Chapter Twenty-Two
Meg: Sorry it took so long to update. The end of my junior year of high school, track, prom, my trip to France in a week and a half, Luke and other things have delayed me.
Luke: It's not my fault my lung deflated!
Meg: He was in the hospital for awhile, so I had to visit him.
Luke: Yeah, make it sound like I forced you to see me!
Meg: (sigh) Well, now I'm updating. Narev, I WANT THAT PHANTOM MERCHANDISE! NOW! My address is-
JWJ: MEG! STOP THIS OBSESSION, RIGHT NOW! It's annoying!
Meg: But I've been obsessed since before the movie.
Luke: We've decided that you can't live without mentioning the Phantom.
Meg: Yes I can!
Luke: Bet you ten bucks you can't.
Meg: Bet you ten bucks I can!
Luke: Fine, no more Phantom/Gerard Butler references.
Meg: Grrrr…
June 22, 1897
Queen Moustoria's Diamond Jubilee
Rose allowed herself a small smile as she watched Ratigan read off his list of "suggestions" to the terrified audience, imagining all sorts of evils that would befall them under his rule.
The female henchman had little emotion for them. Her thoughts were consumed with her meeting with Ratigan after the Jubilee. She had almost cried out when she saw the huge list Ratigan was to read to the crowd; it meant that she would have to wait longer to hear what he had to say to her.
He had made eye contact with her when he had first entered as the Queen's new consort. Those yellow eyes were no source of fear… for the moment. They had scanned the crowd, rested upon her, and he had nodded slightly in acknowledgement. Well, she thought he had. It could have been her imagination.
"That's ridiculous! You're insane!" an old man with a bandaged leg, leaning on a crutch, yelled at Ratigan.
Rose snapped back to reality. She winced as Ratigan snatched the crutch away from the old man. "Perhaps I haven't made myself clear…" he said dangerously. "I have the power!" he barked, snapping the crutch in half.
Rose glanced towards the entrance. She could see the legs of one of the thugs who were guarding it, but she did not know who was there. She was suddenly overcome with the feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong.
She fearfully watched Ratigan announce his absolute power to the crowd, with the robot Queen reaffirming it. Besides the fact that a tyrant was beginning his rule, it was just as Ratigan would act. It was his character.
Then why did it feel like everything was about to fall apart?
Rose started to edge closer to the door. She wanted to make sure that everything was all right with one of the guards. Little did she notice the change in the robot Queen, or the fear of the people around her slowly turning into suspicion. It was when the first part sprung off the robot that Rose looked back at Ratigan.
She watched as if she were stuck in some horrible nightmare, as Ratigan tried unsuccessfully to conceal the deteriorating robot. One part, and then another… the crowd's suspicion quickly turning to anger, waiting for the right sign to turn to rage. Rose was pushing her way forward now, trying to somehow stop it all, stop it all…
"YOU ARE A RAT!"
"NOOOO!"
Their sign had come. One shout from the real Queen set the crowd surging upon the professor. Rose tried to fight her way towards him, trying to help, but she found herself being pushed back by the mad mob that had suddenly arisen. She fought fiercely, she was sure, but it seemed like the more she fought, the more she was pummeled back into the crowd, further and further away from her master. It was as if this sea of chaos knew that she was trying to save the drowning rat from the waves of their hatred.
Professor! You are over there, and here I am, practically being shoved out the door with the rest of the women and children. Oh, if only I could help you! But you are so far away from me. Even the Queen has jumped on you, trying to stop you, trying to drag you down. I would stop them if I could only reach you…
She felt a strong hand grab her shoulder and pull her out into the hallway.
"Gerald!" she cried.
"What the hell is going on in there?" Gerald, in full guard attire, demanded, trying to look over her shoulder.
"Basil has escaped! The plan has gone to the dogs. We have to help the professor!"
The other thug guarding the door, Doonegan, grabbed Rose by the arm and spun her around. "What're his chances?"
"Not good unless we help him!"
Doonegan spat at her feet. "Let him think his way out of this one," he said with contempt before letting her go and losing himself in the crowd.
Rose looked back at Gerald, only to find that he, too, had disappeared.
Anxiety and anger grew within her as she turned up the stairs. Perhaps she would be able to get backstage from here.
She ran up the steps and around a corner, only to crash into Ratigan, holding the little girl Olivia. Fidget followed close behind.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ratigan snarled when he realized who it was. He continued running, Rose and Fidget struggling to keep up.
"I was going to help you, sir! But-" she panted, "it looks like you got yourself out of this one!"
