Thanks so much for the three reviews and I'm really sorry I didn't put one up yesterday. Here's Chapter Thirteen, though, and it does have a big cliffy so I just might put one up tonight!
Enjoy after these few replies to the reviews:
Erik'sLittleLotte: I thought it would fit if Erik was rather uncertain about getting the gift. I mean, it's a full grown man who has been treated horribly all his life now getting a gift! He must have some type of sense of caution. I'm glad my story's effected you so!
The Whisper: Ooh! Thanks so much for reviewing! I love new people. Ha! I like your way of describing Erik's stubbornness as "moody crap." It does fit perfectly, doesn't it? Hope it wasn't too long posting this one up. :D
Ethalas Tuath'an: Another new person reviewing! This is my lucky day by far! I agree with you; most main characters are usually members of the chorus or corps de ballet, so I thought it would be interesting for Loralee to be the ballet mistress. It was also a great way of connecting Erik and Loralee together because she doesn't have an amazing voice like most main characters or Christine. Thanks so much for reviewing:)
Chapter Thirteen: Mirror Problems
"Practice over, Monsieur's! Good job today."
Loralee bid all the men goodbye. It was awkward teaching men around her age how to do ballet. They were rather clumsy at first, but within her strict yet comfortable dance practice, they mellowed out into graceful men intertwining with the girls as they practiced the ballets from throughout the Opera Populaire's up coming opera.
"Beth!"
Turning around Loralee saw a flash of brown curls before the wild woman almost toppled her over with a hug.
"Hello Rosemary!" Loralee said, glad to see her friend too, but not quite showing it the way Rosemary did.
"I'm sorry I'm late," she said, loosening her hug on Loralee and drawing back so she could see her friend's face, now just holding onto her hands.
"Late? Why, you're just on time. Would you like me to introduce you to George Thompson?"
"Oh, yes please!" Rosemary said, giggling. Loralee rolled her eyes and guided Rosemary through the crowds.
"George Thompson! May I have a word with you?"
Loralee shouted to him when she saw him chatting with some of his friends from the chorus. While he said his apologies to the group for having to leave them for a bit, Loralee whispered, "I'm going to try and make this the least suspicious I can," to a now excited looking Rosemary.
"Yes, mademoiselle?" George asked when he came up to her, nodding his head slightly to Rosemary who blushed crimson.
"George, I've been noticing your ballet shoes are wearing thin." It was true. Both of them seemed like they were bearing signs of soon to be holes.
"Yes, Mademoiselle McLay. I was intending to go out to the store today to buy some more."
An obvious lie, Loralee noticed. She could tell from his eyes that he was actually planning on hanging out with his friends and most likely causing trouble with the Opera Populaire. She only raised an eyebrow for a short second but then waved aside his explanation as if she didn't care.
"Not to worry, George. My friend, Rosemary Richmond, has volunteered to size you up and give you new ballet shoes for free."
George turned to Rosemary, eyeing her sweetly. Loralee immediately knew he like her, too.
True love, Loralee thought. Too bad it will never happen to me.
"And why do you stow this great honor on me, m'lady?" he asked, bowing slightly and chastely kissing her hand.
"It's only proper for the best man in the whole corps de ballet to get his merchandise for free. I wish to be of help to you," she managed to say out loud, obviously longing for an apron to cover her face with so he wouldn't see her now deep red blush.
Loralee smiled happily at the two of them.
"If you'll excuse me, Rosemary and George. I really must get back to my room. If you'd wish to see me in my room later, Rosemary, my room is down that corridor, your last left, first right, and the door at the very end."
Rosemary or George didn't seem to notice, they were too intent on staring into each other's eyes. Loralee rolled her eyes, a bad habit she was getting into, and went off to her room.
Upon entering, she found a candle and lit it. Flopping down onto the bed, most unlady-like, she sighed, too tired to move any part of her body.
Knock. . . knock. . .
Loralee jumped about three feet in the air when she heard the knocking from her mirror. She would have done the same if it was from the door, also, because for the past few minutes she had been dreaming deeply about a herself in a true love story. It had left her with no memory of where she was and what position she was in.
Mid jump she let out a strangled cry noticing where the knock had come from and tried to untangle herself from the bed sheets which had somehow gotten themselves tangled with her feet. While trying to untangle them she fell off the bed and groaned when a pain went through her bottom.
Another bruise in that soft area and it was his fault again. Damn him!
"Get in, Erik! You know I can't open that bloody mirror. . ."
The mirror slid back and Erik gracefully entered, shutting the mirror behind him immediately after he did so. He growled when he entered and glared at her.
"I was hoping on a respectful entry, my dear, but you just had to ruin it all."
He expected her to get mad and make a cold remark back at him or something among that manner. Instead she just looked at him funny before throwing her head back and laughing.
Erik watched Loralee laugh. Unlike all the laughs he had gotten in his past, this one was genuine and warm, not cold and bitter, laced with sarcasm and evil.
It didn't last long but it still brought his stone face into a humored smirk. She looked at him with a smile before going back to untangle her feet.
"Well, I'm terribly sorry, Monsieur Erik, for disturbing your act of curtesy. I hate to admit it, but I'm not one to follow those rules. It makes your life so. . . so dull."
"Are you insulting the people who are higher in society than you?" he asked, eye brow raised.
"Are you defending them?" she retorted back.
"Not at all. I have to admit I hate them too. No one has ever shown me respect except you, Madame Giry, and Chris-"
Erik stopped abruptly, and his face turned cold. She could see him tense up until he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Obviously he was about to say Christine, but even the simple name could unlock so many feelings within him.
Suddenly, in an attempt to get her out of his mind, Erik swooped down on Loralee and started to help her out of the sheets. She tried to help him but stopped after she touched his hand and got a large static shock. Yelping in surprise, she thought it best to just let him do the work.
