Labyrinth and Leroux
Chapter 5: Crossings and Pairings
Raoul de Chagny had left Christine Daae's side hours before, but at present was trying to find her once again. She warned him to stay away, but he simply could not do that. Raoul stood in front of Christine's dressing room. He tapped at the door. No answer. He entered looking for Christine, or worse, another man. There was no one. Raoul heard footsteps in the hallway and quickly hid himself behind a curtain.
Christine Daae entered and took her mask off flinging it to the table. She sat down miserable letting her head fall into her hands. What was she thinking about, Raoul wondered.
"Poor Erik," she murmured.
At first he thought he must be mistaken. If she should feel sorry for anyone it had to be for Raoul himself. "Poor Raoul" she must have said. She repeated herself,
"Poor Erik."
Jealously filled Raoul's veins. Poor Erik indeed. He would challenge this rival to a dual. It was what gentleman did. No one but Raoul would have Christine.
Raoul then heard the soft distant sound of a man singing. It grew louder, drew nearer. Christine rose to speak to it. Raoul could see no one else in the room.
"I am here Erik,' Christine said. 'I am ready, but you are late."
Then the most confusing thing Raoul had ever seen happened. Christine walked though the mirror. Was it magic? Was it a trick? Raoul did not know. Christine had simply disappeared. It was as if this Erik was not of this world. It was if this Erik was a ghost.
"Blast it! A rival and a ghost."
Raoul burst out into the main opera house entrance infuriated. There were few masqueraders left. The lights were being put out. A very elegant looking gentleman with blonde hair was leaning against the grand staircase. He looked to be in as just a foul mood as Raoul. Raoul needed to release his frustration. Like a child throwing a temper tantrum he stood in the middle of the entryway, balled his fists and screamed.
Jareth raised and eyebrow. He had just spent the last several hours searching for Sarah. She was somewhere in this opera house, but he could not find her. Even with his magic, she was hidden from him.
"What's your problem?" Jareth asked the bratty looking young man pitching a fit in front of him. Raoul turned to the other gentleman.
"He has taken her that villain! And she went willingly, right through the mirror. To her Angel of Music. Bah! Her seducer more like it. She is a tramp…and yet I don't want to loose her. Christine is mine! I shant loose her to some foul villain who calls himself the Opera Ghost."
"A mirror? A ghost?" More like a lead Jareth thought to himself. Perhaps this Opera Ghost fellow was one in the same as the man dressed all in red he had seen earlier. Yes that made sense. This Opera Ghost had taken Sarah and apparently this boy's girlfriend.
"Can you show me this mirror?" Jareth asked. "Perhaps I can be of assistance. I can get your…Christine was it? Perhaps I can help get her back."
Raoul looked at Jareth thankfully.
"Oui monsieur. I shall show you. But I do not know how it works."
"Leave that to me. I have a knack for these things."
- - -
Sarah was still trying to come to grips with the situation. Here she was sitting in the Phantom of the Opera's lair. No way out. Erik warned her he had booby traps everywhere. She knew as much from Leroux's novel. Sarah sat on a chair simply waiting. Waiting for Erik to come back. Waiting for Raoul and the Persian to try and break in. At this point, she'd even settle for Jareth trying to break in. Sarah was stuck in the middle of a situation she did not know how to control.
There was a noise from outside. Some one was coming. Sarah sat up.
Erik came through the door leading a young woman in a domino costume. They looked like a really odd couple coming home from a mixer in a 1950's movie. Christine Daae jumped when she saw a very beautiful woman with long black hair in a Spanish costume sitting in Erik's house. She did a double take and looked back at Erik for an answer. He laughed.
"Oh she is hurt. Her precious pride. The idea that the trap door lover could have another woman. Ha!"
Truth be told, Christine was a little hurt. Erik had always shown such an obsessive devotion to her. Who was this other woman?
"Christine Daae I presume" Sarah spoke to the woman across from her.
"Oui?" Christine relied cautiously.
"My name is Sarah Williams. It's a long story, but I'm pretty sure you and I are going to be roommates."
"Erik" I…I do not understand" she turned to her captor and her teacher.
"You do not need to. Go and help her change. I found clothes that should fit her from up above. They are in your room. I wish to examine her costume. Go and make her change…now"
Christine looked confused, but moved to do Erik's bidding. She ushered Sarah into a small bedroom Erik had decorated for her. She closed the door and looked wide-eyed at Sarah.
"Who are you? Did he kidnap you? Are you a singer? Ho did you come to know him?"
Sarah tried to assess how best to speak to Christine. The truth seemed to be the best path.
"I don't know him. I know OF him. He's famous where I come from."
"He is?" Christine said shocked. "Is that what you are here?" Christine asked as she arranged Sarah's change of clothes on the bed.
"No. I didn't come to see Erik. Um…see there is another man named Jareth, sort of like your Erik. Very Powerful. He's a magician of sorts. He…well...he and I have a history. Tonight he played a terrible trick on me. I came to a masquerade ball to have fun, but it was all just a huge a trap to try and get me to come to his home. Like the way Erik makes you come down here. I escaped Jareth's trap, but unfortunately I walked right into Erik's grip instead."
"I do not understand."
Sarah tried another approach.
"Ok. Imagine if there were two Eriks and one night you escape one of them, just to be kidnapped by the other one. That's what happened to me."
"I am trapped by two men as well."
