A Girl of Many Names (Phantom of the Opera) (Short Story)

Chapter 1

Nerves consuming her, Ruby sat cross-legged on her small bed. It was her first night of working and, though she would never dream of admitting it to the other girls, she was absolutely terrified. Not that she was terrified of the upcoming act in and of itself, no, she had long gotten over that fear. It was the fear of who she would be going through it with. The fear of not doing something right and being thrown out onto the streets. She counted herself lucky to live in a brothel. She had a better lot in life then her counterparts who lived on the streets.

Ruby shivered and looked longing at the warm dressing gown, draped over a chair. She had been instructed by the Madame to wear a thin chemise and nothing more. At the moment, she was completely miserable and wanting nothing more than to pull something around her shoulders or climb under the covers but, she had been warned not to. She could do anything she pleased, except cover herself.

So, shaking from the cold, Ruby waited for the man to walk through the door who would take away any hope she might have ever had of being an honest woman.

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Erik stalked through the dark, cold streets of Paris, his mind a swirling tempest. He knew he was getting desperate and despairing of hope when he sought the company of a harlot. Though he had committed many a heinous crime, he still prided himself on having some form of morals. He knew the border between right and wrong. After all, he had crossed it more than once and in more than one area.

He snarled at the wind which dared to dry to rip his mask and hat from him. He had made a promise to himself. He wouldn't touch the woman he was to spend time with. He would simple talk. Or, maybe not talk. Anything would be better than returning to the empty hole he lived in beneath the Opera House. Anything! Even the awkwardness he knew he would encounter once he set foot inside of the house of ill repute.

At last, the plain brick building came into view and he stopped for a moment, looking up at it.

"Erik is truly hopeless." He whispered to himself as he walked up the door and knocked. "Truly hopeless."

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Ruby shuddered as she heard sounds through a thin wall that told her that another girl was earning her keep for the Madame. Ruby covered her ears and tried to block it from her mind. It wasn't helping to calm her nerves at all. Closing her eyes, she retreated into her memories. It had become a habit of hers. She remembered her father, her mother, her three sisters, and all the pleasant times they had experienced together.

She had been the youngest of all the children, spoiled and treasured by her parents. Lightly, she twirled a curl of her auburn hair around a finger, remembering her mother running a hair brush through her hair at night.

A tear glided down Ruby's painted cheek and she quickly dashed it away, hoping she hadn't messed up her makeup too much. Her eyes again drifted towards the warm dressing gown and she wondered if she would be able to slip it on while she waited and then slip it off before her client arrive?

Just as she was about to stand up and try her theory, she heard footsteps stopping in front her door. Her heart went into her throat and she held her breath as the door creaked open. The moon shown through a window off to her right and it illuminated the form that stooped as it entered.

The man was very tall. He had to duck to enter the room. His broad shoulders matched his height but, if his clothes were any evidence of his weight and not just an illusion, he was exceptionally gaunt. The wide-brimmed fedora hat that was perched nicely upon his head, blocked his face. Ruby hadn't the slightest notion what kind of a face would go with such a build.

The man's face fixed upon hers and she swallowed slightly as she saw two burning yellow orbs connect with her midnight blue eyes. He said nothing to her but those burning orbs turned away from her and he reached up to his neck and unbuckled his black cloak, tossing it with a flourish over the same chair as her dressing gown. A moment later, the hat joined the cloak on the chair and he again turned to face her.