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Chapter 4

Charles stirred in the bed, expecting to be in the dressing room. When he opened his eyes, he almost gasped when he recalled the previous events. He still felt he was in a daze. Next to him on the night stand was a music box with a monkey sitting on it, playing a soft tune. He slowly got off the bed and looked around. Standing up, he walked towards the sweet musical chords emanating from the other room.

"I remember there was mist...

swirling mist upon a vast, glassy lake...

there were candles all around

and on the lake there was a boat,

and in the boat there was a woman..."

Belle sat at her organ and was trying to finish her score she had been working on. She looked up as she heard his voice, then moved her eyes back down towards the keys of her instrument as she played.

Charles took in her appearance once more, afraid that the memories he had weren't real. Mask still in place, some of her brown tresses had fallen over it as her head was bent down. Shoulders now bare, they seem to call to him to caress. The dress dropped in the front and, in the position she was in, her cleavage showed, tempting him more towards her. And that mask! Why must she wear it? It takes a way from her flawlessness. 'I must take it off!' he thought, 'I want to know what she is hiding.' He started to make his way towards her.

"Who was that shape in the shadows...?

Whose is the face in the mask...?"

As he reached her, he put his hands on her shoulders and caressed them. Belle responded deeply to his touch, closing her eyes and feeling his hands move across her bare skin. She was so lost in his touch, she didn't notice he moved one hand to her mask. His fingers grasped the the edges of and he tore it off, revealing her face. When Belle felt air reach her face she stood up, shoved Charles to the floor and raged against him. She raised her right hand to cover her face.

"Damn you! You little demon-this is what you wanted to see?" She uncovered her face revealing its' deformity. It was like nothing Charles had ever seen. The flesh of her face was gnarled and deformed. A patch of skin was so transparent he could see the bone of her skull. The eyelid of her right eye sagged, and the eye it self was sunken in. There was a discoloration of the skin. Where it was deformed it was almost dark red, as if her skin was inside out. He gasped in horror and recoiled away from her. Belle recovered her face.

"Damn you! You little viper-now you cannot ever be free! Damn you...curse you..." When she turned to look at him the left side of her face was red and contorted in rage. She quickly turned away from Charles.

"Stranger than you dreamt it...

can you even dare to look or bear to think of me,

this loathsome gargoyle,

who burns in hell but secretly yearns for heaven,

secretly...secretly...Charles..."

Charles looks at Belle's back and instantly feels sorry for her. 'This pitiful creature of darkness' he thought. He was nearly on the brink of tears. 'What kind of life has this poor woman known?'

Belle slowly turned around. She starts to cry. Still clutching her face, she drops to her knees and looks at Charles, her eyes filled with all the sadness of the world.

"Fear can turn to love-you'll learn to see, to find the woman behind the monster, this...repulsive carcass, who seems a beast, but secretly dreams of beauty, secretly...secretly...Oh, Charles..." She starts trying to find her mask. Charles, moved with pity picks it up and hands it to her. Belle looks at him, takes the mask and gives a sad little smile as thanks. She turns around and replaces her mask. As she stands, she smooths down he ruffled hair. Turning again to look at Charles, she extends her hand. She peaks to him in a monotone,"Come, we must return. Those two fools who run my theater will be missing you."

Charles took her hand, and Belle effortlessly lifted him to his feet.

"You're quiet strong." Charles blushed deeply when he realized what he had said was rude.

Belle looked at him. She smiled to herself how cute it was when Charles was nervous like that. "Well, climbing up and along the flies and ropes assisted in that. Plus, I've always been quite strong, both physically and emotionally. You would have to be if-" She stopped herself. "Come! No more of this. You must return." As she had not let go of his hand, she held it tighter a led him away from her world.

}{

In another part of the theater, Joseph Buquet was in the ballet dormitories frightening the girls with his twisted tales of the Phantom. He walked around the girls' room carrying a hang noose as he told his story. For some reason he thought himself a ladies man, despite his lack of manners and physical appearance.

"Like yellow parchment is her skin...a great black hole serves as the nose that never grew. You must be always on your guard, or she will catch you with her magical lasso!" He uses the lasso to grab a girl walking in.

"Oh my!" She giggles and tries to get away. Madame Giry walks in takes the noose and sends the girl away.

She looks around the room then to Buquet. "Those who speak of what the know find, too late, that prudent silence is wise." She takes the noose and puts around his neck. "Joseph Buquet hold your tongue!" She smacks him across the face, gaining gasps from the girls. "Keep your hand at the level of your eyes!" She tightens the rope taut, as Buquet just in time puts his hand between the rope and his neck, saving himself from getting strangled. "Get out!"

He grumbles and walks out. Madame Giry sends an icy stare as he briefly looked back.

'One day,' Madame Giry thought,' he'll get what he has coming...'

}{

Rachel laid in her bed, thinking. 'Tonight had been great until...I still don't understand. That voice in his room...who was with Charles?' It unsettled her. 'It was definitely a woman's voice, that much I know. Did Charles have someone already? It had been years, maybe he had found someone else.' She sighed. 'I still love him...' Sleep consumed her mind...

}{

Matt put the key to Charles room in the door. As he opened it, he noticed all the candles were blown out and it was a silent as a tomb. "Charles?" he said quietly into the dark room. He stepped in and looked around. That's when he noticed a faint light coming from the mirror. As he gets closer, it's apparent that the mirror is ajar, such as a door can be. He slides his fingers into the crack and pushes the mirror aside revealing the tunnel. When he walks into the it he looks out at the room through the mirror! It's two-way glass? He keeps walking, oblivious to the rats scurrying at his feet. The tunnel is plain and empty. Suddenly a hand reaches out and touches his shoulder. Matt jumps and turns around. "Mother, you scared me!" He laughs.

She did not look happily at him. "Come on." She takes his arm and leads him back the way they came.

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