Another chapter? Yes, really! It is! Well, you guys did ask me to update soon and as your devoted authoress I cannot but comply of course. If my readers command...So pick up a candle and follow me back into the Opéra Populaire, where both the Ghost and a little churiby guy named Cupid seem to be playing their tricks! Enjoy and please leave me a review! -x- Lotte.
Roger paced the stage in restless frustration, their rehearsals once more interrupted by a tantrum of their leading soprano Mireille Vantou. The corps de ballet she had claimed, had been fluttering about her too closely making it impossible for her to concentrate on the task at hand: her singing. It was no great secret however that the main reason Mademoiselle Vantou wished to keep the ballet at a distance, was that their close proximity made her look even more corpulent as she already was. Why did great voices always have to be accompanied by huge bodies, Roger wondered. If that was what it took for one to obtain a soloist position he would happily forego the honours.
"You seem tense, Monsieur DuChamps…" a teasing whisper reached his ears as he noticed Sophie tiptoeing up behind him.
"That is most likely because I am tense, Mademoiselle Lenoire..."
She sent him a pitiful look, before leaning in closer. "I hope it is not your recent nuptuals that create such stress. Perhaps your dear wife does not meet al your great expectations after all?"
He grinned, much as she tried to tease him he was very well aware of the jealousy laced in her voice. "Let us say she tries her very best, ma chère. And there is only so much a man can ask of his beloved wife."
She gave him a serious nod. "Oh indeed, for a lady of good breeding need never to…" The rest of her words were whispered so quietly that even Erik's superior hearing could no longer catch it, but from the radiant smile on the boy's face he could well imagine what the young trollop had just proposed. Very well. He could watch the ballerina through Thérèse while keeping an eye on DuChamps himself. He sucked in his breath as he heard the frustrated whispers of the leading tenor drifting up towards the rafters.
"On days like these one would almost wish for the Opera Ghost to return. One fallen backdrop and I'm sure our beloved Mireille would allow the corps to wubble about wherever they wish…" He icily stated to two of his colleagues.
Erik smirked, this was almost too easy. Nothing better to wake up a dormant haunting than a silent wish for its powers. And so he casually strolled over to the next rafter, checked the stage once more to ensure everyone's fleeing positions and loosened one of the ropes before him.
The screams throughout the auditorium were thus that even Luca was drawn in coming from the dormitories. Making his way up without a sound he was met by his father's triumphant smile.
"Father, what…"
"It seems my boy, that the Opera Ghost has just returned from the grave."
With afternoon rehearsals postponed immediately, there was little use for any to hang around longer. As they went down deeper and deeper, they slowly drowned out the sounds of havoc above. It did not take long for the cursed tenor's words to reach every single pair of ears in the house and just as Erik had hoped the conclusion was quickly drawn: his silent wishes had awoken the spirit of a long deceased man, which meant the Opéra Populaire now truly had a Ghost to deal with! Even the most logical of brains seemed unable to otherwise explain the well timed drop of the set piece, for even if someone had meant to play a joke they would have had to climb up to the rafters first, thus needing more time. And no earthly being could have caught the tenor's words whilst already being up in the rafters, surely the distance would have been too great…
Inside the ballet dormitories Thérèse had to try hard not to fall out of place and play scared with her fellow dancers. She knew for fact Monsieur Erik had been up those rafters that afternoon, and had noticed how that particular backdrop was never meant to hurt anyone. Yet all the young ballerinas were in a complete state of hysteria, claiming never to enter the hallways by themselves again. This did provide a problem however, for when she herself eventually ventured out, needing to bring a fresh supply of foods down to the lair, her two best friends refused to leave her side.
Luca followed her movements intently, as he noticed her desperately wandering about, trying to think of ways to leave her friends and make her way down. Even a quick brain such as hers seemed too fail against the annoying persistence of the two younger girls, unless… Taking a deep breath he ran a hand through his messy golden strands, straightening them back. Smoothing down his shirt once more he suddenly stepped out of the shadows, pulling Thérèse close to him while brushing a soft kiss across her knuckles as he had often seen his friends do at parties and assemblies.
"There you are my darling Tessa. I was afraid I might not find you amidst the chaos. Who ever would have thought such a trivial thing as a fallen backdrop could cause so many people to loose their wits altogether?"
Thérèse could only stare at him, her shock eminent on her face and her throat squeezing shut at the clear contact between their bodies under nothing but her leotard and his dress shirt. His eyes were still as calm and unaffected as ever though, imploring her to play along and so she quickly swallowed.
"Yes, yes, so it would seem. I'm so sorry to have you worried dearest. I hope you have not been waiting long?"
He actually managed to shoot her a flirty smile this time, and all her previous attempts at breathing ceased once more. "My wait is never too long when I know you will be at the end of it, my sweet. Now was there a certain affair you needed to handle with your…charming friends here or could I steal you away for a while?" At that he shot a somewhat annoyed glance at the two other girls, who instantly started giggling to hide their blush.
"Tessa, why did you not simply tell us you wished to go meet your…gentleman friend? We would have let you go you know, and tell nothing of it. So long as we are sure you would be safe from the Ghost…"
Thérèse looked up and down between her friends and Luca, before giving them a cautious smile. "Yes, I suppose you would have. A girl can never be too careful with her reputation however, it is the one thing my grand-mère always taught me…" With that she shot an angry glare at Luca, making him feel how badly this would go with Marie.
