Love Will Continue - Sequel to Phantom Child

8. Once the on the land

The first thing we saw, when we were to get off the ship, was a crowd of people at the docks. It already told me that it would not be easy to get past them. They were all shouting names of the passengers, who disembarked, and greeting them, but one name was being constantly mentioned way too much - Christine Daaé.

We would witness pure horror when we got to the docks oureslves, as I realized and I wasn't actually wrong. For a second, when the people spotted Christine they all went completely silent, like she was a queen walking in, and they were admiring her, not daring to say a word. But then came the flashes of cameras and a flood of questions. For once in my life I was grateful that Raoul was here.

"Her name- Her name is Madame De Chagny. Now please stand aside." He stated in response to them continually yelling "Miss Daaé", the name she had been using long ago, when she had become famous.

Raoul got in front of our little group of four to block the newsmen's way to his wife and son. This didn't seem to lessen their determination to ask one milion queries.

"No pictures, do you hear?!" Raoul shouted "No pictrues of the boy!" He pulled Gustave closer, practically hiding him behind his back.

Despite all Raoul's attempts to get safely through them, we still heard hundreds of questions per minute. Some of them stood out in the crowd, making it impossible not to answer them.

"Christine, it's your first performance in years. Why ain't'cha singing at the Met?" One of the men asked, revealing his american accent, so different from ours.

Raoul, not letting any of us speak, decided to answer for her, to satisfy the information-hungry pressmen.

"The Vicomtess has been engaged by well known impresario, Mr. Oscar Hammerstein, to open his new Manhattan opera house."

The words 'opera house' alone were enough to draw my attention back to what they have been talking about, since before I didn't care to listen and looked at the ships instead.

"How he lured the great Christine Daaé over here anyway?" Another voice from the crowd made itself audible.

"Ha, it's the money, right?" The query came from a different man and from a different direction. "All that american moolah!" He answered himself, angering Raoul on the way.

"My wife is an artist, sir." He gritted through his teeth, doing his best to maintain composure and not grab the young journalist by the collar and throw him off of the pier.

"Oh yeah, and her art is paying off your gambling debts, is what they're saying in France." We heard yet again from behind us. "Is it true you left your entire fortune on a roulette table in Monte Carlo?"

Raoul froze at the statement about gambling, and there was an audible gasp among the onlookers. The Vicomte turned around in a blink of an eye, to the man who had asked the question. The man's expression looked like it was genuine, but little did he know that enraged Raoul was a dangerous creature and a threat to his life and dry coat.

"You insolent jackals! How dare you?" He shouted, making his way over to the man.

Suddenly we heard a loud clap and saw a flash. The photographer took a picture, blinding Raoul with the light. Raoul took a step back, dazed, trying to regain his sight. Seeing him so desorientated would normally make me laugh at least a bit, but right now he was our only line of defence and I was rooting for him to get us out of here; the sooner the better.

In the meantime the reporters must've realized, that Raoul and Christine are figures that had been interwieved a thousand times before and there are two more people, who had never been seen by the public - Gustave and me.