The Phantom of the Opera: Chapter 7
Disclaimer: DC Comics owns "Teen Titans." Gaston Leroux owns the original story of "The Phantom of the Opera." Andrew Lloyd Webber owns the musical version. I own whatever I write/create. Don't steal and don't sue.
A/N: If some original characters in this story confuse you, please refer to my story "Book of Demons" for more information about them.
Raven knew that the dream was not her own. She remembered fitfully twitching and jerking in her bed, having given up and laid down when the music did not come to her. Sleep was not a thing she had wanted at that moment. Torment would come to her, either through dreams of a life with Starfire that would never be or through nightmares of the young woman's blood on her hands. There were a thousand things Raven wanted to do other than sleep, but she could do none of them.
The dream that she stood in, however, was nothing like that she had dreaded. It was snowing lightly, the empty world all around her gray and gently lit. She looked into the sky a moment, lifting her hands to take the mask from her face. The tiny pinpricks of cold on her skin was soothing and refreshing, but she was grateful for her cloak nonetheless. She knew that winter's first real snowfall was soon to come, but her craving to feel anything but the mask on her face was too immense to wait for her yearly ritual. Whenever the first falls—rain and snow—of the year came, she allowed herself to slip away from the Opera House and let her face be touched by the pure waters of nature.
A faint crackling noise made her press the mask back onto her face with a speed that blurred her hands. She turned about just as quickly, eyes sweeping over the white and gray landscape. The crackling grew louder, and her finely tuned hearing recognized the sound within moments. It was a fire that burned without wood or oil—a fire born of magic. She had heard the sound many times before, and she sighed softly as she started to walk toward the source of it.
Black fire was dancing a few meters before her: a wide bonfire through which she could see the shape of a person. Snowflakes hissed, melting and turning to steam when they fell into the flame. A wind picked up just as Raven was about to speak, lifting her cloak and pushing down the flames. Her dark blue eyes met Starfire's bright green ones, and she froze. The wind died, but the fire remained low enough for the two women to see each other.
Raven's mind worked at a furious pace, but distantly. She knew why she had been brought into the dream, but she could not force herself to wake. She remembered that Starfire had asked her to explain what the young woman's dreams had meant, and remembered what the setting of the dream meant. The white, snow-filled world represented an overwhelming emptiness, and had been formed from a time where, as a child, Starfire had been lost in a snowstorm. The black flames had two meanings: fear and confusion.
Legends of demons brought fear about, as Starfire had heard that the strongest and most terrible of demons held power over the unnatural fire. Confusion came because it was such a strange thing to see, especially without fuel to burn. Though Raven knew what these individual pieces of the dream meant, she could not think of what they all meant in unison, especially with herself within the dream.
"Have you brought our minds together once again, or am I merely dreaming?" Starfire whispered, her voice somehow carrying through the crackle of the flames.
"Neither," Raven replied, speaking as though nothing had changed between them. "This is not a simple dream, but it's not of my doing. I don't have the power to bring our minds together like this, and I never have." Silence, broken only by ever-present crackling and hissing of fire and snow, reigned. After a few long moments, Raven turned away. "I'll wake myself. Goodbye."
"Wait." Raven paused, opening her eyes but refusing to turn back around. "Please…don't go."
"You want your dreams inhabited by a demon?" The bitterness in Raven's voice was strong enough to shadow the faint hope that still dwelt in her chest. It was strong enough to make her third and fourth eyes open and set all of them aglow with red light. It forced her to look back over her shoulder, and made her glare at the woman she cared so desperately for. She saw Starfire recoil and pale, but only slightly. The sight immediately stole away the strength of the bitterness, and the two eyes on her forehead closed. The light in them faded, and Raven turned to face Starfire completely.
"I…I don't know what this dream means," Starfire said quietly. "I would like it if you could read it with me, as you've done before." Raven stared at the other woman for a moment, watching her through the black, flickering flames.
"Very well," she murmured. "Tell me what you think the dream may mean." Starfire nodded, beginning to look closely at everything. She knew Raven's teaching methods well. There would be few direct answers; Starfire had to find the facts and put them together largely on her own.
"Black fire in a snowy plain," she said softly. "Confusion, fear, and loneliness."
"About what?" Raven asked. The soft eyes Starfire turned upon her was answer enough. Raven swallowed and looked at the ground. The bonfire between them grew larger. Starfire opened her mouth, paused in thought, and let out a low sigh.
"Why did you begin teaching me to sing?" Raven looked up quickly.
