Chapter Twenty-Two

Eventually the passage came to an end. The wall in front of her had the same feel as the one she had been following. Her eyes were wide open, but she saw nothing, there had been no light for a long time. She smoothed her hands along the wall and thankfully found a door.

Leah pushed it open and winced at the sudden light. She shielded her face with one hand and waited until the dancing spots faded from her eyes. When she could see clearly, she looked around, and cursed. She was in the underground lake, the same place with all the pillars, and the same place that made her deathly ill.

She slowly walked down the stone stairs to the water's edge and sighed in relief. There was a small boat tied to the wall, she would not have to swim. She climbed in and untied the boat, using the long pole to push herself forward. She steered the boat straight ahead, not sure of where else to go.

There was a flickering light up ahead, near one of the pillars. Leah headed towards it and once she got closer, saw that it was a candle stuck onto the ledge. She raised her eyebrow at it and looked around. There – another candle far ahead and slightly to the left. So, he had made a trail for her to follow? That would have been nice the first time she was trying to find her way.

Leah followed the candles for quite some time, half-convinced that they did not lead anywhere, she was just going to follow the lights forever. Her arms grew tired quickly, and it did not help that she could barely use her right arm.

She tried to count the candles, but quickly lost track after half an hour. Just as her strength gave out, she saw a veiled archway set into the wall up ahead. Leah drifted up to it and pushed aside the heavy veil, guiding the boat through it.

Once she was on the other side, she heard faint organ music playing. The air was slightly warmer and it was brighter. Leah brought the boat up to a wide wall in front of her. She tied the boat next to a similar boat already there and stepped onto the platform. She followed the wall to its edge and carefully looked around it. Above her head was the platform where she had woken up and Leah crept forwards in its shadow.

The music was louder now and Leah crouched down, peeking into the light. She saw more of the lair than before, a maze of thick curtains and short walls and candles everywhere.

She heard a sound like somebody groaning, and keeping low, she ran along the short wall. She came to the edge and saw a number of pillars along the edge of the stone island. Leah gasped. The pillar nearest to her had ropes wrapped around it, an almost-conscious Jim tied up with them.

All caution forgotten, Leah ran up to him. "Jim!" she said, trying to keep her voice down. "Oh Jim, please wake up!" She tugged on the ropes, but the knots were too tight, she needed something to cut them with. There was nothing sharp in sight, so she put it from her mind. Jim's eyes fluttered open and he slowly focused on her face.

"Leah? Where are we?" He asked, his voice thick.

"We are in the underground lake, where the Phantom took me before. What happened?" She asked him, smoothing back his hair and wincing at the number of bruises and cuts on his face.

"I was finished early today. I went back to our room, I hoped we could spend some time together," he said in a monotonous voice. "He was there when I got in. We fought. He hit me in the back of the head with a chair. I heard him mutter something about bait for his trap," he looked up at her as if seeing her for the first time. "You should not be here! Don't you see? He brought me here to lure you to him. You should go, now!"

Leah smiled softly. "I am not going anywhere," she said. "I will not leave you." She kissed him gently on the forehead. "It is my turn to protect you."

"That is so sweet," came a harsh voice from behind her. She spun around to see the Phantom leaning idly against a wall, his usual suit replaced with a simple white shirt and black pants. "Good evening my dove. Thank you for joining us."

Leah slowly rose to her feet. "Let him go," she said coldly.

The Phantom smiled, the madness in his eyes much more noticeable than before. "All in due time, my love," he said silkily. "I will release him once you give yourself to me, pledge to me that you will stay with me forever."

"I will never give myself to you," Leah said fiercely. "Not in a thousand years."

Barton lost his smile and narrowed his eyes. "If that is what you wish," he said, his voice dangerously calm. "Then I will simply have to take you by force!"

He lunged at her before he finished speaking. Leah threw herself to the side, rolled and came back up to her feet. She looked behind her and saw the Phantom running at her. Leah spared a thought for Jim, but he was safe where he was. The Phantom had eyes only for her at the moment.

Leah dodged around a wall and ran through a number of curtained entryways. She got lost very quickly, but did not stop running. As Jim had once told her, what seemed like long ago, a moving target is harder to spot. She ran until her sides ached and her breathing was ragged. She stopped and crouched in a dark archway to rest. It was then she noticed that she could not hear any footsteps following her. She would not be able to hear anything, the organ music had grown very loud, almost painfully loud, covering the sound of anyone approaching.

