A Whole New World Chapter Five, a phantom of the opera fanfic

Disclaimer: I still don't own it. ALW, SK, GL and The Corrs own almost everything here.

14.11.05 – Made some minor corrections.

A Whole New World

Chapter 5

Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions.
I keep my visions to myself…
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

Dreams, by The Corrs

She was running in darkness, unable to find her way. Why, oh why did he build this labyrinth? She had to get there before it happened. Before anything happened…

Darkness didn't favour her. It was doing everything to stop her from achieving her goal. But she didn't give up. She just kept running…

She was standing in a big and beautiful room. Its walls seemed to glitter and shine. And all around her, couples were dancing. She was standing alone, in a swirl of dresses, listening to the laughter and chatter of people around her. And yet she was crying. Grieving for something, someone she hadn't known. Crying for everything and everyone, crying for the people around her, crying for the man who had suddenly appeared next to her and crying for the laughing and dancing girls… Crying for the world she had lost.

Christine woke to find Isabelle watching her worriedly. Three other occupants of the carriage seemed to be asleep. Christine brought a hand to her cheek, even though she already knew there were tears on her face.

She had had the dream many times before, and had long ago stopped trying to understand what it meant. But she wasn't happy that she'd seen it today, when she was supposed to meet her new master. It wasn't a good omen, and she knew it.

"Are you alright, Christine?" Isabelle asked in a hesitant voice, as if unsure whether it was appropriate or not.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," answered Christine, turning from her friend. She didn't want to be questioned – she wasn't ready for the answers.

They were silent for the rest of the ride.

----------

It was already dark when they finally arrived. Christine could only see the contours of the house and it seemed even bigger that Lady Matthews's had been. Getting out of the carriage, she felt apprehension and nervousness.

Stretching her back, she tried to get a better look at the house. It was an old habit of her – to try to guess the owner's personality by looking at his or hers home. She had been too tired to try it when she first saw Lady Matthew's house, but this time she wanted to give it a try.

There wasn't much that she could guess about the owner. The house seemed even bigger when looking closer. It was imposing, but beautiful.

Christine saw Mr. Harris come out from the third carriage. He walked to Mme. Perrault, who was standing with Lorette and Lauren not too far from Christine herself. Mme. Perrault said something to the girls and then walked a few steps further away from them. The exchanged a few words and the Mme. Perrault came back to the twin girls.

"Come here, everyone!" said Mme. Perrault. Andrew wasn't there, so everyone obeyed to her. The butler, along with Louise, a footman called Thomas and the cook, had decided not to join the Destler household.

"I and Mr. Harris will go inside. All of you," she slid her eyes over them all, "will wait here. You're not to go anywhere without permission. Anyone found wandering in the gardens or just around the house will be punished. Is that clear?"

There was a collective murmur of "yes", after which Mme. Perrault turned and walked towards the house with Mr. Harris.

Isabelle turned to Christine.

"Why do think do we have to stay here?"

"I don't know," responded Christine. "Perhaps they want us to be ready to come as soon as we're called. Maybe they want us to start the tonight."

"I don't think so. She would've just told us to be ready to come as soon as she calls. But she said that we'll be punished, if we don't obey. It has got to be something else. Maybe there are some secrets hidden in this garden that the owner doesn't want us to know about…" said Isabelle, her eyes taking on a faraway look.

"Oh, you just have a wild imagination. They probably just don't want us to wander around."

"That's exactly the point: why don't they want us to wander? There has to be something…"

But Christine wasn't listening any more. She wasn't even there any more. In her mind, she had travelled to a time long left behind… To a time, when she had said a sentence quite similar to the one she'd used right now.

"Oh, come on, Meg! Ghosts don't exist! It was probably just some joke made by the stagehands!"

"Well, this one could've been. But the Ghost does exist! I've seen him!"

"It was just your wild imagination playing tricks on your mind."

"No, it wasn't! You'll see, Christine, that I'm right…"

And indeed, Meg had been right. Could she again the one to foolishly discard someone's opinion that later ended up being right? Could Isabelle be right…?

