Yes, this is another time travel/ phangirl gets magically transported into Erik's lair type stories. Oh come on, we all have at least one! Oh and before I forget…
I do not own Erik/ The Phantom of the Opera. Nor do I own my friend Ginny. I only bullied her into coming and helping me out. I do, however, own me.
"Oh my god, Ginny. I can't believe we're actually here! He was here!" Renn squealed. She and her friend Virginia were on a trip across Europe courtesy of the foreign language department at their high school, and at the moment, they and the rest of the class were spending a week in Paris, France, about to begin a tour of the Paris Opera House. "Oh my god! That's box five! And the chandelier's so pretty…"
Virginia sighed. "Rennie, please don't geek out on me? This is a fictional character you're obsessing over!"
"So? You were obsessing over that anime dude last year, and I never bothered you about it," Renn said sticking her tongue out at her friend.
"Shut up. That was last year! I was an idiot back then! Anyway, please, don't squeal every time you see something that reminds you of your precious phantom?" Virginia gave her friend a pleading look.
"Fine, but will you please take my picture in front of the stage?" She made a very pathetic looking face. "Pretty please?"
"Jeez, girl, we took more than ten outside! Ah, fine."
"Sweet!" Renn grinned and dug through her bag for her digital camera. "I love this thing. The card can hold, like three hundred pictures at a time," She said handing it over and striking an extravagant pose. Ginny laughed and snapped a photo and handed the silver camera back to Renn.
"There you go, weirdo. Now let's go the tour's about to start!" Renn and Virginia hurried to catch up with the guide and their fellow students. They followed the guide around the huge building, while the guide babbled on in French.
"What's he saying?" Renn asked.
"Nothing important. Just blah stuff about the wonderful history of the building. If you'd taken French like I wanted you to, you wouldn't be having these issues."
"Come on, Gin! Half my family's Spanish! I need to be able to communicate with them. You'll be dependant on me when we're in Madrid next week, so just translate for me if he says anything about the phantom."
Virginia rolled her eyes. They kept walking, and Renn gawked at every little thing, and scrutinized every surface for signs of a secret passage.
"Rennie…" Ginny knew exactly what Renn was looking for. "Does the word fictional have any meaning for you at all? There are no secret passages in this building, nor is there a psycho genius living under it! This is the twenty-first century for Christ's sake!" Renn rolled her eyes and ignored her friend. She knew that there was no phantom, no Erik, but still. It was fun to pretend, and daydream.
"Okay, you win! I'll pay attention to the damn boring tour and won't go all fangirly on you, okay?"
"Thank you! Jeez, you're so weird sometimes!"
"'Course I'm weird, that's why you love me." Rennie said with a grin. They continued to walk around the building until Renn was more bored than she dreamed possible. Soon though, she noticed an open door that looked dark and creepy, and would be genuinely fun to explore. She debated whether or not to get try and get Ginny to come, but she decided against it; this would be more fun alone. Besides, Ginny could be no fun at times. She'd probably drag her away back to the tour. The sensible part of her brain told her to get the fuck away from that door and follow the class, but she told herself that she would only be gone a minute and they would never miss her. She fell behind the group and slipped through the door. Inside, she could see that there were dark stairs leading down.
"Just like in the film!" She said to herself, grinning like mad. Tossing all better judgment aside, she started down the stairs two at a time.
"Renn, what the fuck!" Ginny's voice came from the door at the top of the stairs.
"Damn it," Renn sighed. "Okay, you win, I'm coming." She reluctantly climbed the stairs and went back through the door with Virginia.
"What are you on? Do you want to get yourself grounded to the hotel for the rest of the week? Cone on, they're gonna be freaking out if they find out we're gone!" Virginia dragged Renn out the door and down the hallway where they caught up with the tour group. Thankfully, no one had noticed their absence, and they finished the tour without any more interruptions. Renn was really disappointed. The building was truly magnificent, but she had expected… something more. Just something phantomish. It wasn't like she expected Erik himself to show up and carry her down to his lair, (though she would not have complained,) but no one except herself even mentioned him. As they exited the building, she looked behind her at the grand building once more, and shook her head. She and her friends unhurriedly walked down the steps, and boarded the bus that was to take them to their next destination.
The group arrived at their hotel at around eight o' clock that night. Ginny and Renn went into the room they shared and changed into their pajamas. They sat down on their two twin beds, and Renn pulled her duffel bag onto her lap and dug through it to find her sketchbook. She flipped through it, seeing pages and pages of silly doodles, detailed drawings, and sloppy sketches, mostly of the phantom. She stopped at the next empty page, near the middle, and pulled her pencil from the rings.
"What are ya gonna draw?" Ginny asked, peering curiously at the book from her bed.
"Oh, I dunno. I'm just in the mood to draw," Renn replied.
"Can I see?"
"Um, sure," Renn said handing it over reluctantly. She didn't really like showing people her drawings. It made her feel really self-conscious, because she thought most of them were horrible.
