Opera Ghost

Chapter Ten

Daniel had indeed done something to his foot, and Jessalyn insisted he rest in her room. Despite his protests, Jess managed to get him bandaged up and resting for the remainder of the day. Tony had gone out to eat alone and Jess wished she could just go around the corner, magically find a Bob Evans and order a bowl of chicken noddle soup and some rolls to go. Thankfully someone in the commissary allowed her to fix up a tray of food which she brought up to Daniel.

He lay awake in her bed, starring blankly at the TV, which was off. "Can I come in?" she asked. He turned to her slowly, trying to manage a smile.

"Sure I mean it is your room." He took a whiff of the air. "Mmm that smells good what do you have there?"

"It's for you. Just some soup and crackers to help you settle your stomach. How are you feeling?"

Dan looked down at his propped up foot. "Well my ankle is feeling better. I don't think I sprained it too bad. But my head is still killing me." Jess sat the tray down on her night stand, and took a seat by the chair she had placed the bed. She placed a plastic spoon into the soup and offered it to him. "What is it?" he asked

Jess rolled her shoulders. "French. That's the only guess I can offer." She stuck the spoon to his lips forcing him to eat.

After he swallowed the soup, he sighed. "You know this soup should really be for you. I know you haven't eaten anything all day."

"I'm not hungry."

"Lair." He said pushing away the second spoonful she offered him. Jess picked up a packet of crackers.

"How would you know? You've been asleep all day."

"I had a feeling." Daniel said, trying to feed himself more soup. Jess stopped him, and insisted propping his head and back up on more pillows before she allowed him to handle his own utensils. She opened the crackers and nibbled on them.

"There are you happy. I'm eating." She said. "How the soup?"

"Never mind the soup. Look, I'm sorry about today, and everything else. I thought we almost had it. I was too anxious I guess." Dan muttered.

"You stop worrying and making excuses. You'll just make you self ill. It was only our first try. We'll have a lot more chances to find more stuff. And who knows what might happen. We'll be better prepared next time." She said trying to comfort him. "Do you want to watch any of your movies?" She asked.

He shook his head. "You can put one on later. I might fall asleep to it or something." He said in a daze. "Wait, what I'm talking about? There isn't going to be a next time, and I'm not falling asleep in your bed. Let me just get out of here and into my room, and I won't be a bother to you anymore."

Jessalyn laughed. "Don't be stupid. Daniel, I insist of taking care of you. And there will be a next time. You said your ankle was starting to heel anyway. As soon as you're okay, we'll buy a raft and go back down again." She leaned back into her chair trying to relax. "And until then you just rest and do all the research you want."

"Sounds good." Daniel sighed, finishing the soup and picking up the strange book that Jessalyn had found yesterday off the night stand. He thumbed through it, aimlessly. "Too bad I can't read French." He commented.

Jess got up stretching her arms over her head. "Well I'm going to take a walk, then I'll be back to check on you." She headed for the door, another packet in her hand. But before she got to the door Daniel stopped her with another question.

"You know what Ambler told me yesterday. He said the opera was going to throw a winter ball for its patrons, a masquerade ball." He informed her.

Jessalyn chuckled. "How fitting."

"It's this Saturday. Will you come . . . with me that is?" he asked shyly. Jess kept her hand against the door frame using it for support as she caught her breath.

"No, I don't think so." She managed finally.

"Why not, its being held in our honor for some reason. Please say you'll come?" he pleaded. Jess didn't dare to turn around and face him.

"I don't have a dress." She said simply, and then walked away.

