Phantom Child

3. In The Phantom's Lair

The photo from 1925 movie, coloured by me. In case you were wondering: no, Erik in tris story is not the 1925 one, but I just love this moment in this movie and soon you'll see why I put that photo up here...

Once again I was standing face to face with the Phantom. At first I noticed a bit of confusion in his eyes, but it quickly gave place to his usual expression. He was not moving at all, so was I. We just stood there, looking at each other. I had no idea what to do or say. Finally, through the dead silence, he spoke:

"What... are you doing here?" His voice was stern and not as soft as before.

I probably opened my mouth to say something but I don't think I came up with anything sensible, so I stayed quiet.

"I told you, if you do not leave..." he said, grabbing something from his chair.

I was too afraid to even see what was it. I have no idea why, but, instead of running back, I began to walk towards him. Something inside me just made me deny the existance of the death threat, which stood right in front of my face. I just didn't know what it was. The Phantom watched me in confusion. I stopped really close, standing with my feet still in the water. In that moment I saw what was he holding. A rope. A lasso. He did want to kill me. I took one last look at his half-masked face and shut my eyes tight, ready to die. Well, that was it. No escape.

When I heard him throwing the rope at me, the last thing I did was raise my hands above my head as a sign of giving up. And in this moment I realized what I had done. The lasso didn't land around my neck. It landed perfectly in my hands. I was now the wielder of the deadly tool! I felt a sudden confidence fill me. I looked at him and saw his surprised face. I said:

"Now I have the lasso!" I waved the rope triumphantly.

I took a swipe and threw the lasso right at him, but all my confidence vanished the moment he raised up his hand to his head and the rope missed again. The Phantom smirked as if he was laughing off my attempt to attack him. He took out his sword and cut my only weapon in half. Rope this short was useless. And now he brought a new tool to the game.

The Phantom swinged his sword at me. Trying to dodge it, I tripped and with a loud splash I was back in the water. Now he had the weapon and the higher ground. He raised the sword again, but this time I quickly grabbed a candlestick and shielded myself with it. The sound that metal objects made echoed through the cave. I waved the candlestick sending his sword back to him. I was breathing heavily, not quite understanding what happened. He was standing still, with his sword in the air. Then he quickly put the it back in his scabbard and commented:

"You are pretty brave."

That sounded like less of a compliment and more of a threat. I stood up from the water myself and watched him turn back to his pipe organ.

"You're quite like me..." he said after a moment, still not looking at me. He was a master of avoiding eye contact.

"Well, maybe excluding the fact the the biggest crime I committed was stealing a loaf of bread and you tried to kill me... twice." I couldn't stop myself from making a comment. "You almost murdered a human being!"

"Yeah, almost..." he laughed to himself but loud enough for me to hear that.

Now what was that supposed to mean? Honestly, I was scared to ask. But he seemed to enjoy the silence far more than anyone's words. Then he, himself, broke the silence:

"How did you get here?" He turned his head around, making only his mask visible to me.

"Well, I stole the said loaf of bread and had to run from the baker. Then I saw a window and jumped down. That's where you met me, almost killed me and then left me on my own. And now I came here." I explained pretty quickly.