Chapter 39- The Calm Before The Storm
It was one of those late night rehearsals for 'Don Juan', and as everybody had expected, they were an absolute disaster. The score was by far the most difficult Reyer and his Orchestra had ever seen. The dance routines were so complex that Madame Giry failed to do several demonstrations of what was required to her dancers.
The singers were also having a lot of trouble. The music was in a very different style to what they were used to, meaning that it tested their vocal range to the extreme. Even Christine, who had heard Erik composing the music, found it very challenging to sing.
Christine had been returned to the Opera House the night after she was 'taken' by Erik. As expected, there were a lot of awkward questions upon her return.
-
"Miss Daae!" Firmin and André came running down the marble staircase in the entrance hall to meet Christine.
"Miss Daae, where did he take you?" Asked Firmin in a panic.
Christine kept her face completely blank then looked up at the two managers.
"I…" She whispered, mysteriously, then she looked as thought she was trying to remember something very important, "…I don't know, who took me?"
The managers looked at each other, worried. André spoke next. "The Phantom of the Opera, he took you right after you had finished your dance with him."
"The Phantom…" Christine massaged the back of her head, looking puzzled, "…after doing a dance."
She seemed to be talking more to herself that to Firmin and André.
"Surely…surely you must remember the dance?" Firmin sounded rather desperate. He had been counting on Christine to learn the location of the Phantom.
Christine's eyes suddenly filled with understanding. "Yes! I danced with the man in red, I remember…there was smoke, and fire…" Her eyes suddenly went completely blank again.
André looked at her, hoping she was going to say something else. "Do you remember anything after the smoke and fire?" He asked, keeping his voice as calm as he could. Christine shook her head.
"Come with us to our office, Miss Daae. We can discuss things further there…"
Christine did as she was told, and they made their way to the manager's office.
-
"Right…" Began a very harassed looking Reyer, "…one more time please, gentlemen. I know it is very difficult but could you please try and avoid any stupid mistakes?"
The Orchestra groaned. Reyer counted them in, and they struck up a fast paced angry tune. The dancers were on stage, trying their best to keep up with the music with their actions, overseen of course by Madame Giry, who was being a tiny bit sympathetic due to the difficulty of the dance.
"Remind me again why we are doing this André…" Asked Firmin, sounding resigned.
The two managers were overseeing the rehearsals from their usual seats in box 1, both of them had their head in their hands, and looked extremely miserable.
"Well…" Began André, trying to find a decent answer, "…because Christine Daae is the best soprano this Opera House has ever seen, and without her, we are nothing."
Firmin groaned his agreement. If the truth be told he thought that the Opera itself was very good. The only problem was that it was so difficult to perform. The Orchestra was slowly improving with the music but there were still lots of very noticeable mistakes. Compared to their first attempt, however, it was much better.
The singers had made an acceptable first attempt, but needed more confidence in what they were doing. The ballet dancers had made an awful first attempt. They looked so out of place and unsure of what they were doing that Firmin could not bear to watch.
All of a sudden, a note fluttered down and landed beside André. "Oh god…" He picked up the letter and read through it. "WHAT!"
"What are you talking about?" Asked Firmin, snatching the letter out of André's hands, after reading through it his eyes widened. "THAT'S WHAT!"
Everyone in the theatre had stopped rehearsing. They stared at the two managers, not daring to say anything. Christine had not dared to speak for a while now anyway. She had been feeling so ill lately that she thought it would be best to keep her mouth shut.
The managers seemed to have noticed the attention that they had brought onto themselves. Firmin got up to speak.
"Erm…" He could not think of how to tell the cast what he had just read, "…we have just been told that… that…"
Christine was not really listening, she was thinking about the events that had happened a few weeks previously…
-
"Our new home?" She gasped, staring at the key she was holding.
"That's right…It's ours." Erik said, putting his arm round her.
"But… how did you afford this? It must have cost a fortune." Christine managed to tear her eyes away from the key and gaze up at the cottage.
"Twenty thousand francs a month, and I have been there for quite a while…" Christine looked up at him, then they embraced each other in a passionate kiss. "So… do you want to look inside?"
Christine did not need to answer, so Erik led her to the front door, and left her to unlock it. She opened the door, and felt her jaw drop. The inside was magnificent; the furnishings looked brand new, which, Christine reminded herself, they probably were.
Erik gave her a tour of the whole cottage. It consisted of a Music room, which had a new grand piano in it, and a new one of every other instrument Erik had lost in his old home; A kitchen, with much better furnishings than the one in his old home did; A dining room, which had a large oak table complete with padded chairs round it; A spare room, for any guests that might stay, such as Daroga; And finally three main bedrooms, which were even better than the master bedroom in his old home.
