Chapter 4
I scream as I fall straight into the darkness, the light from the outside quickly shutting off. For a moment there is only falling and I barely have time or quickness of thought to contemplate how this will obviously end. I am too terrified from the suddenness of the fall itself, and how quickly the dark swooped in around me.
Before I can realize it, I'm being grabbed, slowed, held up but dozens and dozens of hands. I don't like where or how some of them are grabbing me, but I'm grateful enough to no longer be falling that I won't comment.
"Hello, who are you? Can you help?" I ask, once my breathe returns to me and I can relax even a little bit.
"Help? We are helping!" A voice that is more like several voices comes from all around me.
"We're helping hands!" Another voice, also an amalgam, adds. I can see vague movement around me, and I notice this.. hole, this tower, or whatever it is, is made entirely of hands. Yes, golden hands that extend out of the wall as naturally as if the wall were arms and wrists. I shudder at this.
"Th-thank you." I manage to say.
"Yes, yes, well, make a choice! We haven't got all day!" Yet another voice adds, seeming to be quite cross and impatient.
"Choice?" I repeat stupidly.
"Up or down?" The first voice, I think, says with emphasis on each word. With this I look up. It seems shut off, the way I came, so I sigh. I feel as though I will regret this.
"Well, I am already pointed that way, and I should rather not strain you too much for helping me, so.. down?"
"She chose down!" A sneering voice echoes through the tunnel.
"She chose down?" Another asks with snobbish disbelief.
"Was that wrong?" I ask, frightened, but the hands holding onto me are already letting go, shuffling my weight to those under them, and hastily. I try to hold on but they squirm away, quickly passing me from one to the other.
"Too late!" All the voices squeal with delight as they finally have taken me as far as they can, dropping me into open air with no idea what awaits me at the bottom. I shriek, but am quickly cut off as I hit the ground. Luckily I was still mostly feet first, and so my landing turns into a roll, and though my legs and hips feel a bit jarred, nothing is broken.
I groan anyway, the ache in my knees making it hard to stand. I grope around in the dark, trying to gain some bearings as to where I am. As I fumble, a light comes out of nowhere, or, rather, it comes into being somewhere to my left. I whirl around, surprised and on guard.
It's Carlotta, holding a lantern, leaning against a rock. I look around, worried about what might happen next.
"Good, you're looking around." She remarks, smugly.
"Yes, I've learned a couple things since we met." After I say that, I feel like it's something one would say after they run into someone they hadn't seen for a decade.
"I'm sure you've noticed there's no doors." Actually, I hadn't gotten to notice that yet. But it's true. "This is an oubliette. Labyrinth's full of them."
"An oubliette?" I ask. I recognize the word from the book, but of course I can't seem to remember its context or definition.
"It's a place you put people to forget about them." She says with a mix of a sneer and sympathy.
"I see." So Erik's more or less lead me here to forget about me? Is that what I'm supposed to take away from this? I have no doubt this is in some way a message from him to me, specifically. "How can I get back to the labyrinth?" I ask directly. That's the lesson Carlotta taught me; don't mince words.
"Mmm.. I might know a shortcut out of here." She says slowly, deliberately inspecting her claw-like nails very closely.
"Will you show me?" I try not to sound too eager, but I am quite anxious to get back to work.
"Sure, sure. The way out of here, though, is the way out of the labyrinth." She smiles, looking up at me over her claws.
"What do you- No! No, I am not giving up or starting over! There must be away out of this oubliette that will get me back on track inside the labyrinth!" I try not to shout, but my voice reels upward. How could she?
"Maybe there is, but it'll do you no good! If the Phantom does not want you to succeed then you never will! It's his labyrinth, after all, built of his very own willpower. You've no hope of success." Carlotta declares this with angry dismissal, turning her head away sharply.
"Th- the phantom?" I'm confused. "I thought this was Erik's labyrinth."
"Oh- don't use his name, you imbecile!"
"Sorry, sorry!" I throw my hands up in apology as the harpy bares her teeth at me.
"Ugh- yes it is his labyrinth, but he has many names and many titles. King, Phantom, Red Death, Angel of Music, Angel of Death; all these and more." She waves her hand, rolling her eyes.
"Those are some grim titles.." I bite my lip. I definitely don't remember this from the book.
