In Sleep He Sang To Me

He's There Inside My Mind

I loudly inhaled and exhaled. I had been sweating an awful lot, I was only able to tell because my bed sheets were soaked. Thank God that had only been a dream, who knows what would of happened had the exact opposite occurred.

I climbed out of bed, practically ripping the cotton sheets off of me.

I stepped into my robe and night slippers and walked out of the room, I needed to breathe.

The corridors were empty so I looked at the Grandfather clock that stood at the end of the hallway, it read one o'clock.

No one would be up this early in the morning.

A chilly draft came in through an open window so I wrapped my robe tighter around me.

I then walked down the wooden and creaking stairs to the next long and confusing hallway.

Someone who had not been staying in such a large place could get easily lost, like myself.

I was looking for the cast member's bathroom but accidentally stumbled upon a large wooden door that read 'Prima Donna Dressing Room'. I, being the curious girl I was, pushed heavily on the door.

The room was overpowered by pink and the smell of perfume. There were flowers on ever piece of furniture so that the furniture was no longer visible. There was a large portrait of a plump lady sitting on a stool holding, what looked like, a theatrical ghost. Her hair was red with a slight hint of brown, but in tight curls that dropped down her back gracefully.

I moved on past the portrait to a dressing table, it was the only place in the entire room that you could see part of the furniture. The table had dozens of single red roses tied with a silk black ribbon.

I faced the direction of the dressing table, but continued to walk.

Doing so, I nearly smacked up against a see-through mirror. It was strangely odd looking, after all, how many times are you able to see a passageway through a translucent mirror?

There was slight crack in the mirror, almost as if someone had closed it and not shut it enough.

I slowly slid the mirror open, to my disappointment the mirror made an annoying creaking noise that sounded like nails against a blackboard. If that hadn't woken up someone then I must have been imagining the noise.

I walked through the mirror hesitantly.

The stench of mildew and mold was so powerful I could barely see, obviously no one ever used this passageway... or cleaned it.

I walked with my arms out, as to rid any cobwebs in my way. I'm sure if anyone took notice of me they'd think I was something to laugh at.

There were torches mounted on metal brackets on the wall, all were lit, surprisingly. The walls were hard, cold, and made of hard gray cement. The floors were a smooth wooden material that I couldn't recognize, but groaned and squeaked with old age.

After what seemed like hours of walking, I approached a foggy lake that, from what I could see, stretched through the catacombs for miles.

On top of the algae covered lake was a rowboat with only one paddle sitting over the front seat of the boat, almost as if someone was expecting me to use it.

I stepped into the waddling boat, drenching my robe and undergarments half way up my thighs.

I stood in the boat trying to keep my balance desperately. I took the worn paddle into my petite, and at the time, freezing hands. I then pushed off from the wall where the rowboat had been tied up, then slowly and difficultly rowed my way down the lake.

My arms were aching insanely, and I couldn't take rowing so quickly for much longer. I was in need of finding out what was on the other side of this lake, or even just knowing who owned the rowboat I was using.

I eventually reached a large archway. I looked up above to see an old and rusty gate, which from the looks of it, had been left open for a reason.

When I glanced down, I was shocked to see that the lake had ended, but that was not the reason I was shocked, for I saw two cement steps dripping with water that lead up to a large living space filled with extravagant furnishings, architectural detail, etc.

Someone actually lived under here, away from all the dark world above the dungeons.

I pushed off of a column to try to get closer to the room, but I apparently did something wrong because when I hit the column I must have hit to hard. The boat decided to rock violently and throw me over the small sides of the boat. The water made a ear crashing splash as I hit the water.

I swam over to the steps and climbed out, now officially drenched.

I walked over to a large mirror, framed with a delicate gold color, so that I could see how awful I looked. To my dismay, my hair was an utter mess, and since my robe was practically white with just a small hint of green, you could see right though it. Every inch of my undergarments were now visible through my robe.

Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look around. Over in the far right hand corner, there sat an organ with cobwebs surrounding every last key. Right next to the organ were even more mirrors, but this time hung on the wall. It was clear that this person liked to look at themselves. Next to the mirrors was a wooden door, the framing around it was the same as the mirror.

I turned the doorknob and opened the door as wide as I could, it seemed that there was something behind the door, because it stopped halfway open.

I slowly poked my head through the door but let out a soft gasp when I saw who was in the room staring at themselves in yet another mirror. It was the man in my dream, the man who I had wanted to meet so badly last night, the Phantom of the Opera, and yet I stood there, afraid out of my mind that he would hurt me. I tried closing the door but the creaking floors made a loud groan when I took a step back.