"Why three bedrooms?" Asked Christine, curiously.
"Well… you never know…"
-
There was uproar in the theatre, which seemed to jog Christine back to her senses.
"You cannot be serious!" Shouted Reyer, pointing his conducting stick at them threateningly.
"I agree. That is simply insane!" Yelled Byron at the two managers.
Christine had been engrossed in her thoughts so much that she had not got a clue what everybody was so angry about. Meg looked as if she was about to go and slap both of the managers, as if they were telling a very bad joke.
"Why aren't you angry? This is your boyfriend's fault!" Hissed Meg at Christine, luckily everybody was arguing so much that they did not seem to hear her.
"Huh… what?" Meg looked like she was about to breathe fire at Christine's ignorance.
"Unless you all want another episode like Bouquet's I suggest you learn to live with it." Screamed André.
"But one week, my good messieurs… ONE WEEK!" All of Reyer's jitteriness seemed to have disappeared underneath his anger. "That is nowhere near enough time to get my Orchestra ready! Not to mention everyone else…"
The only person who could say that they were ready, was Christine, and this was only because she had been practicing the songs with Erik, who happened to be the composer. Nevertheless, Christine still thought that Erik was losing his mind if he thought that his Opera was going to be ready to perform in one week.
"If I may say my personal opinion…" Came a voice which did not lighten the mood, as it belonged to Catherine Beaumont, "… maybe you should just ignore him. I mean he has bossed you around for long enough in my opinion."
Firmin took a deep breath, and then turned to look at her. "Well… that sounds just brilliant doesn't it? That will look spectacular on your gravestone; 'Died due to expressing her personal opinion.'"
Catherine's eyes flashed, but she quickly recovered herself. "If that's what you think, then I will feel no shame in not wishing you bunch of pushovers any luck, because believe me you are going to need it…"
"On the contrary, I would not have asked for the performance to be so soon if I did not think these fine actors, musicians and dancers were not capable of such a task…" Came a disembodied voice, which echoed all around the theatre.
"Why can't you just crawl back to that hole you live in and die?" Muttered Catherine to herself. " 'Fine actors, musicians and dancers' are they?" She asked, raising her voice.
There was a long silence/ Christine glared at her. She could not just leave things alone. Zurie looked ready to kill and Reyer had his head in his hands, trying to calm himself down.
"If this is what your definition of 'Fine' is…" Catherine's voice was filled with sarcasm, "… then you might as well pick up some beggars off the street for your opera, which is about all it's worth after all…"
"Madame…" Whined Firmin, pleadingly, "…Madame please…"
"I mean, the Orchestra is so horrific, that I'm beginning to get confused. Is it them, or is your music just so terrible that…"
"I THINK I SPEAK FOR EVERYONE HERE WHEN I SAY SHUT UP!" Bellowed Reyer at the top of his voice, clearly offended by the reference to his Orchestra.
"Thank you, Monsieur Reyer…" Said the voice, quietly, though still loudly enough so that everybody could hear. "…I would advise you to take his request seriously, Madame Beaumont, we don't want a Patron dying before the night of the performance. Do we?"
Christine could not help but notice the words 'before the night of the performance', what was that supposed to mean?
"Anyway, I think you have all rehearsed to saturation point today. Go and get some well earned rest, ready to begin again tomorrow. I have every confidence in you that the production will be ready and perfected." The voice never spoke again after this.
There was an immediate sound of panicked whispers exchanged between the cast. For several minutes they all stood there, hardly believing what had just happened.
"Well, you heard the man, off to bed, chop chop…" All of them slowly filed out of the theatre, still muttering to each other.
Christine on the other hand, waited for everybody else to leave before going herself. By the time she was back in the entrance hall, everybody had made their way back to their rooms.
She went and sat on the bottommost step of the marble staircase. "I hope you know what you are doing Erik…" She whispered to herself.
"I do…" Came a voice from beside her. Christine gave a small jump and then looked to her right to see Erik sitting right next to her.
"Erik! What are you doing here? What if someone…"
"I've got Porsche on the lookout for me." He cut in. Christine couldn't help but notice that he looked a little worried about something.
"Why have you only given us a week for rehearsals?" She asked, a lot more angrily than she had meant to. Erik looked at her, shocked. "I'm sorry…" She said, quickly, "…I've been doing that a lot lately, lashing out at people."
Erik looked concerned. "You want to talk about it?" He asked, reaching out and putting his hand on her lap.
"It's nothing really…" She replied, sighing, "… I don't know. It's just that everything is happening so fast, and this does not really help. So, why have you only given us a week?"
"If I thought it was not long enough then I would not have done it…" He began, looking at his knees, "… but I can't lie to you Christine, it is because…" He gulped, looking on the verge of tears, "… Christine… I have to kill her."
