The Demon's Child and the Phantom

Chapter 6

Rosella's POV:

I kept my eyes on the floor as Madame Giry's feet turn from the door to me. I see her confident step hesitate for a moment but then she begins to walk toward me. I stand from the chair as she gets closer to me and walk out from behind the desk. I stand silently as she stands right in front of me. Her shoes match her dress, a dull but nice black color that reminds me of the starless sky. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I stiffen and wonder how she's willing to touch me, followed by a rush of fear of what she may be about to do to me.

"Mademoiselle Rosella?"

The concern and worry lacing her voice force me to slowly look up at her. I look up into her dark brown eyes and she stares calmly back at me. I see her calm look change as she stares at me and I stare at her. The look she gives me now is what makes me look at her more closely. It's a look I haven't seen directed towards me since Florica and that was many years ago, with the memory having grown blurry with time. Her eyes look so much like Florica, I have to remind myself it isn't her.

She doesn't gasp as I meet her eyes with my own, so I suppose it was only Meg that gasped earlier. There are no looks of hate or fear from her eyes as I continue to stare into them. Instead she looks at me as if I'm a lost child. She looks at me with a mothering look I've seen my owners give their children, and the look nurse maids give their wards. A look that I haven't seen from anyone other than Florica when I was a small child, and it makes me wonder how she can look at me so.

"Yes, Madame Giry?"

Her eyes give away what she is thinking a bit as I answer her. She isn't disgusted by me, that much is clear, but the pain and pity that shows in her eyes lets me know that she somehow understands to some extent. I force myself not to look down at the floor or break away from her seemingly knowing gaze, and finally she nods and gives me a gentle smile.

"You are quite beautiful Mademoiselle."

"Madame, I am afraid I am not beautiful. I cannot be."

"What do you mean dear?"

"I am a Demon's Child, and creatures such as that are not beautiful."

I watched as my words seemed to confuse her, as she continued to look at me with concern. Surely, she knows that my eyes display the curse that I was born with, I was reminded of it for every day since I can remember. My eyes and hair are the outward signs of the soulless evil being that I am, as I've been told since I was old enough to understand.

"You are not a Demon's Child dear, you are but a uniquely beautiful Mademoiselle."

"I believe you are mistaken Madame Giry, but I thank you for your kind words. May I still see the stage of the opera house though?"

"Of course dear. Follow me."

She doesn't ask any questions about what I said, something I'm oddly thankful for right now. I follow next to her trying to remember to look down, and avoid eye contact with people as we pass them in the halls, but I still catch myself looking up at everything as she points out different aspects of the opera house. Everything is so beautiful that I can't help but smile a bit.

We walk into the theater and I find myself surrounded by red velvet chairs, a chandelier even more beautiful than the smaller ones outside dangling above us, and a mural painted above it representing heaven I suppose. It is probably as close to heaven as I will ever really get, and its beauty takes my breath away for a moment. I look towards the stage and I see ballerinas stretching and practicing their leaps on the stage, Meg is among them spinning on her toes before coming to a perfect stop. I hear the orchestra start practicing, while ballet dancers prance around the stage.

I listen to the tune and without realizing it, begin to hum the chorus as the orchestra plays. I glance over and see Madame Giry smiling at me as my face pales a bit as I remember the promise that I had made long ago about singing, and I stop humming along. I see Madame Giry's smile remaining unaltered but her eyes change a bit as she looks at me, as if I'm someone she knows or as if I'm a puzzle to be solved.

"Do you like music Rosella?"

"Very much Madame Giry, more than anything."

"You remind me of someone I know very well. You will have to get Monsieur Khan to bring you to the opera one night so you may enjoy the entire show."

"I think we'll see what Daroga says."

I watch Meg flit across the stage on her toes and see that she is a beautiful dancer but the dancing isn't what holds my attention. The music does as the orchestra turns the sounds into emotions and the emotions into words in my mind. I close my eyes to listen more intently as the music begins to hit a crescendo, but a sharp scream interrupts the music and causes it to stop in a screeching halt.

