A Phantom and His Family

Chapter 6: Dreams, Music, and Pancakes

Erik's POV

*3:00 AM*

I found myself in the wilderness, black tendrils of smoke soon turning into a wall of flames surrounding me. The feeling of intense heat was felt all around as deranged laughter and the off-pitch sound of carnival music echoed through the cloudy night air. I couldn't see, I couldn't think, and there was no way out.

Suddenly, above all of the horrific noise, I heard three distinct voices call out to me in fear.

My family!

'Erik!'

'Daddy!'

'Daddy!'

'Hang on!' I shouted in panic, 'I'm coming!'

I tried desperately to get over the walls of fire but just as I had found a small opening between the flames, they had suddenly changed into the bars of a cage!

'What is this?! Let me go!' I demanded, rattling the bars. My black suit and my white mask were gone. In their stead, I was dressed in a pair of dirty, ragged, brown trousers and a gray, burlap sack covered my face, almost suffocating me with the added heat.

At that moment, I heard a dark chuckle as a familiar being made appeared from the darkness.

'Mother? What is going on? Where is my family?!'

My mother laughed again as another figure made its way towards me. When I saw just who it was, I was ready to faint with shock and fear.

'Javert! No, you're dead! I-I killed you when I was nine! You can't be alive!'

'Oh but I am, my little freak! And I have a little surprise for you. Or rather, three of them.'

With a snap of his fingers, three men appeared, one with his arm around my struggling wife's neck, the other two dragging both of my children by their hair, and each man held the silver barrel of a pistol against their temples!

'No! Don't hurt them! It's me you want! Just leave them alone!' I cried, desperate to save them. 

I turned to my mother, a wicked grin etched on her face.

'Mother! Please, help us! I thought you have changed!'

'Oh, my poor little boy.' She cooed in a sickly sweet voice, 'So naive. So trusting. So utterly pathetic.'

With tears of pain in my eyes, I watched as she melted back into the darkness, a rather large sack of money in her hands as the sound of pistols being clocked into place and the cries of my wife and children filled the air, conducting a sickening melody.

'Say goodbye to your whore and your abominations, monster!'

With that, three shots were fired and their screams resounded in my ears.

"NO!" I yelped, waking up with a jolt. I sat up on the bed, looking around the darkened room and at Evangeline, who was sleeping next to me. I gave a sigh of relief as I watched her take in slow, peaceful breaths, an occasional snore coming out of her plump, beautiful lips. Taking care to not wake her, I slowly got out of bed and opened the conjoining door to our children's room.

Thankfully, they were heavy sleepers, just like their mother. I went over to their bed, checking to see if anything was amiss. Satisfied that everything was normal, I made sure that the doors were locked in both rooms before going under the covers again, my mind still tormented by the dream I just had.