Twisted Every Way(Phantom Of The Opera Fic)

Chapter 6:The Ghost

Gustave looked around, afraid to breathe. His new room was nothing like the one he had back in their Paris apartment.

 It was hardly a room at all. The little house on the lake was small, and it's fog drifted in through the windows, it made an eerie chill and somber mood overtake the entire scenery. Every note played felt doomed, every word that was spoken; fateful. 

 Christine noted every steady drop of water from the leaky ceiling and every creak of a footstep on a floorboard.

The fond memories of the place, their meaning overcame any aversion on her part. She had chosen this as home long ago. 

She hoped, prayed, Gustave would learn to feel the same. It was only some time until Erik could fix the houses disrepair. Until then, she would try her utmost to preserve his sense of normalcy. 

 Gustave rubbed his eyes drowsily and sat up abruptly, his mother by his side and father having had appeared in the doorway. 

"Can I ask you something?" he said, curiosity overcoming his nervousness.  

"Go ahead," Erik responded with his usual briskness. 

His son's hand tightened over his mothers his eyes watching the fog gather like heavy clouds on the ceiling. 

"Has anyone ever...died down here?" Gustave said with a gulp.

Erik felt panic surge inside of him. He could lie, deceive him, maybe that would comfort him. But he was too much like his father, he would know when he was lied to.

His eyes searched Christine's for help, but she seemed too shocked to give a comprehensive response. 

"Not that I...I mean...possibly." stuttered Erik.

Gustave went white as a sheet, and Christine frowned. Erik felt sick to his stomach, he had evidently answered wrong. 

"Did the opera ghost get them?" Gustave said with a shaky voice.

Erik opened his mouth to answer but Christine cut him off, "No...the opera ghost didn't."

"But somebody did?" Gustave inquired, determined to get an answer. 

"Yes...Somebody." Christine plainly responded. 

"Did you know him?" Gustave asked.

She paused, stopped and considered response.

"Yes I used too. I used to know him but he's gone now."

Erik watched in a haze. He now realized that one day the truth would be revealed, either by circumstance or by others. Secrets cannot remain buried forever.

One day Gustave would learn.

Gustave shuttered at the thought of a ghost roaming those dark halls and stairways. "Will he come back? Is this his house? Won't he come to get us?"

"Brash of you to assume the Ghost a man," Erik muttered. 

Christine looked as though she might kill her husband as Gustave dove deeper under his covers. 

"He won't come to get us, Gustave." Erik stated firmly, his eyes asserting determined confidence, "No one will ever come to hurt you again." 

Gustave's eyes fled to his mothers. "Is that true?"

"You have your fathers word," Christine said firmly, as a slight chill came over her. "What he says always come true."

She turned to her husband, a mix of grief and memory in her heart, "Good and bad Gustave. What he promises, never doubt."