The Angel of Music Sings for Me

Chapter 9: Erik's Past

3rd Person POV

Rachel looked at the flames in surprise before fainting. Behind her Raoul and Christine caught her, gently lowering her to the ground. In a few moments later Madame Giry walked off. Raoul, noticing this, caught up to her.

"Please Madame, tell me what you know," Raoul begged.

"Please don't ask me Monsieur," the ballet mistress said, desperately.

"You know something, don't you," Raoul questioned.

"I know nothing!" Madame Giry told him, assertively.

"Madame, please, for all our sakes," Raoul said. He was worried for his fiancee, his future sister in law, as well as everyone he's come to meet here at the Opera Populaire.

"Very well," she agreed, "but we must go somewhere else, the walls have ears you know."

They went into Madame Giry's quarters, where she then sat at her desk, and look forlorn at a photograph of a young girl, who appeared to be around the age of fourteen years old.

"It was many years ago..." Madame Giry began.

Antoinette's POV

"I was young, studying to be a ballerina, one of many. There was a travelling fair, one day near the opera house..."

This traveling fair is very bizarre. It came every year, yet this time around, it seemed different. I couldn't understand the fear or the laughter the other girls showed to what everyone called the freaks. I can see suffering in their eyes. Finally, after waiting in line for so long, we entered a tent. The wooden sign said, 'The Devil's Child,' on it. The man who ran the tent was dirty and grungy. He gave me a feeling of being unsettled, like he could hurt us if he wanted to.
In the middle of the tent was a large iron cage, and in it, made my heart tear in two.

It was a boy, around my age. He looked malnourished based on the way his skin was tight to his exposed ribs, from the fact he only wore brown pants tied to his waist with a piece of rope. His skin was browned from all of the dirt on his skin. The only thing that seemed like he would be in this kind of place, was that he wore a paper sack over his head, with eye holes cut into it. He was playing with a small monkey with cymbals, like any other child would, tapping the cymbals together softly in some sort of rhythm.

At that moment the man came and he kicked away the stuffed toy. The boy ducked low, but the man held his small, dirty arm in a tight grip. He beat the boy with his belt. Everyone started laughing as this happened, but I turned away at the sight of the mistreatment this boy was getting. The man ripped off the sack and tugged the boy's face forward, "Here he is, the Devil's Child."

His face was mangled flesh, as well as new marks, probably from the sack rubbing and irritating his face. Everyone laughed at him, but I saw the pain in his eyes. I looked at him with pity, feeling sorry for this boy.
Finally everyone started leaving. I reluctantly left as well, giving an, 'I'm sorry,' to the boy with my eyes as I walked away. I heard coins being counted greedily by the man, but when I looked back, one last time, a disturbing sight met my gaze.

The boy, he....

I couldn't believe it. Before I knew what I was doing, I was helping him escape, away from the police. I pushed him into the cellar of the opera house. I ran through the front doors and met up with him in the cathedral.

"I hid him from the world..."

3rd Person POV

"It was his playground, and now his artistic domain," Madame Giry said with tears in her eyes, "He's an architect, composer, musician, a magician, a genius Monsieur."

"But clearly Madame," Raoul retorted gently, "genius has turned to madness."

"So now you know. Another thing," she forewarned him, "no matter what, he will never let go of what he has began to love, meaning your fiance and her sister. He's been like a guide to them when their father passed. They know him as the Angel of Music, but he is far from the angel they once known. Just, don't rip away what once gave them happiness. I consider them both my daughters, and I remember the light in their eyes when they first heard from their, 'angel.'"

"I promise you I won't," Raoul said, "However, I want to stop the reign of terror the Phantom has caused."

"Just nothing too drastic Monsieur," Madame Giry said turning to leave the room. She then turned back to him, "Also, congratulations on the engagement. Gustave would be happy his little one has found you."

Raoul nodded, happy to hear that from someone who was close to Christine's father. With that, they went back to the crowd of others. Rachel was alert and awake, Christine was slightly calmer, and everyone else was silently asking the same question. How are they going to get away from this?