The Phantom's opera

Overture

"I am so stressed right now," I declared as I walked into Erik's house "they just told me that the next performance is a midsummer's nights dream where I have to make almost all the costumes from scratch because we have almost no costumes that fit this opera. They also decided to only let Don Giovanni run for a month since it wasn't well received. That means that I have to get all the costumes done in under a month! I haven't even begun to design them yet! They also moved forward the ballet so I also have work on those costumes as well!" 

"I told the managers that Don Giovanni would not be a good fit to the singing styles of the company." Erik commented as he continued to read the newspaper on the couch, not even bothering to look at me. I was annoyed that Erik wasn't responding to a rant.

"I have so much work," I sighed "I fear I will not be able to go to the opera tonight." As I thought, this got Erik's attention.

"What do you mean?" He demanded, now standing up with the newspaper he was so engrossed in before disregarded on the floor.

"Good to know you finally care about my problems." I teased.

"So are you able to come or not?" Erik asked impatiently, obviously unhumored by my baiting. "I'm still coming." I confirmed. 

"Don't stress yourself about work or you'll make yourself faint again." He lectured, changing the topic.

"Gee Erik, your right! I have now chosen not to be stressed and I feel better already." I replied sarcastically.

"I know you can't really chose not stress." Erik sighed "But you just have to deal with it properly."

"Ok I'm just going to get ready for the opera now." I told him as I walked into my room. 

***

"Did you enjoy the opera?" Erik asked as we made our way back to Erik's house. 

"I would have liked it better if you didn't sush me every time I went to speak." I grumbled sourly. I felt very picky for complaining last night that Phillippe wouldn't let us stop speaking and tonight I was complaining that Erik wouldn't let me speak.

 "How are you suppose to appreciate the opera if your listening to somebody speak rather than the music?" He asked, defending his behaviour.

"How are you suppose to fully appreciate the opera unless you can hear other people's views?" I shot back. "You may find out something interesting that you didn't notice."

"I'm the opera ghost, Alina. I don't miss anything." He remarked.

"But I may miss something. You could point thing so that I can appreciate the opera too." I suggested. I decided to change the subject before both of us started fighting about which way is better. "Can we go together to see A Midsummer Night's Dream together so that I can tell Phillippe I'm already going to see it and not be lying?" 

"Are we trying to avoid the Count now?" He asked teasingly.

"No, I'm not avoiding him or anything, it's just that if I'm going to a performance, I want to watch it." I explained, blushing.

"In that case we better also go see Sleeping Beauty so that you can watch it." He state, still in a jocular mood.

"Yes, we should also see that." I agreed, grinning.

***

Erik was working on a composition on his organ in the music room while I sat on the floor working on the costumes for A Midsummers Night's Dream. This is often how we spent our evenings after I got home from work now,  despite the fact that at first, Erik hadn't like me listening to him when he composed his own works. It was only after I convinced him that I was bored sewing in the parlor by myself, and that I could give him feed back on his music did he let me sew in the music room.  

"Hey Erik, is true that Don Juan burns?" I sudden asked, breaking the silence of the room as Erik stopped writing the notes on his sheet of paper that rested on the organ. Although he was facing the organ and away from me, I could tell that he was cringing, as if he was embarrassed about Don Juan Triumphant.

"You know about that?" He asked sheepishly.

"Yeah, in the book it says that it was your life's work and masterpiece." I told him.

"Really?" He asked in disbelief. 

"Yeah. Apparently it was like an unleashing of all the pain of your life and that it like, burnt people's souls or something like that. That's why you didn't let anyone hear it and wanted to be buried with it-" I rattled on until I realised I had told Erik the future, the literal one thing I wasn't suppose to do. Erik looked a little shocked and recoiled ever so slightly to the information I had just revealed. He was quick to regain his posture and acted as though I had given away nothing, probably because he could tell that I was already beating myself up over it.

"I've actually stop writing Don Juan Triumphant." He informed me.

"What?" I replied, absolutely shocked.

"I've stop writing it. I just found that I don't have the same passionate hate for the world recently that I need to write it." He explained "I've decided to write another opera instead." I could help but let out a small squeal of happiness. I abandoned the costume I had been working on and got up and gave Erik a hug.

"This is amazing Erik!" I exclaimed "This means your deviating from the book. You're changing!" I was so happy that I was almost certain my heart would leap out of my chest. I was almost certain that I had just officially stopped the phantom of the opera or at the very least, has changed the whole story. 

"I'm glad that your happy." Erik replied as he went back to his to his work.

"Erik, I'm happy for you." I explained "this means that your future is now yours for the choosing. I have no idea what's going to happen anymore." The idea that I had no idea what was going to happen kind of scared me. I had been so used to doing things based on what I knew  had happened in the book, and using it as a guide. Now that I didn't have it, I felt a little unsupported. I quickly ignored these selfish thoughts and turned my attention back to Erik.

"So, what's this new opera?" I interrogated as I walked up behind Erik and looked over his shoulder. He quickly tried to cover up the music sheets that were placed on the organ, but for once I was actually faster then Erik and grabbed the small stack of music paper. As soon as I turned away from Erik, I looked down to the papers in my hand. I read the title of the sheet music and my heart stopped. In Erik's writing, above the staves of music was written: Alina, Overture

***************

AN:

Hey guys, just thought I might have to clarify a few things. Some of you may recognise A Midsummer's Nights dream as one of Shakespeare's plays. While it is a play, it is also an opera so in the chapter I'm talking about the opera, not the play. I probably should also mention that an Overture is the opening piece to an opera/musical, which means that Erik is writing a new opera based on Alina. Sorry  about the formatting of this chapter is a little different, I don't really know why it stuffed up but just to make it clearer I added a *** every time I started a new paragraph/ had a time skip.