The Angel's Shadow || The Phantom of the Opera || Book Two

2. Haunted Beginnings

Chapter Two || Haunted Beginnings

Mélodie

The carriage came to a stop in front of a large house just outside of Paris. The ride over here took close to twenty minutes. Twenty minutes from my beloved opera house. Twenty minutes from home.

Erik helped me out of the carriage and onto the wet pavement. Placing his hand at the small of my back we began the trek up the to manor waiting for us. Wedged in between two other large manors is the house that is to be our new home. It reminded me of one of the vacation homes my family and I used to visit when I was a child. We had many spread out over the planet earth. None of them felt like home to me. They were too big. Too unnecessary. Even as a child I thought, "Why do we need so many homes? Why do we need so many dresses? Why do we need so much stuff?" I hated it. The only place I ever felt at home was at the Opéra Populaire and in Erik's lair. Soon we'd be living far away from both.

The white mansion loomed over me with its marble walls and over abundant supply of windows. Spring is coming closer, the buds on the trees reaching out to greet the warmer weather. A servant held open the door for its new occupants. Erik kept his hand on my back as he showed me around our new home. It is too bright. Too spacious. Too much like the homes I ran away from. I could see my father sitting at the desk in Erik's new office and my mother standing by the window of our new bedroom. The giggles of my brother and me echoed on the spiral staircase. I could see us huddled by the fireplace when we were small, after our mother and my father had died.

"Dantes, come look. There's a new article on the Opéra Populaire and its ghost."

"Mélodie, how many articles about that man are you going to read?"

"All of them, Dantes! I want to know more about that masked man! If only I could hear his angelic voice again."

"Mélodie is in love!"

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Am not!"

I looked up at that masked man standing next to me.

Am to.

I loved him so much I almost knew nothing else but my love for him.

Erik's eyes glowed with happiness, "Do you like it, darling?"

I looked around the music room and cleared my throat to mask my lie, "It's perfect, my love. Perfect. We will be very happy here. Very happy."

Erik hugged me from behind and nuzzled his nose into my neck, "I can already hear our son's laughter resonating off the walls. He'll be the perfect little aristocrat."

I fought back my cringe.

"Oh! And look, mon ange (my angel)!" Erik released me and went over to flip a switch. Light flooded the room from the chandelier above, "Electric light!"

I loved our candles. I loved our home. Not this...this monster who is holding us captive in its digestive system.

I could feel my chin beginning to quiver, "Wonderful, darling. Wonderful." Erik happily embraced me again and I quickly wiped away the tear that fell onto his shoulder.

The man selling us the new house said we would be able to move in in about two weeks. Enough time for us to get our things together here and bring it to our new home. Erik had wanted to bring everything but I asked him not to. Wiping out the lair would be like erasing our memories and sucking my heart dry. It wasn't like it would be difficult for us to afford new things in our new house anyways.