Chapter 22

Earning my Salary

Guys, this is my very last day of school holidays, so...no more chapter a day postings, sorry! Actually I have one or two more prewritten chapters, but I have a SAC on my very first week back and haven't done half my holiday homework! But I will try, and you know what makes me try harder, reviews!

Review Replies!

Masked Grace: Yeah! Hugh Baby! Mmm...Van Helsing,I want his coat...and the monk, go David Wenam (or however you spell it)

Cap'n Meg: No Meg, cameos are in mirror takes rum away

Angel of mystery: Here it is here it is here it is!

MetalMyersJason: Heh, Carlotta is in a lotta pain right now...okay that was lame.

Pertie: Bleah, school, waste of time updates are coming!

IflyNAVY: Patience is a virtue (whoever said I was virtuous) Okay, Cameo chapter is nearly done, nearly! God there's a lot of it! 12 frickin pages long already! I had to add a pause for intermission with adbreaks and everything!

Asingledarkcrimsonrose: No! You're in the cameo! I wrote you in quite nicely, sending you hugs and black ribboned roses to keep you going.

BiP: All is forgiven,hands her a lolly banana, I'm addicted Want to be in the cameo?

"Erik?" Adriana called from the Louis-Philippe room,

"Yes…" he imitated her begging tone, the newly titled Theatre Wraith laughed, "Are you doing anything special today?"

"What do you want?" he asked in a flat, unfriendly tone.

"All you need to do is press a button for me," she pleaded, her voice overlapped with the jingling of costume jewellery.

"Press a button?"

"Yes, press a button, on my CD player, in, oh…an hour, or whenever it is the cast is likely to pause for a break."

"What are you up to?" he asked suspiciously, pushing open the door, Adriana turned in a whirl of dark colours and flying skirts, pulling on the last of a few dozen silver bracelets. "I thought it was time I started earning my salary," she paused, allowing her skirts to settle, "Figuratively speaking of course."

"Of…What are you wearing!" Erik slammed the door shut, finally taking in her appearance, Adriana raised her eyebrows, "Uh, my clothes?"

"Those, mademoiselle, do not qualify as clothes. They would not even qualify as undergarments!" Erik glared at her full figure as Adriana put her hands on her hips, "This coming from a man who has spent the better part of the last several years watching chorus girls prancing around in next to nothing? If I didn't know any better, I'd think you almost sounded protective of me Erik." She folded her arms and glared back at him stonily.

"You are not going out like that," he stated, Adriana rolled her eyes, "You sound like my father,"

"First your mother, now your father, what am I to be next, your aunt?"

"You could be my lover," Adriana muttered at the back of her throat,

"I what?" a red blush flew to Erik's cheeks, Adriana looked embarrassed, "Uh, I probably shouldn't have said that."

"Agreed,"

"Actions speak louder than words anyway…ANYWAY, the whole mask and cloak thing was already taken, so I had to come up with something new."

"This is your idea of new?"

The outfit in question had been Adriana's secret project in the costume rooms for several days, she was quite proud of it actually. Made of black crushed velvet that shifted from black to pearly grey in the candlelight, it was a simple dress that crossed over at her back in wide straps and ran fine red lacing down the back panels. A pixie skirt with eight sharp points that branched out at her knees and fell to mid calf graced her long legs, and the short square-cut body was embroidered with a Celtic trinity (just cos they look cool) in deep scarlet thread. She tossed her straight hair, the front two sections of which had been braided into two little plaits to meet at the back, over her shoulder and shook her arms experimentally to hear her bracelets jangle. "At least I'm not a paddle pop stick half dressed in this season's latest skankwear," she replied cryptically, lifting a black gossamer veil to pin to her hair. It fell across the front of her face, a half-inch below her eyes to half conceal a smirk of sheer femininity and a You-know-and-I-know-I-look-hot look.

"You realise that every drunken stagehand will be ogling down the front of your dress the whole time and wont take in a single thing you say," Erik remarked, determined not to give up without a fight. Adriana just laughed, shrugging her scandalously bare shoulders, "It's not like it was any different for the ballet rats with you as the mysterious, intriguing Opera Ghost, who left red roses and caused such spectacles to occur as Carlotta losing her voice." She retorted evenly, stepping over to the bed to lift something from the sheets, "Would you like to see my calling card?"

"Your calling card? Your taking this too incredibly far, I can't believe…did you make this?"

"Yahun, took me ages to get the initials right so be careful okay?" Adriana handed Erik the black quill, with vibrant red glitter spelling the letters T.W. on the feather. "Where did you get the…?"

"The Smiggle Pen? Came in my bag," (Have you got a Smiggle?)

"Interesting, what possessed you to chose a feather?" Erik was turning the quill over in his fingers, admiring the glitter in the light. Adriana shrugged, taking a handful from the bed to slide them into her heavy silver cuffs set below the jangling bracelets so they fanned out above her fingers. "I tried a white butterfly first, but they were too fragile, then I found a few trinities, like this one," she tapped her emblem on her chest with a feather, "But they were too big, and I only found about 20, then I found a heap of feathers and tried them, and tada!" she grinned at him from beneath her veil, striking a dancers pose as her kohl-lined eyes sparked mischief. "Now will you help me?" Erik sighed, knowing there was no way he could win this fight, "Very well," he surrendered, "What would you have me do?"