"Not yet!" he barked. "Now what do you want, Rose? Why don't you run, like the others? Get far away from me, why don't you?"
"Because I promised I would never leave you!"
They flew up a flight of stairs. "You can't come with me this time!" Ratigan said, breathing heavily.
"Why?" she cried.
"You can't!"
"But why? I was always a good servant! You can't leave me on my own now!"
"This is no longer your battle!"
"What about after all this? You will have lost a good henchman! You will have-" she gasped for breath before she said, "-lost me!"
"Rose…" Ratigan did not say anything until they reached the landing of another set of stairs. "Rose... I… I want you to come. Truly, I do. But Fidget won't be able to-"
"Damn Fidget! Damn you too!" Rose shouted.
Ratigan stopped and stared at her, causing both Rose and Fidget to run into him again. Ratigan caught Rose with his free arm and cursed Fidget, who had knocked into Olivia. Then he looked at Rose, as if seeing her for the first time.
"You remember the valise I told you about? My flat by the docks?" Ratigan asked.
Rose remembered. He had once told her of the room he rented out by the East India Docks in an opium den, run by a Chinese woman and her two sons. It was a place he had prepared for himself long ago as a sanctuary to run to in an emergency. He also had a small valise, which held valuable, irreplaceable papers and articles that he kept in his room by the lair. Rose did not know exactly what these articles consisted of, but she knew the location of the suitcase.
Rose felt a key being pressed into her hands. "Retrieve the valise. Wait for me there. I will join you when I have managed to get rid of Basil."
Rose was in shock. She stared at him in disbelief as he dashed up the stairs.
He turned around at the top to glance back at her. "Did you hear me? Get the hell out of here!"
Rose took a few steps back, as if in a dream. But she could not leave until Ratigan vanished from sight.
Rose flew through the streets of London, suddenly elated by the wings which Ratigan had lent her in the simple gift of the key. He wanted her to go to his hiding place, his secret hiding place! What could it mean? He had entrusted her with his key, his valise, his flat!
But time was of the essence, and she had to get to the lair, get the suitcase, and get back out before Basil or Mouseland Yard came. She was far from safety, and so was Ratigan. But… he could easily get away from Basil, right? Right?
She heard Big Ben toll, and was suddenly struck with an impending sense of doom. She gripped the key and sprinted through the streets with one million thoughts flying through her head. What if Basil captured or killed Ratigan? What if the dirigible crashed and Ratigan died? What if the Yardies were waiting for her at the lair, just waiting for any thug to fall into a trap? What would Ratigan do then, if she could not get the valise? If she let his key fall into their hands?
She reached The Rat Trap and dashed past Giovanni and Millie, who halted the cleaning of the completely wrecked pub from a brawl that had occurred earlier that evening to stare at her (Meg: cough Basil cough). She ran down the trap door, through the pipes, to the barrel through the throne room and the study to Ratigan's chambers. She moved the swinging chest of drawers that concealed the compartment behind it that contained the valise. She grabbed it and ran back out.
She halted in the study and stared at the bookcases. She wanted to take one souvenir with her, something of Ratigan's that would be with her always. Oh, she had the locket and the bracelet, but she wanted something that had a more personal significance. She wanted to take Jane Eyre.
She deliberated the fact. She could carry it, but what would Ratigan say when he saw it? She glanced at the shelf, thought over it a bit more.
She thought she heard something from outside the barrel. Was it the police? She ran back out into the throne room and glanced out the entrance. She saw no one in sight.
Rose shook with anxiety and fear. She had come this far. Were they waiting for her out there?
She backtracked until she reached the kitchen door. Slipping through the swinging door, she made her way to the back exit. Silent as the grave, she left the kitchen, the barrel, and the lair, for the path through the sewers.
And so she ran away from her home once more to run off into an uncertain future, but with the hope of Professor Ratigan by her side.
Meg: I am so cruel to my female characters.
Ratigan: And your brilliant characters.
Meg: Yeah. Poor Basil got a lousy role in this one.
Ratigan: (growing red in the face) I hate fanfic writers…
Meg: Yeah, and we hate overly large, uninvited criminal masterminds eating all my food, using my computer, telephone, and TV, and always trying to kill me and destroy my sanity!
Ratigan: You switched the focus of that sentence from all fanfic writers to you.
Meg: I'm having a "focus on Meg" day for once. I've had a hard time trying to get chapters up.
Ratigan: And they tell me that I am egocentric.
Meg: Hey Ratigan, drop dead.
Ratigan: (lifts up Meg's laptop) Say goodbye to your evil writing machine.
Meg: NOOOOOO!