"What did you expect? We are Fairie; we are not always sunshine and starlight and glitter and hope. We are magic, and he more so than any else." She explains. "Now, about that shortcut-"
"No! I told you that I'm not giving up, your Phantom's willpower be damned! I must do this! At the least I must know that I did everything I could, that I tried my very hardest to succeed." I feel tears trying to form so I continue hastily. "Is there anything I can do to convince you to help me succeed? Wh- why are you even going to do this much for me?"
"Well, ah, you see… I thought, 'gee, a poor, unintelligent girl like her suffering her way through the labyrinth, it hardly seems fair to abandon her in there, perhaps I should help the silly child'. So I came along to find you, and here you are, trapped in the darkness of an oubliette with no hope of escape but yours truly. Are you really going to forsake the only chance you have of survival because 'you must do this.'?" With her hands on her hip, every word reeks of derision. She thinks me a child, then? Maybe so, but this 'child' has a temper.
"Well, if you think me so naïve and unintelligent, you'll have to forgive me if I don't trust you to actually guide me to any kind of safety." I turn away, tossing my hair over my shoulder as I point my face up.
"Ex-cuse me?"
"Well, if I am truly so naïve is it so hard to believe that after you point out this tremendous character flaw I try to change it? Well, the naïve thing to do would be to trust you. You are a deus ex machina, and you are not even on my side; why on earth would I follow you anywhere?"
"Are you saying that I am a liar? That I cannot be trusted?" I can hear her puff up in anger.
"Yes! If you are so rude and so condescending, why should I put up with your so called 'help'? You might just lead me to certain doom, too! No, I cannot trust you, Carlotta, because you will not even treat me like a person, and all this after we had such a nice conversation earlier. I thought you might be a friend, but I guess I really was naïve to think that." I put a little pout in my voice.
"I will show you! I am trustworthy! I come all this way to help you and you call me a liar? Ha! I will prove you wrong! I am the Siren of the Labyrinth and I know this place inside and out and in all its incarnations! Why, I could even lead you directly to the castle if I so chose to!" She hollers.
"Ah, so there is a way into the labyrinth!" I turn on her quickly, grinning. She claps a hand over her mouth, confirming what she doesn't want me to know. Her shock quickly turns to anger, as her cheeks puff up, the feathers on her back and chest ruffling out.
"So? Now you know there is a way, but you do not know where or which way it is at all." She growls.
"No, but now I know there is hope, whether you help me or not! I just need to be clever!"
"You can never be cleverer than the Phantom, and you are already trapped here, so I think you are doomed, doomed!" She grins maliciously, then sits down as if to watch me fail.
Not to be looked down on, I start to investigate the oubliette. It is the same stone as the last part of the maze, though more reddish. It's damp and dark, the only light being the flickering of the lamp beside Carlotta. Though I check every crevice, feel up every wall at every angle, I do not find so much as a keyhole. Frustrated, I decide there must be some magical solution to this, like a riddle or a password.
Turning around to inspect the walls around me again, my gaze passes over Carlotta, and I notice she is deeply uncomfortable, and trying to hide it. I pause.
"Are you okay?" I ask her. She seems shocked, as her feathers fluff up in response.
"I!" She spits out quickly. "I am well." She says unconvincingly. Her breathing is hard, but in the way that she's doing her best to suppress it. She seems to shake. Is she cold? Perhaps she has claustrophobia?
"Why don't you leave if you don't like it here?" She looks at me with bewildered wide eyes, but doesn't answer, pressing her lips hard together. I stare at her questioningly, but it dawns on me that if she leaves, she risks me discovering her way out. "You're staying so that I have to stay, too."
"N-no- I, I simply like to watch you squirm." She manages a small amount of confidence, but the ever-increasing shake of her shoulders tells me otherwise. I bite my lip- what to do, what to do? Sighing, I approach her, sitting down beside her.
"Look, you're obviously uncomfortable, and if you stay much longer I'm afraid you'll pass out from nerves or worse. Just, just go. I'll look away, or you can snuff out the light, and I'll be just as stuck as when you found me, and we all get what we want." I shrug. That's.. more or less true.
"I do not need your pity." She spits at me.
"It's not pity, it's concern. I hate to see anyone suffer, and you've done your job, so I don't see why you need to stay and scare yourself like this. Seriously, put out the lantern and sneak away. I- I'll even sing really loudly so I can't hear the way you go." I offer. Anything to help calm her down; her shakes are getting worse despite everything.
