Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Three

September 18th 1892: Christine

The grandfather clock in the corner sounded much louder than usual today. I could feel every chime echo in my head. One – two – three – four… It took me a moment to realise that there was no clock. The sounds I heard were in fact caused by a pounding headache. Gingerly I brought my hand to my temple and moved it upwards. It encountered a big bump that was throbbing painfully. I inhaled sharply and took my hand away, afraid of hurting myself even more.

Slowly, inch by inch, I straighened up into a sitting position. My head didn't seem to like motion too much at the moment, for it made silver stars explode behind my eyes. Gasping, I waited till the pain had subsided, then I tried taking in my surroundings. I started with the things directly in front of me, for seeing them didn't involve turning my head.

I was in a small room. As far as I could tell, it didn't have any windows. At least there was no light coming from anywhere, except for a lamp standing on the floor in front of me. There was little else in the room, only two chairs and a few empty sets of shelves. I could only guess that the room was normally used to store things. It reminded me of similar places at the opera, although those rooms would have never been empty. No, I was fairly certain that I no longer was at the opera.

But where was I? And how had I come to be here? Ignoring the angry protest of my head, I rummaged in my memory, dragging out bits and pieces and throwing them onto the floor for me to examine. Erik and I were sitting on a bench in the park, taking about temptation… No, that had definitely not happened today, for there were other memories about him and me, more recent ones. Erik was singing for us, and there were tears in my heart… Erik and I were kissing… Erik was lying in his coffin, and I was joining him… Erik and I were making love… Erik and I were lying in bed together…

I smiled reminiscently about the amount of happy memories I had managed to collect in such a short time. But there were more, older ones, and I couldn't understand why they had resurfaced now. The Angel of Music was teaching me, and I was singing an aria for him… I had just sung on stage, and the Angel praised me… The Angel and I were talking about what it was like in Heaven… Meg was sitting in the coach, telling me that something had happened to Erik…

Where had that memory come from? It didn't belong to the others. Yet somehow I knew that it was important. But why? I thought hard. And then, quite suddenly, all the pieces were brought together to form a picture I could understand. Of course! I had gone to find Erik, and there had been that man in the cellars… I jumped slightly, groaning in pain. Yet it didn't keep me from turning my head left and right to make sure the man wasn't here. Fortunately I was alone. There was no place in the small room where a person could have hidden.

I sighed in relief. At least I didn't have to be afraid of being attacked again. But then, he hadn't attacked me at all, had he? I had fallen, and he had caught me and apparently brought me here… wherever that was. I tried to guess how much time had passed since I had fainted, but it was difficult. Since the room didn't have windows, I couldn't even tell whether it was already dark outside. I willed my head to find out how long I had been unconscious, but the only thing it said clearly was that it had done enough thinking for the moment and needed a rest.

The throbbing grew stronger and stronger, till I had to close my eyes, for even keeping them open hurt. ´Just a few minutes´, I told myself. ´Then I'll find out how – ´ I had fallen asleep before I could finish the sentence.

When I woke up for the second time, the lamp was still burning. I blinked, noticing the light didn't hurt my eyes anymore. There was something standing next to the lamp on the floor, a glass of water and a slice of bread on a dirty tin plate. My first impulse was panic. Someone had been in the room without me noticing it. The mere though was enough to make my heart beat speed up. Quickly I ran my hands over my skirts, but they were still covering my legs the way they had done when I had fallen asleep. So nothing had happened.

I had always been a cautious person. Under normal circumstances I'd have never accepted food or drink the origin of which I didn't know. Yet these were anything but normal circumstances. I was locked in a room in an unknown house, and these were the only things I'd get. The last time I had eaten something had been at breakfast, and my stomach was rumbling. The thirst was even worse.

Slowly I stretched out a hand and seized the glass. My fingers were shaking as I brought it to my mouth and took a long gulp, too thirsty to be careful. The effect was instant: The water seemed to spread through my body like a soothing salve. Even the pounding in my head was reduced to a more or less bearable level. Growing more courageous, I tried a bite of bread. It was stale, but at least it made my rebellious stomach calm down.

"Why have you brought her here?"

I nearly choked on a few crumbs as I heard a male voice coming from my left. Had someone entered the room, and I hadn't seen it? Turning my head I realised that I had been sitting next to the door all the time. It stood slightly ajar, and I could only guess that the perosn who had brought me bread and water had left it open, for whatever reason. Taking another sip of water to get rid of the crumbs, which still threatened to make me cough, I leaned closer to the door, listening hard.

"I've told you before," a man replied. He sounded younger than the one who had asked the question, and I decided that it was the man who had abducted me, although I couldn't be sure from hearing the voice alone. "But if you insist, I'll tell you again, Victor. I met… I mean, I followed the Countess into the cellars of the opera. I've no idea what she wanted there. Well, when she saw me, she tried to run away, but hit her head and passed out. So I took her with me. It was so easy. I thought Master would be pleased…"

"But he wasn't," the man called Victor said sharply. "He threw you out of his room."

"Only because he wanted to be alone to think about everything," the younger man interjected. "Who knows – maybe he'll come out and praise me for having done well."

Victor snorted.

"It wouldn't be the first time Master does something no one understands," he muttered. "Sometimes I think he's become a little…" The next part of the sentence was spoken in such a low voice that I couldn't understand it. Yet I knew it had been something rude when the young man gasped in shock.

"Don't you dare say that here, with everyone around!" he hissed. "Or do you want to carry your limbs home with you in a handkerchief? No, let's talk about something else, something less dangerous. What do you make of… this? It fell out of the pocket of the Comtess' coat when I brought her into the room. Well, you know I can't read too well…" I heard the rustling of something that probably was a piece of paper and held my breath. My coat had been hanging on the coat rack till I had grabbed it this morning, and I couldn't recall having put anything into the pocket.

"Dear Madame," Victor read aloud. "Please believe me that I don't mean to intrude on your privacy. Still I couldn't help noticing that our guest, M.Erik, does not sleep in his bed this night, but in yours. It was rather obvious from the kinds of sounds you were making when I walked down the corridor a few minutes ago. Of course I am in no position to tell you what to do, but I'd like to ask you to be a little more discreet in the future. One can never know who's listening. Jacqueline"

The two men burst into laughter, whereas I blushed deeply. Jacqueline had heard us last night? We had been so loud that she had known what we had been doing? It was so embarrassing. Yet it was even worse that those men knew about it now, too. What would they do with this knowledge? An icy shiver ran down my spine.

"So the Countess spreads her legs for someone else than her dear husband?" Victor asked, chuckling. "I'd have never believed it. She doesn't look like that kind of woman. Still… I wonder whether she'd mind if I came to visit her as well. It's been a while since I've been with a woman, you know…"

"No!" the younger man snarled. "You know the order: No one is to touch me."

"But what Master doesn't know can't hurt him," Victor argued. "I won't leave any traces. He'll never find out – "

"I'll never find out what?" A voice interrupted him, silencing both men at once. "I told you she mustn't be harmed… yet." He chuckled, an eerie sound that made the lump in my throat swell. I sensed that this man was a hundred times more dangerous that Victor. Yet it were his next words that made me give a small cry of panic. "I don't have any use for her. We have to get rid of her."