Leah crept along the maze, her heart thudding loudly in her throat. She strained her ears, trying to hear anything other than the music. The melody pounded into her head, the dark notes augmenting her fear.

She kept walking, speeding up into a run again. She did not see any trace of her hunter and that worried her. He might be lying in wait for her somewhere, and if he was, it might be better for her to stay in one place. But on the other hand, he might be looking for her, and the best place for her would be on the move. It was a hard call.

Leah kept moving, her anxiety would not let her remain in one place.

Many turns later, the maze opened up into a large room. It was wide and deep, steps carved into the platform led down into it. Opposite from where Leah stood was a large organ piano, playing by itself. Leah shivered, but went deeper into the room, looking for anything that might help her. She crept over to the table and chairs she had seen from above during her last 'visit', and saw that the table was set for two.

Leah grinned humourlessly. There were utensils along with the plates and cups and she grabbed a sharp knife. She clung to it tightly and turned back to the maze. She needed to get back to Jim, now that she had something to defend herself with.

As she got further away from the music, she thought he heard shouting. Leah narrowed her eyes as she ran, trying to listen. She could make out words and recognized Jim's voice, calling out to her. She then heard the Phantom's voice, much clearer, sending a pang of fear down her spine.

"Yes, Leah my sweet, wherever did you run off to? You are being very rude, come out and join your host!"

Leah kept going, using Jim's faint voice as a guiding beacon. She smiled when she realized that was why he was shouting. Leah jumped when she heard the Phantom, much closer this time.

"My dove, you will not escape me. Down here, I am the king and this is my realm. You cannot leave here and you never will."

Leah ran faster, wanting to outrun the menacing voice. She nearly tripped a number of times, scaring herself further as she was carrying a very sharp object.

Leah burst through a curtained doorway and almost fainted in relief. She was back where she started, and Jim looked no more harmed than before. She rushed over to him at once and began sawing at his ropes with her knife.

"Leah," Jim said hoarsely. "Are you alright?"

"I am fine," Leah said. "Now hush, I am going to free you."

The knife was sharp, but the ropes were thick, she had only gotten through one when she felt more than heard somebody behind her.

Leah turned around slowly, shielding her weapon from view. The Phantom was standing in one of the openings, a matching knife in his hand. Leah stepped away from Jim, making a little distance between them. She watched the Phantom step further into the room, tapping the shining knife against his thigh.

"Are you tired of this game of cat and mouse my sweet?" He asked her. "Are you ready to come to me? Or do I have to kill him first?"

"I will never join you," Leah said quietly. "And you will never kill him."

"Is that so," he said.

"To kill him, you will have to kill me first. And I would rather die than live with you!" Leah shouted and held out her knife. She saw something snap in his eyes.

The Phantom narrowed his eyes and turned his face away. He breathed heavily for a moment before turning back to her. His mouth was set in a snarl and the madness in his eyes consumed any other emotion that might have been there. "So be it," he said in an odd voice.

He charged at her, holding his weapon out. She stood her ground and held up her own knife.

"Leah run!" Jim cried.

"I am not going to run any more," she said quietly, firmly, her eyes never leaving the figure in front of her.

Leah leapt at the Phantom just as he jumped at her. They crashed together and tumbled to the ground. The rolled to a stop, both of them lying on their stomachs, each in a growing puddle of blood.

"Leah?" Jim shouted and struggled against his ropes, cursing everything. "Leah!"

But the dancer was silent.


Jim fought the binding ropes holding him securely to the stone pillar. He could barely move anything except his legs. "Oh God," Jim prayed breathlessly. "Leah, please don't be dead. Please get up, speak to me, something!"

The Phantom's arm twitched and slid upwards. Jim watched in horror as the ghostly man struggled to push himself off the floor. He managed to get to his knees, blood soaking down his throat. There was a knife stuck in his throat and he put a shaking hand to it.

Below him Leah also struggled, the other knife in her side up to its hilt. She echoed his position and looked at him, her face pale and blood flowing from the deep wound.

Leah reached up to the Phantom's hand and closed a fist around the knife. The Phantom mouthed something and weakly batted at her hand. Leah ripped the knife from his throat and sunk it into his chest. He staggered back on his knees and tumbled over to the ground. He fell on his back and did not move again.

