The torture chamber was unlike any other place you would visit. It had six corners with mirrors that covered them. In one of the far corners was an iron tree with an iron branch.
"No!" Clouseau cried. "No! I want a damburgah! A damburgah!"
"Inspector, you're an idiot!" Raoul yelled at him. "If this is called the torture chamber, you shouldn't be so worried about a stupid dambur . . . excuse me, hamburger."
"You're right, but . . ."
"But nothing!"
Clouseau rolled his eyes, then began to walk around the chamber, examining the mirrors. "You know, this looks more like a fun house than a torture chamber. See, in this mirror, I'm fat." He moved to his left. "And in this one, I'm skinny." The inspector moved from mirror to mirror, saying, "Fat, skinny, fat, skinny."
"Inspector, we should find a way to get out of here before the torture begins."
"You're right. We don't want our heads to get cut off by chainsaws." Raoul stared at him in confusion. "What?" the inspector asked. "I saw it in a video game!"
"A video game?" Raoul asked.
"Never mind." Just as Clouseau said this, they heard a voice coming from outside the walls.
"Make your choice!" a cold voice said. "The requiem mass or the wedding mass."
"That must be Erik," Raoul pointed out.
"I'll take the wedding mass!" Clouseau yelled. "Just make sure there are lots of damburgahs afterward."
"He's not talking to you."
"Oh, yes. I knew that," the inspector lied.
"The requiem mass won't be happy," Erik continued on. "The wedding mass will be very happy, though. And whoever wanted damburgahs, I have no idea what your talking about. I don't want to live underground forever. My opera is finished, and I want you to be my bride. I will have a mask that will completely hide my face. No one will even turn around to look at me. We will live happily together, Christine. I just want someone to love me. I will be very gentle, just say you want the wedding mass."
"Christine's in there," Clouseau pointed out.
"That's the most sensible thing you've said all day," Raoul told him.
"No, Erik! Please, I don't want to marry you, but I don't want a requiem mass, either!" Christine pleaded.
"And I want a damburgah. Oh, please! Quit your wining!" Clouseau sighed.
"Oh, shut up," Raoul told him. Then, they heard Erik sob, "You don't love me! You don't love me!"
"Of course I don't," Clouseau replied.
"He's not talking to you," Raoul said.
Before long, there was a long silence, and then a loud electric buzz. "Somebody is ringing at the door. I am going to go tell the siren to open the door."
After hearing footsteps walking away, Raoul cried, "Christine, if you are alone, answer me! It's Raoul!"
"Raoul?" Christine replied with a quiver in her voice. "Yes, I'm in here alone."
"Christine, I'm . . .I mean, some crazy inspector who claims to be from the future and I are here to save you, but tell us when Erik comes."
"Christine, do you have a damburgah?" Clouseau asked.
"A what?" Christine said.
"A damburgrr!"
"What?"
"'am . . .bur . . .grr!"
"Ignore him," Raoul said. "He wants a hamburger."
"Oh. I don't have any. Anyway, Erik has gone mad with love. If I don't stay with him, he will kill everyone and himself. I have to decide by eleven o'clock tonight! He told me if I refused him everyone will be dead and buried!"
"Where is Erik?" Clouseau asked.
"He must be out of the house I am in."
"Sure he's not at McDonald's?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Drat. Would have place an order for a damburgrr."
"Inspector, let me talk. You'll just mess everything up if you do," Raoul told the inspector.
"Fine, you minkey," Clouseau sighed.
"Can you make sure he is not in the house?"
"No, I can't. I'm bound together by ropes. Where are you, anyway? There are only two doors in my room. One leads to the Louis-Philippe room and the other leads to a room Erik forbade me to see; the torture chamber."
"We're in the torture chamber!"
Christine gasped. "Oh, my! Can you see the door?"
"No, we can't!" Raoul cried out desperately. "Is there a lock to it?"
"Yes. Oh, if only I could move and knock on the door to tell you where it is! Don't stay, go out the way you came."
Raoul shook his head. "I won't leave you. We will go away from here together, or we will die together."
"You know," Clouseau began, "You watch too many soap operas. I saw that on a soap opera. Was it Bold and Beautiful? I can't remember."
"Oh, be quiet!" Raoul yelled at him so loud that the inspector's hair moved. "Why did he bind you together, Christine?"
"I tried to commit suicide! It's so horrible! He told me he bound me so I wouldn't try to kill myself!"
"Christine, tell Erik the ropes hurt you. If he loves you so much, he will surely untie them."
"You're right, and now I hear him! Don't say anything, he'll know you're here."
"Tell that to Inspector Clouseau, here."
"How are you, Christine?" Erik asked moments later.
"I am in pain Erik. These bounds hurt me," Christine replied. "Please unbind me!"
"But my dear, you will kill yourself!"
"No, I won't."
"Fine, then." A few moments of silence passed, then, "Are you okay, now?" Clouseau and Raoul then heard an organ.
"I am fine."
Erik began to sing a wonderful song as he played his organ, Clouseau grumbling, "He should really play something from Aerosmith, instead." The Inspector almost broke out singing Dream On, but Raoul stopped him just as an abrupt ending came to Erik's music. A long moment of silence that sent shivers down Raoul and Clouseau's backs passed, then Erik yelled, "What have you done with my bag?"
A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm getting so many, I can't remember everyone's names! Please continue to review!