"Your voice is unlike anything I've heard!" she replied. "By Heaven, Starfire—I was amazed you hadn't been taught until then!"
"Everyone said that I was horrible," Starfire muttered. "The first time I sang in the Opera House—"
"I was there," Raven said. Starfire looked at the masked woman's eyes, staring at the brightness in them. "Who were the ones that told you such a thing?"
"Jinx and Monsieur le Blood," Starfire admitted. "They—Monsieur le Blood is the chief vocal teacher. He said he couldn't teach a child that squealed like a dying rat."
"But no one else told you that you were horrible?"
"Monsieur Slade and Madame Dolan were there," Starfire said, her voice growing softer and softer. "Monsieur Slade didn't say anything, but Madame Dolan…she said that Monsieur le Blood had been deafened by Jinx's screeching." She let out a quiet giggle. "I think that's what made Monsieur Slade happy to have her as the ballet instructor."
"Madame Dolan is very much a worldly woman," Raven explained. "She's heard singing from every country that you can think of. She was the one who found you, wasn't she?"
"Yes. She found me on the streets with my friends, Bumblebee and Terra. She asked all of us to sing, and she still took us all to the Opera House."
"But you were the only one she asked to sing before the manager and the vocal teacher." Starfire nodded, looking into the black fire. It flared for a moment, but begin to die down. "You have a beautiful voice, Starfire. We know that perfectly well. What could have driven le Blood and Jinx to say the opposite?"
"They…they'd never heard a song outside of French or German. They couldn't know if my voice was good or not."
"And le Blood didn't want anyone to replace his little prima donna." Starfire smiled at the remark, amused by Raven's sarcasm and proud of her answering the question. The smile faded when she thought back on the day.
"He doesn't have to worry," she said. "Jinx is still going to play the countess." There was no reply. Starfire glanced toward Raven, but the masked woman had closed her eyes tightly. Starfire swallowed, forcing her leaden legs to move and carry her around the bonfire. "Raven…please, open your eyes."
"No."
"Please. I can't tell what you're feeling when you close your eyes with that—that damned mask on your face." Raven's eyes snapped open, and Starfire froze when she saw the red light in them. After a moment, she started forward once again, stopping only when she stood before the other woman. Slowly, she lifted her hands and reached out. As her hands drew closer, Raven grew tense. "I won't do it again—not without your permission." She laid her hands on Raven's covered cheeks. "Do—do I have your permission?"
"I won't turn this into a nightmare. I should wake myself now."
"Wait!" Just as before, Raven paused. The red glow had faded from her eyes when Starfire touched her, and she stared at the urgent expression on Starfire's face. "Please. I haven't—we haven't learned why we're in this dream."
"I've confused and frightened you," Raven replied.
"But why would the flames be here?" Starfire nodded at the snow all around them, but Raven did not answer. "It means loneliness—that's what you've told me. I'm lonely, Raven."
"I returned you to your friends," Raven protested.
"But you pushed me away from you." Raven's eyes widened at the words and the blush that spread across Starfire's face. "You said you love me. Is that true?"
"More than anything I've ever known."
"You said that you are a demon. Is that true?"
"Not completely. I'm a half-breed."
"Between a human and a demon?"
"And an angel. My mother was fathered by an angel, and I was fathered by a demon." The small smile on Starfire's face pushed away the memory of her father, and Raven lifted a brow behind her mask. "What?"
"You can't masquerade as something you are in truth," Starfire replied. "I knew you were my Angel of Music." Raven froze, feeling as though she had taken a blow to the chest. Breath coming slowly and deeply, she lifted her hands and laid them over Starfire's. The black flames continued to dance beside them, but it was weak, and the snow was melting rapidly. A grassy plain was left behind, the warm sun shining from the edge of a puffy white cloud.
"We're both going to wake up soon," Raven said, her voice distant. She recognized the faint tug at the base of her neck, and noticed the twitch of muscles along Starfire's shoulders that signaled the same thing. Starfire shook herself from her smiling reverie.
"Raven?" she asked.
"What?"
"Let me see your face. Please." Raven opened her mouth to protest, but could do nothing against the silent insistence in Starfire's eyes. She nodded, gently lifting Starfire's hands from the mask. Bowing her head slightly and cupping her hands, she let the spell holding the mask up fade away. The mask fell into her hands and she began to lift her head.
They stared at one another for many moments. Raven could not force breath into her lungs, all her focus on remaining calm. There was no way for her to know how Starfire saw her, and she was too frightened to try and sense what the young woman was feeling. Starfire's face was strangely blank, her eyes open and staring.