"Well then, I suppose we should be off. Ladies, if you would excuse us…" And with that Luca simply curtsied and whisked the baffled girl away into one of the dark hallways.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Well unless you had thought of a different way to rid yourself of those tattering leeches, I don't think so. At least it will explain your occasional disappearances."
"Well I still think we could have come up with something other than.."
He gave her a sarcastic smirk. "Yes, of course, we could have gone for my mother's approach and have the Opera Ghost kidnap you. How would that look?"
She sighed in frustration, he was probably right. Still, she did not care to find out what her grandmother would say! Especially when she would find out the sudden kidnap was not entirely unwelcome. Not unwelcome at all!
"Where are we going now? This road only leads down towards the lake."
"I know. Trust me. And stay behind me, father has reinstalled his traps along here. I would hate for you to drown or break an ankle."
Luca was silent once more as if suddenly bored by their conversation, yet continued his way unwavering towards the shores of the still waters. As they arrived she suddenly understood: a boat of some sorts... And there it was. A light wooden construction she recognised from last year's production of the Odyssey.
"Father stumbled across this on his journeys through the cellars and decided to…borrow it for the time being. Surely with such horrific reviews the play shall not be repeated in the near future."
"And how would you know of those reviews? From what your sister has told me you care nothing for the Opera. And even so, those critics could be utterly in the wrong."
Turning back at her he suddenly realised his comments on the play were interpreted as an attack on her life's work and she was quite put out. So typical for a girl to overreact and twist his words into a different meaning.
"Since we are to infest this building as if we were an omnipotent occurrence, I decided to pick up on my reading about the Opera and its history. I might not know much about theatre as a whole, nor wish for the knowledge, but begging your pardon if six different reporters from highly recommendable newspapers burn a play to the ground their reviews could hardly be written off as a figment of their bias imagination…Mademoiselle. Now if you would be so kind…"
She turned red with anger at his arrogant remarks, huffing before she stepped into the boat and sat staring ahead in grave silence, waiting for him to row them across. As they started their journey however, her amazement at their surroundings would no longer keep her quiet. All those years she had wondered about this passage, and the thrill of finally traveling through ran through her like a warm wine from a very good year, making her senses tingle. She still had not had a chance to get back at Luca for insulting her arts however, and she decided to do so now.
"Well, all this time I have been waiting, wishing to see this passage, only to realise it is clearly a waterway as any other. How silly of me to fawn over it like that."
The blow reached its target, for an icy voice from behind her immediately shot back. "As any other? Are you blind? Have you not noticed the arches, the sculpted figures? The round-off corners so as not to damage the boat? The secret maps hidden in the walls? And pray how many waterways have you seen to draw such a comparison?"
"None, I dare say. But then again, hundreds of people have described your father as nothing more than a deranged lunatic for many years on end. You would not believe the things he was held accountable for. And by your definition the voice of many cannot be wrong, correct?"
"Very well, you seem to have proven your point. Now would you be so kinds as to cease your incessant chattering before the echoes of it give me a headache?"
"Of course." She smirked, and imagined he could clearly hear her chuckles resonating across the arched ceilings yet neither spoke more till they reached the lair and his father was present to serve as a wall between them.
As the boat docked and Erik graciously helped Thérèse to shore, he immediately noticed his son's unusual bad temper. The girl however sat smiling as sweetly as she always did and he knew someone was in great danger to losing their heart.
"How did it go? Is the outside world still in uproar about today's events?"
Luca rolled his eyes. "Indeed, they are truly the most superstitious lot I have ever witnessed. We actually had to come up with a plan to get Tes…Teresa away from her cowardly friends."
The girl rounded back at him. "Don't you dare talk bad about my dearest friends, they are merely scared because they are younger than I and the stagehands frighten them with the most hideous stories! Oh and should my grandmother ask, Monsieur Erik, I hope you will personally take responsibility for your son's kidnapping of me to convince her of my untouched virtue!"
Erik cocked a brow at Luca. "Kidnap?"
Luca threw up his hands in despair. "Well it was either a secret lover or a sudden disappearance by the hands of the infamous Opera Ghost father. Which one would have caused more questions from her friends you think?"
"The lover!" He heard replied in two-fold.
"All my friends will now want to know about whom I am seeing now."
"Whereas in the case of the Opera Ghost we could have gone by your mother's example and make her say she fainted and does not remember a thing."
"Very well, obviously I failed miserably at playing Ghost. Perhaps you could end the suffering to us all and give me a task more suitable for a student in architecture!"
Suddenly Erik remembered Luca's words from before: "I cannot do this by myself, I know nothing of the world." Indeed, he was too quick to forget that he and Thérèse were far more familiar with this world than his son.
"Very well, you are probably right. Would you please go and find that damnable DuChamps character then, see what he is up to? We still need to figure out a way to penetrate his dressing room in any case."
"From what we heard before he is probably doing some penetration of his own by now" came the muttered reply before the boy moved out of sight, causing Thérèse to blush fervently.