The Shadow's Melody || The Phantom of the Opera || Book One

20. Letters of Longing

Chapter Twenty || Letters of Longing

Erik

Sitting down at my organ I carefully opened the letter I found on the roof. Mélodie's delicate handwriting was written on the envelope: Erik

Unfolding the piece of parchment I eagerly read her letter:

My darling Erik,

All day long I have been replaying last night's events over and over again in my mind. Perhaps my subconscious mind thinks that if I continue to replay them I will be able to relive them once more.

I miss you. I miss you so much it hurts and I've really only gone a few hours without seeing you. How much more pain will I experience when we're miles apart living completely different lives? I don't think I can bear it.

In my dreams I heard your melodic moans. I'm trying to decide if I like those sounds better than your singing voice.

I love you, mon ange (my angel). I have loved you since the moment I first heard you sing. You will forever remain my Angel of Music.

Your Melody in Darkness,

Mélodie

P.S.

I hope your muscles were as sore as mine were this morning. The dull aches were your other way of marking me as yours, and only yours.

A smile formed on my lips when I read the end to her letter. Indeed they were. Atleast for a few days she will remember where I have been. And for a few days I will remember where she had been and how she had felt. I hope her red marks on my skin would never vanish.

I read her letter again.

How much more pain will I experience when we're miles apart living completely different lives?

I don't think I can bear it either. The pain of not being near her now was already too much. And soon she would be leaving for New France where she will rule and marry her fiancé. He would make her his. He would touch what is mine. Little did he know she had given herself to me first. I felt a sharp pain in my chest when I realized that any children that will grow within her would not be mine, but his. She would have to have children. New France needed heirs to the throne. And I needed her.

I'm trying to decide whether I like those sounds better than your singing voice.

I smiled again, remembering how she had made me sing the first time she came down here. Her sketch of that night sat near by on my organ.

I walked into my bedroom, the messed up sheets sending both pain and happiness through me. Mélodie's scent lingered faintly. I didn't sleep there in fear that my scent would erase hers. I picked up the slip she had forgotten and pressed it to my nose.

Cinnamon.

"Well I should, I do bathe in the stuff after all."

Her giggle echoed in my mind, my tears soaking into her white undergarment.

Finding some paper and a pen I began my letter for her:

My Angel,

Pouring wax over the back of the envelope to seal it I grabbed my cloak. On my way out I also picked up a rose and the present I had made for her.

I slipped in and out of the shadows, going unnoticed by the few people who walked Paris' streets at this hour of the night. Taking all the back ways and familiar alleys I quickly made it to the large manor. Undetected by the many royal guards - who seem to be multiplying - I went through the hidden door and made it inside the manor walls.