I'm sorry if you thought the last chapter went a bit crazy (I know I certainly did!), but when I sat down to write, that's what decided to appear on my computer screen. I suppose I just followed where my imagination led me! Anyway, sorry to any of those who didn't like the last plot twist. I'm not sure if you're liking this story or not because of the lack of reviews, although nearly five hundred views, so please drop me just a couple of lines to let me know if you're enjoying it or not, else there's not much point in carrying on! Thanks!

Chapter Six:

Delusions

Everything was orange. It seemed a strange colour for everything to be, considering that most things in the world weren't as bright and vibrant as the citrus fruit that the colour was named after. Christine felt very strange, as if she was floating through a vortex made of nothing but orange. Every so often, to either side of her, she would see a few stars twinkling at her. She couldn't yet work out if they were friendly stars or not. They looked fairly appealing, and she stretched out her hand to try and reach one, but she couldn't move. She tried to move her legs, but they wouldn't move either. She couldn't even reach a hand to her throat to see if she could talk. She tried to open her mouth, but her jaw felt sticky, and by the time she'd been able to open it, no sound would come out anyway. She tried to scream, but nothing happened, so she just tried to talk. Nothing. A whisper? Not a chance. Then she thought that she could try to sing, and to her delight, a long, pure note came out of her mouth. She smiled in satisfaction, although she was still distressed that she couldn't move. And now, out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw the stars starting to move towards her. As she swung round to try and face them, she was stuck, and couldn't see anything. Christine started to struggle to break free, but she couldn't. In fact, the more she struggled, the tighter her invisible bonds tried to hold her in, until she began to cry with fear and frustration. The stars were still moving towards her, and as they started to move into her line of sight, she could see them more clearly, and she stopped crying swiftly, overcome with horror. Each 'star', as she had thought they were, was a tiny shard of a mirror, but rather than reflecting her own face, she saw all the people she cared about in them. They all wore horrible, sneering expressions, and they all seemed to be laughing at her. She could see Carlotta, Andre, Firmin…and her Angel. They all pointed and laughed at her, chanting insults until it all just turned into a blur of shouts. She tried to scream, but again, no sound came out.

And then, finally, she saw Raoul, Madame Giry and Meg coming towards her. They were in a small bubble of their own, and they smiled invitingly, holding their arms out to her, as if to embrace her. Christine felt a surge of desperation as Raoul reached out for her, and she waited for him to pick her up and carry her away. But as she waited, she heard a rough sound of metal against metal, and Raoul's hand had somehow transformed into a knife, which he was holding out cruelly against her face. Just as the tip of the knife punctured her skin, she finally mustered up the strength to scream, a long hideous animal cry that reverberated against the orange of the vortex she was trapped in. Raoul just smiled disdainfully and disappeared, taking the orange glow, her friends and her enemies with him.

Christine was still screaming as she felt the solidness of a hard wooden floor beneath her legs. She was knelt on the floor, but it was pitch black so she had no idea of where she was, until, out of the darkness, a small white glow appeared directly in front of her. As she focused more fully on it, it grew clearer and revealed itself to be a mask. Her Angel's mask. She tried to shield her face, but every time she looked away, there grew more, until she was being eternally tormented and surrounded by empty masks. And then, eventually, she saw her Angel step out of the darkness and walk towards her. She backed away in fear until she felt her back hit the wall of masks, while her Angel just smiled hideously and planted a kiss on her mouth. He was ice cold, and she screamed again. All the while, he seemed to be talking to her, but his mouth wasn't moving.

"Just your imagination…" he seemed to be saying, over and over. She cowered in a corner, trying to get away from him, but he just moved closer and closer to her. She was trapped. Christine screamed as loudly as she could, hoping that someone…anyone would come to her and save her, but she knew this time it would be different. She could feel her Angel peeling her dress away from her, but still she didn't raise her head from her knees or open her eyes. If only she could scream loud enough…

Anya, one of the youngest ballet girls, was walking back from the stage to Madame Giry's dressing room. The ballet mistress had asked Anya to go and see her after practice, and she felt nervous, but also excited. She wondered what was going to happen. With Madame Giry, she had learned by now that it was either going to be commendation, or a biting remark about how badly she had performed that day. Anya prayed it wouldn't be the latter. As she rounded the corner that led down to Madame's chamber, she thought she could hear screaming from one of the girls' dressing rooms. She paused, trying to work out where the sound was coming from, and singled out the room of Meg Giry, Madame's daughter. She looked round to see if anyone else was around that she could ask for help, and to her delight saw Meg herself merrily skipping down the hall. She too noticed the screams coming from her room, and saw Anya. Anya shrugged, indicating that she had no idea what was going on.

"I don't know what's happening…I just came round the corridor and there was all this screaming…" Meg just nodded, seeming much older to Anya at that moment.

