Scars of the Soul

A Corpse

A body (or two) will be discovered!

So uh yeah.

Anyways  sorry for the delay I hope you didn't mind the wait and here you are!
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My employment, at least for the first three weeks, was almost too calm.

  Other than our first encounter with the Opera Ghost, neither Adrik nor myself had heard from the masked figure.
 
  My conductor, Monsieur Reyes, was visibly anxious each time I sat down among the orchestra members, but at least there hadn't been any incidents.

  The opera we were performing, Lady of the Lotus, was a beautiful opera that never failed to tear me up. Unfortunately, Carlotta's performance as the title role kept the tears at bay.

  Currently, the orchestra members were building to what was supposed to be the emotional climax of the plot. Unfortunately, the music, not the singers, kept its tone correct. Rehearsals ended with Monsieur Reyes reminding everyone to practice their trouble spots and then we were released.

"Anne! How were rehearsals today?" Adrik asked as I walked down the steps, glad to be done for the day.

  "Same as usual. Carlotta, you know, the diva who won't call me anything but La Morte, keeps my
tears away." I laughed. "I suppose I should thank her for that, it's only polite."

  Adrik laughed at me, and the two of us made our way back to our apartment, which was further away from the opera house than we'd anticipated. Nevertheless, it was a place to stay, and it was peaceful.

  At least, that's where we would have gone if Adrik hadn't suddenly yanked my arm back in the direction of the opera house.

  "Hey! Where are you going?" I yelped, not expecting the force.

  "Call me silly but I had this feeling. I think something's wrong."

  I nodded in silence, and we once again wove through the opera house, and this time we found ourselves going up.

  Chorus members and backstage crew gave us odd looks as we raced further and further up, until we burst onto the rooftop.

  Ahead of us, and beyond us, the sun was beginning to dip into the sky, leaving the world in the beautiful in between-not quite day anymore, yet not quite night.

  The figure standing just ahead of us, wearing a black cape that fluttered in the small breeze, could almost be identified as a statue.

  "Sir?" I asked, stepping towards him. "Are you alright?"

  "Your managers told you not to make contact with the Phantom of the Opera."

   "Sir," I sighed, "last we spoke you said you were an opera ghost with no purpose. What has changed?"

  The phantom stepped to the side, and my brother and I gasped, not quite believing the sight.

  There, laying as if they were sleeping, lay the fragile bodies of two of the youngest company members.

  "What happened?" I gasped, trying not to collapse. They had been completely innocent of anything he or I had known. Then why?

  "...they left the Opera de Populaire. I could have protected them if they had stayed."

  Adrik knelt beside the youngest girl, who wore her thick red hair in braids. "It doesn't matter. They're dead now, and the person who planted the bodies took the time to plant them here."

  "And those foolish managers will believe I was the culprit," the figure announced. "If the two of you hadn't come back I would have followed through with my promise."

  "So someone is trying to get all of us in trouble," I muttered. "We need to get to the bottom of this."

  "There is no 'we'," the phantom scoffed.

  I sighed. "Look, we know that the three of us are innocent, but the police don't. And since you're a wanted man from the events in 1870, they're probably not going to think twice about charging you with murder."

  "...Erik."

   The word fluttered for a moment in the wind, and it was a miracle I could catch it. But what was the meaning of the name?

  "Pardon?"

  The Opera Ghost turned to face my brother and I. The sun had long since set, leaving the full moon to illuminate the scene.

  "My name. If you're insistent that we work together, you should at least know my name."

  "Your name is Erik?" Adrik asked. "Thanks. You already know me and my sister."

  Erik didn't say anything to Adrik's comment, kneeling down next to the bodies of the young girls.

  "Her name was Rosie," he whispered, tenderly tucking a rose behind the young girl's ear and closing her eyes. "She was always the more scared of the two."

   "Do they have any family?" I asked. "They're probably going to wonder what happened to them."

  "No, Rosie would often cry herself to sleep," he said, so softly I almost missed it. "If I hadn't been so obsessed with Christine, I could've done something."

   For a long while, nothing was said, for what could any of us say? The two girls were gone, and so was my peaceful stay at the Opera de Populaire.

  Until Adrik broke the silence.

   "Hey...Anne? Weren't we supposed to escape him?"

   I pulled my brother into a hug, swallowing back any tears or fears. "We don't have any proof that he was behind this," I whispered. "Hopefully this was just an awful event."

   Erik, who had gotten up, looked curiously at us. "Who do you suspect?" He asked.

   Adrik and I looked at each other before looking back at Erik. "A man we used to know," was my simple response. There was too much to say now, not with two tragedies already tainting our hands.