Gah! Much too long without an update! Plz don't hate me, I've had to get ready for back to school-ness! —Which is in two days... :( — Anywayz, without further delay, the chapter!
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Erik froze suddenly, staring at the door from where he'd heard the name being called. Wha—... Christine? Alyssa had jumped when she heard the noise, and now stood right beside him, her face radiating utter shock. For a moment they did nothing but listen, waiting to see if they had truly heard something.
"For god's sake, Christine!" Alyssa gazed at Erik, eyes wider than usual in anxiety. He stared straight ahead, seemingly lost in his thoughts, and paid her no attention.
...Christine... she's... here? He couldn't believe it, there was no way it could be true. Why? He felt a swift, uplifting sensation for a moment, then began listening intently and wondered if she would open the door.
"Oh, Raoul!" Christine cried suddenly, and Erik's heart sank. Oh, right... her precious Vicomte is here, too. "His voice... it's still there! In my head! Raoul... he won't leave me alone!" Erik was shocked to hear the tears in her voice, and lowered his gaze. Christine... you regard me with such fear? He wasn't even aware that he'd started sobbing silently, until Alyssa curiously tilted his face up and stared at him.
"What do we do?" she whispered, and she spotted the tears running down his face. "Wait... what's wrong?"
Erik ignored her question, but instead covered her mouth with a gloved hand. "Shh..." Seeing her had pushed all thoughts of disappointment and hurt to the back of his mind (temporarily), and he stared still at the door.
"No, Christine, I heard something as well. It came from the stage. Stand back, my dear." Raoul's voice carried easily to them, and Alyssa tensed, meeting Erik's gaze worriedly.
"What do we do?" she asked again, so quietly that Erik barely heard her. He knew automatically that he had to get away, as soon as he could, but wasn't sure how he could get himself and Alyssa both away in time.
He hesitated a moment, but then pulled Alyssa to the side of the stage and made her look at him. "I know who those people are, Alyssa. There's not time to explain now, but I have to get away. And... I need to ask you something." Alyssa nodded, and all of the sudden Erik was extremely unsure of his decision. "...I... I need you to distract them for me. They heard me, I'm sure of it, and I need you to convince them that I'm dead. It could be dangerous for them to know that I'm alive."
For a moment, Erik was sure that Alyssa wouldn't do as he asked, but she merely nodded. "Okay. Don't worry, I'll take care of it. Just go." Erik gave her a slightly quizzical look, wondering why she was agreeing with him so quickly, but she pushed him further toward the door. "Dammit, you said it could dangerous, so just go!" she hissed, and he left silently through the door.
Alyssa turned and sprinted down the small flight of stairs off the side of the stage, her thoughts racing. How am I going to distract them? she wondered. Damn, damn, damn! She reached the door at the back of the room just as it opened toward her, and the force of it knocked her a few steps backward.
"Shit!" she cursed, and Raoul stumbled through the doorway. He looked at her quickly, his eyes widening in surprise at both hearing her curse and simply seeing her there, and she straightened up. Her face was the image of pure shock as she stared at him, her mind searching for things to say but finding nothing.
"...Mademoiselle... are... you all right? What are you doing here?" Raoul asked, eyeing her curiously. Alyssa instantly recovered and scoffed at him, her hand on her hip and her mouth in a scowl.
"What am I doing here? Dude, what the hell are you doing here? Don't you know this is private property?"
Raoul blinked once, utterly confused, and took a step toward her. "This is the Opera Populaire, mademoiselle. It belongs to Messiuers Andre and Firmin, unless I am quite mistaken."
...Shit. Yeah, not expecting that. Alyssa narrowed her eyes at him, desperately trying to come up with something to say. Dammit, I should've paid more attention in those Improv classes! I could go all gangster or something on them... but then again, I don't want them carting me off to an institution or something. ...Well, I guess Erik seemed pretty freaked when I acted like my normal self before he got to know me. Maybe pretty-boy here will do the same...
"Obviously, you are mistaken. Now, I want to know right now why you're here. That is, unless you want me to get, like, a thousand cops on your ass." Just as she had hoped, Raoul looked rather confused and taken aback. He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could say anything, Christine appeared in the doorway.
"...Raoul? Is everything all right? I heard a..." Her voice died off as her gaze landed on Alyssa. She paused for a moment, then smiled slightly —though Alyssa could tell that she truly had no idea of what was going on— and hesitantly extended her hand. "Oh! ...I didn't know there was... Hello. I'm Christine... de Chagny."
Alyssa was sorely tempted to shoot off a smart remark at her, she seemed to vulnerable to verbal abuse. But being the semi-compassionate person that she was, she found that she couldn't do it. "Wassup?" she greeted instead, moving Christine's hand upright and gently slapping it in her usual "high five" way.
Christine exchanged a curious glance with Raoul, and lowered her hand. "Um... and you are...?"
Damn. Alyssa had completely forgotten to come up with another name. Considering what Erik had said, about it being possibly dangerous, she didn't want to tell them her real name (though, in all sense, it would have mattered little), but for the life of her, she couldn't come up with another one. After a few seconds of thinking, a name suddenly came to the front of her mind, and Alyssa said it without hesitation.
"Paris," she murmured quickly, tilting her head a few degrees to the side. "Paris... Hilton."
