The Phantom of the Opera: Phantom's Apprentice (Complete)

Chapter 8

"I have told you for the thousandth time, I do not know who you are and must return to my master!" Christia yelled out, angered by the people who kept questioning her. Earlier that day they had brought her to their home and now was talking more, but not words they wanted to hear. The entire carriage ride there, they rode in silence. Christine would try and connect with her long lost child by placing a hand on her leg, but Christia would only give a glare and move her leg away. Raul did not pay any mind to anything that was going on. He was silent the entire ride. When they had brought her into the house, Christia began to inspect for ways out for later that night. They showed her where she would be living and that was when the questions came.

"You call your kidnapper your Master? What has he placed in your head?" Raul had screamed out. Christia gave a look of disgust as if he had just slapped her in the face with an insult. She had explained that she had been under the care of a master and must return or he would be incredibly worried about her.

"Kidnapper? He did not kidnap me, but he saved me! He has taught me well and you shall never call him a kidnapper ever again!" She shrieked with fury in her eyes. In response to this, Raul gave a look of anger.

"You will not give me that attitude young lady. You are my daughter and that is that!" He screamed back. "Now I had better not hear another word about this 'master' and act like a daughter should act."

Those words played again and again in Christine's mind. It was late in the night and she could not sleep. Raul was enraged about her not giving him any answers and for hours was pacing in his study. Christia had locked herself in the room and had been nothing but silent. Christine had been walking around the outside of the estate contemplating the events of that day. She was dressed in a white nightgown with a robe of bright sky blue. Her hair was down and the curls bounced as she walked.

'What if she does not remember us at all,' she thought to herself? The moon was high in the sky, making the night lovely as ever. The moon was shining bright and stars flooded the sky. With each step Christine let out a small tear. "I wonder even if we should just let her return to this master. She would be happier." Walking along the side of the house, Christine listened to the crickets and felt the cool wind against her face. "I just wish she would remember. She was only six when she disappeared."

After a moment of walking, she heard something else. Looking up, she noticed that she was now under Christia's window. It was on the second story and her window was open. The girl was looking out with a concerned look on her face. Along with this, she was singing. The voice sounded almost like an angel. Christine listened for a moment.

"Past the point of no return," she sang with a voice that even angels would flock from all around to hear. "Our games of make believe are at an end." The words she sang pierced Christine in the heart. She listened more as she sang the last words. "We've past the point of no return."

Christine stood still in shock. That song was a song that had played in her head for years. The song that turned her life into a complete spiral. That fateful night that played over and over again.

"It was him," she whispered under her breath, looking back up at her child, who had stopped singing and closed the window. "He cared for you." Tears soon began to come down and began to walk towards the back garden. "He taught her to sing like he taught me." Sitting on a wooden bench near her, she cried. "I should have known, all those years. He cared for you." She then thought again. "Christia. Another name for mine. He must have known you were my child."

As she spoke to herself, she now heard another voice singing. But this time it was not Christia's voice. It was a lower, deeper voice. A man's voice. Raul never sang and it was not coming from the house. It was a voice that Christine hadn't heard for years. She looked to the direction the voice was coming from. The voice was coming from the forest behind the house.