Carlotta looks at me, ginger orange eyes staring hard on my own. Then, before I am quite aware of it, she knocks the lantern over harshly with a wing, the glass shattering and the light burning out quickly. I shriek at the sudden darkness, a panic quickly overtaking my rationale. In the dark, I feel a small, heavy hand on my own start to pull me, and in my panic I simply follow it. I'm scared of the dark, and I thought I could handle it if I knew it was coming, but I was wrong. This guiding hand is the only thing keeping me from losing myself in a fit of tears and screams.
As suddenly as Carlotta plunged me into darkness, it is gone as we are out in a new tunnel, with light and fresher air, though we are still obviously underground. I gasp with relief, both at the new air, which I didn't know I needed, and the light. Finally I can think again, and I realize that it was Carlotta herself who led me out of the oubliette, though how exactly I think I'll never know.
"Carlotta?" I hear myself say in disbelief. Her smaller hand is still holding tight to mine, her claws gentle against my palm.
"Think nothing of it!" She says, throwing my hand away. "I took pity on you, nothing more! I will not lead you anywhere else!" She begins to walk away hastily. Over her shoulder she yells, "Good luck with your infernal quest, it gets a lot worse from here!"
"Wait!" I take off after her.
"No, I'll not!" She speeds up, not letting me near.
"No, no, I just want to say something, very quickly!" I beg. With a huff and a groan, she stops.
"Well? What is so important you have to say?" She stamps her clawed feet impatiently.
"Thank you. You really didn't have to do that, but you did it anyway. It was very kind of you."
"It was no kindness, only pity." She insists.
"Still, I'm grateful either way. Can I do anything for you, to repay you?" I insist right back. She looks at me with irritated thoughtfulness. I have to admit that part of me just wants to follow her out of her and that I'm just fishing for an excuse to do so.
"Well.. your comment earlier about my singing, while not what I wanted to hear, was perhaps a little bit helpful. It is not often I get to hear feedback, you are right, so perhaps you could tell me more what you think?" In her way, she's asking for help. She knows she could be better and that my advice is a good start in doing that. I nod.
"Of course, as one singer to another, I would love that." I smile. Carlotta simply snorts, and begins to walk away again.
"Good, but I am not going to stay here while you opinionate at me. Come, come." I follow after her. I talk quietly about breathing and maintaining breath while performing, which is a smaller thing I noticed in her performances earlier. I myself struggle with it sometimes, as evidenced by how much Erik's little hypnosis took out of me earlier today. I follow behind her as closely as possible without hovering over her, as she only comes up to my hip, and she silently leads me up tunnels and ladders and crawlspaces until we enter what feels like a mountainous cavern. The stone here is grey and smooth, and it flows over with greenery even inside where the natural light is dim. I stop my monologue of a lesson as I gape at the enormous carvings of faces that decorate the walls and natural pillars.
"GO NO FURTHER!" I nearly shriek when on of the faces calls out, voice booming.
"TURN BACK!"
"THIS IS NOT THE WAY!"
"ALL HOPE IS LOST YE WHO CARRY ON!" All those we pass say something of the like, and the effect is very nervewracking.
"Um, Carlotta.." I ask timidly.
"Oh, pay them no mind, they're false alarms. Them and things like them show up all over the labyrinth, and especially when you're on the right track." She informs me casually. "Now-"
"SOON IT WILL BE TOO LATE!" A 'false alarm' bellows right beside us.
"Oh, hush! I'm no adventurer to be fooled by the likes of you!" She slaps the chin of the rock face, and while I'm sure it has no effect, it still sends them into an undignified grumbling rage. "Come along, we're almost out, and then your little lesson will be over, so I suggest you hurry along with whatever you want to say."
"Oh, right, as I was saying…" I continue, wondering all the while if she's just using this as an excuse to help me. Perhaps she's nicer than I thought, and she's just playing by some unspoken rules to cheat the system. Or maybe she values my advice enough that it's worth it to temporarily break the rules? Either way, I'm grateful for everything she's done so far.
The light fades as we turn into a darker tunnel, but I try to keep my head as I instruct her, I don't want to let her know I'm nervous. As we continue further into the dark, I see a figure sitting ahead of us. They're cloaked with layers and layers of hoods or blankets, and in their hand I see what I presume is a cup for coins. A beggar, here? Perhaps we can help them.
"What have we here?" A croaky, crony voice calls to us, the head lifting lightly, face still invisible under the covers.
