In The Wings

Act II Scene V

Christine woke up in the morning and was confused in every way she thought possible.

The first confusing bit was figuring out where she was. She remembered everything that had happened the previous night, and she remembered where it had happened. This was not that place above the stage that made her feel as if she were on a cloud looking down on everything below. It had been dim up there, and now everything was bright. Like daylight.

Her emotions were just as mixed up. There were remnants of fear from the beastly way the Angel of Music had acted around her once he had been unmasked. She felt fragments of nerves from the auditions and their impending results. But even with all that negativity, she felt happiness from music and getting to hear the Angel sing for her.

As she sat up in order to better survey everything around her, she let out a groan. Her rocky sleep had only managed to make every last muscle in her body sore. Tossing the curls out of her eyes as she stretched, she attempted to force her eyes to adjust to the bright light.

Christine let out a soft yelp when she saw the Angel of Music standing over her. But he immediately moved to comfort her. "Hush, there is no reason for alarm."

"Where are we she?" she said, her voice cracking as it was used for the first time that morning. Christine immediately cleared her throat, hating the tone of how it sounded.

"We are not very far from where we were last night," the Angel of Music said. "Do you see?" He stepped out of the way, and suddenly everything became clear. He was showing her the way back. There had just been a little bit of a kickstart when she was sleeping. Christine could easily see the piano he had played on, the place where she had looked out to see the stage below her.

"I do see," Christine replied.

"I will be showing you the way back, just as I promised," the Angel of Music said. It was so strange to Christine how much he had changed over the hours. Even though he was mostly back to his normal self, there was still something about the way he held himself that showed he was now second guessing himself. Part of his self confidence had been torn away with the mask that had sat in her shaking hands, but when she had given it back that confidence hadn't returned.

Although Christine knew this was somewhat of a good thing-he would now be more humble and down to earth-she also knew that danger came along with it. He was like a defenseless animal. Sometimes he would cower, and sometimes he would lash out. She had already seen both sides of the Angel of Music within a few moments of one another.

"Come along, Christine," he coaxed. He held out his hand and nodded for her to take it. With a slight bite of her lip in apprehension, she made the decision to go ahead and grab it. There was nothing repulsive about it, she reminded herself. Just because the disfigurement under his mask was ghastly didn't mean the rest of him was. But there was still a natural reaction for her to recoil away.

"How far away are we from the rest of civilization?" Christine said, mostly trying to lighten up her own mood.

"Do you mean how far above, or the path back down?" the Angel questioned.

"The path," Christine replied. "Although it would be interesting to know how far up we are."

"I have never bothered to measure it," the Angel of Music admitted. "I never deemed it necessary. But as for how far we must walk to return, it is not very far. The most difficult part will be finding our way back onto the catwalk and then going on from there."

Christine nodded, her mouth starting to dry out. She remembered walking on the catwalk, but it seemed like it had been quite a long ways before she had made it to where the Angel of Music had begun the music of the night. Perhaps her half asleep state had caused her to judge the distance and time incorrectly, but she wasn't so sure.