Twisted Every Way(Phantom Of The Opera Fic)

Chapter 70: Forwards

2 Years Later

Ilios sat at the window sill, eyes fixed upwards as the clouds were blown eastward by the wind. the moonlight growing strong and pulling back, leaving her in darkness once more.

She took several deep breaths of the crisp country air. The train had been small and dirty, covered in filth and squalor. Children pushed together like cattle. She missed her Father, her Mother, missed sitting alone and playing. 

She had been sent to help Gustave with dearest Mary. Dearest lonley child with Autumns eyes.

Luke was heading off to boarding school in the fall and Gustave was struggling to even speak with the adoring little girl. 

Ilios yearned for Eli on this last day more than ever.

Had it really been 10 months they were apart? She knew she had grown out of her thin shape, rounded out nicely and become less pale, but she knew little else what changes had improved her. 

Gustave for one had noticed how she sat more, read (Not upside down as was her custom) as a lady should, and was much more delicate and precise in her words. 

"You'll be rather pleased with her Mother," Gustave wrote in a poetic letter, "She changes like the winds these days. A pleasant breeze that has swept away the dust of the past off every shelf in this household. She brings back simpler times, happier ones, that I have long thought unattainable." 

Ilios smiled at the thought of that letter. She had oftentimes peaked over her brother's shoulder to see how her report came that week. Playing off her newest accomplishments as nothing In her own narrative she would send besides his. 

"Oh goodbye," she had cried desparingly as the small bitter little Mary had kissed her cheek. 

She ran to her brother and clutched his vest, "Oh I do wish you would come home." 

"Sweet child," Gustave had laughed drying her tears, "If only I could bring myself to." 

"You must come," Ilios insisted like a woman would old in age scolding her inferiors. "Mother must see Mary. And you'll worry Father sick." 

"Yes Dear," Gustave smiled helping her into the buggy. "Be sure to write."

"Goodbye, Gustave!" she said waving violently out the window. "Goodbye Mary!" 

She turned and blew kisses as they slowly rolled out of sight. 

"Where's she gone?" Mary asked in her small inquisitive voice. 

"Back home." 

"Oh," Mary said. her little eyes turned upward, confusion wracking her little mind. "Is she gone with mummy?"

Gustaves demeanor changed and he took the small girls hand, saying nothing and leading her inside. 

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The train ride home was long and tedious but Ilios didn't mind it. She had Mary's gift of a handkerchief wrapped up in her pocket. 

When she arrived at the train she couldn't help but feel out of breath. While visiting Gustave, she had traded her old School Girls outfits out for a corset and the old white lace gown Peter had boughten her so very long ago.  It pinched and prided, but it did make her feel rather distinguished and shockingly scandalous. 

What would her Father say!?

She departed off the train, she stood, bags in hand, standing on tippy toes every once and a while trying to see over the towering crowds.