She returned in an hour after her walk, to find Daniel already asleep. The lights in the room were still on, and he had left a DVD in the player. The bright technicolor projection of opera scenes from one of Daniel's Phantom movies illuminated the room even more. Dan lay with his head against the pillow off to one side. His light curly hair, a mess and covering his forehead. The book still open in his hands and more scattered on the sheets. Jess took the remote and turned down the noise from the TV. Jess grabbed her clothes and went to the bathroom to change. She got into a tank top and then some jogging shorts. When she returned, Daniel was still as she left him. She took some time to remove her contacts before storing them away, and finding her glasses to wear for the rest of the night. Jess shut off the lights before she went to his side to remove the book from his grip careful not to wake him, and then removed the other books from around his chest and feet, placing them in a neat stack by the end of the bed. Daniel shifted under the covers for a moment, but Jess could tell he was out cold. He rolled over so his body was facing the wall, and stayed there curled up and sound asleep.

Leaving Jess just enough room on the bed to rest her own head. She grabbed an unused pillow and set on of the side of the mattress, letting her have enough room to lay down her head. She slipped out of her sneakers and into a pair of fitted slippers. So she felt content to watch the rest of the film, at least for a while. The noise barely there, she watched the images of Nelson Eddy and Susanna Foster playing piano and singing almost silently. She gathered Daniel had probably watched this film dozen of times and could more than likely quote it from memory if he were awake now. Jess eyed the large recliner in the other end of the room. She decided she really didn't need to watch him like his mother, so she headed for it, content to curl up in sleep in the large chair if only for one night.

The TV screen went blank, plunging the room into darkness.

Jessalyn stared at where the screen would have been for a moment. "That's strange." She whispered until she reasoned that she must have pushed to power button in the remote by accident. But she couldn't tell until she got the lights on. Struggling to her feet, Jess groped about in the darkness till she finally reached to wall and the light switch. She flipped them on.

The room went back to its intense brightness for only a moment. Then the telltale click of a broken bulb sounded and the lights went back off. "Great." She tried again and again with no improvement. "Daniel!" She called to the other side of the room. The only response she got was a soft snort as Daniel lightly snored in his sleep. Then she remembered she had taken a matchbook from the restaurant last night. She had put them in her pocket and her hoodie which was now on the side of her bed. She dropped down to her hands and knees, and started to crawl in the dark room. Making her way back to the bed, she felt around for her jacket, and then inside her pocket. After slipping her jacket on, her fingers closed around the matches. Relived she struck one, bringing light to the space once more.

She went to try the lights again, but nothing happened. Jess noticed a large pillar candle on her dresser. Her stranger must have left it there the other night, for she remembered from the smell of smoke that there had been candles in the room. She was surprised she hadn't noticed it till now, but she hurried to lit the wick anyway before the match burnt out. Now armed with a reliable light source she went to inspect the TV.

Then she realized she couldn't fix anything on the system if she tried. Not only had the lights gone out, but apparently so had the power. She hoped someone would be done soon to check on the problem. Jess took a seat on the corner of the bed, the candle still in her hand. She debated whether to call service herself. The room had gotten much colder as Jessalyn wrapped her jacket over her shoulders. Still, no sign from Daniel. That boy slept like the dead. Jess shivered as she reached for the phone. Picking up the receiver, she dialed the number for service which Daniel had causally written down on a post-it note that morning and left by the phone. And even though the phone line was still working, the other end rang and rang. No one was picking up, not even a voice mail.

"Come . . . " a deep voice called from nowhere resonating around the room. The noise caused Jess to jump and drop the phone. She glanced around in the darkness, the voice still echoing around her.

"Daniel! Dan wake up!" she pleaded poking him in the shoulder. No response.

The voice came again. "Come, come to me . . . " it intoned. I'm hearing things. She wished Daniel would wake up or anyone for that matter. She just wanted someone to hear what she was hearing. Someone to say, "Yes I hear it too." I'm not crazy.

The room was so chilly now that Jess had started to shake with cold all over, her teeth chattering. She looked at herself in the full length mirror that covered one side of the wall. The candle illuminated her features, terrifying her even more to see the unsettling look on her face. The mirror's large gold frame looking like a portal to another world.

"Come to me . . . " That voice was coming from the mirror

See why in shadow I hide. Look at your face in the mirror. I am there inside.