"Yeah yeah, Raoul and Erik. Oh woe as you…."
"How could you know that? How do you know of Raoul?" Christine backed away.
"You're famous where I come from too. I know all about you and Raoul. Erik, Meg, Madame Giry…the whole nine yards." Sarah replied.
Christine dropped the dress she was holding. No one had such knowledge of others. Only angels, demons and Erik could be so omniscient. Christine tried to change the subject.
"You must change now. He commanded it."
"Well leave the room. This isn't a peep show."
Christine exited the bedroom. Erik looked up.
"Where is the costume?"
"She is changing. She does not like to be watched."
Erik turned back to his score. He was still working on his Don Juan Triumphant. Christine hesitated, then spoke.
"Erik?" he looked up at her. "The woman Sarah, she said she knows of you and me and everyone in the opera house. I do not understand. How is that possible? And she said a magician is chasing her. I do not understand what is happening."
"I can not explain it all myself, but I have seen the magician. He is…an equal. Do not look at me like that! I do not fear him. No. I fear no one. But…he can do things that I cannot. I will not let him ruin my opera house. This woman Sarah, she has control over him. He yearns for her. I have seen him hunting her. I…I understand this. We shall keep her. He will bargain for her. I will make him promise never to return here again. Then they will both leave."
"Erik? Are we in danger?" He stared back at her through his mask.
"You are always safe with me." They were both quiet for a moment staring at each other, Erik broke the silence first.
"You should change too. You look silly." Christine turned away. She waited outside the bedroom door. Sarah opened it. She had changed into a plain navy blue dress and held the Don Juan costume in her arms.
"He wants to see it. Please, I must change as well." Christine moved past Sarah and closed the door behind her.
Sarah walked into the depth's of Erik's lair. She found him at work at his desk, sheets of music scattered about. He turned at the sound of her step. He looked hungrily at the costume.
"Where did you get that?" he began.
"The opera house loaned it to me for the ball."
"Which opera house?"
"This opera house."
"No such costume exists here. You lie."
"No I don't. The costume department loaned it to me for the ball. The costumer said it was used in one of the operas."
"Which?"
"Don Juan Triumphant."
Erik rose. He grabbed the costume forcefully from Sarah's arms. He grabbed a drawing from his desk.
"This is my costume. How is it possible that you have it? It has not been made. No one has seen this drawing but me."
Sarah tried to reply calming.
"It is your costume. It is the one that you drew. It was sewn and used in Don Juan Triumphant."
"I haven't finished Don Juan yet."
"You will and one day it will be performed. The opera house will keep the costume. Many years from now, I will come to Paris for a writer's conference. They will hold a masquerade ball and let us wear costumes from opera's past. I will pick one from Don Juan Triumphant."
"And then what happens?" Erik asked still annoyed by her answers.
"Well, then it gets complicated." Sarah replied. She heard Christine walking quietly behind her. Erik gestured for her to come to him. She dutifully came to his side.
"You must tell us your story. Tell us how you came here. Tell us of the magician."
"You won't believe me"
Erik briefly touched the side of Christine's hand.
"Tell us anyway."
Sarah sat them down and told them her story. She told them about the Labyrinth and of Jareth. She told them about Toby. She told them how she wished him away and had to go into the Labyrinth to save him. She told them how she ultimately defeated Jareth. Sarah talked about her life since and about her fears. She told them how she came to Paris. She recapped the Masquerade, the Maze of Mirrors, and everything that had brought them to this very moment. Erik and Christine both tried to absorb all the information. Christine spoke to Sarah first.
"Jareth…he offered you your dreams. All of your heart's desires. How could you turn him down? He loved you."
"He was going to turn my baby brother into a goblin."
"No. He would have let the baby go back home to his mother. He wanted you. He only took the baby because you asked him to. If you had asked him to send the baby back and you would stay with him, he would have."
"No!" Sarah rose her voice "You don't get it. That's not how it works. I thought you of all people would understand."
"What do you mean me of all people?"
"Don't be a hypocrite Christine. Look at you. Erik has offered you all of your dreams, all of your hearts desires. To be a great opera diva. But it comes at the same price. You have to live in this underground. This labyrinth. He may not be a Goblin King, but he certainly has his ghoulish side doesn't he? There is a price for your dreams. You're telling me that if you were in my shoes you would have stayed with Jareth, right? You forget Christine, I know how your story ends."
"Do you?" Erik entered into the conversation. "From your accusatory tone I can assume my darling here betrays me."
"No more than I betrayed Jareth. Your story ends the way it has to end. Mine did too. I had to get Toby back."
"And I have to loose her and die a lonely miserable wretch?" Erik replied to her very angrily.
""Yes" Sarah whispered consolingly.
Erik rose is a fury and left the house on the lake. So Christine would not become his living wife? Well he was not so ready to be defeated. Erik set out to work on the barrels. He would give an ultimatum. Choose him or kill everyone in the opera house. Erik darted through the caverns beneath the opera house hell bent on his plan. He took a mischievous and malicious glee in his work.
Christine watched as Erik stormed out. She was silent for a moment and then spoke to Sarah.
"It is not the same. I have Raoul."
"It is the same. Choose a normal safe life, or a dangerous dream filled one."
"What happens to him? What happens to Erik? Does he really die alone?"
"I'm not telling you. The story has to run its course."
Christine rose and walked away. Sarah heard the bedroom door slam.