Christine was shaken out of her thoughts by Mme Perrault, who had apparently come back.

"Come on! We are expected to go in!"

Everybody gathered his or her personal belongings and followed Mme Perrault to the door.

The large oak doors were opened by a man dressed in what seemed like some sort of a uniform. He was standing very straight. Next to him stood Mr Harris, looking more nervous than ever.

Christine and the other were ushered to a line by an elderly lady, who seemed to be the housekeeper or something like that.

It was the first time when it struck Christine how odd the arrangement really was. They were coming to a house, which already seemed to have a whole staff. What were they going to do here? Or perhaps the whole thing had some other reason, unknown to her and the others?

Stop it, Christine. You're starting to be like Isabelle, blowing things out of proportion. Be happy that you got the chance and shut up.

Maybe that really was the best idea. So instead of pondering over it, she turned her attention to Mr Harris, Mme Perrault and the man by the door, who seemed to be arguing over something.

"But he has to sign! It's important!" said extremely agitated Mr Harris.

"I'm sorry, but my Master cannot be distracted at the moment. You will have to wait." Uniformed man (who Christine assumed to be the butler) remained cool and didn't raise his voice, even though the little advocate was almost screaming.

"I can't wait! It has to be signed NOW!"

"I'm afraid that will not happen. If you'll excuse me for a moment," said the butler, made a little bow and then walked over to the elderly lady who was standing with the young maids and others. He whispered a few words to her, she nodded and then he turned and walked back to Mr Harris and Mme Perrault.

Christine watched this little exchange with curiosity: what was it all about?

Her unvoiced question was answered when the lady standing with them wordlessly motioned them to follow.

Christine felt a strange sense of déjà vu as they took one turn after another. All this has already happened…

After what seemed like an eternity to impatient youths, they finally stopped.

"My name is Mrs Hutchison, and I'm the housekeeper. I give you the orders from my master and those you must fulfil with. Everything I or he says you must do. Disobedience is not allowed. Do you understand or should I repeat myself?"

There was a murmur of understanding from the young staff.

"Tomorrow, you'll be awakened 4 am, have a quick breakfast and then each of you shall receive a list of duties, which should all be finished before 10 am. After that you are free until 2 pm, when additional duties are given to you. You are probably used to doing more work, but the lack of duties doesn't mean that you can take your work easily. Master has agreed to employ you all on the conditions you had with your previous employer, but if you fail to impress him, things can get much worse for you. Have I made myself clear?"

She looked at them sternly. No-one dared say a word.

"I take it you don understand me. Now, I will read a list of names. If you hear your name, you'll come with me. The rest of you stay behind until someone comes and shows you your rooms. Now… Boulanger, Boulanger, Daaé, Dubois and…" Mrs Hutchison stood there for a moment, looking at the list in her hands. "Actually, that's it. You four, follow me."

Christine expected another long hike through the impossibly big house, but to her surprise, they only had to turn around one corner before they finally stopped in front of a door. The housekeeper opened the door. Behind it lay a little room with white walls and four beds.

"That's your room. Suit yourselves. You'll be called to kitchen at eight, to meet with other staff and have your dinner."

With that, she turned and left the room.

----------

"Master? May I come in?"

"I thought I had made myself clear. I'm not to be disturbed until dinner."

"Yes sir, I understand, and I said this to Mr Harris, but he demands you come down and see him."

"Who the hell is Mr Harris, John? What does he want from me? And you may come in."

Erik sat down at his table as John, his personal servant and butler walked in.

"Sir, Mr Harris is Lady Matthew's lawyer. He accompanied the servants here."

"They weren't supposed to arrive until tomorrow, were they? So why are they here already?"

"I don't know, sir. But they arrived. The staff are currently waiting outside."

"Let them come in. Amanda can show them to their rooms. And tell this Mr Harris, that I will not meet him before tomorrow. Anything he wants to tell me, he can tell you. And I don't want to be disturbed again."

"Yes, sir." John bowed and quietly left the room, leaving Erik alone again.

