Hello and welcome to my first fanfiction. I've been thinking about writing one for a long time. But so far I had no ideas. Had one evening in bed suddenly brainstorming and then I had to write it down. Let's see what comes out of it. Wish you a lot of fun while reading.
Your Petit Erik
22.12.2021
Paris, France: The busy city of Paris was bustling with activity, and even in a nondescript house a bit on the outskirts of the city, everything was seemingly just quiet. Well, actually, everything was also quiet, yet. In the large living room of the house on blue upholstered armchairs and sofas sat 20 (normally masked) men, who looked quite nervous. And in front of these same men a young woman of 21 years of age was pacing up and down in a military manner. Then she stopped and looked at everyone with a serious and stern look.
"Men, as long as we live here together, there are a few rules. First, no masking of any kind in this house. We are all equal and no one is going to drag themselves down with that snot. And that brings us to the next point, secondly, no self-pity! Because then I get my claws out and get really angry. I didn't break out in self-pity at my fate either, and you won't either. So done for now!"
The young woman still ended her speech with the same look as before, serious and stern. Some of the men were still sitting there just as before but about half had slid deeper into their chairs, wishing the chair could make them disappear.
Suddenly, the oldest man in the room spoke up.
"What if, after all, the surge of self-pity threatens to overwhelm us? Should we then eat it into ourselves?" He asked this with a raised eyebrow and fear in his yellow eyes. It felt like the remaining 19 pairs of eyes were staring back just as fearfully.
The young woman's answer came right away: "If it should get so bad that you can't stand it anymore, you can still say it, of course, no one is asking you to eat it inside. And if you still need help, I can still pray to the Daroga's or the respective Madame Giry's for help, if that would be okay?"
Thereupon came murmurs of agreement from the men, which could be taken as 'yes'. After this matter was settled, they moved on to the next item.
Genevieve, the name of the young woman, who was only called 'Jenny' by everyone, rummaged on a small table in the corner of the room for a piece of paper. The gentlemen had now visibly lost some tension, but this came back immediately when a loud "HA" sounded from the corner with the table.
Jenny had found the note and immediately returned to the round. Visibly tense the message or no matter what was on the note was expected. Some of the men had even put their hands on the armrests and clutched themselves so tightly that their knuckles turned white. All of them were afraid of what was in store for them after they learned what was on the note. But Jenny was calm herself. Grinning broadly, she looked around the room and said: "So, room assignments."
A visible and audible sigh of relief echoed in the large living room. All the men had already feared the worst. Jenny looked confused for a moment, then pushed her thoughts aside to focus on what was on the note with her.
"Okay", she said, "we'll start with the first basement. There are 7 rooms in which I would put you Erik", she then looked at the man with the yellow eyes, "then Derik, Lerik, Borchert and Edenborn if that would be okay with you?"
A resounding 'yes' came from the 5 phantoms addressed. Jenny looked visibly pleased at this.
"Very nice. I would also reserve the other two rooms, if someone else should possibly come. Otherwise, we can use them as guest rooms for now", she said, "so if you'd like to follow me on that, please."
The gentlemen addressed then got up and followed her to the basement. Erik, surprisingly, looked quite pleased to be allowed back into what he called a basement. He headed straight for some room, opened the door, inspected everything with his yellow eyes, and then announced in a proud and delighted voice and sparkling eyes: "This will be Erik's room. It's perfect for Erik!"
Indeed it was: the room was very large and spacious, with everything needed, adjoining bathrooms for each room, and even an organ and piano were in the room, which Erik was visibly pleased about. However, Jenny just rolled her eyes and said: "There's an organ and piano for everyone in each room, and if you need anything else, you can get more."
However, after she said this, the remaining 4 phantoms also got excited like little children and of course wanted to check their rooms. So everyone picked one and came out visibly delighted, confirming the fact that there were pianos and organs in every room. Suddenly, a great many cries of joy echoed downstairs from the living room. Jenny ran upstairs like lightning and asked what was going on.
Unnoticed by her, Kerik, who looked like Erik, only not speaking in third person, had snuck downstairs with the other 6 and heard that there were the Phantoms' two favorite instruments in every room. After learning this, he quickly ran back upstairs to the living room and announced this to the waiting gentlemen. They were visibly and now audibly pleased and told Jenny as well. Jenny immediately realized who had followed her and sent a threatening look in the direction of Kerik, who, however, only lounged contentedly with himself in his armchair.
After checking what had pleased the other opera spirits, Jenny went back downstairs to see how the other 5 gentlemen were doing. They had settled into their rooms relatively well and now looked up at their beloved organs like contented cats. Jenny stepped into the hallway that separated all the rooms and asked if they wanted to come back upstairs, since she wanted to show the rest of the men their rooms. But the 5 were completely fascinated and did not respond to her question. Thereupon, with an amused sigh, she went back upstairs where the remaining 15 were lolling in their chairs.
