A/N Yay! Another chapter! Will it be less dramatic and depressing than the previous one? Ha! As if!
Chapter Four: The Color of Despair
As Charlotte slowly came out the foggy darkness of drug induced sleep, she felt the stiffness of her aching body. She fought through groggy clods of half remembered dreams, searching her mind for the reason she was so sore. It was only after the fog had lifted from her mind that she remembered the disaster of her father's first opera. He has changed so much since he started drinking.
Charlotte opened her eyes slowly, blinking drowsily in the light of at least a hundred candles. This was not home and this was not her bed. She wished it was though, it felt as if her battered body was being cradled by a cloud.
Charlotte sighed lazily, tentatively stretching her muscles. She sat up sliding her feet out from under the warm quilts and onto the cold stone floor. She shivered realizing that she was wearing only her thin white chemise. She looked around, vaguely wondering where she was. She stood to look around and get some idea of where she might be, but her legs where weak and they gave out from under her sending her tumbling to the floor. She cried out as she fell. She reached out and caught herself, the palms of her hands stinging as they smacked the hard stone floor.
Charlotte pulled herself up using the bed post. She clung to it as she stood, unsure of what to do next. It wasn't long before she began to grow scared. She was trapped, alone in a room full of candles. She began to cry and to call out for anyone who might be outside the room.
"Is anyone there? Please help me!" Charlotte waited for a response, but received none. "Someone, anyone, please help me for the love of god! Please! Please!" Charlotte's cries became more frantic and so she let go of the bedpost and feel to the floor, sobbing and screaming uncontrollably into her hands.
Moments later, Charlotte felt herself gathered into someone's arms. That person held her close, stroking her hair comfortingly and soon a familiar voice was singing to her. His voice wove it's way around her, soothing and calming her. She stopped screaming and soon had stopped crying, eager to her more of that heavenly voice.
Erik picked her up in his arms, cradling her almost like a child. She placed her head on his thin, bony shoulder. Soon he had placed her gently on a red velvet sofa and he stopped singing. Charlotte shook her head to clear the fog that had settled in. She watched Erik silently for a moment as he fixed himself a glass of brandy. After a moment she broke the silence.
"Why did you bring me here, Erik?" Charlotte's voice was so soft, that she barely heard it.
"Simply because I knew your father would not call a doctor and it would not do for my Prima Donna to be injured and not treated, you may have damaged you vocal cords." His voice haled the same icy tone it had the night she'd inadvertently stumbled upon his lair. What had happened to the Erik she'd seen in the garden?
"Oh…" Charlotte blushed remembering that she was now wearing only a chemise, where as she'd had been wearing very much more the night of the Opera. She blushed a deep crimson then as she thought of Erik's gentle hands undressing her. She turned her head when he turned and looked at her, not wanting him to see her scarlet face, she had no way of knowing the connotations it held to him. He turned his back to her again
It's better she never knows…. he thought remembering Christine. This was his second chance at greatness, Charlotte Ó hEachthairn was his key to greatness, she would be a star and his new Opera would be made a success because of her. First, though, he needed information.
"Now, mademoiselle," better to keep the cold formality, "I find it imperative to know the history of my manager and my Prima Donna and as of yet my….. researchers have found little information on the Ó hEachthairns. Now, tell me about your family."
"Why must you know about us?" Charlotte asked. "What do you care?" Erik's cold demeanor frightened her and stung her deeply. For some reason it hurt more that her father's fiery wrath.
"Caring has nothing to do with it, child," his voice was cold as ice, "I stopped caring a long time ago."
"Fine then, messier," Charlotte kept her tone even, though the fire of her anger was evident, "I will tell you all that I know about my family.
