Chapter 10 Anthony

Other than a guy that just appeared on stage with my ring, he was also wearing a long midnight black cape, and a white mask that covered the right side of his face.

So wait, was he the Phantom? The Phantom in the play? No no! It couldn't be. He had the ring, so which means that it was some idiot from my school standing on that stage.

His modern day clothing showed beneath the cape when he moved, and he did nothing but look around at the audience but mostly keeping his eyes glued on the necklace Christine was wearing. The H.I. Now I knew it was definitely the jewel because the actress didn't show any signs of fear whenever the crash happened, and now when the guy is staring at her. She was in peace.

But why was the boy looking at it? Does he know about the H.I. and what things it can do?

"That's weird. Isn't the Phantom supposed to appear in Christine's mirror?" I heard Chelsea whisper to me, breaking my thoughts. I made a slow nod as I continued to focus on the fake Phantom on stage, which just started to singing to Christine.

It was hard to believe that he sang so well. I would've expected a lazy job from this imposter.

Even if his singing's good, he just sung what he wanted to say to the actress. He didn't sang any songs or lyrics, but he did use the tune of "Angel of Music" to keep it play-wise.

"Christine, my dear, would you so kindly come here to me. You have something that I need. Come to me."

I stood up along with several other people in the audience, who were pretty ticked that the musical wasn't going like it used to. I was mad too, not only because that my second time seeing this play was ruined, but the fact that he held something that was dear to me, and that he might be aiming for the H.I.

I know it's a crazy thought, but I need to get on that stage.

Without a word, I grabbed and held on to one of Chelsea's wrists, rashly passed the seats in the row, then dashed down the aisle that lead to the stage. During all this, Chelsea kept asking questions.

When I was about to answer to one of them, we stopped before we reached the security guards that were at the end of the aisle, both giving us the eye to get back to our seats.

But why are they just standing there? Don't they know that some stranger just broke into the theatre and stole the leading role of the play? Angrily, we headed back up the aisle. But we went towards the exit and not our seats. Something very strange is going on…

Sonic, Dylan, Shadow, and Trevor awaited for us by sitting near the theatre's doors, all of them looking quite concerned.

Trevor got up came to me, hyper like always. "Is the play over? We saw crowds of people exiting out."

"Yeah, and they all looked rather upset. Is the play that depressing?" Sonic asked next. Then it lead to more questions, most of the same ones Chelsea repeated. I explained to them to what was happening. Their eyes lit up in surprise when I told them about the ring thief being there, and what I thought he was planning on doing.

Shadow huffed. "What are the possibilities of that ignorant person being here in the same place we are? And how would he know anything about the H.I.?"

"That's what I want to know." I replied, blending in with all the confusion. Meanwhile Sonic's arms were crossed with his right foot impatiently tapping.

"Well, we just can't stand here motionless! I think it's time to teach this guy a little lesson!" He said as he was about to grab the handles of the doors.

"We can't go on stage. Guards were preventing the passageway." I told him. He lowered his eyes at me as if I forgot that he was Sonic the Hedgehog. Then he went in. A second later, he was back.

"Nobody's on stage." He said.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah! Unless they went backstage."

Almost near the giant doors to the theatre, was a regular sized golden door. A door that led to the stage of the theatre. We almost couldn't recognize it at first, since it was camouflaged with the rest of the walls in the elegant lobby.

There was a small sign that hung in the middle of it that said 'keep out', hence is how we found the door. Sonic looked at it for a few seconds, grabbed a hold, and then flung it behind him like it was nonsense. We looked around to see anyone was watching us before we entered, but it looked like all who worked in the theatre were getting complaints by all the angry Phantom fans. So, we all passed through without getting caught.

Passing by a long hall filled with doors that lead to dressing rooms, we gotten to the backstage. But we quickly went back and hid, for we saw the ring thief and the actress conversing with each other. Another thing that was strange, was that there wasn't any stage management crew or the rest of the actors. Usually the backstage is filled with people, but it was just and only them. Luckily, both of them didn't hear or see us.

"Why do you want this? It's just a small piece of jewelry that goes with my costume." The actress said calmly. "I don't think it'll be worth much…"

"I don't care how much it's worth. I have a better use for it," The fake Phantom spoke and tried to snatch the gem from her necklace. She quickly moved back before he had the chance to grab it.

