I HAVE ACTUALLY NEVER BEFORE SEEN THE MAGIC FLUTE, I JUST LOOKED UP SOME VIDEOS ONLINE, BIT IM GLAD SOME OF YPU LIKED MY DESCRIPTIONS.
NEW CHAPTER AND AS USUAAL I DONT OWN PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
BT LAST TIME I ONLY RECIEVED FOUR REVEIWS, IT WOULD BE NICE TO RECIEVE MORE
HINT, HINT
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Erik set out the scores and dusted of the organ keys, somehow they always seemed to accumulate dust even though they used it daily. But because there had been no lesson the night before there was more dust than usual. Elizabeth had lessons everyday which was one of the reasons that she was improving so much so quickly.
She sat at her little bench, making sure to wipe the trail of dust from it first with a cloth and sat prettily with her hands folded in her lap.
Erik turned to her "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself last night, but did you learn anything?"
Elizabeth looked at him a little confused, Erik sighed. "Let me rephrase my question, tell me exactly what you thought and felt about the opera?"
Elizabeth's eyes lit up "Oh it was absolutely magnificent in every way, better than I ever dreamed of. Mozart really is a genius. The music was so powerful and so real. It didn't seem like singing, but more like they were speaking from their very souls, I felt like it was real."
She clutched her chest "My heart felt like it was going to burst and I was surrounded by music, what an amazing feeling."
Erik nodded, more than pleased with her answer. This was the reason opera existed, to make people feel like this, not to amuse lords and ladies with shows of money as proof they went there simply because it was the new in, in fashion. "Good" he said with a hidden smile he sat at the piano. "That's how it's supposed to feel."
"Was it like this for you?" she asked suddenly, then blushed. At first Erik didn't understand why she was blushing, and then he remembered how he had said he didn't like questions.
"What?" he said softly, not wanting to startle her.
She paused for a moment before saying "Well, I wondered, what it was like for you, the first time you heard opera?"
Erik was taken aback for a moment. Not because of her question but simply because he had not thought of such a time in years. Erik's past was too painful and hateful that he had pushed away memories to the very back of his mind, but it was only now that he remembered that among all the pain, hatred, sorrow and madness, there were a few happy memories as well. He took those or granted.
Elizabeth was watching him expectedly.
"I first saw an opera when I was a child," he said as memories over took him
Flashback
The sound of dogs barking madly echoed though the cold cobble streets of France. Erik followed the dark haired girl who had saved him from the cage.
The calls of 'murderer' were being yelled from the camp, Erik may not have been completely educated, simply being the freak show in the circus, but he knew enough to know what that word meant.
And he did not regret it.
The circus master was a cruel bastard, Erik hated him. More than anything else. He had beaten him, humiliated him and treated him worse than a dog. When killing him, Erik had put every ounce of hatred into pulling at that rope; he pulled and pulled until he practically heard the life go from him. At one time, very far in the past, Erik might have felt remorse over killing another living thing, even someone as evil as the circus master.
But he had seen too much, been through too much and changed too much for that kind of thing to matter anymore. Now all he felt was satisfaction that he was finally dead.
The girl, Giry she had said her name was, pulled him along, being very careful not to accidently knock the sack off his face. Erik didn't want to trust her, betrayal from many had taught him a valuable lesson. But he was in a slight state of panic.
He didn't want to go back there, back to that horrible place, and where ever she was taking him it had to be better than that place.
But he had already gone through so much suffering, he was scared.
She took his hand and Erik flinched, he wasn't used to touch. It was like poison to him, because the only times a person ever touch him was usually to cause him pain.
She lead him to a small tunnel and told him to go to the end, that she would meet him later. Erik did as he was told, only because he didn't know what else to do.
Where h ended up was a large room seemingly underground, there was a lake, and a chandelier. And old forgotten storeroom.
He looked around and from the corner of his eye saw something,
It was rectangular shaped with piped summing out from it, half of it was covered with a dusty cloth. Curiosity overtook him and he approached it.
Gently pulling off the cloth he realised it was adorned with black and white rectangular shapes. They were strange looking. Like nothing he had ever seen before.
Erik just looked at them for a moment, before his hand came up and pressed down on one white key.
A deep sound filled the room and Erik cried out at the sudden loud sound, utterly terrified.
He slammed the casing down and ran from it, fully intending to never return to it again.
