Disclaimer: All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of myself and are owned by me, with the exception of a few. These characters are of my own, inspired by The Phantom of the Opera the movie, Gaston Leroux, Susan Kay, and a few other authors. I do not endorse nor do I own, any of the said products, mentioned in the story.
Most of the places referred to in this story are fictional. I do not own any of the celebrities mentioned in the story, but I do wish to someday own Gerard Butler. Hee, other than that, this story is here to be read and enjoyed. Review would be nice and please, no flammers at this time. This is my first Phantom fiction story to be published on and thank you for your time in reading this.
Horizontal line means next scene.
Bold words are memories/flashbacks
Italicized words are thoughts
Parentheses ( ) is translations from other language.
AN means a pause in the story for an author's note.
Bold and italicized words are songs and song titles.
Italic and Underline are POV's
: meaning of the abbreviations.
Hope you like this chapter, I put a lot into this story.
Chapter 2: Let Me Rest In Piece
"Put out flyers? Are you out of your mind," screamed, Jesse, shaking her head at the notion. There was no way in hell she was going to put out flyers, not in a million years.
"Come on, you are going to get more hopefuls to look at the house," answered Cordelia, rolling her eyes a bit. Having a habit of rolling her eyes and being a bossy woman, when it came to being friends with Jesse.
"No, I am going to get freaks and psychos, if I place flyers around the place. For all, I know I can get a sexual predator to come by the house," stated Jesse, coming up with a list of reasons of why she wouldn't put up flyers.
"Quit the bull, Jesse. You just can't handle having anyone in the house, either than yourself. You are getting attached to a house that could be the death of you."
"Hey, at least, they can bury my corpse here," Jesse spat back.
"Are you on any kind of medication?"
"No."
"Would you like to be?"
"Don't tempt me, Cordy."
"Sorry, I told you I cannot be your lover."
"Aye, shut up," Jesse answered, throwing a pillow at her.
They both laughed, having moved to her unmade bed, talking about plans for the house. Cordelia had thought about putting up flyers, advertising a room for rent. Counteracting, Jesse came up with the idea of putting an ad in the newspaper. It was struck down, when she realized it would cost even more money to keep the ad in the paper running along with how much space it took up. More ideas were passed back and forth, but they were all thrown into the trash. Only option left for Jesse, was the flyer or asking the bank for another loan.
"I am not going to the bank for another loan. Not even after making late payments on the mortgage. They just want the opportunity to foreclose on the house and sell it off."
"What can I say?"
"Other than, how many flyers are we going to need," questioned Jesse, chewing on her lower lip.
"Victory is mine," shouted Cordelia, as she got off the bed, grabbing the phone.
"Watch it," she answered.
"Now, we can get one flyer, but it should colored ones. You know how they can be eye-catching if they are colorful, and for fifty-nine cents a colored flyer, it would come out to be about twenty-five dollars," calculated Cordelia in her head.
"Can I borrow twenty-five bucks," she asked, giving her a Cheshire smile.
"Fine, but you are paying me back, when you get a new tenant. Better yet, you can throw a party in honor of Mardi Gras coming around the corner."
"No. Not happening."
"Come on!."
"Don't, come on me."
"Ooo, dirty."
"Stop that, besides you have Charlie," she answered, shaking her head.
"Yes, and he is a good lover," she answered, demonstrating by swiveling her hips and making inappropriate noises.
Placing her hands over her ears, she answered in a child-like voice. "God! Stop! You are talking about my cousin, ewww..."
Smirking, she kept moving her hips to and fro and shouted as loud as she could, "Your cousin who is hung like a—"
The last words never left her mouth. Jesse managed to shut Cordelia up, by throwing a pillow at her, and exiting the room. Not wanting to be subjected to the torture of hearing about her cousin's love life, Jesse felt she had done right by her action. Cordelia wasn't going to let Jesse get away with it. Grabbing another pillow, she walked out of the bedroom and ran after Jesse.
"Come back here," she called out.
"Yes, you should know," she answered, shaking her head as she complied a list of things to put on the flyer with Jesse.
Twenty-five minutes later...
"Alright, I think we got it. How about this: Landlord seeks tenant to rent upstairs room. $475/month. No large pets. Nuts need not apply," stated, Cordelia.
Scrunching her face in thoughtful concentration, Jesse, nodded in approval and sighed to herself a bit. This was it, she was going to get forty colored copies to hand tape onto the telephone polls, and any place suitable to place up flyers. She just hoped, there would not be any psychos applying to become her tenant, knowing it would not put her in a happy state of mind.
"Sounds good, now I am going to Kinko's to have them done," stated Jesse, reaching forward to grab the paper out of Cordelia's hand. Cordelia on the other hand, wanted to have a bit of fun with her.
"Come on, reach for it, work for it, work for it, reach for it, darling," she teased, standing on the bed, inching away from her.
With all her might, Jesse, tried her best to grab the paper, cursing in Spanish along the way.
"Hey, you know I am bilingually impaired!"
"You didn't mind it when Charlie talks to you like that."
"That's because, he talks dirty while we are do—"
"Lalalala, stop that," Jesse cried out, covering her ears, giving up on grabbing the paper from Cordelia's grasp.
"Knew it would work;just to think, with just a few words you play dead."
