A Song In The Dark

To Numb the Pain

His long and lean mass hunched over the organ "it's gone," he choked his rich voice able to do no more than whisper. "My music has gone with her." He cried trembling. his cries filled the lonely cellar his life, his music, the joy of his world was gone. She had slipped like sand through his fingers, she left for a pretty boy who could give her all her heart desired. He didn't hate her or the boy, he hated himself for feeding the monster that lived within. She might have stayed if she didn't see what was behind the mask, not necessarily the mask that hid his face but the mask of who he was. His thoughts of the past sent more bitter tears that fell onto the keys of the instrument his elbows crashed onto the keys causing the organ to almost cry with him.

Voices sounded above his dark damp lair, at one time many years ago he would have cared but now, he would just let them take him if they found him. Once he was feared by all of Paris he haunted the walls and amused himself by playing tricks on those he didn't like, he was powerful, a ghost to everyone.
With a weary sigh he rose up off the organ he could numb his body it never helped though, the pain that surged inside of him could not be numbed.

He moved to the main room of his home and grasped a vial injecting the morphine into his arm. It hurt, but felt good. He wanted to feel, but feeling hurt to much.
He closed his eyes letting the drug take its course.
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"Ada! Time to eat!" A short pudgy man hollered up the stairs.
Ada put down the violin with a sigh and looked at her music sheet.
"I'll be right down papa." She told him standing up from her bed. Ada placed the violin in its case ever so carefully. It was her mothers, she had given it to her before she died, Ada remembered the nights that were spent wrapped in a blanket by the fire listening to the crackling of the flames a warm mug of hot chocolate in her hand watching her mother play.

With a tear threatening to fall she walked towards the door stopping to look in the mirror.
She sighed "still too fat" she cried looking at the reflection staring back at her. Her hair was frizzy and blond dusted with brown and red. She looked at her curves moving her hands along her hips her green eyes glassed over looking at her imperfections.

"Ada! Are you coming?" Her papa called again pulling her thoughts from her criticizing. She opened the door and walked down the stairs.

She sat at the dinner table picking at her food as her brother Denis talked with her papa. Denis was a likeable person always having girls flooding around him, he was her best friend someone she could run to. His eyes were a bright blue with a nicely tanned face a smile always stretched across it.

"Did you hear me?" He asked causing Ada to jump.
Ada looked up from her uneaten dinner confused she had let her thoughts carry away again.
"I said," He chuckled "did you hear that the opera house is being rebuilt?"

Ada's green eyes lit up, "really!?"
He nodded "yeah, I got a job in the construction. You didn't hear?"
Ada blushed she must have really been out of it today. "No I didn't hear." she said cracking a smile.
Her brother laughed causing her to blush more. "They will start holding auditions soon." He smiled giving her an encouraging glance, "You should try and get a part you play your violin well."

Playing at the opera house was her mothers dream but when she got sick she couldn't pursue that dream. Ada made it an ambition to chase it for her mother. Playing on her mothers violin at the opera would almost be like she was playing. It was a crazy dream, but she liked a challenge and she would show France that any girl can play as well as a man. Maybe even someday she would play the lead violin.

Ada couldn't sleep that night, she stared out her window at the opera house that sat in ashes. She thought about that night 5 years ago she was 16 at the time. She remembered she stayed awake listening to the music at the opera house this opera it was filled with lust and passion but there was something different about this one like it was really what the composer felt. All of a sudden screams sounded causing her to jump up and look out the window. Within moments a fire exploded as people overflowed out of the doors. It seemed like ages ago there was no more music on the street not for five long years.

Ada left the window and lay down on her bed. "I wonder if it's still haunted." She smiled to herself letting her mind wandered back again to the fire, for weeks the city buzzed with tales of a ghost haunting the opera, kidnapping a girl and then releasing her.
The press was soon happy with the fact that he was dead and the tails stopped.