The Phantom of the Clergy

Two

After the lively dance ceased, Carlotta stormed out from behind the scenes. 

"It's always about the dancing girls! All they ever want to see is the dancing girls! Well so be it then, Nihil, you want to see them as much as your new alpha! I hope you're satisfied, as I will not be singing!" She was enraged with the attention the younger sisters and ghouls were getting, infuriated with not getting the brunt of the praise at every given moment.

"Cirrus! Cumulus! Bring my doggy! Bye-bye dancing girls, bye-bye horny idiots!" With that, Carlotta whirled on her heels, followed by her two kiss-ass minions. 

"Amateurs!" hissed Cirrus, biting her thumb at the onlookers.

"What do I do?!" asked Primo, frantically, and Copia looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"Grovel, grovel! Go on, grovel!" Nihil urged, pushing him towards Carlotta's retreating form. Primo looked scared. "Now, Primo," Nihil chided.

Poor Primo, Satine thought.

The unfortunate Primo gulped and followed after the scary lady. "Principessa! Bella diva! Goddess of song!" he clearly needed to work on his groveling, as it only seemed to infuriate Carlotta further.

"Yes, goddess of song! But do you treat her like a goddess when her dress is too long?! Do you treat her like a goddess when you ogle those dancing girls?!" She bellowed.

"Is there not a rather glorious aria for Éternelle in act three?" Rain chimed in, doing his best to smooth over the situation. He was also rather bothered by the Superior's presence.

"Yes, yes! But I don't have my costume for act three because someone did not finish it!" She snarled, looking pointedly at Sunshine, the costume designer, who seemed close to tears. "And what does it matters when all they will look at are those sluts?!"

Rain cringed at Carlotta's tantrum, but Primo butted in. "Well, what if- seeing that our dear Cardinal Copia allows it- we asked for you to give us a private rendition of the aria, signora? What then?"

She seethed and stomped her foot, and then took a deep breath. This instantly seemed to calm her down. She smiled sweetly. "Well... If my manager commands... Cardinal Copia..?"

"If my diva commands," he groaned, not bothering to hide his contempt. There were three things Cardinal Copia loathed in this world- rodent exterminators, pore-clogging makeup, and obnoxious, narcissistic divas like her.

"Yes, I DO." She snapped, her expression darkening at Copia's obvious disdain. "Everyone shut the hell up!" 

Carlotta took the center upstage, spread her arms wide, and began to sing. Well, that was a generous word for it. She began to moan in a voice comparable to a bellowing seal, clearly butchering the lyrics as well as the melody.

"Can you hear me sayyyyyy... Your naaaame... Always... I long for you forever..." They all cringed at the assault she imposed on their ears.

"Why are you retiring again?" Primo muttered to Nihil.

"I'm going deaf." He replied, drily. This answer didn't seem to particularly shock Primo.

They stood there in ear-splitting torture, and Primo was rather wished he was in his father's shoes and going deaf himself.

Swiss, the ghoul in charge of the fly system, couldn't take the screeching anymore. He could hear it even from the catacombs. He wandered off somewhere, briefly leaving the ropes unattended. This gave the mysterious entity time to slip from the shadows. He had spent weeks calculating this exact moment. The moment that would be the beginning of the end of Carlotta's career.

Nobody witnessed it. Nobody knew what happened. All anybody knew that one minute, Carlotta was screaming her lungs out in a stupid costume, and the next, she was being flattened by a falling backdrop.

Nihil couldn't think of a better time to leave. "Well, mes amis, if you need me, I shall be in Sweden." He clapped Primo and Rain on the back before booking it toward the exit, effectively trapping them in their new jobs.

Meg took Satine's hands. "He's here, Phantom Ghoul!"

Nobody could bring themselves to warn her about the falling object, and only after blissful silence filled the auditorium did someone finally call out "Heads up!"

Satine shuddered at the name of the apparition. Since she had gotten to the Opera House, she had heard tales of the masked entity who would snatch up naughty children and strangle them with his magic lasso. Meg seemed to be the only one who believed in him anymore, and she swore to Satine on her life that she had seen him, that she had been chased by him. 

There was about a minute of silence. And then a furious, ungodly scream of terror that seemed to shake the very core of the opera house.

"FOR LUCIFER'S SAKE, SWISS, WHAT IS GOING ON UP THERE?!" Nihil demanded, and Swiss had come sprinting back to his post as soon as he heard the commotion. 

"Honest to the devil, monsieur! I don't know what happened! I wasn't at my post! There's nobody here!" From the corner of his eye, a creamy white envelope fluttered down from the catacombs. The other onlookers followed his gaze. "Well..." Swiss continued. "If there is... It must be a ghost!"

"A letter from Phantom Ghoul!" Madame Imperator cried. A collective groan sounded from the siblings and the ghouls alike.

"Devil in Paradise, you're all obsessed!" Rain groaned. He never believed the fable of Phantom Ghoul.

 "He welcomes you to his Opera House-"

"His Opera house-?!" Primo interjected, furious, but Madame Imperator continued talking.

"Commands that you continue to leave box five empty for his use, and reminds me that his salary is due."

"Salary?!" Rain asked, jaw dropping. "What do you mean?!"

"Why! Nihil used to pay him twenty-thousand francs a month. I figure you can afford more now that that idiot is out of office."

"Twenty. Thousand. Francs?!" Primo snatched the paper and upon reading it, ripped it to pieces. "This has to be some kind of scam. I won't hear of it! Some deformed ghoul can't possibly be in the position to make these demands! And we won't be able to afford anything, for as it appears, we have lost our star!"

"Surely there must be some kind of... Understudy?" Rain suggests.

"Understudy?! There is no understudy for Sister Superior Carlotta!" Cardinal Copia snapped, growing more and more stressed.

"Satine Defroque could sing it for you, monsieur." Madame Imperator suggested.

Rain's head snapped up at her name- Satine Defroque. He stared at her, and her eyes briefly met his before she glanced down.

"A mere sister of sin?! Nonsense." Primo blew her off.

"Do not underestimate Satine, monsieur. She has been well taught."

"Oh? By who?!"

"I-I don't know his name, monsieur," Satine stepped foreword shyly. 

"Well, what have we to lose?" Rain asked, looking at the girl with kindness. He remembered her. He wasn't sure if Satine returned the favor. "I say we hear her out."

"Very well..." Copia said. He waved his hands at the musicians. He sighed theatrically. "From the beginning of the aria then, mademoiselle." 

The music swelled, and Satine lifted her voice. "Can you hear me say your name forever? Can you see me longing for you forever, forever? Would you let me touch your soul forever..."

"This is doing nothing for my nerves," Primo sighed. Her voice was intoxicating, but she appeared clearly nervous and uncomfortable.

Rain shot him a glare. It was decided. She was to sing.