"Nothing, nothing at all." Carlotta replies with her typical indifferent dismissal. But the air tenses as the figure lifts their head, rosy orange eyes peering out. They stand up, the cloaks fall away.
"Nothing?" Hisses Erik, wearing a red, small-horned mask, it's eyebrows furious. "Nothing at all?"
"Oh, your majesty!" Carlotta exclaims, terrified.
"Hello, Harlot." He greets her, purposefully slurring her name. He speaks too clearly for it to be an accident.
"It's Carlotta." I correct him quickly. Only now does he look at me, his eyes the only thing to move.
"Whatever." He turns back to Carlotta, warm eyes darting. "What on my earth do you think you're doing?"
"Oh, your lordship, I, I-"
"Are you helping her?" He leans forward ever so slightly, his height being double Carlotta's. She trembles, cowering. She backs away, and Erik steps forward, effectively cutting me off from her, isolating us both. I start to panic. What is he doing?
"In what sense, my lord?" She squeaks.
"In the sense that you are leading her to my castle." His voice fills the dark tunnel, making me dizzy.
"Oh, stars no, my lord! I, well, I was tricking her, you- you see, making her think I am helpful, yes, but really taking her to the beginning again, yes!" She explains in a sputtering, halting voice. I reel from this confession.
"What!?" I shout, unable to contain myself. I hear her whimper. They both ignore me.
"If I thought for a moment you were betraying me I would have to feed you your own vocal chords and pluck your wings for a scarf." He says delicately, the severity and cruelty of his words a harsh contradiction to the tone with which he speaks them. I only hear Carlotta breathing as a response, but I can imagine her eyes wide, frame small and huddled underneath him. His red form finally turns around, revealing her behind him, to face me. He steps forward like a ballet dancer gracefully approaching the starting place for an elegant dance.
"And you, Christine?" I'm taken aback by the velvet sound of his voice saying my name. "How do you like my labyrinth?" I swallow hard, pushing myself forward.
"It's been a piece of cake." It's been anything but, but I won't let him know how much I've struggled already, how little I've done on my own. He nods, slowly.
"If it's been so pleasant, perhaps you would won't mind if I make it a little more accommodating to your apparent skill level?" The clock appears to his right, and without breaking his eye contact with me, he lifts his hand and twirls his finger like he's stirring coffee, and the hands on the clock subtract three hours from what's left of my thirteen hours.
"What, no! That's not fair!" I say.
"You think so?" His voice turns dark and threatening in a way that chills my blood and halts my breath. "I do wonder what your comparison is. But if my labyrinth is so easy, such a nice cake, as you say- I wonder how you will like this?" He flicks his wrists, and a crystal ball appears. He holds it out for only a moment, then turns and hurls it into the darkness, over Carlotta's head. She shrieks, shrinking down again, as he suddenly rounds on her, but he turns and walks straight into a wall, disappearing.
A clanking and grinding come from the tunnel behind Carlotta, and soon a terrible machine with scraping knives for hands is coming for us, visible in the low light.
"Aaaack, a Cleaner!" She shouts and begins flying my way, the only way there is to go, scared for her life. I follow, again because there is no other way to go to, sprinting away from the absurd death machine. Unfortunately, the tunnel is eventually blocked off by a grate, trapping us with the approaching 'Cleaner', it's spinning blades never hesitating. Carlotta tears at the metal bars with her clawed hands and feet, but I notice that the wall to our left shakes loosely as the Cleaner approaches. I throw my body against it, bruising my right side, but I feel it give way a little, and I feel hope. I push and shove against it, but it finally falls out from underneath my weight when Carlotta throws her own against it, the stone crumbling into dusty blocks.
The Cleaner passes by only a second later, and I gasp and giggle with relief. The pounding of my heart only barely relaxes, as if my body does not yet believe we're safe.
"Goodness…"I breathe, lying still. "Are you alright?" I ask Carlotta as I hear her standing.
"Ugh. I will live. But I will not be happy about it." She grumbles. I stand, slowly, sighing. "A Cleaner! You sure know how to antagonize him." She snarls. As I remember what she said to him about leading me the wrong way, I keep quiet. Carlotta heads to an indent in a wall and I follow. Inside is a ladder, light streaming in from the grate entrance at the top.
"This is just what we need." She nods to herself and begins climbing. I huff and follow after.
"How am I to trust you now?" I ask.
"What? Oh, yes, about that, I was lying to him to get him to leave us alone; no one wants the Red Death plaguing them while they try to navigate this place."