----------

Erik was pacing the room and thinking about his next opera when there was once again a knock on his door.

"What is it now?" he asked, not even trying to hide the exasperation in his voice.

The door opened, revealing Amanda Hutchison, his housekeeper. She stepped in and closed the door behind her.

"I'm sorry, sir, I know you don't want to be -"

"What is it, Amanda?" he said sharply to her, tired of explanations.

"Mr Harris wants you to come down. He says it's important that you sign some papers. He refuses to leave. We offered him a chance to stay overnight and talk to you tomorrow, but he didn't agree. He demands to meet you-"

She was cut short when the door opened again and in stormed Mr Harris, followed closely by John, who immediately turned to Erik.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I couldn't stop him. He just didn't listen to me!"

Erik nodded to him and walked over to his desk, sitting down behind it.

"Now, what was this mess all about?" he said to Mr Harris, who was standing in front of Erik's table, panting and sweaty.

The advocate was visibly intimidated by his presence and seemed to be having second thoughts.

"I um… I just need you to, um, sign these papers, indicating that you have employed these and people and, um, agree to all terms set by Lady Matthew…"

"And this is it? Well, kindly give those papers to me, then," Erik said with a smirk on his face. The little man is so frightened… and I haven't even done anything!

With shaking hands, Mr Harris handed the papers to the man in front of him.

Erik quickly read them over and was about to sign it, when a name on the list of his employees-to-be caught his attention.

Mademoiselle Christine Daaé

----------

I am so terribly sorry. But please, read my explanation. My absence actually had a reason other than laziness, with usually is the case with me…

First, I know I never put up those chapters. Well, that's because there was major change of plans. We had planned to move into our new house right after coming back from Italy, but we had to move out of our old house before leaving. So, the last week before our departure to Italy was a whirlwind of packing and cleaning and so on. After coming back, we were told that our new house will not be ready until the beginning of July, which meant we had to leave our things in a warehouse and move into a hotel with only the most necessary things. My PC (on which the files for AWNW are) was not one of these, as we didn't have much room.

The house still isn't completely finished (even though it's November now), but we moved in in the middle of August, tired of living in hotels and rented flats. I managed to finally set up my PC in the middle of October, that's when I started writing this chapter. However, we didn't have Internet until they set it up three days ago.

So now, after five months of absence, I finally updated. But the thing is, that I'm leaving for Vienna tomorrow and I won't be back for a week. So I'm afraid the next update will have to wait a bit, too.

Thanks to all who have stayed with me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review!

One more thing: I will never, ever leave this story. I will finish it, even if it takes years. We just all have to hope it doesn't… :D

Razzy: Well, someone reviewed, telling that they thought the story started too slowly. I think that's why I rushed that chapter. I know that I shouldn't have, and I plan on rewriting the chapter (the whole story, actually) when I have enough time.

I'm glad you like that. I tried to make it as realistic as possible and I was a bit worried about it.

You're not the only one… :D And he's here as you can see. The name comes from the Robert Englund movie, I think. I haven't seen it myself, but some told me about it. The name "Destler" is also the most common name for Erik here on ffdotnet.

I am terribly sorry for the wait, but I hope you understand. Thanks for reviewing!

Captain Oblivious: Oh, actually it was very good for me, as I got to practise my French. At least a little bit.:D I'm glad you like the story!

Thank you for reviewing and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Phantomann: Thank you for your compliments! I'm sorry I disappointed you, but when real life decides to intertwine, there really isn't much to do…

Thanks for reviewing and I hope you continue to read this story!

Bobmcbobbob1: They'll meet in the next chapter, it didn't fit in here. About Lady Matthew: well, you'll learn about it. Probably not in the next chapter or maybe even not in the one after that, but it will come. It's already a part of the plot I have planned.

Thanks!

Obsessedwiththephantom: Thank you very much! I hope you like this chapter!

Triplet075: Well, I'm afraid I made you wait a long time for an update. But it's here at last and I hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you for reviewing!

Tex110: Hehe, that's always good to hear. Here's the next chapter!