Chapter 35- An Interrupted Dance

The Masquerade ball was drawing ever nearer. It was now less than two months away, and already excitement was starting to flare in the Opera House. One very noticeable person was Meg, who was already starting to fuss about several things, such as what dress she was going to wear and what sort of mask to buy.

The two managers, who had not been seen much during Faust's run, were starting to announce the arrangements for the ball. Christine was not very impressed when they told everyone at breakfast that she would be doing a dance to close the night and even more unimpressed when they asked if she had decided on a partner yet. She could hardly say that she was going to be dancing with the 'Opera Ghost'.

One thing that kept Christine in high spirits however, was the knowledge that Catherine was now completely shunned by everyone except Ivan, and even he seemed to be keeping his distance whenever possible. It was still unnerving for Christine at meal times. Catherine always smiled her evil smile at Christine, and Christine could not help but think that she was planning another wicked scheme.

It was one morning after breakfast that André caught up with Christine.

"Miss Daae, I know that you will probably think this a stupid question since we have asked you before… but the ball is drawing closer and well…" He looked very nervous as if Christine was going to be angry with him, even though he had not asked her a question yet. "…Have you got a partner for the Dance? Have you started rehearsing? Because time is running out and…."

"Monsieur André, please…!" Said Christine, nearly shouting. "…Yes, I have got a partner for the ball, but we have not started rehearsing just yet, but I do promise you that it will be ready and perfected by the time it needs to be."

André looked a little embarrassed, so he simply nodded and said, "Very well, good day Miss Daae." Before heading off in the opposite direction.

Much to Christine's distress however, Catherine then came out of the dining room. She spotted Christine almost instantly and walked briskly in her direction. Christine turned on her heels to try and get away from her but she was too late. Catherine grasped her elbow to stop her from escaping.

"What is the rush, Christine?" Asked Catherine in her falsely sweet voice.

"Let me go." Hissed Christine through gritted teeth.

"Oh… what's the matter?" She asked, putting on a mocking baby voice. "Afraid the mean old Catherine is going to scratch you again, hahaha!"

Christine's nostrils flared with anger. "If you don't let me go you old witch then the injury I'm going to give you will be more than a scratch." Her voice was filled with rage. After Catherine's attack on her Christine had become much less timid than her old self.

"Is that so?" Catherine asked, her voice more serious yet still mocking. "Well then Miss Daae…" She released her grip on Christine. "…Why don't you crawl back to the sewers. I'm sure you'd feel right at home there having been with that deformed rat."

Christine turned round and started to walk as fast as she could away from Catherine. Luckily she did not try to follow her but instead called out, "But then I suppose rats look better than that Devil did."

Christine's pace quickened. Not long now… just you wait you witch. By the time of the Masquerade ball you will be wishing you never said that.

Christine returned to her room in a state of complete rage. She could not bear looking at that horrible woman, let alone talking to her. Locking the door behind her as she entered her room, she went over to her bed and collapsed on it, heavily.

"OUCH!" Christine jumped back to her feet. She had landed on something very solid, which turned out to be Erik. "You know I'm still not one hundred percent, so there is no need to try and kill me." He sounded like he had been winded and yet still managed to let out a small chuckle.

Erik got to his feet, massaging his ribs which Christine had apparently landed on. She then noticed that in his left hand he was holding a leather-bound folder.

"What is that?" She asked, gesturing towards the folder, even though she had a very good idea what it was.

"This…?" Erik replied, holding it up, Christine nodded. "… The finished score, my masterpiece is finally complete!"

Erik opened the folder. Christine let out a gasp. Inside was what must have been the largest score for an Opera that Christine had ever seen, hundreds of pages of music. Christine flipped through the pages, being sure not to ruin the order which they were in. Christine was not the best person at reading music, but from what little knowledge she did have she could tell that it was extremely complicated.

"The Orchestra are going to have their work cut out for them." She whispered, still mesmerized by the music she was holding.

After several minutes of scanning through the music, during which Erik seemed to be waiting nervously for her opinion, Christine thought that Erik must have accidentally missed something out.

"Where is your 'Music of The Night'?" Christine was quite sure that this was one of Erik's own compositions, and therefore could not work out why he had not included it in his 'Don Juan'.

Erik smiled. "We should not be talking here…" He began. "… Too risky." He walked over to the mirror, pressed his foot down on the tile, and the mirror sank down into the floor.

"But I thought you said it was too dangerous for me to go to your home…" Erik smiled again, and Porsche came plodding through the mirror-frame.

