Chapter 5: Escape to the Darkness.
Pounding, pounding all around. Quick paced and drowning. Banging, crashing, screaming with the rising of a storm or the coming of the sun. It could be heard in the darkness of the night. The landscape moved by quickly, shadows staring and judging. Branches grabbed, like cold dead fingers out of the darkness, and tor at his cloak. The wind was cold and dry. It laughed, it howled, it screamed. The summer night felt more like that of autumn filling his nose with the smell of rot and decay. The trees danced with the force of the wind. Clouds were rolling in over the moon and the stars. Someone or something had angered the elements. The spirits of the night were disturbed and angry. They were restless in the darkness. They were furious. Voices, hundreds of them, speaking in hundreds of tongues teased and taunted. Madness was the destination, true and horrible madness.
Erik road onward into the darkness, following a road no longer travelled by man. He fled for his life along this path. He glanced over his shoulder, no one was following but he could hear voices all around him. He could not move fast enough. His head was spinning in circles. The scene from the cemetery playing over and over in his mind. The faces of the managers becoming more distorted and sinister every minute. The wind rushed at his bare face. His cape flew up behind him as he pushed Cesar to the limits of his speed. His heart pounded faster with every beet made by the landing of the horse on the ground. The steady drumming of its hooves was like the call to march; a death march to his own demise. His mind was clouded with screaming and laughing. Words he didn't understand came rushing at him. Pity, mercy, forgiveness, where was it now? He was breathing heavily, out of breath and filled with a feeling that hadn't over come him in a great long time. Fear and anger was over coming his entire being. Erik was terrified, petrified, mortified. Every and any emotion was hitting him with the full force of the wind. He felt ill. He felt dizzy. What had he done? Blackness flashed before his eyes. Balance was leaving him. A strange tightness restricted his breathing. He was panicking. He was in shock. Tangae struggle to keep up with the horse, who ran fast as the lightning that began to flash through the forest trail. She bounded over rocks and stumps trying to stay as close as possible but it was like they were fleeing from the dawn and the waking of the world. Fleeing into the storm and the dangers that turned the tides of life.
"Whoa," Erik said as he pulled the reigns and slowed the horse down. The Cat dug its claws into the soft earth trying hard not to come into a collision with its master or the horse. Erik climbed down slowly and fell to his knees. He felt nauseous and flushed. He ripped off his cloak to reveal tattered clothing, old and ragged. Things he thought he should be wearing as a ghost and a corps. He fell onto all fours his hands digging deep into the ground as voices, in his head, swirled with laughter. He shut his eyes and felt himself fall. He hit the ground hard and groaned as he rolled onto his side. He lay on the cold earth, the side of his face in the black, fragrant soil. The rain hit him hard as the dirt became moist. His hand wrapped around his head as it pounded. Stinging pain and pressure developed behind his eyes. His world was spinning in circles. His heart was racing. He could hardly breath and when he did the rain was inhaled. He coughed as the water and dirt hit the back of his throat. His body was hot and cold all at the same time. Tears of pain and fear filled his eyes and mixed with the cold rain. He sat up as the tiger came near to him. She startled him. He jumped away from her, his eyes blurred from the mud and the rain. Then his mind cleared momentarily. He felt the paper in a pocked. He ripped from his old warn vest pocket, the envelope and slammed the money onto the damp ground, "what have I done?" he whispered to the cat who came to his side and nuzzled him gently, "Tangae, what have I done?" he said again as his face fall into the silver, white fur of the great cat, "they have seen you, I have betrayed you."
The cat purred lovingly toward its master and laid in the mud and the water by his side.
"I am no longer what I have wished to be, a corps, a memory, a ghost. I am again the feared and the loathed. A wild beast bringing fear and death. All I wanted was to be forgotten," he said softly as he curled childishly into a ball. He pulled his knees closed to his chest and wrapped his arms tightly around them. He rocked himself back and forth and watched anxiously as the shadows danced and the lightning flashed, in the darkness, "this is not what I want to be but have I any other choice. If the opera is not saved, then we will be hunted like your mother. No one will be around to save us this time," he said looking at the tiger. He forcefully rubbed and cracked his knuckles. He blinked his eyes harshly and irregularly. His breathing was shallow and quick but not as it should be, "they'll find me you know," he said as he looking into the cats blue eyes, "...us... they'll take you away from me, kill you, skin you, hang you on a wall like a trophy. How could I let them see you, not even Christine laid eyes on you! They'll parade me around like a circus freak and hang me as an example for my crimes. But my music, what else could I do for my music? To make it heard? To save us a home till our dying days?" he asked as he rocked more violently, "it is my obsession, my cures and my downfall."