Even though it seemed impossible, Jessalyn walked toward the mirror, placing her hand on the glass, trying to look as determined as she spoke.

There is no Phantom of the Opera.

"I don't believe in you." She said firmly, and then pushed against the mirror.

It swung open with a low creaking sound, the glass and her reflection disappearing from view. Now a dark and damp passage way was opened before her eyes. It looked like the hallway to a medieval dudgeon. She stepped inside, and she thought she could feel the cold, slimly floor, even through the fabric of her slippers. She turned to her each of her sides quickly shining light of the candle into the blackness. "Who's there?" She shouted. "I know someone must be there. Show yourself!" But there was on one there, or they had disappeared long before she had challenged them to reveal their identity.

"Perhaps I am just dreaming." She reasoned out loud, looking down the passage. She turned to the left, walking a few steps until she came to a narrow spiral stone stairwell. She felt like Alice who had just fallen down the Rabbit Hole. She looked down the stairs, an eerie green light seemed to shoot up from the mouth of the stairwell. I guess you want me to follow you then.

She took more steps one after another was the walls curved and twisted about her. Then she noticed something. A dark figure similar to the one she had seen two nights ago, pausing and standing perfectly still further down the steps. "Hello." She called down.

The figure jerked suddenly to attention and then fled at the sound of her voice. She grunted and followed after him. If this were a dream, perhaps she should just enjoy it, but if this were real, she wanted to get some straight answers. Jessalyn tore down the stairs after the mysterious shade in black, plummeting down a dizzying spiral. She called repeatedly to stop but he kept going, always managing to turn out of her sight not matter how fast she ran.

However she tripped, and fell down a couple steps. Her feet twisted around and she had to throw herself against the wall to keep from landing on her bottom. She winced in pain, as well as verbal expressing it. The figure didn't even bother to stop to see if she was all right. Fortunately she had managed to hang onto the candle."Fine, leave!" she shouted into the darkness. Jessalyn sighed, perhaps she should just give up.

Until she noticed where these stairs had led her to. She pushed her candle out in darkness and discovered these stairs had led her down into the large storage room her and the others had been in earlier that day. She could still even see the footsteps that she had made in the dust. Strange how those steps had led her to this room, she hadn't noticed them before. She saw the other stairs Tony had found into and out of this room, even the markings he had made in the stone with chalk. But the set of stairs she had just come by was a new sight to her. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before. The paintings she was looking at where still there. And the idea that nagging feeling of the one she had seen before. She walked over to them, flipping through the massive gold frame, seeking out the picture of the young woman. Until she found it.

Jessalyn dragged out the picture, which was smaller than some of the others. There the face of the young woman, stared back at her. And then Jess understood why the memory of this painting had tugged at the back of her mind. The woman in the painting looked like her. Well at least the eyes, were the same color as hers, and her cheeks the same shape. Perhaps here cheeks remained rosy all the time like Jessalyn's tended to do. However this person beauty seemed unmatched, almost flawless. The woman's eyes looked so sad. It almost ruined her beautiful portrait. Her golden blond hair fell in full long waves over her blue blouse.

Jess set down the candle and sat back on her knees looking at the picture. I unnerved her how much this person resembled her, even though the woman in the painting was more beautiful by far. Perhaps she was a singer or the wife of somebody famous. She looked down on the bottom of the frame, where there was a name plate. Her figures brushed against the tiny plate of metal, while the other hand reached for the candle. Jessalyn bent down low to read what it said.

"Mlle. Christine Daae. 1881"

"No way." Jess whispered. This was a prank, she thought. This couldn't be the real Christine Daae. It looked like her, but there was just no way. She pushed away the painting and scrambled to get to her feet. The room felt like it had plunged into a deep freeze and Jessalyn shivered from head to toe. "It can't be. It just can't be." Jess repeated over and over. She backed up one step at a time, hoping something would slam into her. Maybe then she would wake up.

