The Book Thief and the Phantom

Return

The next time I awoke, I found myself in my own bedroom. The dream had run its course for tonight. The room was dark. Moonlight filtered through the window. It was still nighttime.

"Liesel!" my bedroom door opened to reveal Max.

"Max, is Alex asleep?"

Max looked confused, then gave a brisk nod. "Last I checked, yes. Otherwise we would hear him."

"Then we won't have any trouble." I concluded. "As long as we're quiet."

I fidgeted as I spoke to him. "Did I sleep through the entire day yesterday?"

He nodded again. "We were worried about you. Alex almost called a doctor to see if there was anything wrong, but you didn't seem sick."

"I was fine." I replied.

"Liesel, how could this be happening at all? Do you think it's because..." Max trailed off.

I shrugged. "Maybe."

"Where's The Word Shaker?"

"Huh?" I turned around. The book was gone. "I must've dropped it in the dream." He looked confused. "Same with The Standover Man. It's gone, until I take it back."

"Then how can it be a dream, if you can move things from here to there?"

Once again, I shrugged. "I don't know."

Max pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is all so strange."

I looked at my nightstand, piled high with books. "It's as if I'm being given two different lives. The dream world looks so real, as if it actually exists."

"Liesel? Max?"

Alex Steiner walked into our room, holding a huge book. "I have something to show you."

*****

We sat at the kitchen table, watching Alex leaf through the pages.

"What is it, Alex?" asked Max.

"Something that might help with Liesel's dreams. Aha!" he pointed to a picture on the page.

I craned my head to see. "The Opera Populaire!"

Max turned the book to face him. "It's real?"

"All the way back in the 1870's, it was." Alex took back the book and started to read the paragraph below the photograph. "In January 1871, the Opera Populaire was set on fire supposedly by the Opera Ghost, otherwise known as the Phantom of the Opera." I gasped. "After the fire was put out, the suspect disappeared along with two others, who reappeared only months after.

"The Opera Ghost started the fire by cutting the rope that held the theatre's chandelier. He then took a young woman by the name of Christine Daae captive, then was followed and apprehended by the Vicomte de Changy. Miss Daae and the Vicomte were missing for two months. The Opera Ghost was never found."

Max touched my shoulder. "Liesel? Are you alright?"

My face was pale. I stared at the photograph. "I need to think." I stood, and walked towards the front door. "Don't follow me."

*****

I touched the cold, frozen stone of Rudy's grave.

"Rudy, can you hear me?" I whispered. "Please, tell me you can."

No reply.

"I'm in love with someone, Rudy. But he's insane. His life has only been darkness and night." I smiled grimly. "And music. Such beautiful music."