfit but no, she didn't want to listen to me as usual," Tal said, glaring at Bri.
"It's not like anyone will see us," Bri exclaimed.
"Fine, let's just go or we shall be late. The curtain opens in five minutes," Erik said, pushing the girls to the boat.
"Okay, okay, we get the picture," Brianna said entering the gondola and helping Talia in next. Erik was already in and he started rowing the boat once they settled themselves.
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"If he should suspect her god protect her. Shame, shame, shame!" the actors and actresses on stage sang. Talia, Brianna, and Erik were going through a secret passage when they heard the opera begin.
"Oh great! Now we are late!" Tal whispered.
"And whose fault would that be?" Erik asked sarcastically.
"Briannas/Talias," Bri and Tal said at the same time. Erik arched an eyebrow in amusement. Both girls just laughed at their childish answers.
"You two go to box five and I shall meet you there. I have some…business to attend to first," Erik said, opening an entry in the wall. The girls nodded and walked through the entry. Once the wall was back in place they stared at each other.
"I bet he is going to go do the switchamaroo with Carlotta's voice thingamabobber," Talia said.
"I bet so too. Nice choice of vocabulary by the way," Brianna stated.
"Wasn't it? It is called 'Talia's Vocabulary of Imaginative Words'."
"Nice title. Okay, it looks as if we are in the hallway to the boxes. Let's go find number five."
"Right." Tal said, trying to remember something about box five, but soon shrugged it off. They walked pass boxes one and three until they came to box number five.
"Well, here it is. Let's go inside. Carlotta is about to sing the notes that sound like a car screeching next," Bri said, opening the door to box five. Talia remembered what she was trying to remember before when she saw Raoul De Changy occupying one of the seats inside the box.
"Oh my gosh!" Bri squealed. "It's him!" Tal shushed Brianna but was too late. Raoul had already turned around and saw the two.
"Are you two lost?" he asked in a sweet tone, a smile on his lips.
"Uh, no. We were just lea-" Tal attempted to say but was instantly quiet when Brianna's shoe met her shin.
"Well, you see, Monsieur Viscount. We were told that our seats were in box five," Brianna explained as sweetly and innocently as she could. Raoul went to say something but didn't get the chance when a loud deep voice filled the auditorium. All three of them jumped, each almost having a heart attack.
"Erik…" Tal said under her breath, remembering to give him the talk of his life about how he was going to kill her someday with his sudden appearances.
"Did I not instruct that box five was to be kept empty?" Erik said, making his voice reach every ear of the audience. Everyone just gasped and turned towards the voice. Soon afterwards, the music began again and Carlotta's car screeching voice played throughout the theater. Raoul came out of his dace and faced the two young ladies that had just entered his box.
"I think that you two should stay in here, where it is safe. I wouldn't want you to be in danger."
"Really?" Brianna said, sounding like a little girl again.
"Of course, Mademoiselle…"
"Brianna Gasbarrow. And this here is my sister, Talia Gasbarrow."
"A pleasure to me you, Mademoiselle Brianna, Mademoiselle Talia," he said acknowledging them. "Please, come and sit down." Brianna happily walked over to him and sat down in the chair next to his. Tal didn't move, though. She knew what was to come next.
"Um, if you would excuse me. I must go and…and powder my nose if you don't mind," she said hurriedly using the proper language of the eighteen hundreds.
"But of course, Mademoiselle," Raoul said.
"Be careful Talia," Brianna said with a knowing glance.
"I will." Tal turned and walked out the door, shutting it behind her as Carlotta began to croak just like she had in the movie. She found her way backstage easily and made it up to the rafters just in time to hear the ballet start up. Getting to the rafters was easy, now the only problem was to find Erik. She went about, looking around for any sign of Erik or Joseph Boquet. The music was getting to that familiar part when the Phantom started chasing Boquet around. She frantically started to run, not losing her balance once. She desperately wanted to prevent Erik from killing someone. Finally, she saw Joseph climb onto a platform, out of breath and still running. Erik appeared right behind him, anger written all over his face. Joseph fell and Erik made his way towards him, lasso in hand. Whilst this happened, Talia was desperately trying to find a way to them. She jumped down onto the platform they were on just as Erik slipped the lass around Joseph's neck and started to strangle him. Talia watched in horror as she witnessed the 'real' Phantom of the Opera actually kill an innocent human being.
