Cassie rose late the next morning and went to the office. She remembered Villefort carrying her to bed the night before and awoke still frustrated that he had not kissed her. The door was closed and she could hear voices on the other side.
"He won't be coming back."
"He has to! What are we going to do? What can we tell his parents?"
"I didn't say he wouldn't be coming back ever….just not tonight…not in time for the performance."
"What are we going to do? There's no way we can have Christian ready to move into the part….his voice was never strong enough." Mr. Giles said reiterating his question. "We can't possible cancel…it's a full house tonight." Cassandra heard him laugh slightly and then whisper something which sounded oddly like "A full house André, we shall have to refund a full house."
"We'll think of something…." Cassandra wandered off to the cafeteria to find the others.
"Is he back yet?" She was instantly bombarded with questions as she entered. Everyone knew she had gone to the managers' office to wait for Mark's return to the Opera house.
"No." She answered as she pushed her way through the crowd around her and accepted a cup of tea from the cook. She had no appetite and pushed food around the plate. Matt and Mia sat across from her and watched as she rolled a sausage back and forth across her plate.
"You OK?" Mia asked. She was concerned for her friend. She'd watched over the past few months as her boisterous friend had become silent and withdrawn. She'd been grateful for Ryan's influence because he'd been the only one able to pull Cassandra out of the funk she had sometimes fallen into. Mia looked at her friend this morning and saw the deep circles under her eyes, the glow usually found in them was completely gone and her skin was pale. Mia watched as Cassandra's hand trembled slightly as she added sugar to her tea.
"I'm just tired." She looked up at Mia and smiled sadly.
"No you're not…." Mia said quickly. "It's not that you're 'just tired' it's something else. You know something."
Cassandra bit her lip and looked at Mia, tears shining in her eyes.
"I'm scared Mia. Nothing has been right since we got here." Mia jumped up and ran around the table to sit beside her friend as she burst into tears. "He's disappeared Mia, he's just gone. Villefort said he won't be coming back tonight for the performance….That man that attacked me may be gone, but there has to be another one….one that attacked Mark."
"Was Mark attacked?"
"He said he heard footsteps behind the walls…that he thought someone had drugged him the other night. He urged me to tell everyone to be careful." Cassandra wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffed. "He saw the body in my mirror that night….I don't think the man they captured at the gala was the man who did all of this." Cassandra stood up quickly and left to return to her room. She was emotionally and mentally spent. She couldn't even think straight anymore. She scribbled a few words down in her journal and sat staring blankly at a spot on the wall. Someone knocked at her door and she sighed before she got up to answer it.
"What is it?" Cassie hadn't meant to be so harsh with Matt, but she just wanted to spend some time alone. Her morning wasn't starting off well at all on this, their last night of performances.
"Mr. Giles and Mr. Villefort are calling a meeting of the leads." He said. "They want everyone in the office ASAP."
"Alright." Cassie shut the door behind her and followed Matt to the office. She sat down in a chair at the desk and waited while the other actors filed in to the small office. Mr. Villefort was last to join them.
"Ladies and Gentlemen…I'm sure you may know that Mr. Howard has not yet returned to us." Mr. Giles said somberly. "We are still looking for him, the inspectors just don't know where to start looking as Paris is such a big city."
"What about the performance tonight?" Ryan asked the question fresh on everyone's mind. It wasn't that they didn't care about Mark's safety, but they had a duty to fulfill to the public.
"Well, if he's not back in the next few hours, we're going to have to cancel. There's just no one who has the voice to play the part. Christian is Mark's understudy, but his voice just isn't there. I feel that we'd be cheating the public if we put Christian on stage, unprepared."
"How can we cancel?" Matt asked. "I heard someone in the box office say both shows have sold out entirely…they're going to move chairs into the aisles….they were literally going to pack people into the aisles."
"Would you put Christian on the stage?" Mr. Giles turned on Matt harshly. "He'd be made a fool of standing next to Cassandra."
"He hasn't made a fool of himself yet…he's been onstage with her every night."
"He doesn't have the strength of voice….." Cassandra piped up. "He sings a weaker and lower tenor than Mark. He hasn't fallen flat yet because his role doesn't call for that strength."