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A strange echoic melody began to play around the Opera house, a simple piano refrain. It was soon overlapped by a pounding drum and distorted guitar. A red silken chord snaked down from the rafters above and slither onto the stage. The managers and Carlotta drew closer, looking up into the darkness, Firmin opened his mouth to shout for the stagehands, but Adriana opened her mouth and began to sing. She smiled at Erik's shocked gaze as the melody poured forth from the back of her throat, giving the song an ethereal, almost metallic sound.

"You don't remember me but I remember you
I lie awake and tried so hard not to think of you
But who can decide what they dream
And dream I do"

The grasped the rope and wrapped one leg around it, and began slowly lowering herself to the floor as the chorus started.

"I believe in you
I'll give up everything just to fond you
I have to be with you
To live, to breathe
You're taking over me"

She reached the floor and spun her black clad frame once before spinning out onto the floor and face to face with the managers, dropping the rope. From above, Erik hurriedly gathered the cord before some curious stagehand got too close. "Oh God, not again" Firmin muttered, "Shh!" Andre hissed as Adriana, with all the grace and poise of a cat, drew closer, still singing.

"Have you forgotten all I know?
And all we had?
You saw me mourning my love for you
And touched my hand"

She glanced at Erik, hidden above in the shadows, drawing her arms up to drop them in a slow pirouette. "I knew you loved me then"

Catlike, she stalked around the big names of the Opera Populaire, purring the next chorus she slunk around the ballet rats, who drew away fearfully, and danced past the stagehands, of whom not too many ogled down the front of her dress.

"I believe in you

I gave up everything just to find you

I have to be with you

To live, to breathe

You're taking over me"

She spun her way back to the managers again, lifting her feet high as she walked towards them hands moving an intricate dance all on their own that the Opera cast thought must be some sort of ritualistic spell to doom them all, when in fact, it was just Adriana randomly moving her arms (but there's no need to tell them that, now is there?).

"I look in the mirror and see your face

If I look deep enough so many things inside that

Are just like you are taking over"

She stopped with a flourish in front of the managers and Carlotta, raising an arm dramatically, Erik quickly pressed the stop button and leaned over the railing to watch.

"Who-who are you?" Andre gasped as Carlotta drew herself up angrily,

"Shi? Shi is notting! A try hard Opera Ghost copycatto!" she stormed, tossing her hair back, then remembering the state of her ears, pushed it forward again.

"The Phantress of the Opera?" Firmin tried to joke, his voice died off as Adriana turned her grey eyes on him, "Madame's, Monsieur's," she stated slowly, clearly, turning to encompass them all in her gaze, "I bid you welcome,"

"Bid us welcome?" Firmin echoed, shocked, "Who do you think you are? The new Opera Ghost?"

"I am his greatest pupil" she answered, trying very hard not to copy Madame Giry's accent, for some reason, she had the uncontrollable urge to Europeanise her voice. "Ladies and gentlemen, you made a mistake in crossing my master, do not make the same error with me."

She was playing it for all it was worth, Erik noted from the shadows above, he could see it in her eyes she was having the time of her life. He sighed, missing the good old days of threatening notes and scaring the ballet rats. Then he grinned, as an idea crossed his mind. Stowing the CD player into a hollow hideaway box, he slipped off into the shadows as Adriana began to speak again.

"My demands for now, good sirs, are few, my master has asked for his salary, and of course, Box Five, for myself? I would suggest hiring a diva with talent, rather than one who relies on the use of overdone costumes to make her way on the stage. And I would suggest these simple requests are met soon." A smile flickered beneath the black gauze covering her face The managers were on the verge of apoplexy over the veiled threat, incidentally coming from a veiled threat herself, and Carlotta looked like she wanted to kill something, preferably by bashing it, or her, to death with her throat spray bottle.

"And who makes these demands?" Madame Giry asked, tapping her cane on the stage floor, her face carefully blank, though her eyes were worried, and faintly curious, Adriana turned and swept a low curtsey to the ballet mistress.

"Madame," she murmured, "The Theatre Wraith does!"

She leapt away from the group that had been closing on her and danced across the stage, beginning a chant that sent chills up the managers spines.

"I warn you here I warn you now
That my presence is no game
You would do well to heed my call
If long life is your aim.

For Hell sent you a wraith
That can be seen but can't be caught
And Death sent you his demon
Who can fight but can't be fought

You should have paid attention Sirs
You should have listened good Madame's
The Phantom's was a simple wish
Compared to my demands

Now listen well to my commands
Else all will end in tears
The Opera Ghost has taught me well
The Theatre Wraith is here!"

Then she was gone as a masked Phantom swept down from the flies and landing beside her, he offered his hand, his burning eyes raking the crowd of shocked performers. The Theatre Wraith accepted with a swish of black velvet and cast her own gaze over the ballet rats and divas. Then they vanished in a cloud of shimmering mist and flame, leaving only a red rose tied with a black ribbon, and a feather bearing the initials T.W. lying in the space they had just been.

A/N: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! That was fun!

Erik: Took you bloody well long enough to write it

Authoress: Oh shut up, you had just as much fun as I did.

Erik: That's not true!

Authoress: Yes it is.

Erik: Well…maybe a little…