"Wow, Rennie, these are really good!" Ginny exclaimed pouring over the pictures. "I really like this one." Virginia held up the book, showing Renn the picture that she liked. Renn blushed. It was a pencil drawing of Erik and Christine kissing. She was actually really proud of that one; the shading had taken her ages, and it did look good.
"Aw, thanks Gin." Rennie grinned. "But they're not that good."
Virginia rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say… Hey, do you wanna watch a movie? I brought some and I'm pretty sure the T.V. in here has a DVD player." Renn nodded, and Ginny held up three DVD cases. "Princess Bride, Love Actually, or Pirates of the Caribbean?"
"Ooh! Princess Bride, definitely! I love that movie!" Renn replied. They started the movie, and Renn gave up on drawing anything that night. She stuffed her sketchbook back into her already overflowing duffel bag and zipped it up with some difficulty. She slid under the covers to watch the movie with her friend. The movie was as good as she remembered, and she drifted to sleep during the end credits.
Renn had strange dreams that night. There was swirling light, and the sound of water lapping against rock walls. It was cold and damp in her dream. There was scratching sounds of small creatures moving around, close to her. Rats? Then she was being carried somewhere by a dark figure with strong arms. Then she didn't remember anything more.
He nearly tripped over her in the dark. A girl, asleep in his passageways, and so close to his home. How…? He leaned over her, and brushed her light brown hair out of her face and shook her shoulders a bit, but she only mumbled something about cheese graters and ignored him. She was dressed strangely, wearing a dark sleeveless top and pants with some sort of mouse pattern on them. She must be freezing. He didn't know what to what to do with this strange girl, but he knew he couldn't leave her. He picked her up without thinking, and started walking. A black bag in his path made him trip and nearly drop her. It must belong to her. He would have to go back and get it. He continued carrying the girl until he reached his lair. The sofa or her bed? He did not know this girl, and he did not want her in her bed. The sofa then. He gently laid her down, and covered her with a blanket.
Renn woke up groggily, and wiped her eyes. Strange dream… She realized she was not in the hotel bed any longer. She sat up, and looked around. She was lying on a sofa in the corner of what seemed to be a cave. She recognized this cave though. I am so still dreaming. She was in the phantom's lair! This is not happening! It was all there. The organ, the lake with the boat tied up, the swan bed… But she couldn't see him. Maybe she was still dreaming. She got up from the sofa and shivered when her bare feet reached the cold stone floor. She was still wearing the Mickey Mouse pajama pants and the black tank top she had slept in and she was freezing, so she took the blanket with her. She tiptoed to the lake's edge, and looked out over the calm water. A voice behind her said something in French. She knew that voice… Surprised, she jumped a foot in the air, stumbled, and landed on her but in the freezing water.
"Oh, fuck!" Now she was wet, freezing, and the phantom was standing behind her, no doubt about to Punjab her, or kick her out or something. Instead, he took her arm and pulled her to her feet. He spoke in French again, and she could hear suppressed laughter in his voice. Renn slowly turned around and tried very hard not to stare or squeak or something like that.
"Um, I'm sorry Monsieur, but I don't speak French," Renn said with an apologetic smile, water dripping from her drenched hair. This is not happening. I've gone completely mad. Did I hit my head or something?
Erik raised an eyebrow and in perfect English said, "Are you all right? I had merely noted that you were finally awake. I had gone back to get this." He handed Renn her duffel bag. "I believe this is yours."
"Er, yeah. Thanks... How did I get here?" Renn asked incredulously.
"I carried you from the tunnels to my sofa. Your bag was lying next to you. Might I ask how you got that near my home without setting off any of my… precautions to keep people out?" Erik said his voice icy.
"Um, I dunno. Last I remember, I was falling asleep in my hotel room… This isn't some sort of weird joke is it?" Am I crazy? I think I would know… But how the hell could I get here? Ginny wouldn't be able to pull this sort of joke, would she? And to get someone who looks this much like him… no. I'm either crazy of this is really happening. The second option scared her more, because at least if she was crazy, it was explainable.
"I can assure you, there is no joke. Are you suggestion you sleepwalked here?" he asked.
Not unless I can sleepwalk over one-hundred-thirty-five years. "I don't think so. I'm not from here. I don't belong here!"
"Explain yourself."
"What year is it?"
"1871, in February."
"It's supposed to be the year 2006!" There was a long silence. Renn gave a pleading look. "I think I might be going crazy. I – I must have hit my head, or I'm still dreaming. You've got to be a figment of my imagination."
Erik stare at her, dumbfounded. "You – you say that you are from the future? You – I don't believe you." Renn nodded, not believing how incredibly crazy that sounded. "Where were you before you came here?"
"The foreign language classes at my school are taking a summer trip across Europe. We've just come from Germany, and England before that. We're staying in Paris for a week, and today we took a tour of the opera house which was really cool, and I was going to sneak off and look for this place, but my friend Ginny – Virginia, caught me. We finished the tour and went to dinner, and went back to the hotel, and we went to bed, and that's it! Nothing happened that would justify me being here. I don't know, Erik!" Renn spoke very fast, not realizing that she had said his name. He, however, did.
"How do you know my name?" He asked.
