Several of the girls screamed as the lights went out and Mr. Villefort and Mr. Giles tried to gain control of the hysterical high school students. Cassie slumped down and sat on the floor of the stage, Ryan crouched beside her.
"Cassie?"
"Yeah?" Her voice was muffled, as if she were speaking from a great distance through a megaphone.
"You OK?"
"Yeah." Ryan shone his penlight down on Cassie and saw that she had her head resting against her arms.
"Cassie, I'm so sorry."
"Why? There's nothing to be done…I'm just so….frustrated!" Cassie said lifting her head and looking around. Several of the opera house workers were passing flashlights out to the cast and speaking in rapid French.
"There's a storm outside." Mark said sitting down near Ryan. "They say that lightening knocked out power in eight or nine surrounding city blocks."
"Shit, so no electricity—no phones…." Ryan turned his pen light towards where Mr. Giles was standing over the cast on a riser. "Why don't they kick on that emergency generator down in the organ?"
"Ladies and gentlemen, we want you all to remain in your rooms for the present time." Mr. Giles shouted. "Take your flashlights and depart at once, BE CAREFUL!"
"What about the emergency generator?" Ryan shouted out.
"It's not hooked up yet." Villefort said stepping into the light of Ryan's flashlight, his eyes sunken hallows in his head. "There's no way to get the power from the generator to the opera house. Now, go back to your rooms….all of you."
"But what about the—" Matt didn't finish his sentence because Mia elbowed him.
"When He wants to be found, he will be." Cassie said rising. Somehow she had an intimate understanding of the way the mystery man functioned. She knew that he could hide in any one of the many secret passage ways of the opera house and disappear from their site, but know where each of them was.
Ryan walked Cassie back to her room and stayed with her for a while. Eventually Cassie lay on the bed and went to sleep. Ryan left soon after to go discuss what he and Mark had seen.
When Cassie awoke she could hear the faint rumblings of the storm outside and smell the heavy scent of rain. Everything was still very dark in the opera house, an occasional beam of a flashlight would shine beneath her door for an instant but other than that there was no light. Cassie scrounged through her bedside table and pulled out her calling card. She knew it was the calling card because it still had a line of glue on the back from where it had been stuck to the cardboard in the store.
She tucked the card in her pants pocket and pulled her hair back. She stepped out into the hall and walked carefully towards Mr. Villefort's office. She slipped inside the unlocked door and went to the desk. It took her a moment to find the telephone, but when she put the receiver to her ear she heard no dial tone.
"The storm really did take everything out." Cassie muttered. She remembered someone saying the power was out on the eight surrounding blocks. She thought about the mental map of the city she'd made but was drawing a blank. She left the office and went back out. She wandered towards the foyer of the opera house, but found Mr. Villefort and Giles talking to several other men. She avoided them and made her way to the back of the opera house, to the door they'd entered when they'd first arrived at the opera house. Everything seemed so bright and cheery then. Now it had all lost its luster. One man sat at the desk beside the door he was reading a paper by the light of a faint emergency light and looked up when Cassie approached.
"Le coup manqué, vous ne devez pas être de votre pièce. Quelque chose mauvais est-il ?" (Miss, you shouldn't be out of your room. Is there something wrong?)
"No. Merci pour demander bien que." (No, thank you for asking though) Cassie pushed open the door to the street and looked at the rain pelting down onto the city. A tiny river was running down the back alley carrying trash and other debris with it.
"Mademoiselle, s'il vous plaît. ..come dos à l'intérieur" (Miss, please come inside) Cassie turned back to the man who was trying to get her back inside with words.
"Je suis monsieur désolé. ...I ne peut pas rester juste ici plus. Vos mots ne peuvent pas me garder ici!" (I'm sorry sir, I just can't stay here any more. Your words will not keep me here!) Cassie turned back and sprinted into the alley and down the street with the flow of the water. She could hear the man behind her shouting for her to return, but she had no interest in listening to him. Her only interest was finding a functional pay phone.
Cassie ran and ran and ran. The gray light of the outside world was interrupted by the bursts of lightening flickering through the streets. All the street lights in front of her were out. She crested a hill and looked down and could see street lights shining in the distance…she'd found the part of town that had power! She was soaked straight through, her shirt clung to her shoulders, her hair was plastered in sticky strands to her face. People stared at the girl running down the street and watched as she continued steadfastly towards her destination. She walked into a deli with a light on and asked the man behind the glass case for directions to a pay phone. He waved his hand aimlessly and gave directions in very fast French. He wanted this poor looking girl out of his shop as quickly as possible.
Cassie followed the directions as best she could and eventually found a phone booth. She stepped inside and pulled the door shut behind her. She was soaked straight through her clothes to her underwear, her hair clung to her face in heavy strands and her sneakers squelched as she stepped up to the phone in the tight space and pulled her calling card out of her pocket. Her hands shook as she punched the buttons and listened to the instructions.
"Hello, this is Charles Davagé." Her father's voice came over the line.
"Daddy?"
"Cassie, baby? Hey!" Cassie sighed heavily into the phone and listened as her father asked questions. "You're in Paris, right? How is everything?"
"So-So."
"What's wrong, problems with that boy….what's his name sweetheart, Robert?"
"Ryan, and things with him are fine."
"Is it the play, how's that going?"
"Not so good, Daddy."
"What's wrong? Is it your teachers? The staff?" Cassie started out from the beginning of the troubles with the dark man and what had happened today.
"Cassie, stay with someone at all times….Don't go anywhere by your self." Cassie sobbed into the receiver. "Baby?"