Cesar had walked circles around his master and watched as his countenance changed. He stood close, protecting the beings that lay on the ground, in the mud and the water. The rain had become harsher. The thunder crashed and screamed in the atmosphere. The lightning struck the ground unforgivingly. Vapour came from his nose as he breathed in and out. His eyes glowed yellow in the flashes of light. He looked like a demon himself on this the road to hell. He made harsh noises in all directs to keep away the predators, and nervously glanced around up and down the unused road. It was dark and yet the clouds moved fast. Shadows of the trees and the rocks moved like spirits in the night, or perhaps they were the spirits coming to fetch Erik to return him finally the darkness of the underworld.
They had left the cemetery and the managers of the opera and travelled down a road that ran along the back side of the well populated cemetery. The storm was off in the distance as they left, it was building now in force. Back behind the cemetery was an abandoned church, one not used for ages. The walls were moss covered, the windows and doors gone. The roof had long since caved in and trees now crept out through the openness. Behind this structure of rock and wood was an old and abandoned road. The road ran from the back of the church off into the forest to a place that was no longer visited by human beings and hadn't been for a good long time before Erik had even set foot on Parisian soil. It was a path to hell, he had called it when he first found it and travelled it. It was a path travelled only by the ghosts now and Erik had, for many years, been one of them. It was by this road that he first found his lake and his shelter when his youth brought him to hide in Paris. He lived wild in the old church with his pet until he found his way beneath the city to a place that captured his imagination and held the soul that he had long ago lost. It had become his sanctuary, his home and his playground. He learned much about life from watching the operas and had forgotten many of the cruelties of the real world. Until his fantasy world was shattered again by heart break and more murder.
His life at the opera hadn't been completely constant. The desires of youth did take him, on many occasions, away from Paris and into the darkness of the world. It was on one such occasion that his beloved companion did come to his arms. He had been taken onto an expedition with his expertise. He was young and unknowing at the time but well versed in capture by lasso. He had watched as a man stalked and killed a beautiful orange cat in the jungle of India. The kill was not that harsh on the young Erik it was what was to come later. The man, hunter, had spotted the cubs of the cat laying low in the brush. Taking more pleasure in the idea of a trophy of white baby fur without the stripes was more than Erik could bear. To kill for fur and status was falling into the root of all evil. The cubs were defenceless without their mother and this man would kill for beauty. Erik hadn't been quick enough to save the two. The shot sounded like thunder as the red blood stained the white of the baby. His lasso fell around his guides neck and not hesitating Erik strung him up next to the mother beast to be found later. Shaking and crying the smaller of the two cubs, the female only weeks old, was scooped into the young Erik's arms and he disappeared, never to be seen again in India.
Erik sat defenceless in the mud and the water next to his cherished one. She had been with him for many years, nursed to her health by a young outcast of the world she became his companion and never looked upon him with fear again. The thunder broke the silence of the night as the images of Tangae's struggle flashed once more in Erik's eyes. He heard her cries louder than the voices that clouded his mind. He let out a sob and buried his face in her white and chocolate stripped fur.
"I have failed you both," Erik said as he covered his face with his filthy hands and sobbed, "I am no protector for the week or the innocent. I am just a danger, a threat to your well being. You must leave me! Years do not change who you are I will always be a murderer," he said as he pushed into the soft fur of the cat. She moved closer, placed her giant head at his feet in a puddle that had been forming. "I know you have no were to go, you never have, my pet," he whispered to the cat, "since the day I found you, when we were both young and foolish. You but a cub without a mother and me the same. We are like family. Beast in all the eyes of the world. You are my only loved ones and shall always be that way. I will keep you hidden and well cared for. If I must kill to save your lives I will do so again," he said as he stood up shaking, "The Opera will be finished, I will do it for you." Erik placed his hands softly on the animals head and ran his fingers through the silk like fur. The cats ears twitched and she raised her head to look into her masters eyes. He grinned as the blue eyes fell lovingly on him. The only eyes that had always loved and never feared.
He stood shaking and week, leaning heavily on the cat for balance. He still felt sick to his stomach and unable to, really, comprehend what he had done, out in the cemetery, that evening. But the sun would be rising, to push away the storm and he had to hide his precious away from the world.
Cesar became calm as the man stood and placed a shaking hand on his neck. The horse knew the path, a path well travelled by the ghosts. He would lead his master to the place by the river. The place where they would escape to darkness and comfort again.