All around them, the world was beginning to soften. The individual blades of grass, once so defined, blurred together in a single green shape. The edges of the blue sky and the green grass slowly began to blend. What little remained of the black fire extinguished entirely. Starfire smiled faintly, but the smile was still there. Raven smiled as everything—including Starfire—vanished. She prayed that Starfire saw the smile, and opened her eyes.
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Raven took stock of what she knew, as she always did when her consciousness changed from dreaming to wakefulness and vice versa. She lay on her side in her bed, the sheets tangled around her legs. The door that led out of the room was before her, as she naturally slept turned toward the door in that particular bed. The door was completely open, and light from her parlor flowed down the short hallway to silhouette the figure standing in the doorway.
Whatever fears she would have felt in that moment being discovered half-asleep without her mask were dispelled when she realized who was standing there. The light was strong enough to curve around on the face and reveal the calming smile, and Raven could never mistake the presence that she instantly sensed. She did not move, instead closing her eyes. She listened as the footsteps began.
"Did you make her bring our dreams together?" she asked. A small chuckle rang with the footsteps.
"No. I never actually made her do that. She likes to see you happy, just as I do." The footsteps stopped as another laugh sounded clearly. "It helps that we like to see Starfire happy as well."
"She saw my face." Hands reached out and untangled the sheets, pulling them over Raven. "She saw all of my eyes." The light quilt that had been kicked from the bed was retrieved and spread over Raven. She pulled it to her chin, brows furrowing as she closed her eyes tighter.
"How did she react?" A weight sank down next to Raven on the bed.
"She was so frightened." Raven opened her eyes, staring into a dark corner beside the door. "I told her that I love her."
"I suppose that was when you brought her back up into the Opera House. What happened in your dream just now?"
"She told me that she was lonely without me. She called me her Angel of Music—her angel. By Heaven, she asked to see my face and she smiled at me." A small chuckle answered her amazed whisper.
"Love has a wonderful way of making people look past many things."
"Do you think she loves me?"
"I thoroughly believe that Starfire feels something for you. Whether or not it's love—I don't know yet." Raven let out a low sigh, and it harmonized with the sigh that followed the words. There was a moment of silence before anything more was said. "They aren't listening. Jinx is keeping the role and the boy is keeping your box. Not to mention that the managers aren't going to pay the fifty thousand francs."
"That has to change," Raven murmured. Her voice was casual, but the red glow in her four eyes belied that calmness. "Will you help me?"
"They've insulted me just as much as you. I'll do what I can." Raven closed her eyes, knowing that there was much that could be done. She let herself settle back into a comfortable position. "I'll let you sleep. It's already Friday." The weight rose from the bed, but the footsteps did not begin. "Would you like to hear your lullaby?" Raven nodded, waiting only a moment before the sound of a full orchestra filled the room. The music was soft and familiar and it did exactly as its title claimed it would. Raven was lulled completely, and slipped into sleep quickly.
A golden violin bow was spun between long fingers, and the footsteps that took the owner of those fingers and that bow from the room were silent. The door was closed just as silently, and Raven did not wake until morning had truly come.
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The final rehearsal of Il Muto passed with no complications. Every actor was ready, every set prepared. Jinx gave no thought to the Opera Ghost's threat, too busy swimming in the limelight she had so carefully placed upon herself. She barely noticed as Starfire whispered the countess's lines during rehearsal, and ignored—as she always did—the snide comments and looks sent her way by most everyone else.
There was little doubt in the prima donna's mind that the opera would be performed without a fuss. Her confidence came from two things. The first was her stance of pure denial that anything could possibly go wrong for her. She forced her will on others until they all but knelt at her feet. Those that did otherwise were ignored—until they grew too bothersome.
The second reason Jinx remained confident was the same reason no one grew too bothersome for her. While she herself carried a paranoid belief that there was a cabal or sick society plotting against her, it was Jinx who had created this little circle. No one wanted to fall on the worst of Jinx's sides, knowing full well that many up-and-coming actors, singers, and even some of the staff of the Opera House had disappeared after angering her.
Jinx had sworn that she would not be hindered in her triumphant return to the leading roles in the Opera House. There was no mercy in her to utter even a sarcastic plea for heaven to help whoever crossed her path. Whether it was Starfire, the Opera Ghost, or some other unfortunate soul, Jinx would have no one disrupt the life she had created. The perfect performance of Il Muto on Saturday would solidify her place in the world once again, and Jinx was prepared—in every way—to assure that perfection.
—to be continued—