"Erik, no!" she shouted, finally coming to her senses and remembering why she was there in the first place. She was too late, though. Erik flung Josephs body off the platform and onto the stage. Erik watched in satisfaction as everyone shouted in horror at the scene. He turned and now realized that Talia had been standing behind him the whole time. He watched her, ashamed at what he had done in front of her, as she turned away, graciously climbing down from the rafters and heading towards the roof where Christine and Raoul would be. As she entered the roof, she realized that she was there before them. She went behind a statue and found Brianna already there.
"I take it that you didn't succeed," she whispered.
"Not a chance," Tal answered back dryly. They sat there and waited for Christine and Raoul in silence. They didn't have to wait long for after about a minute, they heard Christine's voice and them barge threw the door.
"There is no Phantom of the Opera!" they heard Raoul sing. They listened to Raoul and Christine secretly confess their love towards each other. Tal looked over at her sister and saw a tear run down her cheek.
"Oh God, Brianna. You knew this would happen! Why are you crying?" Tal whispered.
"Because, now that I'm actually here, I have a chance with him. I can see now that I was too late for he's already singing 'Christine, that's all I ask of you'," she said, mimicking his voice.
"Don't take it seriously. It's just how the story goes." Brianna just sighed and listened to the rest of the song, Tal deep in thought. Hearing a door close brought her out of her thoughts and she looked over at Brianna when they heard Erik's voice. They both peeked out from behind the statue and saw Erik holding the remarkably beautiful rose in his hand and crying.
"Don't you just love the rose?" Tal asked her sister, deeply sighing.
"Tal, get out of your romantic dream world for a moment and focus on what's happening. This is the depressing moment, remember? Erik just lost his only love," Bri whispered harshly.
"Right, I've returned." Suddenly, Erik shot up and climbed up onto a statue, singing out his rage.
"You will curse the day you did not do, all that the Phantom asked of you!" Erik sang. Both girls gave a heavy sigh and walked out from behind the statue.
"I must say, I love it when he is in angry mode, don't you agree?" Tal asked dreamily.
"Yeah, I have to agree. It is hott, but not when he is actually trying to kill us," Bri said ruining Talia's romantic moment.
"Oh Bri, he is still hott when he is trying to kill us." Only then did they see Erik standing in front of them.
"Uh, hey Erik. What's up?" Brianna said, uncertainly.
"I'm sorry that you had to see that, Erik. The confession of the lovers and all. I still think he is a major Fop! Kill the Fop! Mwahahaha!" Tal said evily.
"Talia, you're scaring me again. And there will be no Raoul killings in this story!" Brianna shouted.
"You always ruin all the fun!" Tal whined.
"Will you two just be quiet? Let's just go back home," Erik said, obviously depressed. The two girls just followed him silently back down to the lair. Erik went straight to his room and locked the door.
"Touchy," Brianna said, opening the door to his room.
"I wouldn't expect him to be all happy. Erik just lost his only love," Tal said.
"I could've sworn I heard that before…" Bri said trailing off into thought.
"That is because you just said it to me a few minutes ago. You truly are a dumb blonde."
"Oh yeah…Hey!" Brianna said, just realizing what Talia just said. They just started cracking up and got ready for bed. Bri fell right to sleep but Tal had a restless sleep, dreaming of her trying to save lives from Erik but was always a second too late.
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Has anyone ever read 'Cold, Cold Heart' by Kat097? If you haven't, you should. I'm reading it for my second time right now. So there is the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. I know, a little boring, but I'll make the next one more interesting. I'm going on vacation in two days. Woo hoo! I won't be able to update when I'm gone but I'm taking my laptop so I'll be writing new chapters while I'm gone.
