The Underground Music (Phantom of the Opera Fanfic)

Chapter 24: Thieves

I allowed myself approximately two moments of dramatic admiring before I bounced away from the wall. "Alright, I've finished admiring. Let us go. There's no time to-"

"Jennifer?"

My head immediately snapped in the direction from which the masculine voice came. I managed a rather shaky smile. "Ah, Mr.Greenhill, how nice it is to see you again!"

It wasn't until after my answer that I realized I should have said something else, like "Pardon, monsignor? My apologies, my name is not Jennifer," for Mr.Greenhill rushed directly over to me and grabbed my shoulders with concern in his eyes- which, I must add, was a rather audacious thing for a teacher to do. And not to mention, this was something very unlike Mr.Greenhill to do, especially to me, a girl who he had gotten fed up with on several occasions, and come to think of it, who he probably didn't even care for.

"Jennifer! Everyone has been so worried about you! We must get you to the police at once!"

Thankfully, Nadir stepped in. "Monsignor Greenhill, was it? I've found this girl in the sewers... do you know her?"

Unfortunately, Mr.Greenhill would have none of it- most likely because of the color of Nadir's skin. "Kidnapper- I'll turn you to the police at once!"

"No, Mr.Greenhill, he is not lying!"

"You poor thing- you have Stockholm Syndrome! Come, let us go to the police-" He tried to lead me away, but all at once I became very irritable and angrily pulled myself away from him. 

"No, I will not go with you! So what is it, you suddenly become concerned for me only when I disappear? Give me a break! I know exactly the truth- while I was missing, no-one but my father was worried about me. It's too late for you to be concerned about me. I need not waste any time with the likes of someone who gets excitement from finding a missing girl. So I bid you a good day, sir!" I quickly turned to Nadir. "Let us go! Now!" 

His eyes were wide, and I could tell that he couldn't believe what I had just done. Nonetheless, he snapped out of his shock at my command and nodded. "Yes," was all he said. With that, he darted off, intercepted my hand, and we took off down the street hand-in-hand. 

The world blurred around me, I felt like we were running so fast. Perhaps it was the excitement that I got from telling Mr.Greenhill off. That- that felt so good!

I was expecting that I'd hear a shout saying, "After them!", but there was no such shout. That was either because I had left Mr.Greenhill in such a paralyzing shock, or he truly didn't care. I didn't care either way. I was free from the society which had pulled me down and spat on me. I had a new purpose now.

We managed to pull into an alleyway, safely without pursuit. 

Out of breath, I huffed, "Horses...do you know how to get horses?"

"We're going to need to...steal them, mademoiselle."

I smiled. "Let's do it."

"I'm very surprised with you, mademoiselle Jennifer."

"Thank you."

He pointed across the alley, to the shoulder of the street perpendicular to us. "There, let us seize those two carriage horses."

"Okay."

We didn't waste any time. We shot out of the alley and pounced on those horses. To the driver, Nadir said, "We are in a great hurry. A friend of ours has been kidnapped."

The driver complained and shouted for help as we were freeing the horses from their harnesses. Thanks to the diffusion of responsibility phenomenon, no-one stepped up to face us. Or perhaps it was because we both looked scary. Who knows?

In no-time the horses were freed, and we were both mounted and flying down the street. 

"We're going to Folkestone, correct?"

"Yes!"

We rode our stolen horses with lightning speed southeast, maneuvering around traffic and pedestrians and getting profane shouts in return, and soon we were out of the city. At the exact moment when the planes outside London became open to us, Nadir pulled off the street and into the tall grass. I followed. We got as far away from the street as would allow us to not be seen by anyone travelling on the street.

With how fast we were going, I was afraid I'd run into something. But as long as I followed Nadir's moves, I surprisingly avoided any collision. And collision wasn't the only thing that our speed prevented. It also prevented me from getting on any train of thought- I was trying to estimate how long it would take us to get to Folkestone, however with how fast I was going, I was focusing more so on following Nadir and not making any mistakes. So I decided to ask Nadir instead. 

"When will we be in Folkestone?" I shouted. 

"Soon enough, I hope. However, I'm afraid we're looking at five hours." The foreboding in his voice worried me. 

"Five hours?! Can't we catch a train in Orpington?"

Silence. "Yes, I suppose that is a better idea, isn't it?" 

 So to Rochester we headed. We skirted the borders of many settlements and passed many spectacular views of meadows, hills and mountains, and I wished I could have done some sightseeing. Oh, well.

We came upon Orpington after an hour of riding at practically the speed of sound, and found ourselves at the train station not long after that. We tethered up our horses, and as Nadir was at the box office buying tickets to Folkestone, I looked around and made up for the sightseeing that I wasn't able to do on the way here. Why did we have to stop in such an unimpressive town? I pouted.

Before I knew it, I was joined by Nadir. "Nadir, what should we do with the horses?"

"I suppose we can give them away. We have twenty minutes until the train leaves."

"Why don't we find some little girls who'd like them? I would want to give them to the homeless, but I want them to be cared for."

"That's a very kind thought, mademoiselle. We will do that."

I stood and gazed around. The train station wasn't bustling much, yet there was a small crowd of people, and it wasn't hard to spot a family of five getting off a train which had just came in. 

"Let's go to them." We un-tethered the horses and led them to the family.

We stood before the five of them- a mother, father, two little boys and one little girl- smiling awkwardly and holding the reigns of our stolen horses, and they had a confused look on their face. The father spoke up. "Pardon me, is there something we can do for you?"

"We would like you to turn these horses to the police. You see, they were stolen. We would do the task ourselves, but we are in a great hurry. They came from London."

Nadir shot me a look. What can I say? I decided at the last moment that the horses needed to be taken back to their rightful owner. 

The mother shuffled in her place and gathered the children closer to her. After a short pause and a glance toward his wife, the father replied, "Um...I suppose we can do that."

"Great! Many thanks." I handed the reigns over to him, and he took them, looking uncomfortable and probably not knowing what else to do. 

As soon as that exchange was over, I curtsied and said with a big smile, "Have a nice day!" and turned back to the train station, not saying anything more to the baffled family. Nadir followed. He fell in step with me and said, "You chose the perfect prey, mademoiselle." I laughed.

Ten minutes later, we heard "All aboard!" and were on the train to Folkestone.