"You can't…" Said Christine, as soon as she heard this, "…Erik you promised me…"
"Christine please listen to me…" He said, not very loud yet loud enough to silence her, "…If I don't kill her then we will never be safe. You will never be safe." He pulled her in close to him. "I can't lose you…"
"Surely… surely there must be some other way, you don't have to kill…"
"Yes I do, until she is dead I will not be able to rest." He cut her off again. "I'm sorry Christine.b I know I promised you, but neither of us could foresee this, could we?"
Christine let out a sigh. "So that is what you meant by 'Before the production'…"
"Yes." He whispered.
-
"Make a fool out of me, why don't you!" Catherine muttered to herself, pacing around her room, running her fingers through her hair, frustrated. "I'll show you… I'LL SHOW YOU!"
She went over to her desk and opened her drawer. She checked something that was inside it. Smiling to herself and closing the drawer she walked over to her bed to lie down.
You take everything away from me…first the man I love, which felt like taking away my life, then you take away all my wealth! I will not be at peace until your deformed head is on a spit!
She then settled into a very uneasy sleep, the thoughts of Erik making it into her dreams, which consisted of productions and blood…
-
The one week that the crew had to prepare for the production had gone in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Incredibly, they seemed to have pulled it off, even if it did mean that they had rehearsals practically all day and well into the night.
The Orchestra had finally mastered this strange new style of music, which satisfied Reyer a great deal. Madame Giry was delighted with her dancers, and actually admitted that she could never have danced better herself during her career.
Christine however, seemed very odd in the past week. During one rehearsal she had had to storm out of the theatre to be violently sick. On top of this, her mood seemed to change with each sentence she spoke. Once Meg had asked her to test her on her lines, and Christine had shouted at her as though this was an insult and then when Meg asked again, she did it without question.
That afternoon, Christine had got so annoyed with herself for snapping at everyone when she was spoken to that she went to Madame Giry for some advice. Antoinette had been something of a mother figure to Christine, and was the only other person that she could confide in besides Erik. She did not want to trouble him with this however.
"How long have you felt like this?" Asked Madame Giry, very cautiously. She had more than once been on the receiving end of one of Christine's mood swings.
"Oh… I don't know. I suppose it has nearly been two months now…" Christine answered, sounding miserable.
"Well, can you think of anything that might have happened to make you this… angry?"
"Of course not! Otherwise if I could then I would not be coming to you for help would I?" She shouted back at her. Madame Giry took no notice of her sudden change in attitude however.
For at least an hour the two women sat there in Madame Giry's office, talking. All the time Christine seemed to be undecided about how she wanted to feel. One second she looked on the verge of tears, and the next she looked ready to kill.
All of a sudden something seemed to click in Antoinette's mind, and to Christine's utter astonishment, she gave a small smile. "What?" Asked Christine, neither happy nor sad.
"But of course! It has been staring everyone in the face for ages!" For the first time ever, Christine thought that Madame Giry looked excited.
"What has been staring everyone in the face for ages?" She asked in the same monotonic sort of voice.
"Oh, don't you see…?" Antoinette asked, as if Christine were somewhat stupid.
"Well no, that's why I am asking…" Christine replied, sounding puzzled.
"Oh do use some sense! Put everything together… The mood swings and the sickness, all signs of you being, what?"
Christine thought for a moment. What does this mean? And then a sudden look of both realisation and horror came across her face.
"Oh no…" She said, her voice sounding somewhat alarmed, yet at the same time excited.
"I am afraid it is oh yes my dear…"
-
Night-time came, and the inhabitants of the Opera house were all drifting off into a very uneasy sleep. They had but one more rehearsal of what had to be the most difficult Opera ever written, until they had to perform it to yet another full house.
Christine lay in bed, wide awake, after what she had been told by Madame Giry. She thought that she may never sleep again for the rest of her life. The thing that frightened her most was the fact that she had to tell Erik.
"Christine…" Whispered a voice from the shadows, she bolted upright to see who it was. Fortunately it was only Erik. "Christine… I need to talk to you about tomorrow."
"Alright." She whispered back to him, as he sat down on the bed beside her.
"Ummm, where to begin?" He said, fidgeting. "Well, there is no other place for me to begin. I'm going to put a sword through her… I know she is going to try something at the performance, and I'm going to get there first."
Christine said nothing. She could tell that there was going to be no stopping Erik.
"That is not all though…" He began, taking something from the inside of his cloak. "Christine… if she should try anything. If she should come anywhere near you, then you need to be prepared…"
He then handed Christine what he had taken out of his cloak. Christine looked down at what she was holding with wide eyes.