The days after that followed in a suit. The girl Giry told him he was allowed to live here. Erik never asked why she helped him and she never said. They existed and she would bring him food and medicine. Eventually Erik became adapt at stealing it from the kitchen he found in one of his explorations.
He never went too far from his room, too afraid and too cautious to do so. He was weary and afraid that someone would find him and make him leave. He didn't even know where he really was.
He slipped further and further into despair and loneliness. Giry never came down here unless necessary, Erik was left t his solitude and found how unbearable it was to know your're completely alone. He had nothing to live for.
But one day would change his life forever.
He had been in the kitchens, stealing food, when he heard it.
Music.
Erik knew what music was, he heard it every day at the circus. But that was strange music, eerie and uninviting, this was somehow...different.
A part of him screamed at him to return to his rooms and leave this behind, this wasn't for him. But another part of him seized him and refused to let go. And without his knowledge Erik found himself drifting towards the sound.
He found a stair case and it lead to a strange place. He looked up, the ceiling was so close, what a small room this was. Then he heard the music and looked down and realised it wasn't a small room, it was a big room, he just happened to be standing on a ledge close to the ceiling.
Down below were so many people. All seared in neat little rows like ants, Erik only see the top of their heads. They were all seated in front of a stage and on the stage a show was going on. Erik knew about shows, he was a show himself.
But the show wasn't what he thought it was. For one of the people on stage opened their mouths and began to sing.
It was like a dam breaking for Erik. Never had he heard anything so utterly...beautiful. They all sang, one after the other and Erik watched with captured, not even noticing how his knuckled had turned white from gripping onto the metal railing. It was like he could forget all the pain and misery when he was listening to this.
Why didn't anyone ever tell him?
Why didn't anyone ever tell that music could be so beautiful? If Erik had a soul, it was soaring.
When it was finished and the audience were on their feet clapping Erik was surprise to find tears streaming down his face. For a person who had lived his life in a world of darkness, death and misery. To see this, it was taking a glimpse into heaven. He had never felt so free.
The days that followed that resulted in Erik becoming braver, venturing out further and further. He found out that this place was called an Opera house and that was what the music was called.
Opera.
He wanted to know everything there was to know about it. He found passageways into placed, dressing rooms, practice rooms, music rooms and heard it in so many ways. Erik would later grow to learn how to write music and play it by watching the conductor in the music room, he was a genius after all.
Even if he didn't know it yet.
A defining moment for Erik had been when he one day saw the conductor plating something that looked like the strange thing in his own rooms. He found it was called and organ and watched as amazing music came from that thing. So light and haunting, the deep rumbling sound of the organ enticed him.
He hadn't known it could produce such things, the first time he had played it, Erik had only ever thought it loud and frightening.
He would later enter his rooms, approached the organ and for the first time in ages, press down on one ivory key. A baritone sound echoed though the room, but it was no longer scary, instead it was warm, like it was welcoming him back. Erik sat down and played it, and soon that organ would become the place where his genius took flight.
Erik finished his tale. Elizabeth sat at his side, her eyes wide with surprise he had told her everything, of course he omitted the parts about living in the circus and had instead told her that he had escaped from a place that treated him badly. But everything else he told her. About stealing food, about seeing the opera, even about how he had at first been afraid or the organ because of its unfamiliarity, and the entire time she had not interrupted him.
In her eyes there was sympathy, and sadness not judgement and no pity. It was exactly what he wanted to see.
When he finished they sat in silence for a while and Erik began to regret telling her so much, but then Elizabeth spoke "You are an amazing person, and I am proud to be learning from you." And that was it.
Erik inwardly felt a strange feeling in his chest, but he couldn't put a name to it.
He at first had not wanted to reveal so much, but then he ended doing so anyway.
It was just, she already understood him so well, been without trying, Erik had forgotten what it was like to have someone understand. Or more it wasn't a case of forgetting; rather it was a case of never knowing what it was like. But in the end, the common human desire for understanding and companionship took hold of him too.
He wanted to her to understand, after all they had both been touch by music in ways no one would ever understand, Erik would never admit it, but in the moths of lessons, Elizabeth had become less of a simple student to him, and more of a companion. Ad Erik had forgotten how it feel to have a companion.
She deserved this.
Or at least that's what he felt.
PLEASE REVEIW