"I only do it, because I do not want to hear what you do with my cousin," Jesse answered, shaking her head. God, she did not want to know what went on behind closed doors with her cousin, and she certainly did not want to hear the expressive way Cordelia put it.
"I can't help it, that your cousin's a god in the sheets," she muttered, looking over the paper once more.
"Now, that I did not want to hear. You two are like, bunny rabbits," she joked, shaking her head.
It was hard enough to work three jobs, go to night school, and have time to entertain Cordelia, finding Cordelia sucked the energy of a person, but now she was putting out an ad for a tenant. Thinking this should be a premise for a cooky sitcom, Jesse tried her best to keep herself from flying off the handle, and ringing Cordelia's neck. Smiling at the thought, Jesse, reigned in her thoughts, finding she needed to think about the here and now. The here being the home she restored in New Orleans, and the now, being of getting a tenant to help pay the rent.
"Alright, I'll give you a lift to Kinko's. God knows, you don't need another speeding ticket," she answered, snatching her purse and keys off the kitchen table.
"The tree was clearly blocking the speed limit sign," Cordelia argued.
"What tree? It was a small plant and you know it!" she teased, opening the door to escort Cordelia out. One minute arguing about the house and the next minute bickering over who was arrested and what not. This was going to be an interesting day.
With the plan in motion, Erik could only think of the apartments for rent in New Orleans, wondering if it was a stupid idea to choose New Orleans as the new residency. He had a week before Mardi Gras, knowing it would be difficult enough to find an apartment in the Big Easy, but with thousands of people in the street, flashing their tops for beads? Somehow, he feared at least one of the Mardi Gras goers would be smart enough to connect the reason he was here to the book. He was not exactly going to lie to the landlord, if they asked what he did for a living, but he would improvise on it.
"I am a food critic," he repeated to himself over and over, trying to remember the part he was supposed to play. Feeling like a character in his story, Erik scanned the classifieds for apartments in the city.
Having seen three apartments, Erik felt enraged and shocked at how high the cost of renting an apartment rent, when the apartment was crap. One of the landlord's charged fifteen hundred dollars a month, for a one room apartment, with its owners, by which were cockroaches, still occupying the place. The feeling of never finding a good enough apartment for him, gave him a sickening feeling, cursing he was not getting his way.
"Damn it to hell," he whispered to himself, passing by a blond haired maiden, as she stapled a sign to a phone post.
Even the first stirring of lust did not arise with seeing the little vixen, Erik thought to himself. It was not the short skirt, the Magdalene wore that caught his attention, but it was what she was stapling to the post. A flyer, stating a De La Krux, inquired an upstairs tenant for a house/apartment. His eyes could not believe what De La Krux was willing to rent it out for. It was less than the usual apartment in New Orleans.
Clearing his throat, he asked, "Excuse me, but is that the correct rent charge?" He hoped it was not a mistake, praying to God it was the exact price.
Engrossed in keeping the flyer in just the right position, it took a few seconds too long, for the question to sink into the blond's mind. Turning around to see the person who asked her, she gasped.
Damn it to hell, she knows who I am. Wait. She does not know who I am, because I never placed my picture on the book cover. I need to stop drinking coffee after midnight, it is starting to affect me.
"Oh, I am sorry. It is just, that you a gorgeous man," she answered, bluntly.
Even the flirtatious comment did not give him the urge to give a compliment right on back to her. What was wrong with him? Seems Chris not only taken his heart, but his balls upon leaving him.
"Thank you," he murmured, "but, what about the rent?"
"The rent? Oh! The rent! Yes, that is the correct amount of rent for the apartment," she answered, nodding her head, chewing on her lower lip at him.
Interesting, though it seems I want nothing to do with her. Damn Chris for this. She should have never have left me for Raul. I gave her the world of literature and how does she repay me? Runs off to marry an ass model! Need to get a grip, because this women is looking at me, like I am next on her meal.
Reigning in his thought, Erik managed to comment on how he was looking for an apartment to live in. The blond asked as to whether he was a psycho, stalker, molester, rapist, pedophile, or married. Erik answered no to every one of them, finding a bit strange for the woman to ask whether he was married or thought. Shrugging off the thought of the woman wanting to become romantically involved, he asked about the description of the house.
"Oh, it's a beauty. It's an old Victorian home, and it was handed down to Jess. Been fixing it up for a while, though now a person renting the room upstairs will help with repairing the house to its state of grace."
"Really now? I have never really had the opportunity to see a Victorian, finding I leaned toward loft's and studio apartments, but I would like to see this house, if you do not mind."
Flashing a smile, Erik got his way into the good graces of the blond, having a feeling she knew the landlord, intimately. He would not be surprised if she was sleeping with the landlord, sensing the man wanted to rent an apartment to have extra cash to spend on the woman. Assuming it was a male landlord, named Jess, Erik assumed it would be a money in the bank. How wrong he really was as he receive the directions to the house, and made an appointment to see it.
"Tomorrow around three in the afternoon, sounds good. Jess will be home around then, so you can meet the landlord of the place," she answered, smiling at him.
"Until then," he stated, nodding his head to her.
"Until then," she whispered, smiling to herself. "Oh, Jesse is going to love me."
A/N: That's the end of the first chapter. I do hope you like the first chapter. Please review this and there will soon be another chapter coming soon. You will know what shall happen to our dear Jesse and Erik. Until then, kiddies, review. No flammers.