"Well.." She pondered how to best tel him that he had legions of phangirls all willing to... she refused to follow that train of thought any longer. "In my time, you're famous. There's a bunch of books, and a musical, and several movies, those are like moving photographs with sound, all about you and… what happened. How long has it been? A month?"
Erik turned away. "One month, eighteen days tonight." She could hear the pain and longing in his voice. Renn sat down on the sofa, wrapped the blanket tighter around her, and put her bag down on the ground beside the sofa.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean…" Renn looked at the floor. The ending of the story made her cry every time; she couldn't begin to imagine how painful it must have been for him. "I'm sorry." She shifted uncomfortably.
"What is your name, mademoiselle?"
"Renn Keel. Erm, I…"
"You say I am famous in your time. Famous as the crazed monster behind the burning of the opera house and abduction of Miss Daae no doubt," Erik said, darkly.
"Oh no!" Renn replied. "Famous as the tragic, misunderstood," sex god, "anti-hero, who," desperately needs to get laid, "did not get the love he deserved." I did not just say that out loud. Renn gave him a small smile. She then remembered that she had her copy of Susan Kay's Phantom in her bag. "I have this," she said, pulling it out and handing Erik the well worn paperback. "It's my favorite book. Read it, if you like. I don't know if it's true…It may be a bit... much. It, er, makes me cry every time I read it." He took the book from her hand and raised an eyebrow. He sat on the couch next to her, keeping an arm's width between the two of them.
"May I see the rest of the contents of your bag?" Why the hell isn't he raging at me to get the fuck out of his lair? Renn nodded and pulled out a pile of clothes.
"Um, these are just my clothes for the week." She dropped the clothes in a pile on the floor, and proceeded to pull out her camera, a small mp3 player, her sketchbook, and a pencil pouch. Erik started to reach for her sketchbook, but she snatched it away. "Er, can we not look through this? It's embarrassing." Showing Ginny her multitude of phantom drawings way hard enough! She would by no means show them to the subject of her art! Besides, some really were awful, and others were very emotional like the kissing one, and one of him crying, no mask. She didn't think he would appreciate that one. (There were also a total of five shirtless pictures of Erik, and nothing would make her show him those!)
"This is my camera," Renn said, holding it up. She presses the power button.
"Cameras do not look like that!"
"In 2005 they do!" She snapped his picture and laughed as he was momentarily blinded by the flash. "Here, look." She moved it to the view mode, and showed him the picture. He had a very weird look on his face. "Ha-ha! You look high!" Renn laughed.
"Get rid of it. I will not have anyone seeing me," Erik said icily and stood up.
Renn shrank back, suddenly afraid. "I'm sorry. Look, it's deleted. Gone. No one will see it." Jeez, it's not like you don't have your stupid mask on, ass. "But it is pretty cool. I can make videos and pictures and stuff. Here, let me show you." She flipped on the video mode and pressed record.
"Hello everybody! I'm actually in the phantom's lair!" She said into the camera, taking a video. "Look at all the pretty stuff! The organ, the doll house of crazy, and look, its Erik's foot, cause he won't let me video his face! Say hello Erik!"
"… Hello."
She stopped recording, and switched it again to view mode. "Now watch this!" She handed him the camera and pressed play. His eyes widened in amazement.
"Remarkable. How does it work?"
"Er, I dunno. Something to do with a memory card, and transferring images into like, numbers, or something. I'm really not the right person to ask. And, um, this is my mp3 player. It plays music. Look, put these in you ears…" She turned it on and sorted through her music until she got to the Phantom of the Opera album. Trying to think which song would be least… painful, or one that wouldn't hurt his ears, Prima Donna... she decided on Masquerade, and pressed play.
"Incredible… How on earth... It must be an amazing time… Urgh, turn it off!" Renn quickly took the earphones, and put them to her ear.
"…look, your future bride. Just think of it…" Whoops, forgot about that bit. How could I be so stupid?
"I'm sorry." That's all I seem to be doing, apologizing.
"Get out."
"Where the hell am I supposed to go? I'm wet, freezing, and all I can bloody say in French is Bonjour!"
"That is not my problem."
"Urgh! Please! Look, I can be really useful! I can cook, I can clean, and I'm not that bad a singer. I can draw too." She wracked her brain for how else she could be of assistance. "I could go buy stuff for you, so you wouldn't need to bribe people any more… and I'll be there if you need someone to talk too, and I can, um, do other stuff," she finished lamely.
Why had this girl showed up in his home when all he wanted was to be left to die in peace? With her strange ways, and strange story he found her oddly intriguing. And she knew about him; she claimed to know his whole story. It doesn't matter, he told himself. She was trespassing. An unwanted visitor. He didn't want any people around him.
"Child…"
This was ridiculous. Why did he hesitate? Maybe… maybe having a little assistance around his home wouldn't be such a bad idea. She was obviously distressed, and she didn't have anywhere to go… Erik sighed.
"Fine."
Renn's eyes widened. He couldn't mean…
"You may remain here."
Well, that was thuroughly fun to write. Now, should I continue is the question? If you review, I'll give doughnuts!