Why Have You Brought Me Here?

Chapter 2: Waking, Silent and Resigned

Thank you sooo much to those of you who have read the Prologue and the first chapter! I would really appreciate any and all advice :) I can't improve the story without knowing what needs to be fixed, added, cut out etc. As always, enjoy!!! :)

                                                  Sincerely,

                                                                     SarahoftheOpera

Chapter 2: Waking, Silent and Resigned

The masked apparition soared its weightless body toward me, but my shivering frame froze. As he revealed his hand from under his cloak, a single red rose balanced on his palm. He gestured the fragrant flower toward me and spoke with such intensity that I might have fainted, "Christine? My angel...no...the one she promised me." In trepidation, I took a heavy step backwards, falling into one of his traps. "And now, my dear, you are here with me, trapped forever in this internal obscurity." And now I was here, trapped forever, unable to take my eyes off of his, unable to shift his body off of mine.

"Juniper? Juniper, wake up! We have arrived." To where, I thought as I sat up from the carriage's pew. I regained consciousness and realized the destination we had arrived to. I had also remembered the dream I had escaped, the nightmare that was embedded into my mind, repeating itself every night since my mother's death. The nightmare which crept into my thoughts daily and teased my weary dreams with its malignant darkness. The sudden nightmare reminded me of my mother's life stories, although I knew it was silly to trust these tales. Cancer had made her weak, had stripped her mind of rational thought and had filled it with demented truths.

Trying to make sense of it all, and mostly attempting to calm my nerves, I counted the years in my head and figured that this Phantom was too old to fight or search for a girl he had never seen before. Yes, I thought, he probably didn't even live at the Opera house anymore. Who would stay there without an actual position as a stagehand or a singer? I would. I would be there with Meg as my benefactor.

"Pity me", I thought. I am the child of this Opera house's Patron; I would be allowed to saunter through without providing any handiwork of my own.

The passage to Paris was long, but the tempting sleep, which welcomed my heavy eyelids, took my mind far away from the carriage's weaves and turns down the treacherous path. Before my father, rest in peace, had taken his final breath, he told me that all the arrangements had been made to send me off to the Opera Populaire. He said it was the closest thing to home that my mother had, and that I would be with my Aunt Meg, my only family left. Upon his death, he handed me a few parcels of jewelry and clothing, things my mother had strung together years before.

 They had planned this together; they had known their years on Earth were few. Cancer tempts death so quickly.

 I gathered up the jewels and cloth and found the nearest carriage. Offering as much jewelry as I could, consisting of a few diamonds and emeralds, the driver accepted my bargain and we were gone, leaving my old life behind, and starting anew.

I had finally arrived to Paris, and my new life was about to begin.