After a few minutes, she had her legs free and her blanket back neatly on her bed. Standing up, she smoothed out her dress and looked to see Erik looming over her.
"Why did you come here?" she asked.
Erik opened his mouth to answer but then shut it.
Why was he here? he thought. Surely he must of had a reason to come up so many stair cases to see her. But think all he could, he had no reason what so ever.
"I don't know why," he said, surprise in his own voice. "I was probably bored and just wanted to talk."
Loralee smirked at him but stopped when he sent her an ice cold glare. Thinking better of it, she shut her mouth and sat down besides her vanity.
"Well, I have dinner with Madame Giry today so I won't be able to do any chores for you."
"Perhaps tomorrow," he said shortly.
Loralee chewed her lip. What in the world was she supposed to do to entertain a bored so called phantom in her tiny run down room?
Erik glanced at her expectantly, and she racked her brain for something to do. Anything!
"If you like, I could get some-"
"Beth! Oh, Beth! I have great news!"
Loralee glanced at the door where the yelling was coming from. Quick foot steps could be heard from outside of her room, swiftly descending the hall.
Erik growled with anger and grabbed onto Loralee's throat.
"You! You made her come. It's all a trap."
"No. . . Please. . . She's my friend. . . I didn't know. . ."
Erik's grip loosened and soon she was able to pry off his hand. He glared at her but she didn't notice, hurrying him to the mirror.
"Quick! Get out!"
Erik opened it and then slipped inside, shutting it just as Loralee's door burst open.
"Beth! He told me he'd like me to go out with him to dinner tomorrow!"
"That's great, Rosemary."
Loralee tried to walk forward but found her dress stuck in the mirror. She couldn't move away from it with out ripping her dress which she most certainly didn't want to do. Casually, she put her foot up, pretending to rub her calf with it but instead slightly knocking on the mirror, hoping Erik was still there and could open the door.
Normally visitors would have been curious why the person who owned the room didn't open the door for them, or came up to their side to congratulate them, but Loralee thanked heaven that Rosemary was in too good of a mood to notice.
"Tell me all about it," Loralee said, cursing that Erik wasn't there to open the mirror. Instead of sitting down in her chair, she motioned Rosemary to sit there and instead sat down next to the mirror, hiding her caught skirt.
"Well, thanks to you, I sized him up for shoes and told him I'd give them to him as soon as possible for free. He was flirting with me all the way through and then. . . then he asked me to accompany him to dinner tomorrow night."
Rosemary seemed to look at nothing and had a far away look on her face.
"How romantic," Loralee said, happy for her friend but rather unfocused on her recent situation. Rosemary unfortunately noticed her lack of interest.
"Is something the matter, Beth?"
"Um, actually yes," Loralee said, getting an idea. "On your way out, can you tell Madame Giry to come to my room and help me with my mirror?"
Rosemary looked at her funny, oblivious to that the mirror was a secret door, but nodded her head anyway.
"I'll get her right away. Thank you again, Beth. How shall I ever repay you?"
"It was a pleasure to help you, Rosemary."
One last hug by the mirror and Rosemary was off to get Madame Giry. Loralee turned back to the mirror and tried to pull her dress out but it wouldn't budge.
"If you're behind there Erik, and not helping me, you're going to get it."
No answer.
She sighed and slumped down by the mirror, gazing intently at the door. When she heard footsteps coming down the hall, the unmistakable "thunk" of Madame Giry's cane, and three sharp knocks on the door, Loralee stood up.
"Come in!"
Madame Giry came in, shutting the door behind her. Looking around, she noticed Loralee's strange place of standing, right by the edge of the mirror.
"You needed mirror help, Loralee?"
"Uh, yes. Well, you see, I was giving Rosemary help for something, and then after I did so, I came to my room and had a chat with Erik. Then Rosemary came in suddenly and in the case of getting Erik back through the mirror quickly, he got my dress stuck in the mirror. Obviously he's not there any more because he won't answer my pleas to open the mirror."
"And let me guess, you want me to help you out of the mirror?"
"Yes please."
"I don't know the trick to this particular mirror. I could go through another passage I know and get Erik up here to let you out."
"That would be great, Madame."
"Erik should be with you in about twenty minutes."
"Thank you."
Madame Giry swiftly left, leaving Loralee all alone by the mirror. She couldn't reach the book on her vanity to read so she settled down by just doing some ballet stretches on the ground. They were finished in about fifteen minutes and then she stood up to get the kinks out of her back.
Turning back to the mirror, she traced the frame delicately with her fingers. It was carved in the shape of leaves and fancy swirl designs and made out of a gold metal material. She wondered if it were real gold.
Don't be silly, she scolded herself. The architects wouldn't waste such money on such small a detail.
Turning her eyes from the mirror she turned to look at her reflection.
Her skin was still the pale shade making her dark hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes stick out remarkably. Her lips were rather small and a light pink color making her bottom face seem rather tight, which she didn't appreciate. Her dusky blue eyes normally would have been overlooked if it weren't for her black eyelashes which framed them and brought out their dull blue color fiercely.
As she was looking at her reflection, she thought she saw a glimmer of light on the other side of the mirror. Looking closer, she could make out the faint sound of water dripping and more splotches of gold light. Thinking she must be seeing things, Loralee closed her eyes and pinched herself, reopening them to look again.
The strange light patches were still there and the water sounded clearer than before. She reached out a hand, amazed, to trace the light.
Loralee stopped short, though, when her door was opened fiercely by an angry looking man.
In an instant she recognized who it was and whipped around, backing up against the mirror to get as far away from him as possible.
It was Hector Chaffee.