Erik reached up to pull himself into the saddle that was mounted on the horses back. He felt week, his arms and his legs could hardly lift him. Tangae place her head close to Erik's back and with a mighty push he was forced back onto the horse.
The journey was slow and nearly painful, as the wind and the clouds brought forth more and more rain. It was a fierce rain, pouring down loud and hard on the travellers. The steps of the horse and the cat matched each other as the phantom, like an old man, hunched over in the saddle. His head was hung low, he had left his cloak to rot in the earth along with the money that he was given. The cold rain ran down his mask less face, dripping off his nose and over his lips. He hoped it would wash away some of his sins and cleanse his soul. His hands shook from cold as he held onto the reigns. Cesar and Tangae moved on through the pouring rain never slowing, it was their turn to protect and save.
They arrived at a river that ran across the uncharted road. It ended with the rushing water that ran perpendicular to it. Across the rushing water the other end of the road could be seem but it stopped abruptly by a line of thick trees. The trees had grown in thick and dark when the road was no longer used. Cesar stepped cautiously into the rushing water as Tangae remained on the other bank. It was a slow crossing but before long the horse and its passenger had made it safely across. The large cat followed stepping easily into the water that came quickly up to its neck and moved fast over its body, but soon she too made it across and they looked strangely at the wall of dark trees. Erik, slowly removed himself from the horse and pulled the reigns over the horses head. He walked hunched over, soaking wet and shivering to the line of trees. He pushed a few low lying branches out of the way and ducked under, the cat did the same and soon, struggling with the lowness of the entrance the horse did as well. The road did not continue through the trees. There on the other side was a whole different world. Greeted by two great stone pillars and ivy draped walls was another cemetery, the great gates were covered with creeping rose bushes and thorns. The iron gate was only parted enough for the travellers to enter. Small, warn head stones littered the forgotten cemetery. It was a small square place, boxed in on all sides by ivy and rose bushes. In the middle of the ground was a large crypt with doors that rose to a forty five degree angle to the ground. This mass of stone and moss dominated the silence of sacred place.
Erik walked slowly to the great crypt and pulled at a brass lock that held shut the heavy iron doors. He pulled a key from around his neck and placed it in the lock, with a click, it fell away and the door was able to open. The doors opened silently and easily for Erik, they were well used and the cat and the horse came closer as they lay open. Below the doors were marble steps, as white as the horse and the tiger. Torches were lit down at the bottom of the staircase where the ground became flat and the sound of water could be heard. Tangae and Cesar walked quickly down the stairs and watched as Erik closed the heavy doors behind them. They came down with a bang and the lock was replaced. Erik rested his hands against the cold doors of the crypt. Below his pets were safe again in the darkness of his world. He placed the key back around his neck and walked slowly around to the back side of the crypt. There, at the back of the monument was a solid stone wall. It was covered with moss and soaked by the rain. The sun has begun to show itself through the trees that circled the forgotten resting place and the clouds began to move off. The rain was easing as well and the thunder had diminished to a faint rumbling in the sky.
On the solid brick wall Erik leaned for a moment. His head was still throbbing and his hands still shook. He was soaked through and through and chills had taken over his entire body. The journey through the cold underground was not going to be easy on him but at the end of it all was his comfortable warm palace. He straightened up again taking a deep breath and focussing his attention back at the wall. To one side was a brick that looked to be loose. Erik reached out and pushed the brick in. Suddenly a small door at the base of the wall opened. It was no bigger then one of the white tomb stones and Erik had to get down on his stomach to get into it. On the inside was a rope that dropped down to the bottom of the stairs where his two pets waited.
Erik descended into the darkness of the underground passage. The rope hugged close to one wall, making it easy for him to simply walk down the wall with the aid of the rope. The rain continued to pour in through the small hole entrance. Erik stared up at it silently the rope still resting in his hands. His breathing was shallow, he looked tired and near collapsing but with a flick of his wrist the rope hit the wall hard. A rumbling was heard and soon the stones moved back into their place to hide the last of the secret tunnel.
At the base of the stairs the torches lit the underground river, it was the river that fed the lake, deep under the city. It flowed quickly in its banks of stone and brick. The far side of the river ran right against the wall. But the bank closest to the staircase was stopped by a coble stone walk way. The walk was wide enough and high enough for a horse and rider to travel along comfortable. Tangae moved along ahead as Erik remounted Cesar, "return to our safety while I rest," he said to the horse in a low voice. He sat, soaking in his tattered old cloths atop the horse, who followed the cat. The path led them deep under the city of Paris and ended at the doors of the house of the ghost.