The Man behind the Mask (The Phantom of the Opera)

Chapter 24

Everyone in the room was shocked, nobody knew what to do about the body. Sawyer and Karissa rushed up beside me.

"What's going on?" Sawyer asked.

"And why has Rachelle fainted?" Karissa asked.

"Isn't it obvious," I said and pointed to the ceiling.

They both gasped at the sight they saw. Sawyer and Derek got through the crowd of people and stood before them.

"Nobody panic, we have called the police," Sawyer said to the restless crowd.

"Everybody just needs to head back into the ballroom and wait there for further instructions," Derek informed us.

We all started to slowly migrate into the ballroom. Rachelle was up now and walking beside me with her head facing the ground. Shorty after we arrived in the ballroom Karissa and Jen found us.

"Hey did you guys see Raoul?" I asked.

"Of course we saw him! It's hard to miss a dead body hanging from the ceiling!" Karissa exclaimed.

"I wanted to get a closer look to see if his face was turning blue," Jen said.

We all stared at her with shocked expressions mixed with slight horror.

"Aren't you creeped out by all of this?" I asked.

"What? When I was younger I would read the classic grims fairytales. And some of those stories were pretty creepy," she answered.

"Anyways, have any of you guys seen The Phantom?" I asked.

"No, the last thing I saw was him walking away with Raoul," Rachelle answered.

"You don't think he did this, do you?" Karissa whispered.

"No he probably doesn't know about it," I said hopefully.

At that moment Derek and Sawyer walked in to make another announcement.

"Attention everybody, the police are here and they just need to talk everybody to see what they know. We will be calling your names one by one," Derek said.

While every bodies name was being called I was looking around for The Phantom. Then I heard them call my name. I slowly followed the cops and Scottie into a private room. They led me to a seat and then they started asking questions.

"So we just have a couple protocol questions to ask, you are not in trouble but some people have been mentioning your name." The cop said.

"What! Who?" I asked completely shocked.

"That's not important right now. Can you tell in your perspective what you were doing the moments before you heard the scream?"

I hesitated a minute before answering. I didn't want to mention The Phantom but I felt like I had to. I decided I would just skip the part that was about him until further questioning.

"Yes I was speaking to my friend Rachelle, she was trying to get away from this guy because he was being way too clingy." I answered.

"We found some evidence that gives us ideas who the murder was done by. Now Christine says that she and her husband saw someone from their past and that's who Raoul was talking to. Tell me miss have you ever heard of The Phantom of the Opera?" The cop asked.

My forehead started to get really sweaty and I couldn't stop fidgeting with my hands.

"By your reaction I see that you have. Someone else told us that earlier this year you were asking a lot of questions about him. And it was reported that he was seen with you right before he went to talk to Raoul. Can you explain that?" He asked.

After a few seconds of calculating I decided to play dumb. "I was asking questions about The Phantom because I wanted to learn more about the place I worked. And as for me being seen with The Phantom, the guy you saw me talking to I just met here." I lied. "I didn't know who he was under his costume and he asked me to dance a couple times. But I had no idea who he was," I lied again.

"Okay that's all we wanted to ask you, you are free to go but do not leave the country," he said.

***

When I came out my friends were rushing towards me.

"What happened?"

"Are you in trouble?"

"And was the cop hot?"

"Slow down I will tell you everything but first I need to find Andrew," I said.

"He's over there, he's still sulking a little," Rachelle said feeling guilty.

I marched up to Andrew fuming with anger. When I got closer he stood up straight and had a concerned look on his face. When I finally reached him I pulled back my hand and slapped him as hard as I could in the face.

"What the Hell was that for?" He screamed.

"That was for selling me out to the police. Yes I was asking about The Phantom but it was for curiosity's sake!" I said which technically wasn't a lie.

"Oh, I didn't know they would use it against you. All they asked is if I knew anything about The Phantom of the Opera." He said.

I calmed down a bit, "sorry for slapping you, I just need to get some air."

"We're still not allowed to leave," Jen said.

"Right I forgot about that, well I guess we'll just wait for some news."

***

After another hour of waiting around, we were finally allowed to know what was going on.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I know that tonight didn't turn out quite like we expected. It's getting late and you all deserve to go home, before you go the police have just informed us that Raoul was defiantly murdered. From what the police have told me it looks like The Phantom of the Opera has returned."