"Christ, no high school student has the strength of voice or half the range that Mark does." Ryan said slapping his leg and pacing towards the door. Cassandra's head snapped up. A terrifying thought entered Cassandra's head and settled heavily.
Ryan's right…no high school student has the voice Mark has to be able to play the role. No one knows the part and no one could learn it…except one person…
Everyone was shouting and arguing back and forth trying to come up with a way for the show to go on that night.
"Stop!" Cassandra rose from her seat, taking the leading role she usually had at St. Isabel's. "Would everyone stop just for a moment and listen to yourselves?" Everyone stared at her. "Calling in the lead from the French production? Allowing Christian to do it? Those are all insane ideas. Christian could never pull off the role, and the lead from the French production wouldn't lower himself to act with us. I wouldn't ask him to either." Everyone continued to stare silently at the woman before them. "What Ryan said was accurate. No high school student could pull it off."
"What are you saying Cassandra?"
"We're over looking the one person who could sing the part." Cassandra turned to where Mr. Villefort perched on the arm of the couch, leaning against the wall. "Mr. Villefort."
"Cassandra, you can't be serious." Ryan interjected.
"I'm very serious." Cassandra said wheeling on Ryan. "When I auditioned for this part back in December, who do you think accompanied me? Who do you think accompanied me all those nights he had me practicing?" Mr. Giles sat heavily behind his desk and stared blankly into a spot between where Cassandra stood in the middle of the office and the desk. "Why couldn't he do it?"
"He's a teacher—you're a student."
"I was a student…I'm a graduate. I'm going to be going to college in a month and acting with people older than myself. If I make acting a career I'm going to be acting with men twice my age. Why can't we do it now? Why should we overlook such a resource?" Cassandra's voice was passionate…desperate. "The show must go on….Like Matt said, they're planning on packing the aisles tonight. How can we disappoint the people?"
"What do you think Rick?" Mr. Villefort was silent for some time before he looked up at everyone in the room. His eyes found Cassandra's and he nodded.
"The girl is right. I'll need to practice and we'll have to work on the sound boards, but I think I can do it."
"Alright. Let's get this going then. We've got to resize costumes and all manner of things in order to get this thing off tonight." Everyone left the office slowly, even though they needed to act with all haste to get the production ready for the night. Cassandra was at the door when Mr. Giles stopped her. "Cassandra, we're going to need you on stage with Rick to go over certain parts of this, to make sure your voices will fit together….although from what I remember hearing, there shouldn't be a problem. We'll re-write the final scene, down in the Phantom's lair."
"What? Why?"
"The kiss?"
"I'm an actress, Mr. Giles. If I can't kiss a man on stage in character, then I have no right to be on the stage." Cassandra left the room, her heart pounding. She had completely forgotten the kiss at the end of the act. She was right though…if she couldn't kiss a fellow actor in a part as a part of the play, then she had no right trying to act anywhere.
Cassandra and Mr. Villefort worked together on stage all morning making sure their sound together was right. She was allowed a brief break when he had to work on some of the stunts and make sure the harness they used fit him properly. She went to her room and paced back and forth. She heard someone knock on the door and Ryan poked his head around it when she called out 'enter.'
"Are you OK? You look terrified."
"I'm nervous Ryan. We're going to be doing this last minute and everything….his costumes are getting sewn right now…..all last minute….this has every chance to become a disaster."
"Not about that….about you and him acting together…you've been wishy washy on him all year. One minute he's no threat, the next you're terrified of him."
"I know. I don't know what to think any more. I mean, he means well, I think he just tries too hard and it comes off wrong. We'll see tonight."
"You don't have to kiss him though, do you?"
"What?"
"At the end…."
"Of course I do…that's part of the play."
"But you can't, he's your instructor!"
"I have to! Mr. Giles offered to re-write it, but how can we? Christine's kiss is what turn's the Phantom's heart."
"But it's Villefort!"
"It's the Phantom." Cassandra said, her shoulders slumping. "It meant nothing when I kissed Mark all these last performances. It'll mean nothing when I kiss Villefort." She reached out and grasped Ryan's hand. "Are you going to be able to do this?" Ryan looked at where she grasped his hand and sighed.