"I see…" she muttered, looking warily at the door. "Shall we…er…shall we go and see what's happening? Together, I mean?" Anya felt glad that she didn't have to go in by herself, and she was also glad that Meg wouldn't have to investigate alone. She gave a small nod, a little too nervous to say anything, and Meg gave her a reassuring smile. The older girl put one hand on the door handle, and firmly opened the door.

The sight that met her eyes terrified her. There, lying on her bed was Christine, writhing around on the covers in a hideous fashion. Meg rushed over to her and shook her shoulder, but Christine just screamed harder and thrashed around, almost catching Meg on the nose with her flailing arm.

"Christine!" Meg said firmly. "Christine! You have to wake up! I don't know what's happened, but you need to wake up! I can't bear seeing you like this!"

Christine only screamed again, and this time Meg distinctly heard words.

"No, please!" she cried. "I'm sorry I left you…just not this! No!" she yelled, and began to sob. Meg began to cry; she couldn't understand what was happening to her friend. Why wouldn't she wake up? Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Anya hovering awkwardly by the door, and looked up sharply.

"Water, now." Anya nodded and ran off down the hallway. Meg just continued to stare at her friend, trying to fathom what in the world had come over her. She saw that Christine was burning up, and tried to brush her hair out of her face, but she only succeeded in making Christine cry out another animalistic scream and bury her head in the pillow.

A few minutes later, Anya returned clutching a bowl of iced water and a cloth. Meg nodded her approval, and stationed Anya at Christine's side, dousing her forehead with the cold water. After a while, Christine stopped thrashing and only uttered the occasional moan. When half an hour had passed, Meg told Anya she could go, and that she'd let her know if anything happened. Anya just nodded and disappeared, secretly glad that she could leave the suffering young woman's side.

"Oh, Christine…" Meg whispered. "Whatever happened to you? I only left you for fifteen minutes…" Slowly, the minutes ticked by and Meg began to feel tired. Before she knew it, she was drifting into sleep, her head dropping forwards onto Christine's midriff.

Christine awoke with a huge gulp of air. Where was she? She prayed that she wasn't still in the black room populated by thousands of masks. But no, she could see Meg looking at her in concern and joy.

"Christine! You're back! I'm so sorry, I must have fallen asleep on you…I was supposed to be looking after you…I'm sorry!" she stammered, and smiled at her. Christine just looked back blankly. Meg's words weren't making any sense to her; her head still felt incredibly strange.

"Christine?" Meg looked concerned. "Can you hear me?" Christine managed to make a small nod, and Meg smiled again.

"I…what happened?" Christine tried to say, but her words came out slurred and she couldn't control herself as she fell forwards onto Meg's lap. She just wanted to sleep again. Maybe there would be time to talk later, but right now she just wanted to sleep, to let herself feel fully conscious again and return to Sweden, the land of her birth, where she could be with her father again, and have not a care in the world…

Meg started to panic when she saw her friend had fallen asleep again, but relaxed slightly when she saw the steady rise and fall of Christine's chest, and the fact that she wasn't screaming out like she had been before. She decided to quickly run down to her mother and bring her to Christine; perhaps she could help her in some way.

In about half a minute, Meg was knocking on Madame Giry's door. She stood, balancing on her tiptoes and then her flat feet anxiously, until her mother finally came to the door. Seeing her daughter's unease, she seized her by the shoulders.

"What is it?" she asked. "What's wrong?" Meg took a deep breath and tried to explain the situation as best and as clearly as she could. When she had finished, Antoinette nodded and rushed down the corridor with Meg in tow. Christine was just where Meg had left her; sleeping peacefully on the bed. She shifted and moaned slightly as Antoinette sat on the bed, but did not stir. Antoinette quickly took her pulse, felt her breath, and nodded briskly.

"As I suspected. The poor girl has been drugged." Meg gasped. "And no, before you say anything, I have no idea who it was. It was a damn powerful sedative though, probably Propofol. She'll be perfectly fine but needs to sleep it off for a couple of days." Meg stared at her mother in awe.

"How…?" she asked, and Antoinette merely shrugged.

"Your father's closest friend used to work for the army." Meg looked blank. "He was an army doctor – helped out with invalids and suchlike. He once gave me a crash-course in basic diagnosis and first aid. I never thought it would turn out this useful, though…" Meg just looked back at Christine, lying peacefully on her bed. She couldn't imagine who would do something like this, and what possible motive they could have had.

"We had best leave her be," he mother said, jerking her out of her thoughts. "In about thirty-six hours she'll be absolutely fine again. Come along." Antoinette left swiftly, and Meg followed her, just taking one last look back at Christine asleep, with so many unanswered questions flitting round her head.

Please, please, PLEASE leave a review to let me know what you think! I hope you are all still enjoying it! :)