The Phantom, the man who had been terrorizing the Opera House for years, the man who had tortured and killed young women, the man who had tormented Leah and almost drove her insane, was dead.

Leah sat back, shaking uncontrollably. She looked at the dead man in front of her and felt nothing. She looked at the knife in his chest, but did not want to touch it. She slowly pulled the dagger from her own wound, nearly fainting from the pain.

She got to her feet and stumbled over to Jim. He was saying something to her, but she could not hear him. She cut through half of his ropes before falling to the ground, her head striking the stone and her side bleeding profusely.

Jim pulled his arm out of the loosening ropes and stretched, grabbing the knife from where it was stuck in the coils. He hacked at the rope and struggled until he was finally free. He tore the bottom of his shirt and tied it tightly around Leah's waist.

He picked her up in his arms and looked down to the Phantom, who would never harm anyone ever again. He looked back to the woman he loved. "My hero," he whispered, before running for the boat. Now that she had saved him, he needed to find somebody to save her life.


Leah woke to a great throbbing pain in her side and an echoing thump in her head. She opened her eyes carefully, but the light did not bother them as she had expected. She heard Jim above her and his words drifted through her foggy mind.

"You are going to be okay Leah, you will be fine."

Leah blinked, trying to focus. Jim swam in front of her eyes before they synchronized. She looked at him for a moment, reassuring herself that he was indeed, all right. "Is he dead?" she asked hoarsely.

"Yes. I sent the managers and some stagehands down below to fetch the body and see for themselves that he was real. You saved my life," he said gently.

Jim watched as Leah, unexpectedly, began to cry.

"What is it?" He asked, puzzled.

"I have never killed anyone before," she sobbed. "I'm a murderer!"

Jim laughed softly and carefully gathered her in his arms. He rocked her back and forth while she cried into his chest. Once her sobs had faded into hiccups, Jim spoke.

"You are a very unusual girl Leah," he said, amusement in his voice.

"Why?" She asked thickly.

"You saved the both of us from a man who would have killed us both, and probably more, a man who was a known murderer, and you are upset because it was you that killed him!" He laughed and kissed the top of her hair.

"Well, if you put it like that…" Leah said quietly and smiled softly. "Though it was not slow and agonizing, I am sorry."

Jim chuckled and shook his head. "It was good enough for me," he said, setting her back on the bed and shifted so that they were facing one another. "Leah," he said gently. "I have been wanting to say something to you for some time, and I had better do it before some other crises happens."

Leah folded her hands in her lap and looked up at him.

"Leah, I love you more than any man could love a woman. And I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my days with you. Even if that means dealing with demented Phantoms, envious Tenors or resentful Prima Donnas," Jim chuckled and cleared his throat. He looked into her eyes and once more she was lost in their blue depths. "Leah Bourdeaux, will you marry me?"

Leah smiled, her eyes filling with tears. She reached forward and put her arms around his neck. "Yes," she whispered into his ear. "Of course I will. I never want to be parted from you again."

She leaned back to look him in the face and he lowered his towards her. He kissed her gently, carefully, until she pulled him closer and kissed him back passionately. His arms wound around her waist and brushed by her stitches painfully, but she ignored it, wanting the feel of his secure and loving embrace.


Deep down, below the Opera House and its inhabitants, they found the stone island and the maze atop it. The managers were stunned, as they finally had proof for something they did not want to admit existed. The stagehands found the body, covered with blood and cold, not breathing. They hesitantly picked it up, as if afraid it would jump at them, and put it into one of the boats. That unpleasant duty out of the way, the four men, and the managers began to carefully explore the den of the twisted man.

It was silent except for the steady dripping of water, the organ had stopped playing some time ago. Just as the stagehands found a bush of growing black roses under a heat lamp, the mangers found a great wooden desk. It was huge, bigger than both of theirs put together. They approached it warily. On top of it was a large feathered quill pen, a number of normal pens and bottles and bottles of black ink. There were a number of half-finished notes in spiky black writing, and what looked like replies to other notes in a different hand of blue ink. They read as many of the notes they could find, looked at each other and nodded their heads reluctantly.

Beneath the pile of notes and pens were a handful of sketches, all of the same young girl, a ballerina. There was writing all around the drawings and they did not need to read much to figure out who the young girl was. The managers gathered the notes and the drawings and rolled them up together.

