Chapter 5
"So how exactly are you supposed to take me back to 1870?" Rebekah asked when Julian didn't do anything.
"Do you trust me?" He asked.
"No." Rebekah said without hesitation.
Julian grimaced. "Well, in other cases that would be wise of you never to trust a Shadow Man, but I am not like the others of my race."
"What are they like?" Rebekah asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.
"They, the Elders, have evolved to physically portray the evils they have caused. They have withered and become deformed beyond mental comprehension. My days as Erik was only a slight example of how hideous they have become."
"How did you become able to mask the deformity like you just did, by morphing into this face?" Rebekah asked.
"This is my real face, the deformed face is not. It is what I would look like if I gave in to my heritage, or the beginning of a long series of sick deformities. The Gods wanted me to feel that burden, to frighten me into going back to Niflheim, to the Ice Hell from where I came from."
"Ok, but how did you conquer it? You obviously have." Rebekah was dying to know.
"We will get to that, eventually." Julian smiled despite himself when he saw her pout. At least she was paying attention now.
Rebekah watched as he walked over to the pantry door and traced an upside down, angular "U" on it. He turned around and held his hand out to her.
He looked gorgeous. The white as snow hair falling into his eyes that had thickest eyelashes she had ever seen on a guy. He was in all black, the pants tight enough to make ever inch of him apparent, with out being too tight on his body. His black shirt clung to his lean, but well defined torso; his arms were tan and muscular. His eyes glittered like sapphires under the ocean, part of a hidden treasure that only she was meant to find.
Ryan was forgotten. She took his hand.
He opened the pantry door, and instead of food and soft drinks, there was a corridor lined with candles. She could hear people speaking in French. And what was more strange, even though she didn't know French at all, she could understand what was being said. Someone was talking about how the Opera Ghost had tried to kill the diva, La Carlotta, with a backdrop. The door to her pantry disappeared. It literally vanished after they walked through.
"Where are we?" Rebekah asked Julian.
He looked back at her. "I think you know exactly where we are."
"The Paris Opera house, 1870?" She asked uneasily.
Julian nodded.
"But…but how?" Rebekah asked. Julian took her hand and started pulling her towards the main auditorium. Golden statues gleamed, the polished floor shined. The building was beautiful. Two men came walking towards them. Julian stopped. The two men were mumbling about the Opera Ghost, and 20,000 francs. Then they walked right through Rebekah and Julian, as if they weren't there.
"What? How? Huh?" Rebekah looked at Julian, eyes pleading for an explanation.
"They can't see us. We are real, they are just a memory repeating itself. I took you to a place in between Niflheim and Midgard, your reality. I can make things happen as I want. I used this method before on you; I forced you to live out your nightmares in a game for your life. I was so agitated from losing you the first time, I thought if simply loving you didn't work the first time, playing for you would work, but your will overpowered me."
They entered the main auditorium. Aristocrats were arriving for the performance of Faust.
"You need to see how it happened. How it really happened, both times. It is the only way I can keep it from happening again.
"Keep what from happening?" Rebekah was about to insist he tell her more when the singer performing Margarita began to sing. She sounded just like Rebekah.
Rebekah turned and looked at the stage, She saw herself. Blond hair, green eyes, small frame. She was Christine Daae. She felt tears sting her eyes. She couldn't be Christine. She couldn't have left that poor soul beneath the Opera House, alone. Not her. She felt herself start to fall, the emotions too much.
When she thought she was gonna hit the floor, however, she found herself in Julian's arms.
"It's hard to comprehend, I know. But there isn't time to regret or to deny it. Come on, you are about to meet me in the flesh for the very first time."