The couple before her glanced at one another again, seemingly more confused than ever. "Your... your name... is Paris?" Raoul managed, brow furrowed heavily. "Is that... even a name?"
"Oh hell no, I know you ain't dissing my name," Alyssa's hand had returned to her hip, and she raised one eyebrow at Raoul. "What's the matter, pretty-boy? Paris ain't good enough for you or something? Well, you don't hear me ragging on that little mullet you got there." Okay, so she was overdoing it just a little bit, but in Alyssa's mind, it was so worth it.
The expression on Raoul's face was priceless, and she was by now containing laughter with every syllable she spoke. "My... what?" he asked, looking more lost than ever.
"You heard me. Now, if you two wouldn't mind getting your asses the hell out of here, I'd be—" She cut herself off suddenly as she stared at Christine, her face slowly softening and her brow furrowing in thought.
Wow... I suddenly feel like... I've seen her before. But... where? She looks so familiar... Alyssa pondered it for a moment, knowing how insane she looked to Raoul and Christine, but hardly caring. For the most inexplicable reason, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she'd seen Christine somewhere before.
All of the sudden, it hit her. "Oh my god!" she cried. "The mannequin! You're the... the... oh my god! Wha... how do you...? Oh my god!" Alyssa took a few steps backward, her mouth agape in disbelief. She clutched her throat with one hand, feeling unexplainably distressed and horrified. So that... that mannequin... it's of a real person? Of her? Why... how did he know her? Why would he keep a figure of her? Oh god... Tears sprang to her eyes, unexpected and unbidden, and she barely kept from letting out a choked sob.
Raoul glanced at Christine, then moved forward and gently placed his hands on Alyssa's shoulders. "Mademoiselle, do you need us to take you somewhere? To... get medical attention, perhaps?" Alyssa let her gaze trail up his coat and rest upon his face, and she shook her head.
Quickly regaining her composure and her coming to her senses, Alyssa pushed him away. "Don't touch me, pervert. Just take your chick there and get out." I can't let my emotions get in the way of getting these freaks out of here. Raoul gave her a quizzical look, then reached out and grasped her wrist tightly.
"Mademoiselle... we have some questions for you," he muttered, his stare suddenly hard and his voice harder. He held on despite Alyssa's protests, and ignored the fact that Christine was watching. "Who was that singing on the stage just before we came in?"
"Dude, get the fuck off me!" Alyssa grunted, twisting her arm to try and break his grip. When at last he let her go, she stepped away. "And there wasn't anyone singing. Do you see anyone here besides me?"
Christine lowered her eyes, her fingers entwined in front of her. "There was no one singing?" she breathed, her face turning pale. Then his voice is truly in my mind still... She reached out and touched Raoul's shoulder before anyone could say anything else, and he turned to her. Everyone was silent as she murmured, "Raoul... I want to go. Please, we... we shouldn't have come."
"There," Alyssa spoke, a smirk appearing on her face. "At least one of you has some sense." With that, she gently ushered Christine out the door, not acknowledging her reactions, and Raoul grudgingly followed, his face unreadable. Once they both stood in the main hall, Alyssa saluted them with two fingers. "Adiós, pretty-boy." She nodded to Christine. "Señorita." The Spanish slid off her tongue like water, but she gave it a sour, poison-like tone, and without another word closed the doors behind them.
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Once there was a barrier between her and them, Alyssa sighed and collapsed to the floor. Damn. She moaned and covered her eyes with her hands, exhausted and not looking forward to making the journey back home alone. Well... at least I got them out of here. And they seemed to believe that Erik was dead... I guess. I hope.
The unexpected sound of the rustling of a cloak made her raise her head. "Erik?" He smiled as he looked down at her, and noiselessly he extended his hand, his fingers unfurling in a silent invitation. Alyssa smiled and took it, letting him help her get to her feet. "Well," she spoke, "I would say that was a success, wouldn't you?"
Erik grinned and nodded. "I would imagine so, Mademoiselle Hilton." His tone was more than a little playful, and Alyssa groaned again and nudged him.
"Oh, come on! I saved your ass, the least you could do is not tease me about the identity I chose! And for your information, Paris is a real name. She's a big celebrity back in my time."
"Mmhmm. Whatever you say, Alyssa." She stuck her tongue out at him, but he merely gave her a small shove and a rather attractive smirk. Alyssa paused for a moment, lost subconsciously in that insignificant upturning of his lips, then she surprised him by jumping and throwing her arms around his neck.
"You know what, Erik?" she mused playfully. "You can be such a dick sometimes." He turned his head to face hers, giving her a curious look, but Alyssa merely laughed and stepped back. "But most of the time you can be pretty cool." She sat down on the top of a charred seat, seemingly thinking for a second. Suddenly she stood up again, a frivolous gleam in her eyes. "But I bet I can beat you home!" Erik blinked once, a bit confused, and she took that moment to start sprinting down the center aisle.
Alyssa's laughter rang in Erik's ears as he ran after her, quickly coming within reaching distance of her in moments. He longed to grab her and pull her close, wanted nothing more than to hold her tightly in his embrace, but he had to content himself with dashing past her and listening to her small cry of protest.
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So Christine's insane, Raoul's pissed, and Alyssa and Erik are acting fluffy... Hmm... to be honest, this was a hard chapter to write. And I'm pretty insecure about it. Reviews, plz? Flames, critisism, or compliments, don't matter to me. See ya in the next chapter!