It quite perplexed me that I could find no rest. All the myths I had heard of spirits who could not rest beyond the grave must have been terribly false. They fancied these poor beings that forever wandered the earth, blissfully unaware of their existence, or lack thereof.
I, however, knew that I was killed. I understood at least that much. What I could not fathom was this sensation of being unfinished. I felt as though there was something missing.
It came to me in one fleeting moment. I was unfinished. There was something that in my waking life, I had failed to do. One thing that for the rest of eternity would haunt me ever more than those I haunted in the opera.
My mother. It was not the one who had raised me, however, but the one whom I had never known. The one who gave me away, thinking only of my future.
I suppose it was all she could do. From what I had discovered about the 16 year old girl who'd given me up, she was an astounding girl.
She'd carried me throughout most of her junior year of high school and had endured harassment from her peers and teachers.
"It's not her fault she was raped", I'd heard my adoptive mother say once. "She was just 15."
I wished that I could have known her, my mother. She must have been incredible. I know she would not have given me up if she had a choice, but she did not.
Small towns could be too much trouble. Everyone knows everyone else. They hide things from the rest of the world.
The man who had raped my mother had been hidden away from everyone. He'd been allowed to live out the rest of his days in peaceful solitude, while my mother had been forced to live with his sin.
I remember the day I read about him in the newspaper. I remember that day as if it had just happened.
Man Accused of Raping 15 Year Old Girl Dies
It was so outright. So plain. Nothing in the world could have stopped my rage. I thrust the paper to the ground and raced out the door, tears welling in my eyes.
I felt a presence behind me, breaking me from my thoughts. I found it odd how I was now more sensitive to presences than sounds.
There he was, that dark figure. He seemed less brooding to me now that I had learned his name by external sources.
Erik. I thought it a lovely name. I never dared call him by that name. I feared he would be put back and possibly would refuse to assist me.
I simply called him sir.
He kept his gaze just past me as though he dared not look into my eyes. It was as though he feared something. Something he'd have to face should he catch my glance.
"I know what it is that despairs you."
His words were so simple. He rarely spoke to me. However, when he did, it was always very straightforward.
Perplexed as I was, I simply followed him down the hall. I dared not speak, for he kept such a silence that I have not heard since the day I first came here.
We travelled ever so quietly. It seemed an endless journey. I feared we'd never arrive. However, at some point, though I do not know when, we arrive upon a doorstep. It was no ordinary doorstep, but that of a large mansion. I allowed my eyes to wander about the sprawling property. It was a lovely place, indeed.
He disappeared into the vast building and I followed him in. We came to a small room. I allowed myself to glance about the room. It was an office. To my utter amazement, there were dozens of pictures about the walls and on the desk of myself.
"This was your birth mother's office. She cared for you deeply."
I could never have imagined how significant I was to her. She had never known me, but still, she loved me.
"Amyriah, you may not truly understand. I shall attempt to explain to you some things. Fate brought you to the Opera Populaire. I have been gone from the world of the living for many years. However, I have been assigned to you to put your soul at rest.
"There was not a day she did not think of you. She kept pictures of you that your adoptive parents had sent her. Sadly, six days after you died, your birth mother was killed by a drunk driver. You have been brought here to be reunited with her.
"I must go now, you never will see me again, Amyriah. I feel my work with you is done."
With those words, he vanished.