The managers left the maze, not needing to see anymore. They found the four men still looking at the odd black roses, and broke a stem off the bush, adding it to the rolled papers.

Once they reached the Opera House once more, the managers ordered the men to board up and seal all the entrances they could find to the underground lake. The Opera House would not be plagued by a Phantom, ever again.


Jim and Leah's wounds faded, as they always did. Leah's nightmares continued for a while, but as they say, time heals all wounds, and soon enough she was sleeping soundly again.

The managers confronted Carlotta with the notes they found below, though she denied everything. They searched her room and found her stash of notes and she still denied having seen them. Of course, she accused the chorus girl of hiding them there, refusing to look at her own name printed on half of them.

The managers were not sure of what to do. Carlotta had only been speaking with the Phantom, she had not yet aided him in any way that would have harmed anyone. Her notes had simply been full of insults to the young dancer, begging the Phantom to take her away, leaving Carlotta in peace. Though by now, the managers were very weary of the Soprano, they could not just kick her out. Not until Leah was fully trained up at least.

They gave the rose and the drawings to Jim, figuring he would know whether to show Leah or not. Once the managers left, Jim looked at them for a long while. He then burned them without a word and never mentioned them to Leah.


They performed the new opera a few weeks later, Carlotta in the main part, but Leah played the next biggest role. The other actors, along with most of the audience, agreed that the younger girl was on her way up and Carlotta was on her way out. The Soprano had become nastier and more stubborn since the death of the Phantom and Leah's re-appearance. She refused to work with anybody other than Victor and even then she was ill-tempered. She took to breaking things when she got mad, only this time the managers refused to replace anything of hers that was broken.

Carlotta's appearance even began to reveal her inner self. She began to look more haggard and drawn, as if she was not sleeping well. Her maids and servants left her to herself, so her makeup was not perfectly done or her hair perfectly curled.

She spent a lot of time screaming and yelling at anyone who came near her, trying to vent her frustration on somebody. Her voice began to sound hoarse most of the time and her singing was greatly affected. Things were not going well for the Diva.

On the other hand, Leah was happier than she had ever been. She was engaged to the perfect man, in her opinion, and was wearing a beautiful diamond on her heart finger; Jim's mother's engagement ring, he told her. The managers were having her trained more and more, Madame Giry giving her private lessons to quickly prepare her voice for the most difficult pieces.

To add to her happiness, one of the singers retired, as she was getting older and her voice was not what it once was. Auditions were held and it was Angie who gained the new role. With her slightly rarer voice, she would now be playing the major female villains and other parts that guaranteed that she, along with Leah, were not a part of the chorus any longer. She was able to move into the room next to Leah's, the one that was on the other side of the bathing chamber.

Jim had moved back into his parents' home, to fix it up before the wedding. They were going to be married on the first day of summer, and move into their new home as Lord and Lady Caviez.


Leah and Angie waited behind the curtains for the ballet to start. It was an exciting night for everyone. What they were performing was mostly a ballet, but with a number of songs in it. So it was not an Opera, because there was more dancing than singing, and it was not quite a play, because there was no speaking other than the songs. Ballets were normally silent, but this one was in its own category. Carlotta did not have a role in the ballet, she was 'taking a leave of absence' for an undetermined length of time. And on top of that, it was the last performance Leah was to be playing as a single woman. She and Jim were to be married in a week's time.

Leah peeked out of the curtain, spying Jim up in a top box. She smiled to see him, though unfortunately, he could not see her just yet. To his left, in the next box was another young man, Leah grinned wider. It was Alain, the Lord's son that Angie fancied. He was holding a bouquet of roses and was watching the closed curtains anxiously, as if waiting for a certain someone to appear.

She let the curtain go and snuck back to her place, next to Angie.

"Are they here?" Angie whispered, as anxious as Alain looked.

"Of course, silly," Leah whispered back. "They would not miss this!"

They were both in simple, but exquisite costumes, fitting their roles as the main actresses. It was a ballet where the villain and the heroine had equally main roles, another oddity to add to the list.

They fell silent as the music started, their joy and happiness rising with the liquid notes. The narrator began to sing, his voice high and clear, as he introduced the ballet.


Over the hills in a far away land

A king and queen reigned, gave the people their duty

Though they prayed for a daughter with a marriageable hand

And one day they were blessed, on a day bright and grand

With their lovely, but doomed, Sleeping Beauty.


THE END