"If you can do it, I can do it." She stood on tip toe and pressed her lips to his gently. He touched his forehead to hers and they stood together, hands clasped, foreheads touching for some time before Ryan decided he had to leave. Cassie sat down and went through her breathing exercises before getting ready for the matinee performance. Cassandra moved into the hall after she was dressed and ready to go and ran quickly through a scale before descending onto the main stage for the opening act.
"I haven't felt this nervous in weeks." Cassandra turned to see Mr. Villefort leaning against the wall beside the large curtains looking out onto the fast filling auditorium. In the mask and dark suit of the phantom, the man looked more than handsome. Cassandra reached out and grasped the man's hand. His fingers were icy and she reached up and touched the cheek not covered by the mask.
"Mr. Villefort, I think we're both nervous, but we have to do this. Think of all the people out there waiting to see us."
"I am, that's what's making me nervous." He said, his trademark crooked grin crossing his face. "I'm so used to being behind the scenes….to running the show. This is remarkably new for me." She smiled at him brightly.
"You'll do fine!" Suddenly a loud voice rang out over the chattering audience.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, The role of the Phantom of the Opera will be played by Mr. Richard Villefort this afternoon. Thank you."
"Well, that makes it official." He took a deep breath and went to the back to finish preparing for the performance.
The first time Rick Villefort sang on the Parisian stage Cassie felt chills. His voice was incredibly strong and warm. When she stepped through the mirror it was as if she was really getting brought down the dark corridor to the labyrinth below.
During 'All I ask of you' Cassie looked up briefly to see Villefort glaring down at them, his reprise of the songs would have shook the rafters and everyone applauded loudly as the Chandelier came crashing down and Ryan narrowly rescued Cassandra from the speeding fixture.
Cassandra changed quickly for Masquerade and was just checking her make up at her dressing table when something caught her eye. The two roses that Ryan had given her the night before weren't there, instead, two red roses in full bloom lay on her table. She left the room quickly and went out to the hallway to prepare to re-enter the stage. Mr. Villefort came up behind her and heaved a sigh.
"How have I done so far?"
"Excellent. You're doing great! I knew you would." Cassandra said smiling broadly. "One Act down, three to go, right?"
"Yes, good luck." Mr. Villefort moved along and disappeared into the curtains in the back while Ryan moved to take his place beside Cassandra for Masquerade.
Towards the end of the Act Mr. Villefort and Cassandra were standing in the back waiting for their entry back onto the stage for the final scene in the Phantom's lair.
"It's not too late Cassandra."
"For what?" He turned to her and looked into her eyes. She was in the wedding dress for the final scene, her collar bone bare and smooth, her waist tapered and the skirt broad and full adding to the seductive curves of her body.
"To change the scene….to fix it so you don't have to…ummm…."
"Kiss?" Cassandra giggled childishly. "Mr. Villefort, please…I think we're both mature enough to…" She bobbed her head from side to side hoping he caught her drift.
"Are you sure you want to go through with it?" Cassandra bit her lip and took a deep breath and reached over and grabbed Villefort's lapels. Not knowing what possessed her to do it, she pulled him forcefully to her and, standing on tip toe, kissed him soundly.
She felt nothing….no spark, no fire, no chills; just nothing. She was pleasantly disappointed. There was nothing between them.
"There, now I don't think this is going to be a problem, do you?" She brushed her hands down over the front of her skirt and smoothed it into place, ran one hand through her hair and made to step out onto the stage for the final scene. She turned to find Villefort standing stupefied behind her. "Are you coming or not?" Villefort cleared his throat and the two of them entered the stage to finish the performance.
She was sitting in her dressing room still waiting for the costume mistress to come and get her out of her dress. The performance had only been over for thirty minutes or so and backstage was hectic with police and reporters trying to get to Mr. Giles. Mr. Villefort was sequestered in the upstairs costume loft where the mistresses were fixing costumes that weren't sized right for the original performance, but had been deemed suitable for the moment. They were also trying to fix the prosthetic that wouldn't seem to stick to his face properly. Cassandra heard a knock at the door and went to answer it.
"Messier Le Besprit, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Mr. Le Besprit held in his arms a large bouquet of pink roses in varying shades.
"For you, mademoiselle." He smiled as he placed the large bouquet into Cassandra's arms. "From a gentleman admirer?"
"Mr. Alexander?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow at the smiling stage manager.
