Chapter VI

The Accident

I woke up the next morning freezing cold. My eyes snapped open and I looked around for my blanket, but it wasn't on my bed! I jumped out of bed, shivering, and looked around the other beds and on the other beds, thinking someone might have come over and taken my blanket. "Where is it?" I whispered to myself between shivers. I decided to look in the cabinet for an extra blanket, though I doubted there would be one because our blanket supply is always low. I walked over to the cabinet and pulled open the doors. What I saw petrified me. For a moment I stood there too stunned to speak...then I heard myself let out a scream. I kept screaming, and then I began crying. There, in the cabinet, was a man wrapped in what had to be my blanket. He was dead, and it looked as if he had been stabbed, due to the blood seeping through the blanket, and strangled, for there was a still a lasso hung about his neck. "Oh my God!" I screamed. "Dear God!" I heard some of the beds stir, and the next thing I knew, there was a crowd of girls standing around all screaming or crying.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!" I heard Madame Lauralai shout through all the commotion. Some girls pointed towards the cabinet. Madame clutched her chest in shock. "Get away from there, girls! Come over here. It's all right..." I was in such shock that I couldn't stop crying. I could barely breathe between gasps. Other girls were rocking back and forth. Vashti and her friends were talking quickly in worried and terrified voices.

"It was the Phantom!" one of the girls shouted. I snapped my head in the direction from where the voice came. It was a girl by the name of Marie MacDougal, an Irish girl who was the youngest of us at age fifteen.

"What's this, Marie?" Madame Lauralai snapped. Daring Marie to keep talking.

"The Phantom, Madame, I've seen him! He watches us while we dance!" Marie was shaking with fear and almost what seemed to be excitement.

"That's enough, Marie!" Madame Lauralai threatened.

"But it's true, Madame, I swear it!" poor Marie insisted.

"I said enough, Marie!" Madame shouted. Marie shut her mouth tightly. "Stay here, girls, and do not move. I'm going to find the managers. And I do not want to hear any talk of a Phantom!" The girls all looked around at each other. Each one with the same look on her face.

I inched my way back from the cabinet and moved back against the wall, staring at the man. The man's name was Isaiah. He worked in the opera house. He wasn't that bad of a man. He joked around with the chorus alot. He often had a bad habit of messing up at his post. He had a bad drinking problem, too, but I couldn't figure out why he had been killed. And I really wanted to know if it was Aeron who did it. I had the sick feeling that it was Aeron who did this.

I saw Milly move across the room towards me. She sat beside me and put her head on my shoulder. "I'm scared, Rose," she whispered. I took Milly's hand in mine.

"It'll be okay. It was just an accident." I knew it wasn't though. This wasn't an accident.

"Do you think it was the Phantom?" Milly asked.

I thought for a moment as if truly considering my answer. "No," I lied. Milly sighed, and I was thankful that she probably didn't think it was the Phantom.

I saw Madison look over at us, and I gave her a pleading look, as if asking her to be my friend again. I guess she gave in because Madison crawled over to me and Milly and sat on the other side of me. "I'm sorry for thinking you lied to me," Madison muttered. "I just don't think there'd be another Phantom..."

"Don't worry about it," I reassured her. I couldn't believe what I just said, though. I was letting her get off easily. I should have laid it on her thick.

"No, I accused you of lying, but I know you probably didn't, and I'm sorry. Do you forgive me?" I looked at Madison, and her eyes were begging for forgiveness.

"Yes, I forgive you," I told her. And I think I meant it. We gave each other a small side hug.

"STAND BACK! STAND BACK! Let me take a look at this!" Edward Milson boomed, motioning for girls to move out of the way. Milly, Madison, and I shrank back against the wall even farther. Once Milson reached the cabinet he cried out, "Dear God in Heaven!" He took out a hankerchief from his jacket and wiped off his brow. "Girls, if you please, go down to the ballroom...perhaps we can keep everything in order there...the stage wouldn't be safe...how did this happen? Why...in my theatre...why?" Milson seemed to be talking to himself after he instructed us.

Madison, Milly, and I stood up and quickly headed towards the door. Once we reached the third landing, I looked off to my right and spotted the secret door. "Go ahead...there's something I've got to do. I won't take long, but don't wait for me! Go to the ballroom!" I drifted off to the right and moved quickly to avoid any collisions.

"Rose, no!" I heard Madison and Milly yell. I couldn't go back to them. I had to talk to the Phantom.