The scraping of violin strings hurts my ears as it stops suddenly under the musician's skilled fingers. My eyes shoot open as I watch Madame Giry rush forward to a young ballet dancer who is in tears and clinging to Meg as if her life depended on it. I walk a bit closer and listen to what is being said but it isn't hard to hear because the young girls is practically wailing in a harsh shrill voice that makes me flinch.

"He was there, in the rafters! The Phantom of the Opera! He was watching us!"

"Shh child shhh. It's alright now. He has promised not to harm anyone ever again as long as his rules are obeyed and they have been."

Madame Giry comforts the child a bit more as her harsh wailing begins to lessen, but my attention is snagged away from the crying dancer by a shadow moving silently to my left. Shadows don't move without owners, unless it's the Phantom I suppose. The desire I have to meet him overcomes my fear of what could happen to me, and I soon turn and start to follow after it as quietly as I can. I soon find myself running noisily after it, determined to catch the owner of the shadow and see if the Phantom is as he was described by my owners and their guests.

I turn a corner, thinking that I have finally caught up to the shadow only to find myself on the floor. I glance up and see that the reason for my fall is that I bumped into three displeasing looking men. I know immediately that all of them older than I, and I am put on high alert as they all begin laughing at me on the floor. One offers his hand and I look away from it as I stand up, brushing myself off. I turn quickly to return to the theater but one of them grabs my arm and pushes me up against the wall. I flinch back further into the wall, my face becoming as placid as stone, as I try to speak clearly to him my desires.

"Please let go of me Monsieur."

He doesn't say anything as he runs his hand through my curls, laughing at the red streak, before roughly grabbing my hair and forcing me to look up at them. He lets out another laugh as the other two join in laughing at his actions. I know I should just close my eyes but something tells me that won't stop them from seeing my eyes. They'll simply think of another way, that I know from experience in the most horrid of ways.

As soon as I look at them, all three men gasp and look at me with disgust and hate in their eyes. The one holding me against the wall moves his hands to my throat instead of my hair and raises me slowly off the floor. I gasp for breath as I struggle to get his hand off my throat, clawing his hand with my nails in the attempt.

"You're with him, aren't you? Your eyes are as devilish as his could ever be, even your hair seems to be of the devil. Well the joke is on you and your Phantom now isn't it. He isn't here to save you right now, is he?!"

I can't answer him, as I struggle for any chance of breath and as even the insanity which had been rising dies out as I become dizzy from a lack of breath. They assume I'm with the phantom and right now I believe that I'll soon become one if he doesn't let go. I shouldn't have left Madame Giry's side, at least she seemed to care for me. I hear them all laugh as my gasps become shorter and my fighting against his hand on my throat grows weaker as black dots begin to appear in my vision.

"We may not be able to catch him but we caught you well enough devil spawn didn't we?"

I almost wished to be able correct them. I'm not the Devil's child, I was simply a Demon's child. But I had already started to just give up fighting all together and be thankful that suffocation was the way that I was being taken out. It didn't hurt as bad as other ways might have. It could in fact be a much worse ending that fate had in mind for me, but then I heard singing in a strong, sure, terrifying, yet beautiful voice from the shadows.

"Keep your hand at the level of your eyes."

I felt my hands drop from the man's hand around my throat just as I see all three men pale immediately at the sound of the hauntingly beautiful voice. I'm dropped onto the ground holding my throat and gasping for air as they run. I hear one scream before he is thrown across the hallway and I see it's the one that held me by my throat. I watch as he gets up as quickly as he can and sprints after the other two.

I stand slowly and turn to see who rescued me, but as I go to stand up I feel the ground shift underneath my feet and I see darkness start to cloud my eyes again. I hear my own breaths come in gasps and I struggle in regaining my balance and my breath at the same time. The last thing I can sense are two very strong arms holding me as I look up into a pair of angry golden eyes shining in the darkness that is overtaking my own.