Authoress: (clutching her face) Erik!
Erik: What?
Authoress: My face hurts!
Erik: So?
Authoress: So fix it!
Erik: I am a non-physical metaphorically enhanced presence strictly for the use of ideas and sarcasm, how do you expect me to help?
Authoress: I don't care! Just do something!
Erik: It's not my fault your mouth was too small to fit eight of your teeth within it...although you still manage to make as much noise as you please despite this setback.
Authoress: Shut Up! Get me my drugs
Erik: You just took them
Authoress: Don't care! I want them now!
Erik: You'll make yourself sick
Authoress: Erik I'm currently holding a disturbing resemblance to a cabbage patch doll. Drugs now!
Erik: You know you do now that I look at you properly (sounds of several precious and expensive sounding items smashing, a painful struggle and a long drawn out wail of pain)...nurofene?
Sorry to all those who anonymously reviewed! I thank you but couldnt reply with the new restrictions!
Yayanne had appeared and whisked Adriana away in a flurry of bells and silver veils, begging desperately in a mix of broken French and English just who this mysterious lady was. With a laugh and a smile Adriana had taken her leave of the other two, momentarily caught up in the much neglected joys of "girly stuff" she had been missing since her minions had come destroyed and gone. The moment their giggles and chatter faded from earshot Nadir rounded on Erik,
"Are you quite mad?" he demanded, flinging a dark hand in the direction the two young women had flitted off in, "Look at what you are doing Erik, this girl is not capable of staying safe from danger, she can barely contain herself when there is another female in the room! You must send her away!"
Erik folded his arms and stared down at the Persian man, "You do not know her daroga, she would no sooner bow to your wishes than Carlotta would serenade us like a nightingale."
Nadir looked at the black clad Phantom in disbelief, "You're out of your mind Erik, she will get herself killed, you can't just keep her down there with you, Allah forbid what would happen if the police found her down there!"
Erik straightened in his seat, "Do not presume to tell me what I may and may not do with my possessions daroga," he warned "She is mine!"
"You cannot own another human being Erik!" Nadir wrung his hands furiously as he paced around the room, soft shoes making no sound on the deep blue carpet.
"Oh but I can..." Erik's hypnotic purr stopped the daroga in his tracks, arms swinging loosely, Nadir turned woodenly to face the magician looming over him like a puppet master. "I can daroga and I have, or did you perhaps forget that fact?"
Nadir blinked, sweat beading on his forehead as he fought Erik's softly hummed spell, "You...you cannot" he wheezed, voice panting like dusty broken bellows. With a growl Erik released him, Nadir had always been too strong to be contained by his voice, in his heart Erik knew he lacked the ruthlessness needed to utterly dissimilate his friend. He slumped back onto the leather divan and rolled his eyes as Nadir adopted his lecturer's pose.
"I have indulged you till now Erik," Nadir rubbed his throat furiously, and coughed several times, "But she cannot be allowed to continue her harebrained scheme of thinking she stands a chance to catch whoever this madman is."
"Jack the Ripper," Erik corrected automatically, staring at the floor as Nadir leaned against a small table to swallow half a pitcher of water, hands trembling at the effort of holding the heavy silver jug.
"No," Nadir gasped, water trickling down through his small dark beard, "It's not."
"What?" Erik stared at the daroga in astonishment, "What do you mean?"
Nadir shrugged helplessly, moving to sit opposite Erik in the ornate room, "They found the real Ripper in the America's three weeks ago, he had been there for six months or more, we are dealing with someone else entirely,"
Erik growled, gritting his teeth, "Adriana will be furious," he muttered,
"Erik!" Nadir's voice cracked, "Have you listened to nothing I have said? You have to stop, you have to leave Paris, or at least send her away where she will be safe,"
"You think I cannot keep her safe?" Erik demanded, leaping up to tower over Nadir, the Persian held up his hands in peace, "For a while perhaps," he answered guardedly, "From the police at any rate, But how safe is she from you?"
Erik stared at the daroga for a long moment, then let out a low chuckle that raised the hairs on the back of Nadir's neck, "The little chit is perfectly capable of taking care of herself daroga," he sniggered, "She has proved that to me many times,"
"Erik..." Nadir pleaded, "By Allah please..."