But after one step back, she felt her heel give underneath her weight. She thought at first she must have slipped, until she fell down, backward. Into a long plummet into darkness. She had discovered something, a hole or trapdoor or sorts and fallen right into it. She hit hard, after what had to be almost a ten foot drop to the ground. Her side stung with pain. She had lost her candle and worst, her glasses. She felt her face, not there then frantically searched with her hands around her, but to no avail.

"Please! Somebody help me, please." She cried like a wounded animal for at that moment she had gone beyond all thought and reason. All she heard in repose to her desperate pleading, was her own echo. She called again, and again. Jessalyn started to tremble all over. The pain she could feel in her hands, feet and limbs were very real. She could not be dreaming. She had lost her candle and her glasses. Even if she gained any light source soon, it was worthless. She was nearly blind without her specks.

And in this labyrinth, where night is blind . . .

She stretched out her feet and hands as best she could without hurting or injuring them further. She was surprised she managed to break her fall, and nothing felt like it was broken. The floor underneath her was smooth like glass or tile.

Then the floor suddenly illuminated itself, glowing red. It was so bright it almost blinding, shining through her hand. She crawled along the now glowing red floor. She could see now, but not that great. A flash of light caught her attention. What she thought she saw, only a few feet away from her, was a person. She could see someone moving or maybe she was just delusional. "Oh God, please help me!" she called to it. The person started coming closer and closer, and whether it was savior or a mirage, Jess kept crawling toward it in empty hope.

The heat in the room had soared, causing her to sweat. It made the floor almost too hot to touch and the intense temperature had started to affect her breathing. She gasped and coughed but still trudged on. The person now was almost right in front of her and Jess was angered that they simply waiting there, starring. The scorching heat was causing burns and blistered to form on her leg, she could feel them already. Yet she didn't have the strength to pick herself up.

"Please you have to help me . . . " she begged again, reaching out her right arm. Her fingers instantly came in contact with something solid. She brushed them up and down, pushing against it.

Glass.

A looking glass. And her would-be savior now that she was close enough to see, was herself. Just her reflection. Jess curled back on her legs in pain, clenching her fists, and let out a mournful cry like that of a caged animal. She smacked upon the glass with her fists until she could feel blood pouring from them. No sign anyone had heard her, no sign of hope. In vain she pounded over and over again. Until the pain in her body faded. And the heat from the room ceased. As her head fell back, too weak to support itself anymore, falling into endless night.

He descended on her as a shadow. A thin dark shadow that you could see and walk right through. Until he took a moment to regain his true form. He saw her there laying on the floor of the torture chamber, puzzled on how she could have ended up there. He thought by the time he had led her to the third cellar, she would have given up on the chase and gone back to bed. But she hadn't, and now here she was.

Her attire was questionable to say the least. A thin black cotton jacket, not even a real coat, hung loosely over her shoulders. Her upper torso was over covered by a short tank top, and her lower attire, if the things she was wearing could be considered that, only managed to cover to her upper thigh. One of her white slippers had fallen from her foot and lay on one side of the torture chamber. He stirred at the thought of how helpless she was, exposing so much flesh before his eyes. Perhaps it was not her after all, and then he cursed himself for being as foolish to lure a stranger here.

But her knelt down to her level, rolling her body over and lifting her face so it did not touch the floor. At the sight of her pale, limp features his regrets and doubts faded. This was her. Jessalyn Greene stirred in her unconscious state, giving a soft groan. He gently brushed a lock of hair from her forehead, relishing in his contact with her. Carefully, he scooped up her small fragile body into his arms. The poor child was sweating, so there was no need to hold her tight. But he did anyway, enfolding her strong limbs around her.

Yes, it was her. She was here.

She had come home.

A/N: DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN

ah forgive the insanity. Keep the reviews and feedback coming. I'm lovin' it.

Respectfully, Punjacbchild.