"But that was before I thought of a reliable early warning system." He knelt down and started to softly stroke Porsche, who mewed her gratitude to Erik. Erik went over and unlocked the door for Porsche and then returned to the mirror. "Shall we?" He held out a hand towards Christine.

Porsche stayed behind in Christine's room. Christine realised that if anyone came along then she would come down and warn them. After a slow trip down to Erik's home, they disembarked from the boat and made their way into the music room, where Christine was surprised to see Daroga.

Christine looked up at Erik questioningly. "You can't expect me to play an instrument and dance at the same time, can you?"

To be truthful Christine did not know that they were going to start working out a routine for the dance right then, but then she remembered that Erik said that they would when he had finished his 'Don Juan'.

"I suppose not. I just didn't know that Nadir could play an instrument." Daroga smiled at the sound of his real name.

"I wouldn't say I am Mozart, but I can just about play the piano."

Both Erik and Christine chuckled at Daroga's joke as he sat down at the piano. A sudden thought then occurred to Christine. It was so obvious that she did not know how she had not thought of it before.

"What sort of dance are we going to be doing, and what music are we going to be dancing to?"

Erik considered her question for a moment before answering, somewhat cautiously. "I thought I would leave that choice to you. Having been a former ballet ra… girl I thought that you would have a good idea of what you would like to do."

It was Christine's turn to think now. What is my main strength in dance? Truth be told, the ballet was mainly solo dancing, not two people. Then it came to her, a dance that she had always wanted to do but couldn't due to the fact that she very rarely had a partner in the ballet.

"A Tango?" Christine thought that this would be quite appropriate; after all, Erik did seem to really like roses, which was a common thing to use in a Tango.

Erik looked a little surprised at her decision. "Funny… I have always imagined you as more of a ballroom dancer, not a Latin dancer."

Christine smiled. "I've always thought that Ballroom was a bit boring and easy… so I thought why not do a Latin dance?"

"You do know how complicated a Tango is don't you?" Came Daroga's voice from the piano.

"I'm sure I will find out soon enough." Replied Christine. "I would rather that you chose the music though Erik."

Erik did not answer, but instead nodded, then headed in the direction of the library. While he was gone Daroga gave Christine a lesson about the basics of the Tango. A few minutes later Erik returned with a five page score. Christine did not have time to read the title before it was placed in front of Daroga.

Daroga started to play the music, there were a few very noticeable mistakes in his first attempt, but by the time he had played it through a few times, he announced that he was confident with it and that they could now start.

"Right…" Sighed Erik. "… The first run through will just be to get a feel for the music, then after that we can start to work out a routine, alright?"

Christine nodded. Erik put his right hand on Christine's waist, and with the other took Christine's right hand.

"And after three…" Began Daroga. "One…two…three…"

-

"Crawl back to the sewers… Crawl back to the sewers…." Catherine was muttering to herself, skimming through some large papers.

"Can I help you Madame?" Came a woman's voice, walking over to her.

"If I needed help then I think I would have asked for it, wouldn't I?" Catherine snapped back at her.

The woman looked shocked at her rudeness, so she turned round and left. Catherine was in the public library, looking through the archives of the Populaire. It did not take her very long at all to find what she was looking for. In fact she found it almost instantly. A structural layout of the entire building, including it's sewers.

Catherine continued to study the blueprints of the Opera House, carefully taking note of which rooms the sewage system ran under. One thing that did confuse her however, was the fact that nobody could possibly live down there. The space was too confined to really be able to make a home in at all.

She was just about to give up looking, when one particular spot on the map caught her eye. There was a sewage tunnel, larger than the rest, running right under what must have been Christine Daae's room. She was just about to look at it more closely, when she saw another one running right underneath the entrance hall, and then a third under a corridor.

Catherine thought that at least one of these was worth a look. It would not be easy for her to get into Christine's room but in the entrance hall…

Wait until all the lights are out and the children are asleep… then search the hall for anything suspicious… hehehe.

"Madame I am sorry but you are going to have to leave. It is closing time." Said the librarian.

Catherine checked the clock on the far wall. It was only 8 o'clock and so she would just have to wait a couple of hours and then everyone would be asleep. Then she could make her move.

"Very well, I am terribly sorry for my rudeness earlier. I have not been feeling very well lately, and I do tend to snap at people." She said it in such a sweet voice that the woman smiled at her.

"Thank you very much." The woman then showed her out of the library. Catherine chuckled at the woman's stupidity.

Foolish old Hag!

Catherine made her way back to the Populaire with a new spring in her step. She was sure that she was right, and in a couple of hours she would be able to prove it. When she entered the building, there were very few people around.

