Phantom Savior (Based on the 2004 Phantom of the Opera film)

Phantom's Letter

      A woman stood, dressed in a black loose-fitting dress, her leg set upon a bar as high as her chest. She stretched her arms out to touch her toes, sighing a she reached perfect form. Her hair was tied back in a tight knot away from her aging face. 

      She gasped when a sudden wind blew through the near-empty room, brushing out all of the candles except for one. On a table next to a vase of red roses, an envelope sat, a wax seal of red imprinted with a skull, ominously. The woman lowered her leg to the floor with grace. She tentatively walked to the table and touched the wax. It was still warm as if the letter had just been written minutes ago. In the light of the one candle, she opened the thick envelope. pulling out a letter on one piece of paper exactly the size of the envelope.

      Madame Giry, 

Because of  her wishes I send you this girl
Her talent is now yours
To do with what you please

At the end of each day, send her
To the room where there is no light

Neglecting to do so will provoke my anger.
Her name is Lili and she wants
To become a dancer, a beautiful dancer
I send her to you each morning early
through the door painted red

      Signed, O.G

*

      It took a couple of days for Lili's face to lose the swelling and the colour. Erik tended it softly, rubbing scented oils into her cheeks and somehow finding ice to put on it. Erik watched Lili as she continued to twirl in her shoes and stand on a point for minutes at a time. She sat down on some of the animal skin rugs and would stretch until she cried. 

      Lili was finally getting a chance to do something besides beg for money on the streets. Periodically, Erik would appear with food on a large plate: Fruits like grapes and oranges and apples, a kind of cooked and seasoned meat, and a sweet of some kind. She had never eaten so much, and for the first time in her life was not hungry.

      Lili never saw Erik eat or sleep.

      When the day came that she would get to leave, Erik made sure she was properly dressed for the journey through the cold tunnels. His caves were always heated from the hundreds of candles. He gave her a dress with long black sleeves and one of his black capes with a hood. On the sloping stone down into the tunnel water, there was a boat. Lili sat down in it, Erik standing behind her with a long stick. 

      Lili could not see anything: her eyes were covered by a cloth tied around her eyes. It smelled like Erik. It was early in the morning. Lili was used to sleeping however long she needed to. Erik stood over the girl, pushing them along  in the almost still waters. 

      "Are you excited, little Lili?"

      Lili nodded her head enthusiastically. "Oh yes." Her hands were clasped together in attempt to stop herself from bouncing up and down with the energy she had the whole morning. She didn't really understand why she had to be blindfolded for this trip, but she wanted to dance, so she let Erik do what he wanted. 

      She felt them turn many corners, and felt the draft from different directions. At one point she heard chains rattle and worried for her own safety, but laughed when nothing happened and they just kept moving forward. How silly, she thought. It was probably a chain gate or something they needed to go through. 

      After several minutes, the boat went up onto another mall ramp. Erik took Lili by the hand and guided her from the boat. The next path sloped upwards until Erik told her they'd come to some stairs. He described them, "The stairs are wide and curve to the right." He let her put her hand on the very thick stone. 

      The ascent was long. It was probably only a few flights, but blindfolded, it seemed like much longer to her. The slope and curve was constant again for several minutes. All Lili could hear was the sound of her own breathing as they reached the top. Erik's gentle hand was still on hers as she leaned over, almost panting. 

      "Darling, you're going to be doing a lot more work as a dancer. If you're winded now, you best prepare yourself," and he gave a low chuckle. Lili was glad most of her face was covered in the blindfold to cover her blushing cheeks. 

      Erik still had not told her where exactly he lived, but apparently a dancing school or something was close by and they could get there by walking. Erik didn't want the girl to know where exactly he lived, under an Opera house. She night attempt to run away or something. However, he would have to tell her soon because when he brought her to Madame Giry, knowing was kind of necessary. 

      To solve his problem, he would hide her eyes in the commute and take her on different routes each time so that when he was away while she was sleeping, she wouldn't know how to escape. If she left, he'd know. He'd grown up in these tunnels, knew every stair, every tunnel, and every door. He'd know exactly where she would have gone.