Damn these floors, I thought to myself.

The man turned around to see me red in the face, staring at him in awe. I was ready for him to explode, for him to come towards me with some sort of knife for being on his property, or at least what he thought was his property. Instead he did what I wasn't expecting, he had a soft grin of joy spread across his face. There was a spark in his eyes that I hadn't noticed before. He looked like a man who had practically been dead for months, but had now resurrected. His loving look made me blush even more.

We both stood there for a moment, just simply wanting to take everything in.

"I believe, dearest, your name is Arya." he said in a luscious and silky voice. I just stuttered back, "Y-ye-yes.". I didn't even care how he had found out my name in so little time, all I cared about was looking at his marvelous face.

"Well then, my name is Erik, Arya." Erik said smiling a bit. He walked out of the room and walked gracefully over to the organ. He just didn't seem human to me, he was to elegant, to refined. He didn't seem real.

Erik played a few notes then looked up to see me standing twenty feet away from him, listening in wonder. He smirked, but wasn't laughing at the expression on my face. He was looking at my soaked garments. I looked down and realized again that my undergarments were still showing through my robe. I turned my head away in embarrassment.

Erik began to play again, but this time it actually was a song. The melody was gorgeous, and just like him, it was inhuman. The sway of the music picked me up in a whirl wind. He played nonsense for a few moments then cleverly turned it into a song that was familiar to me.

"Never knew I could feel like this, it's like I've never seen the sky before..." Erik began to sing softly as I walked steadily towards him. He was playing Come What May, the exact same song my parents sang to me before they had died. "Want to vanish inside your kiss. Every day I'm loving you more and more" I sang, harmonizing with him.

Erik looked up in surprise as I began to sing the tune he was playing. I stared into his eyes, it was as if everyone in the world had vanished and we were the only ones living. He stared back, continually playing his music. I melted at the site of his gorgeous face staring back at mine. "Listen to my heart, can you heart it sing? Telling me to give you everything. Seasons may change winter to spring, but I love you until the end of time" I continued to sing, but this time I meant what I was saying as we seemed like one combined together.

I broke from his focus on me and walked next to him, so that I could see him playing. I sat hesitantly on the bench he was sitting on, Erik smiled a bit, letting me know that I was free to sit there.

I hardly knew this man and yet I wanted his hands on mine, I wanted him to freely brush his lips against my own.

I carefully nudged myself closer to him, letting him know that I was there for him. I placed the palm of my hand on his shoulder blade, he just continued to play and sing the lyrics I knew so well. I saw that he took no notice of my touch so I laid my head on the top of his shoulder. As I did so, Erik messed up one of the notes and stopped playing. I must of gone too far, for his breathing became heavy. He closed his eyes softly then turned towards me to answer my own thoughts.

"You touch me as if I'm not a monster. As if I'm actually human." He said breaking the silence. "You're not a monster, neither are you human. You're too perfect to be human. I feel as if you should vanish from my sight any minute and this all be a dream."

I stood up from where we had been sitting and carelessly walked over to a curtain that was slightly open. I opened the curtain so that everything that was behind it was now visible. There were numerous pictures of a beautiful girl who looked a lot like myself, she had chocolate brown hair in tight curls that surrounded elegantly around her face. Her hair color was the only difference between us. Our facial features, our body weight could have been the same, even our clothes were similar. Next to all these pictures was a folded gown with a wedding ring set lightly on top of it.

"Was this your wife?" I whirled around and stared, wanting an answer. A tear ran down the cheek of Erik's face and dropped down to the floor. I didn't know how I had upset him, but the happy man who had sat there a few minutes ago was no longer there.

I hadn't meant to disturb him like that, I just wanted to find out if he had had a wife of his own at some point.

"N-no." Erik began, I could barely hear him through his muttering. He opened his mouth to speak more but I interrupted him. "Oh, I-I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." I played with my fingers innocently, like I always do when I'm nervous. Erik's smile reappeared once more on his face.

Erik walked over beside me and laid a hand on my shoulder, he then leaned past me and picked up the ring off of the white gown. He took my hand in his own, and lifted the ring onto my middle finger.

"I believe we should pick up where we left off... Christine."

"Wh-what did you just call me?" I looked up at him in surprise, then down to the ring. I heard him speak my name twenty minutes ago, and I believe I had heard him say Arya. At least I thought so.

I had had only met this man in a matter of minutes, and yet he wanted me to marry him?