"For God's sake man!" the flowers standing in the vases around the room seemed to shake and wilt at the power of Erik's voice, "Did you think I did not try to get her to leave already? I have offered her release and she has refused," he paused thought for a moment, murmuring almost to himself, "A fact for which I am extremely grateful," he turned and dropped onto the couch, twisting his skeletal hands into intricate knots with double jointed cracks of his knuckles, he looked up into Nadir's eyes, matching bright jade against haunted, sunken gold, "I need her daroga, I wish to God that I didn't, but I do,"
"Why?" Nadir's voice was weary from fighting Erik's spell, the slumping of his shoulders and grey hair falling thickly across his forehead made him look ten years older, Erik looked up at him furiously,
"Why daroga?" he demanded, "Why?" he tore of his mask and threw it onto the carpet, the white porcelain bounced and skidded to a halt against daroga's foot, the Persian man flinched. "This is why!" he jabbed a finger at his ruined face, "She is the only one who has ever looked on me like this and not turned away in disgust. She had known me two weeks and was ready to sacrifice herself to save me from my addiction," he rubbed a gloved hand over his face, "I hit her daroga, I do not deny it, I hit her and she turned the other cheek! She told me I was worth more than my dependence, it showed in her eyes that she believed it, and for some godforsaken reason, I believed her,"
Surprised, Nadir's gaze dropped to Erik's arms, the Phantom watched the Persian's jade eyes and laughed, "Yes it's true daroga, no more morphine, aren't you proud?" He sighed heavily, "She took away what I craved...And in doing so unknowingly offered herself as a replacement," he looked pleadingly at the other man, "I dont want to let her go."
Nadir was silent, it had been years since he had seen Erik in such a rage, or speak so passionately about something that was not music, he remembered Adriana's bravado and outward attitude, balanced by the deep silence of understanding reflected in her eyes, he had to wonder if either of the two Opera House spirits really understood just how deep and twisted their relationship, whatever it was, ran.
"You think I'm insane," Erik's matter of fact statement made Nadir look up,
"You have plead that state of mind for many years Erik, what is so different now?"
The thin shoulders covered in black cashmere shrugged, "I dont know daroga, she can be as bad as a twittering ballet rat some days and more of an old stick than Reyer on others, and yet-"
The tinkle of ankle and wrist bells made them both look up, Erik dived for his mask, left staring on the floor as Nadir held open the curtain and bowed.
Five dancing girls entered, a sixth carrying a many layered pipe set, she started up a simple melody as the veiled girls bowed to the two men and began to dance.
Their movements were simple, graceful, entrancing and smooth, offering, but never seductive, it was considered sin to entice a man through this kind of dance, every step was an offer and warning, sinuous movements matched with facedown palms, no invitation was ever allowed. Nadir sat back with a sigh, losing himself in the whispering skirts of his dancers, there was something in the way they danced that made everything else easy to forget.
There was one dancer, slightly out of time, looking to the others for the steps who caught Erik's eye. The veils covered her from head to foot, but it was something in the way she moved, what she lacked in talent or knowledge, she more than made up for in confidence and brassiness. As she brushed past his shoulder, her arms undulating like a serpent, he caught one wrist in his cold hand, she half bowed to him and made to move on, but he lifted the veil that covered her head.
Adriana's grey eyes sparked at him as a collective giggle rose from the other dancers, "What do you think you're doing?" he hissed,
"Dancing," came the simple reply.
"Why?"
"Because it's fun," she hovered her lips over his and blew a warm breath over his mouth, then slipped back into the dance. Nadir looked at his friend, noticing the tightness in his jaw, and worried.
A few bars later and the dance was finished, each girl bowed in turn to first Erik then Nadir and flowed out of the room coin belts jingling and veils flying like colourful silk winds. The willowy Yayanne paused at the door huge eyes sparkling as she waited for Adriana. The blonde removed her veil, revealing significantly shorter hair that flowed down just to her shoulder blades rather than her waist and smiled at the two men, "Did you behave?" she asked impishly, Erik's flat stare told her everything, she rolled her eyes and slipped her headpiece back over her mousy gold locks, "I'll be back," she sighed, "Just please try not to kill one another," she slipped out to link arms with Yayanne who whispered something in her ear and made her laugh.
"Adriana?" Erik's voice made her turn, the Phantom glared at her borrowed harem girl's ensemble, "We will be talking about this my dear,"
Adriana sighed again, "I know," she groaned, she glanced at Yayanne, "You can't deny it wasn't fun though,"
The amethyst velvet dropped close behind them and Nadir turned his gaze back to Erik. "There are some things about you my friend I have never understood," he sighed, "I fear that this is to be another one,"
Erik buried his skull-like face in his long hands, closing his eyes, "Then that makes two of us daroga,"
I did not plan a single part of the way this chapter ran, it all poured straight out of my fingers in one big go. Erik needs me, that in itself makes this entire phic worthwhile.
Is there any question you would like to ask Erik or the daroga, anything from favourite vegetable to oddest reason for breaking into song, just anything? Need some for the next chapter
Everything I'm currently writing seems to be emotional, still I rather enjoyed this chapter. Maybe it was the drugs?...Heheh, I like the nurofene runs off to take her next dose