"No…"
"Who is my admirer Mr. Le Besprit?" Cassandra said gently moving the roses looking for a card. "You must tell me."
"He said that I was to give you this…" He took a matchbook from his pocket and handed it to Cassandra. She looked at it carefully, her eyes suddenly lit up and she pushed Mr. Le Besprit out of the way. She gathered the heavy skirts of the wedding dress and sprinted out to the stage foyer entrance where people sometimes gathered hoping the actors and actresses would come out and talk to them. She slid to a halt at the top of the hall and looked over the people there.
One man, stood out from the rest. Tall with dark hair, he stood with his back to her, his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a tan raincoat, even though she was sure the Parisian sun was shining down on the outside world. He turned when he heard her footsteps rush towards him, a gray streak running through his hair at his left temple, smile lines crinkled merrily at his wonderful blue gray eyes.
"Daddy!" Cassandra leapt as best she could into the arms of her father. "Oh, you came!" She laughed as he buried his face in her hair and held her close to him.
"My beautiful baby girl, you were WONDERFUL!" He said spinning about. He set her down and looked into her eyes.
"You were in the audience? You saw me?"
"Of course! Would I come all the way to Paris to not see you act?" He laughed out loud. "I booked the first ticket I could to be here when you called me last time."
"I'm so glad you came." She escorted her father up the hall to the door where Mr. Le Besprit stood laughing. "When did you get here? How did you know I would know it was you with the matchbook?"
"Who else carries a matchbook from a Russian hotel in their pocket?" They walked through the back stage his arm wrapped around her slender corseted waist, hers wrapped around him.
"You been working out old man? Or are they just not feeding you in Russia?"
"This 'old man' has been working out, does it show?" She pinched his side and laughed as he jumped. "Hey now…save some for my admirers."
"Admirers? Ha!" He hugged her closer to his side.
"What about you? Baby doll you look like a stick? Did St. I's ever feed you? Or have you just totally sworn off French cuisine?"
"Trust me, I'm eating just fine….it's the corset…it makes me look REALLY skinny."
"Cassandra, what's the meaning of this?" Mrs. Giles came around the corner and saw the older gentleman with his arm wrapped around the young stars waist.
"Mrs. Giles! This is my father, Charles Davagé. Daddy, this is Mrs. Giles, she's the dance instructor and is playing Madame Giry in the play."
"Meredith…it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Davagé."
"Please, call me Charles." He said as he took the woman's hand. Cassandra hugged her father and smiled as Mrs. Giles did. "You've done a wonderful job with her…did you know, she never used to be able to put one foot in front of the other without falling? She was a horrible klutz…how did you ever manage to get her to dance so wonderfully?
"She's still a horrible klutz, I'm just a wonderful instructor!" The two adults laughed and Cassandra joined them. "Go, enjoy your time….just remember you have to be ready in two hours for the second performance."
"Yes ma'am…just tell the costume mistresses to come to my room when they're ready…I can't get out of this thing by myself."
"I'll do that."
"Are you going to be able to stay for the second performance?" Cassandra asked as she closed the door to her dressing room behind her father. "Or do you have to catch a plane?"
"Well, I couldn't exactly afford two tickets for tonight….but I was hoping I could take you to dinner."
"I'll get you a ticket! I'll pull some strings at the box office…" her father held up a hand quickly and laughed.
"Wait kiddo…wait! I didn't even get a chance to unpack or even go to my hotel…I got right off the plane and came here, paid the cabby to take my suitcase to the hotel."
"So you're leaving?"
"No, I'm going to go back to the hotel, freshen up and get back here to watch my baby girl take her curtain call of her final performance. I'm sure you can pull enough strings to get me in for that."
"You bet." The two sat and talked for only a few minutes more before the costume mistresses came. "Daddy, you'll have to go, I've got to finish getting ready. I'll see you at the end of this performance. I'll go talk to Mr. Le Besprit and have him let you in the back of the theater." She kissed her father on the cheek before he left with Mr. LeBesprit who came to escort him back to the foyer entrance.
A/N: Keep those wonderful reviews coming! I've actually finished the story (I think), but I want to see what everyone has to say before I post the last few chapters. The whole thing should be up by next week if you're all VERY good and polite in your reviews.---insert evil laughter here as you all shriek at my dispicable and evil ways----