Love Will Continue - Sequel to Phantom Child

15. Torment, exhaustion

CHAPTER TIME. I'M BACK, LET'S GOOOO! Behold, the whole chapter of Maya having a mental breakdown...

Before I pushed the door to our room, I tried on a multitude of acted smiles, in order to be thoroughly prepared to face Christine. When I eventually entered, I saw that she was sitting at the table, with a piece of paper in her hand. One quick glance told me it was sheet music; must've been Erik's.

Christine didn't notice me at first, she was too focused on the notes and sounds she was quietly humming. I wanted to sneak by, right to the next room and finally collapse onto my bed. Unfortunately I was spotted and immediately called out by her dulcet tones:

"Where have you been?" In Christine's voice I could hear rather concern than anger. "You were meant to go with Gustave."

"Madame Giry stopped me for a talk." I answered with an expression of nothing, just as it was an unremarkable fact, that I was stating.

"So Gustave must've come here with Meg." She said to herself, but then she looked up at me again, as if asking for confirmation.

"Yes." I replied without thinking much.

Now, telling part of the truth was something I could do. But I hated lying; I absolutely despised it. At the time though, I didn't have another option. I knew that Meg had been with me and Madame Giry, participating in the said "talk". How Gustave got back to our hotel was a complete mystery to me. Probably Meg just put him in the carriage and sent him here. I had no way of knowing, but neither had Christine. So, for now, she wasn't going to scold me for leaving him alone.

I walked into the room and took a step towards my bed. A sound of twisting bedsheets on my right made me look in this direction. Gustave was sitting on his bed. On his face there was an expression similar to mine. For the first time in my life I saw him tired. He looked as if he was about to tell me something, so I lingered in one place instead of getting to my destination just yet.

"Did you know Mr Y?"

Mr Y. This name now sounded so weird from his mouth. He was Erik. And for Gustave, he should even be... father. I shook the thought away and turned back to Gustave. The question still remained in his eyes. The man in question also visible in them. How could I have not noticed it before? That little glimmer of gold that he had, whenever he was getting excited. He was doubtlessly Erik's son; little phantom.

"I did." I only answered.

His expression changed a bit, to a one of fear, when he asked:

"H- Have you seen his face?"

Had I seen his face?! Was that even a question!? More times than I could even count.

"I have." I replied.

"Were you scared?"

I shook my head sideways. Technically, sometimes I had been, but it was only when he was additionally enraged by the fact that the mask had left his face. But most of the time I hadn't been scared, so I didn't feel guilty telling this to Gustave.

The brunet cowered away to the back of his bed, probably at the thought of the monstrous face.

"How?" His quiet question barely made it to my ears.

"Because I had known his... beauty underneath..."

I managed to smile, thinking of the man that I used to know back then, at the Paris' opera house. How different he was from the one that Gustave had ran away from today. I also wanted to run away now.

My comment didn't lift Gustave's spirits. He only grabbed his pillow and hugged it tightly, as if it was the only thing that could make him forget what had happened earlier that day.