Phantom of the Opera...continued...

The World of Darkness

   With every pitter patter your paddle made, your boat skidded off in follow of the mysterious man.  You felt the same chilling fear you had when you entered this underworld.  You remembered those times when you were little and your mom would scold you for talking to strangers.  You could hear her even now.  "Don't you ever talk to a stranger!  You understand me?" she would yell at you.  The memory made you smile for a moment.  

   Moments past as you continued to follow the strange man.  Closer and closer you came to the shore yet it still felt like light years away.  Your arms were tired of pushing the stagnant water that lurked beneath you. As you came near the shore, the voice rose from the haunted shores. 

   "Insolent boy, this slave of fashion.  Basking in your glory... Come to the angel of music"

   On and on, the voice sang.  It would get louder and then softer and then louder again.  It was like a broken record trying with all that was left in it to replay itself.  It would stop completely and then start suddenly.   It was beautiful yet terrifying.  It was horrific yet attractive.  Everything in you wanted to get closer to the voice to hear it sing but then you also wanted to run away. Your mind jumbled around till finally the voice stopped singing and silence drifted between you and the shore.  It was so hard to bear.  You wanted to turn around but then you could not.  It was as if you were stuck in a trance headed toward nothing but ultimate death.  After many minutes, you finally broke the silence.

   "Have you found the man?" you asked.

   "What man?" he replied

   "The man we heard singing a second ago."

   "That is no man,"

   At that statement, you gave no reply.  A sudden knowledge of your own demise sunk in.  Now you understood why you were told to not come down here.  Now you understood your fear.  You did not know if you should continue to follow the mysterious man to this mysterious land, but your arms involuntarily paddled in his direction.  As the silence fell between the two of you, anxiety crept into your heart.  It seemed as if you were to burst at any moment.  You could not stand the silence.  It made you feel alone and endangered.  It took every muscle and fiber to not freak out, but soon you felt your boat vibrate as it crashed onto land.  You looked at the man but he did not return the favor.  He jumped out of his boat, turned away from you, and immediately strolled down the length of the shore without saying a word.

   "Hey!  Where are you going?  Am I supposed to follow you?  You could have given me a warning!"  You jumped out of your boat as the man waved his hand at you without even turning around or stopping.  Running to his side, you continued to complain.  "Hey!  If we're ever gonna get somewhere, you better stop ignoring me.  You better start explaining what's going on here and where you are taking me..."

   The man interrupted your ranting.  He looked at you and yelled, "Shut up!  Just shut up and follow me.  I'll explain everything later."  You were taking back by his anger and frustration with you.  You could not understand why he was mad.  You were the one new here, and for all you knew, he may be just taking you to his home to kill you.  Whether or not that was his purpose, you figured it was best to follow him because you would rather not live in this dungeon alone. So you kept on following and another long moment of silence fell between the two of you.  This time you began to notice things on the land.  Looking to the ground, the 'sand' you were walking on did not look like sand at all.  Rather it was black and muddy.  With every step, your shoe sank into the muck.  It seemed as if it may have once been sand, but as far as you can see, it definitely was not sand now.

  As you studied the floor beneath you, the old man took a sharp turn to the right.  It shocked you to see such vitality in the bony, muscle-less man.  You turned in the direction after him only to find him half way up a long flight of stairs.  You sped up the stairs just in time to meet him at the very top.  Reaching this floor, you looked around.  Over the railings on your right, you could see the rickety boats you came in.  On the left were hundreds of old relics.  There was a piano standing in the corner.  It was black and rusty.  On top of it stood several antique candles of all shapes and sizes.  As you continued to walk, you found a table with thousands of papers and the old fashioned ink pens.  You were fascinated. If only you could bring this stuff back to the real world and you would be rich beyond measure. 

   As you studied the room before you, something caught your eye.  It was a picture of a girl.  She was beautiful and could capture the eye of many.  You were not caught by that but by the familiarity you had towards it.  For some weird reason, it seemed as if you had seen this picture before.   You knew you did but you did not know where or when.  You knew nothing of her.  Not her name or where she lived or anything.  You stared at it trying to figure it out when a familiar voice cried out.

   "Child!  What are you waiting for?  We don't got all day.  Come on."  You tore yourself away from the picture to where the man stood.  You came to a broken mirror.  It was rimmed with gold and seemed to have once been beautiful before it broke.  Sitting beside it was a little stuffed monkey holding chimes.  The monkey gave you quite a scare as it stared you down with its big bright eyes and clapped repeatedly.  Then the most unexpected thing happened.  The old man walked straight through the broken mirror.  You stood there unable to move and dumbfounded. You waited there for a couple of minutes before the old man called you to come in.  Finally, you gathered up your courage and stepped into the mirror.  It was just like walking through a door into an abandoned house.  It was dark, pitch dark.