"You tried my patience…" he said in a dangerous tone of voice as he took the ring out within the cape. He pointed it at the actress as it glowed a brilliant bright gold. Then he turned his aim from the actress to the floor for a split second, and shot a bright, yet, quick gold beam as a demonstration. It caused that part of the floor to be alit with a small flame, which transformed into smoke and a burnt spot.

I never knew the ring can do that! I thought loudly in my head. I looked at Sonic, and he looked as shocked as I was.

"See that? Now give me it. Or else you want that to happen to you." He smirked at the young woman as he aimed the ring at her again.

That was when Sonic got in.

He ran at the actress, grabbed a hold and placed her by the rest of the group. Then it was just him and the thief.

"You know, it's not much like a gentleman to hurt girls." He shook his index finger. "Also, I believe you have something that belongs to a dear friend of mine."

"Oh this?" The boy continued to smirk as he shook the highly-energized ring playfully. "If you want it, come and get it."

The guy shot several beams at the blue blur, but he was all too quick for the beams to hit him. As he continued to do this, Sonic started showing off after dodging each energy shot from the ring. I couldn't help but laugh. However the thief didn't like it one bit, and now realized who he's dealing with. And he knew that he couldn't deal it all by himself.

"Adrian! Otto!" He shouted out two unfamiliar names. A minute later, out from the darkness from one corner in the backstage, were the two guards from before, now revealing that they were fakes too. Looking at them closely, they were also around the same age I was. One looked very dark looking with piercings over his face. The other looked goofy, an airhead to be more precise.

"Do your thing, Adrian." The guy winked at the dark one, then turned back to the six of us.

"My name is Anthony, Tony for short. This isn't the last time you'll see us. You'll see us again quite soon actually." The guy who's name is Anthony, laughed as darkness slowly engulfed my vision. Looking at Adrian, he was making some sort of black energy coming out from both his hands, making us fade to this darkness. Before Anthony disappeared out of my sight, I ran at him to grab my ring from out of his hands. When I did, the ring glowed and the blackness fled away from me. As soon as this happened, Anthony took the ring back and shoved me away from him.

"Well if it isn't Courtney Jansen." He said my name as looked at him with a dirty glare.

"How do you know me? I don't even know you." I tried to identify his face. He knew that I was having trouble, so he took the Phantom mask and tossed it to the side. Now I knew, his name was Anthony Anderson. He's one of those people in my school who just sit there during class and slack off.

"Don't you remember?" He moved his head to the side, acting confused. "We were in a couple of classes together in high school. You were always the quiet girl sitting there alone by yourself. Funny how you have many friends now."

I switched topic. "Give me back my ring."

He laughed again. "You're going to have to fight me to get it back, my dear." He taunted me with the ring like he did with Sonic.

My hands now clenched together into fists as I remembered how obnoxious this guy is. I ran at him again, trying my best to grab my ring back. But by trying that, he tripped me and I fell on the floor. He did another laugh.

"You look so cute when you're mad." He smiled. I then quickly moved one of my legs and tripped him. Once back up, I tried to retrieve the ring again. When I was within reach, he kicked me again when he was getting back up. This went on for minutes. I wanted so badly to trap him inside my force field, but how can that help with the ring issue?

"Instead of worrying about your ring, you should be helping your friends." He looked at me with another one of those stupid smirks. I then turned around to see all my friends all on the ground, fidgeting with their eyes tightly shut, like they were having terrible nightmares. Looking back, I saw that Anthony was gone, along with the rest of his group.

I ran to the quickest friend I got and awoke one by one from their terrible dreams. Once all of them were awake, they all looked spaced and freaked out from their nightmares. I reassured them the best I can.

While helping out the actress, I found out the necklace that she had disappeared. I guess one of Anthony's buddies must've taken it. Great.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" I looked worriedly at my best friend as I helped him. He made a short nod.

"Y-Yeah don't worry about me." Dylan said, trying to recover. "What about you? D-Did you face all these fears?"

I shook my head. "No, I got to Anthony and tried to get my ring back. But when I saw you guys, I rushed in to help."

"Did they get the H.I.?"

Sadly, I looked down at the floor with my eyes lowered.

"Yes."