"So moving on to the second floor, where there are 15 rooms. The layout may be a bit odd, as there is only one room on one side and 14 on the other but if you want to be among yourselves it is relatively convenient. With the 14 rooms I would do it the same way as in the basement: reserve two and two as guests when the ones in the basement are then occupied. So, enough talking. So, who wants to go where?"
Jenny hadn't revealed that she had already put Kerik in the single room on her note, because she knew that he would turn any room where he went into an opium or hookah den. Fortunately, Kerik already chose this room for himself on his own and marched upstairs without her having to coax him. However, she wasn't sure about the remaining fourteen rooms, so she didn't place anyone there. All at once a man spoke up, who by appearance was the oldest of those still present and bore the name Crawford.
"If it's all right, I'd like to move into a room and take nine others with me, if that would be all right with you, or do you have some other plans already?"
Jenny shook her head in response. "Nope," she said, "I had no idea who would want to go where with all the rooms, so I left the second floor completely unplanned."
The man looked delighted at this statement.
"Well then gentlemen, if nine more would follow me I would be delighted", he said as he got up from his chair and made his way upstairs. He was followed by nine random gentlemen.
Jenny called after them: "I'll be back later!" The last of the group of 10 turned and sent her a thumbs up, which Jenny returned.
Then she turned to the remaining 4 and said: "So and we pretty ones share the third floor. If you would please follow me upstairs."
The gentlemen addressed stood up and followed her upstairs. On the way, she explained: "I have my own room up here, so you'd still have to divide into the remaining eight, if that's all right?"
She sent a questioning look behind her, which was met with an approving nod. Then they were upstairs and everyone picked a room that suited them. When everyone was satisfied, she told them there would be a 6:00 p.m. dinner because she had to go back down to the 10-person group.
After her statement was noted, she went down one floor. There she knocked on the door, behind which she knew a common room was hidden. After an 'Come in' sounded from inside, she opened the door and stopped in the middle of the frame. All of the ten gentlemen were bent over a table, apparently poring over a sheet of paper. Every now and then murmurs came from the table or scraps of words reached her.
"Have to cover those windows."
"More candelabras."
"We could also ask for a fog machine, couldn't we?"
"Why not, actually?"
Suddenly a sharp whistle sounded and the men turned in surprise. Jenny took her fingers from her lips and looked at the men in amazement and bewilderment: "What are you guys up to? Are you going to turn this house into a major construction site and what are you going to do?"
She had come closer and saw that the sheet of paper was a floor plan of the floor they were on.
"We just wanted it to look like our home", a man named Panaro replied.
"May I remind you that you always said you always liked to see the sky and now you want to cover the windows?", asked Jenny with a raised eyebrow.
"Could be", everyone muttered.
Jenny then said: "Could be. It can't just be, it is!"
Then another man named Jones spoke up: "What if we just take the shutters instead and let some more light in?"
"I think it's okay", Jenny said, "that way it's dark but there's still light coming in. Because I know the darkness will then affect your mood again, and I certainly don't want that." Surprisingly, everyone was perfectly fine with this suggestion.
So Jenny left them to pore over their sketch again, but quickly told them beforehand that there would be 6:00 p.m. dinner and then went off to tell the other five phantoms that. After this was all done, she went to her room herself to relax a bit more until dinner. She lay down on her bed and listened to some music, relaxed from what had happened up to that point until it was about 17:30 and then made her way to the large dining kitchen where there would be room for everyone to eat.
Punctually at 18:00 she was ready and waited in the kitchen for the opera spirits, who were also not long in coming. Like a Swiss clockwork she heard 18:00 a quiet rumbling and already entered the 20 men in the kitchen and sat down on any place. Jenny sat down with them and enjoyed her dinner. The atmosphere was not as awkward as she had first thought. Many of the phantoms were talking to each other like friends or colleagues and exchanging ideas about music and other things. In this relaxed and comfortable atmosphere, the meal lasted until 19:30.
"Gentlemen, don't be surprised if you don't see me again later, because I'm just tired and I want to go to bed, okay?", Jenny asked the opera ghosts, who of course accepted this. Each of them knew working to exhaustion.
Jenny then cleared the table together with two of the phantoms and threw everything into the dishwasher, which she turned on afterwards. After this day she was just tired and wanted to go to bed. After the dishwasher was still 'working' until 22:15 it was finally finished and Jenny turned it off afterwards and finally went to sleep. So that's how the first day in a house full of opera ghosts came to an end.