Maybe I will only have to wait one hour… She thought to herself. Not wanting to be seen waiting around in the hall, she headed up to the roof. After all she had no fear of Erik attacking her again, and it would be a nice place to wait.

-

"Now… you see… how difficult…" Erik was quite out of breath, they had been dancing now for just under an hour, and the fatigue was starting to take its toll.

"Yes…" Christine panted in reply.

They had made a small amount of progress in the short time that they had been dancing. Both of them had grasped the 3:4 beat of the tango, and were now starting to move with more confidence in what they were doing.

Yet, despite all of the progress they had made, they had still not come up with any sort of routine. Erik voiced his thought that maybe it would take longer to grasp than they both thought.

"I think… it is time for a break." Erik stammered. Christine nodded her agreement. Daroga then got to his feet.

"I'll make us all a cup of tea shall I?" The two of them looked over at him.

"As long as it is none of that herbal stuff that you can somehow manage to drink, my friend." Said Erik, slyly.

"Of course not…" Began Daroga, walking over to the door that led into the kitchen, "… I'll bring it through into the library, shall I?"

Christine nodded, and she and Erik made their way into the library, while Daroga went through into the kitchen.

"I'm surprised at how quickly you picked this style of dance up." Erik Admitted to Christine.

Christine blushed, took a seat in one of the arm chairs, and then looked over at Erik. "It's from having a great dance partner."

Erik gave a weak smile. Daroga entered the room a few minutes later carrying a tray with three cups of tea. Erik eyed the green tea suspiciously, wondering how Daroga could manage to drink such a foul thing.

-

Returning to the entrance hall, Catherine was pleased to see that there was nobody around. She could spend as much time as she wanted. As much time as she needed to find what she was looking for.

What am I looking for? She thought to herself. Come to think of it, she did not know what she was meant to be searching for, a secret passage perhaps…

Catherine took a good look at the whole hall, trying to spot anything that looked out of place or suspicious but, looking around, it looked just as it always had done, statues, floor and staircase.

Catherine walked slowly up and down the staircase. Maybe there was a switch that would open up some sort of passage. She tried to picture the map in her mind. From what she could remember, the tunnel ran under the west side of the hall.

Isn't it obvious? The statue on the left of the grand staircase caught her eye. She walked up to it and studied it. At a glance it looked like a normal statue, but Catherine had a knack for spotting things that were even the slightest bit out of place.

The eyes of the statue looked a little bit odd. Not something that was very noticeable, just odd. Catherine placed her fingers on the two eyes and then noticed that they were loose. She tried to take them out with no success and then tried to push them in. It was very difficult but she could just about push them towards the back of the statue's head.

The floor to the left of her had vanished, revealing a trap door space. Catherine smiled, and was just about to climb down into it when it closed. She turned back to look at the statue, the eyes had gone back into their original places.

Catherine chuckled quietly to herself, and then went to push the eyes back again.

MEOW!

Catherine jumped. At the top of the stairs was a black cat, staring at her with yellow eyes.

"Shoo!" She hissed at the cat. It did not move. Catherine ignored it and resumed pushing at the eyes.

It took her another few minutes to get the eyes to move again, and by the time the trapdoor had slid open next to her, the cat had gone. Not wasting any time, Catherine jumped into the hole, very thankful that it was not a very long drop at all. One problem she had not foreseen however, was the pitch black darkness that she was left in when the trapdoor shut.

She would have to make her way down the passage slowly and very carefully. With no light it was impossible to tell where there was a wall or maybe even stairs.

-

"Think you are ready to continue yet you two?" Asked Daroga, getting to his feet.

Christine got to her feet. "Yes, I think so." She said, moving towards the door that led back into the music room. "Are you still with us Erik?"

Erik had been staring blankly into space and then his face turned to an expression of mild surprise. "What… oh, yes, I was just thinking about the routine."

"You haven't got a routine yet." Said Daroga, wondering what Erik was talking about.

"Exactly, that's why I am thinking about what it could be." Christine started laughing and then walked into the music room, closely followed by Daroga and Erik.

"Right…" Said Daroga, once again sitting down at the piano. "After three, one…two… ARRRGGGHHH!"

The lid of the piano had just slammed down on his fingers, and sitting on top of it was none other than Porsche.

"Porsche!" Erik ran over to the cat, completely ignoring Daroga's cries of pain. "What is it? What is happening?"

The cat ran over to a small statue that was in the corner of the room, then started scratching at it and meowing loudly.

Erik looked stunned. "Oh no…"