"Daddy, I had to run to this pay phone to call you." Cassie managed to get out between sobs. "I'm so scared; I don't want to stay there…"
"Cassie, call the opera house, get a cab or something."
"I can't, there are no phones, no lights at the opera house…that's why I left."
"Hey, baby…listen to me…You're going to be alright. Take a deep breath." Cassie did as she was told and listened to her father talk to her in soothing tones for the next ten minutes.
"I love you daddy."
"I love you too baby. Hey, if you want, I'll have you here in Russia with me in a heartbeat. If things get too scary, all you have to do is call, OK?"
"OK."
"Find a way to get back to the opera house, OK? Get dry, stay safe and give this thing another try."
"I will."
"Bye baby."
"Bye." Cassie listened for her father to hang up but he didn't.
"Cassie, hang up the phone."
"I will Daddy."
"Now." Her father had a slight laugh in his voice. "You know I'm a phone call away."
"OK." Cassie hung up the phone and rested her head against the metal box. Someone started pounding on the doors and yelling in angry French. Cassie opened the door and exited the phone booth as the angry Frenchman entered it. She looked around in the fading light and ambled back towards where the Opera house sat. She crossed her arms over her chest, trying to keep some warmth in her, but the rain, still pelting down, dampened the effort. The rain had fallen so quickly the drains could not accommodate the water. It was running over the smooth sidewalks and in fast torrents through the gutters. It came up over the tops of her feet and soaked the bottoms of her jeans. She felt as if she was fighting to take every step back towards the opera house. She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up over her already soaked head just to keep the rain out of her eyes.
"This was the dumbest, most foolish…no, crazy idea I've ever had." She muttered to herself as she kicked up water in front of her. "I couldn't have waited for the rain to stop could I?" She was still trudging back to the opera house, head down and cold, when she heard footsteps fast approaching from in front of her.
"Cassie!" Cassie's head snapped up to see Matt running towards her. "Cassie! Oh thank God!" Cassie stopped as Matt came to a halt in front of her.
"Matt?"
"Mr. Giles turned almost the whole damn opera house out to look for you….you're soaked!"
"Well, at least we know you can state the blatantly obvious." Cassie said heavily. "I just couldn't stay there….I was afraid to…."
"Hey, come on, let's get you out of the rain." Matt put a protective arm around her and walked with Cassie back to the Opera house. They entered the square in front of the Opera house and looked up at the building, which looked miserable in the rain and damp. "It's lost a lot of luster, hasn't it?" Matt said as they reached the top of the stone steps out front. "Mia and I were talking about it last night."
"Yeah…a lot of luster." Cassie said absently as Matt opened the door for her. "It's too scary now…no fun."
"What in GOD'S name possessed you to run from here Cassandra!" Mrs. Giles shouted when Matt brought Cassie into the foyer, her shoes making an audible 'squelching' sound that echoed off the lavish walls. "You, of all people should know why you shouldn't go out by yourself!"
"I'm sorry…"
"She's back!" Mr. Giles rounded the corner and came to stand in front of Cassandra where he hugged her tightly before pushing her out to arms length. "Cassandra, my office, NOW!" Cassandra shrugged and followed the Giles' to the office.
"Cassandra?" Mr. Villefort stood when Cassandra came in the office. "Where the hell have you been?"
"I went to find a pay phone." She answered dully sitting in the big leather chair in front of the desk, not really caring how wet she was.
"A pay phone? What on earth for, to order a pizza?" Mr. Giles bellowed sitting in the chair opposite her.
"To call my father." Cassandra said defensively.
"Whatever for?" Mrs. Giles asked gently. Cassandra was surrounded now, Mr. Giles to her left in the big chair, Mrs. Giles perched on the big couch behind her and Mr. Villefort leaning against the desk in front of her, his arms crossed and staring imposingly down at her.
"I don't get to see my father…ever!" Cassandra suddenly shouted. "EVER! I was terrified earlier today….out of my mind with terror and frustration and fear and…and….I just wanted to talk to my father! Is that so damn hard to believe?" her comment was met with absolute silence.
"Miss Davagé," Mr. Giles started out gently. "next time you feel the need to run twelve blocks to a pay phone, please do us the honor of telling someone first, and then take someone else with you! Good lord girl, you scared Messieurs Hellier out of his mind, not to mention me!"
"I'm sorry." Cassie put her head in her hands, her wet hair hanging over her shoulders like heavy chains. "I'm sorry…" A warm hand was suddenly on her shoulder and she looked down into Mr. Villefort's concerned face as he knelt in front of her.
"Cassandra, I want you to know that I understand your fear. But you must also understand that we were VERY concerned about you. You can't just go running through the streets of Paris."
"I know."
"Now, go to your room and change out of those wet clothes. I don't want you catching cold before the Gala."
"Yes sir." Cassandra got up and went out the office door slowly. She shut the door quietly but not before hearing the adults on the other side talking. She held fast to the handle and listened at the crack.
"You're going to let her off like that?" Mr. Giles was shouting.
"Yes---she was terrified. I'm willing to make an exception for this."
"Two weeks ago you were accusing her of 'dallying' of all things, this week she flees the damn opera house and you're willing to let her off Scott free?
"Yes, I am. Horrace, you didn't see her up in that props loft….didn't see that—that thing!"
"Well, there better not be any more incidents, or she's gone Rick, we can't have her terrifying the rest of the cast."
"But if there's someone here…."
"No. There isn't anyone here and I won't have these rumors spreading through the cast." Cassandra left, not understanding why Mr. Giles didn't believe that the mystery man existed.