In The Wings

Act II Scene IX

"Where is Christine?" Paul said, whispering to Cece, one of the ensemble girls. She seemed like she had been rather friendly with Christine, maybe she would know.

Christine had been missing from this reherasal and from school that day. It hadn't taken Paul long to find himself seriously concerned about where his girlfriend had disappeared to. She had been acting so strange in recent days that he couldn't help but find himself panicky over the situation.

Cece, who had been flushing a little bit because Paul Chandler was speaking to her, shook her head. "Sorry, I'm not sure. I haven't seen her around lately. Maybe you should ask Meg. They are best friends, after all."

"I've tried that," Paul replied with a sigh. "Thank you anyways."

"You're very welcome," Cece giggled.

"Cast, assemble on the stage!" Mrs. Richard called out, halting their conversation at that point. There hadn't been too much more to say, anyways. Paul and Cece scrambled to get up to the apron of the stage and end this rehearsal without any problems.

"Here," Mrs. Richard said. "We have notes for your performance for how you can all improve. Now-" She looked down at the paper in her hands and suddenly her brow creased. Something was wrong. She turned to Mr. Montegomery who gave her a matching look back.

"Mine are gone as well," he said. "Replaced."

"This is strange, almost too strange. If this is your idea of a joke, I can assure you it's not funny." After sending out a threatening glare around the cast, she continued.

"Perhaps if I read it out loud the culprit will reveal themselves and face the consquences for stealing our notes," Mrs. Richard said in a demanding voice. "It reads, 'You have seen how Christine Daae can sing, yet you give Carly the role. She was past her prime ages ago, and no one missed her in the role of Cinderella.' Signed A.G."

Mrs. Richards shook her head. "We do not have anyone here who has the initials A.G. as far as I'm aware. Whoever wrote this will step forwards immediately or suffer for it."

Suddenly Carly jumped off of the stage, shrieking her head off, "Who would do such a thing? A.G.? Who would say this? I have a note as well! Says Christine Daae will be singing on my behalf, playing Clara Johnson instead of me. If I try to take her place there will be a disaster beyond belief! 'A great misfortune,' it says! What is this madness?"

In his shock, Paul had found himself beginning to blur the rest of the world out. He needed to think about what was going on. It was possible there was a connection between these notes and Christine's disappearance. In fact, he was sure it was related in some way. Although it seemed like a strange plot off of a TV drama, he almost believed that this A.G. had kidnapped his girlfriend.

"You're the one who sent this, aren't you?" Carly snapped at him, breaking him out of his train of thought.

"No, of course not! Where is Christine?" Paul said, bursting out in anger. "Do you know?"

"Well, you might," Carly replied. "I see you have a piece of paper in your hands that's just like mine."

"It's a note. I have a note too," Paul realized. While he had been busy trying to make connections in his mind, a note had been slipped into his hands.

Everyone watched keenly as Paul unfolded his piece of paper and read over it. "It's from A.G as well. It says that Christine is under the Angel of Music's wing and we should not find try to find her. What is this?"

Mrs. Leary came into the auditorium, and all of the chatter that had arisen immediately ceased. Her presence was simply too much. No one even dared to utter a syllable in fear of her glare.