The Underground Music (Phantom of the Opera Fanfic)

Chapter 6: Shattered

I progressed down the tunnel quickly, almost speed-walking, until my sides began to hurt. I stopped to clutch at my waist, and bent over, breathing; when the pain had subsided enough, I picked up my pace again. 

The sounds from above became louder and louder. I heard high pitched fluctuations in a woman's voice, followed by a man's shrill, annoying, nasal voice. Soon, I came to the point where the Opera House was surely above me. For a reason which I could not identify, I paused, as if I couldn't bring my muscles to move. My muscles twitched, but they wouldn't extend. Not fazed by this bodily failure, I allowed myself to stop and look up. I didn't see anything new; I only saw that which I had been seeing for this entire time thus far- a dark ceiling, intercepted on both sides at right angles by the equally dark walls. 

The woman's voice started up again. She turned her voice around and around, low and high- then higher, higher, and higher! The echo was too loud! It rang in my ears- I can't stand this! I held my ears to stop the noise from funneling into them. Oh God, spare me this torture! Make it stop!

But it wouldn't stop. Her voice kept climbing ever higher, vibrating cacophonously, until it became constant on what I thought to be the highest possible note ever. 

I broke my paralysis and ran. Oh, dear, Jenny! Shame on you! Afraid of a such a stupid noise, are you? Shame, shame! 

But my nerves were shot. I felt wretched, I felt like I was on the verge of breaking. I felt insane. 

Then I looked ahead of me. 

Instead of being in that tunnel, I found myself to be in a sort of room. There, in the center, stood a piano, solemn-looking, enveloped in the street-lamp light filtering down from what seemed to be gaps in a man-hole cover, or perhaps from gaps in a street drain. I could see the dust moats floating, slowly scrambling in different directions as they made their way downwards, making their final resting spot atop the instrument. As I stared at this scene before me, the distant sounds of the Opera House seemed to fade away.

This is...peculiar. Could this be the place of the silly musician? 

But there was no-one in the room. 

Then, a certain thought occurred to me for the first time- and I felt stupid for not having caught myself sooner. Oh, silly Jenny! That's right- who would actually live down here? It's not like the strange man- or woman- stays here for a living! Be realistic- really, why did I even expect someone to be down here?

"Are you lonely?" A voice- of course, probably inside my head- said. 

"Of course not!" I replied to myself. 

I approached the instrument. My steps echoed louder than before. There was sheet music stacked upon the built-in stand. I was surprised and content with myself for being able to put a name to the paper with lines and dots- some open, some closed, some with tails, some without- written on and in between the lines. Of course I'd know the name! I'm not a prodigy in English for nothing- in just a split second, my mind can come up with a word for anything! Sheet music- a simple word that I can remember in a heartbeat!

Who knows- maybe, being the genius that I am, I will be able to decode the meaning of these dots all by myself.

As I stared at the dots, trying to figure them out, I noticed something strange...

The papers were moving; they were vibrating ever so slightly. 

Oh, it's the draft, certainly. Or, another possibility is that they are being blown by the breaths of wind that have managed to make their way down here, through the opening above.