"My great-great-great grandfather, Patrick Ó hEachthairn, came to England from Ireland, he came with his wife, Caitlin Ó hEachthairn, and their three children, Rowan Ó hEachthairn, my great-great grandfather, and his sisters, Maggie and Shannon. Patrick had lost his families fortune and was being pursued by some of the less savory 'businessmen' that he'd made some bad business deals with. How the family got the fortune to began with I do not know, only that it was amassed through several generations before my great-great-great grandfather swindled it away. He lived a modest existence from that day out, but Rowan resented his father's actions and spent his whole life working to rebuild the family fortune and eventually he did, but it cost him his soul. He became a cruel man and when his parents died leaving his sisters unmarried, he married them off to rich men who were twice their age, for money and the connections. Eventually he married the Lady Amelia Baltimore, who was the queens fourth cousin. They had only one child, because Amelia died in child birth. My great grandfather, Lord Andrew Ó hEachthairn, inherited two fortunes and married Lady Mercedés Du Lac , the younger sister of the Viscount Du Lac, only they married for love, like my great-great-great grandparents. You see Andrew despised his father and some even say he had poisoned since my great-great grandfather died under rather suspicious circumstances, but I believe it was one of his many enemies he made during his rise to power. Andrew and Mercedés had three children the oldest was a girl, Marie, followed by my grandfather, Richard and then their baby sister Heather, who died at the age of twelve from Tuberculosis, it wasn't long after that that Mercedés died of a wasting sickness that some blamed on her broken heart at the lose of her favorite child. When Richard was seventeen his father died in a carriage accident and Richard inherited his father's title and his business. Richard was a good kind man and he married a good lady, my grandmother Eponiene Valjean, who had no noble blood, but she and Richard met and fell in love when they were eighteen, while Richard was vacationing in Paris, not far from here actually. They had four children, the oldest was my father James Raoul Ó hEachthairn, a year later they had my aunt Mercedés Anne Ó hEachthairn, she was followed by Jonathan Pierre Ó hEachthairn two years later, who died at the age of five when he fell down the stairs, the youngest is Genevieve Cossette Ó hEachthairn, Lady Genevieve is a good woman, she is working hard to help those who cannot help themselves. My father is a cold man, but my grandparents are kind and generous people, but my father will inherit their estate and my husband, whoever that will be, will stand to inherit a lot of money, and my father has several ventures to add to that fortune. About twenty years ago, my father married my mother, Kathleen O'Bryan, who was beautiful, rich, and kind. She was so vibrant and full of life. Two years after they married I was born. Then, when I was eleven, my mother fell ill with a wasting sickness that not even the best of doctors could cure. In the last days of her illness my mother told me that I had an older sister named Caroline, but her mind was going then and all the vitality was gone from her life. Two dies later she died…." Charlotte's voice broke, and she collapsed into tears. She mentally cursed her weakness. It was one of the things that she despised most about herself, the only thing that her plainness came second to. "So here I am, Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Ó hEachthairn, the only daughter of Lord James Patrick Ó hEachthairn, except for a sister possibly invented my dying mother, Lady Caroline Fantine Ó hEachthairn, who should she, God willing, someday materialize, would be the rightful heir to my father's fortune.
"There you have it Messier Erik, my family history as my grandfather told me."
"Thank you, Lady Ó hEachthairn, I did not know of you title, for some reason your father appears to want that kept secret for now."
"He had planned to let it be known after the first Opera, but…."
"I see." Charlotte stood, the effects of whatever drugs Erik had fed her wearing off so that her legs could support her.
"Erik," she whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Will you tell me your story, so that I may know the man who works to make me a star?"
"No." His voice was harsh and he shrugged her hand off his shoulder. "No, no one, not ever shall know of my existence, beyond that of the Phantom. Now, we begin you lessons, we have only to short weeks until your debut and there is much to learn." Charlotte stood her hands hanging helplessly by her side, staring at the floor, his moods changed so suddenly.
And so Charlotte began her voice lessons under the tutelage of the Phantom of the Opera.
A/N Well, there you have it. It's slightly less dramatic, but still…. Oh, I have no idea if the possible sister thing will come into play again or not, Erik's new Opera will have to, no doubt about that, I'm just sure where that came from…… I had no intentions of putting that in there and it wasn't in my handwritten copy of this chapter, but when I was typing it, it just kind of appeared….. Ah! I've created a monster! It's Alive! Muwahahahaha! So now you must review or the monster will attack! Ha ha! Just kidding, but please review anyway, I don't get a pay check for this, but your reviews stand as a nice substitute.
Oh and one more thing, According to my sats, by hits Endless Longing is my most popular story, followed by Little Lotte, and then this story, but by reviews Endless Longing is still number one and Little Lotte is number two, but PhanDate is third and this one is seventh. So please review and recomend this story to your friends, because it's my favorite and by my best and I want to my number one. Thank you!