"But how can I believe you?" I want to, I do, but with all this double speak, I don't know if I can.
"Well, let me say it this way: Have you got any choice but to trust me for now?" Her tail flicks in my face.
"I suppose you're right, but it certainly puts a damper on things." I say, not meaning to sound as gruff or grumpy as I do. We climb the rest of the way in silence, until Carlotta shoves the grate away with a small struggle. She flies the rest of the way out, and I climb into what looks to be more of the courtyard landscape.
"Ah." She sighs, soaking in the sun, stretching slightly. "Well- good luck." She says as I push the grate back into place.
"Wait, what?"
"I'm through. Red Death came after us, after you, and I will not senselessly help you when it will clearly cost my precious voice and my wings!" She starts to fly away.
"Wait, please at least tell me where to go from here!" I hate to ask for help, but if she knows as much as she says she does it would be foolish not to. She doesn't stop, though, and she doesn't answer with anything more than a high pitched 'hmmph!'. I sigh, then stand.
I brush off my jeans, the dusty dirt on my hands making the mess on my legs worse.
"Okay, I can do this." I tell myself, alone again. Turning around, I can see that I'm at least closer to the castle than before, so it's not like I've made negative progress.
"Hello!" A voice calls. I turn to the left, and though he was not there before, a man sits on a stone seat, smiling friendlily.
"Ah, hello. I'm Christine. I'm navigating the labyrinth; do you have any suggestions?" Don't mince words; lesson number one.
"What are you doing!?" Carlotta is suddenly at my side, literally; she lands on me, hands on my shoulder and bird feet gripping my hip and back.
"I'm asking for help!" I explain. "Since I'll find none with you, perhaps he'll be of more assistance."
"And who's this?" The man asks. Hesitating only briefly, I reply.
"My friend, Carlotta."
"Ah." He nods, as if that explains some unknown question. "I will give my advice to you and your friend for a small price."
"I have nothing really to give, sir…" I bite my lip, running a hand through my hair, thinking. I feel my ear and the small stub of my earring. "Oh!" I take out the small zirconia stone earrings. They were a birthday gift from Meg, but surely she'd understand that I would not give them up if it were not necessary? I have nothing else to give but the clothes I'm wearing, not even my lipstick. I think I lost that in the effort to knock down the wall and escape the Cleaner.
"Will.. will these do?" I ask the man. He inspects them in my open palm with squinted eyes, then nods. Before I can drop them in his cup, Carlotta yanks me back.
"You needn't give him that!" She points accusingly at the old man, glaring in a strange, pleading way at me. I shake my head and she doesn't stop me from dropping them into his cup, the small stones plinking. The man smiles and sits back.
"I was once a manager of a theatre, and I often found that being direct about my wants would get me the opposite. I learned that sometimes the way forward can only be found by going backwards." He nods, seeming pleased with himself.
"And how can I apply that to my experience here in the labyrinth?" Thus far it's been the opposite; when I try to be cunning and tricky no one will be clear with me, but when I am honest and forward, most are willing to work with me.
"Perhaps you should try to look at things in a different way before you give up hope." He shrugs, and I sadly realize I've been taken advantage of. He has no real advice for me. Still, I don't know him and his life, and this may be the only way he has to keep himself going.
"Well, thank you for your advice, sir. Have a good day." I give a small nod and walk away, feeling like a fool. I wish I could believe that in his mind he was indeed being helpful, but with the chuckle I hear him give as I walk away, I can't lie to myself. My face burns with shame, and I feel angry tears biting at my eyes.
"Ugh! For such fine jewelry he should have given you actual directions. For such a treasure he should have given you a map, that old codfish!" Carlotta remarks, her own voice as bitter as I feel.
"Strange, it sounds like you're on my side." I give a small laugh, but it's flat. She's quiet, her hands lightly kneading my shoulder.
"Did you mean what you said?" She asks. There's a strange emotional sound in her voice.
"Hmm?"
"You called me 'friend'. Did you mean this?"
"Oh. Yeah, of course. I'm still struggling with trusting you but… yeah. Yeah, you're my friend, Carlotta." I turn my head, but it's awkward because she's at my shoulder. Still, her eyes are a bit glassy, her mouth open in a small 'o', as if she can't believe the words. She turns away, looking at the ground as I walk towards the castle.
"Friend." I hear her say. It sounds like she's testing the word. "Friend."
I think she likes it.