The Underground Music (Phantom of the Opera Fanfic)

Chapter 11: Siren's Song

I-I can't...

I stuck my nose up and placed my hands upon my hips, masking my fright. "Sir, one cannot simply order a woman around. You are no gentleman, and you certainly are not my husband."

Just when Erik was bending over and about to retrieve a rather macabre staff, adorned at the tip with a skull, from inside the gondola, he paused and turned his head around to look at me from beneath his mask. "You booby, do not even utter the word 'husband' in a sentence in which I am the subject. Now get in! Have you no brains? Can you not see that we are in a hurry?"

"I prefer to walk- it would be more ladylike of me."

"Is it not ladylike to be carried in a gondola?" He asked, irked.

"Not for me, sir."

He stood up straight, and I could see his eyes squinting. "Ha...I can see right through you, Jennifer...it seems I am not the only one with a mask."

I blanched. "W-what do you mean by that, sir?"

He approached me, and I remained still. I cannot let him see me being weak...I cannot waver...

"You are afraid." He said right to my face, holding my gaze intensely.

"Sir, it is disrespectful to make assumption. Have you no manners?"

"Oh, stop being like this! Your arrogant front is no match for my skills. I can see you for who you really are... a scared girl."

"A scared girl." The words echoed in my mind.

I started to shake a little, and I watched as his gaze softened. "If you allow me, I will help bring out the genius in you. It's there, for sure, but you won't let it out. You're smothering it with your feigned superiority. I can make you truly superior."

"W-what are you proposing?"

"I want you to be my pupil."

He stepped back and offered me his hand; his cape fell over his outstretched arm, and he seemed to be shrouded in a dark, ominous aura.

Yet, I found him curiously alluring.

He stepped backwards into the gondola, and I found myself moving towards him, mind blank.

I put my hand into his, and he gently pulled me into the gondola. He helped me down so that I was sitting on my knees at the front, and, standing behind me, he pushed the gondola off from the shore using his staff.

He...this man...has power over me...And why am I letting him have it?

My mind submitted to his dominance, either with or against my will- which one it was, I could not tell.

The waves lapped against the gondola, and as my ears picked up the sound, my fear began to return. I started to take in quick, desperate breaths, hiccuping with fright. My heart began to race, along with my thoughts.

But I was steadied when I felt a hand upon my shoulder.

"Do not be afraid."

My breaths began to slow down. Memories of my mother came and went as my mind stopped its panic.

When I was settled, I felt something eager begin to stir within me. But eager to do what...?

Before I knew it, and before I could hold my tongue, my mouth opened and I began to speak.

It was eager to confess.

"My mother...she died this way. In a boat, I mean...father was ill, and she went out fishing in his stead...but she never returned..."