A Love Already Blossomed

Chapter 3

At this news, I was very excited. I opened the double doors and stepped into the Opera house. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It sparkled and shone like the most beautiful ray of sunshine. I distinctly remember how it glimmered and how it's old charm immediately appealed to me. It looked like a home, an immobile savior. My thoughts were interrupted by a man dressed in a black black suit jacket with tails, a black vest, bow tie, pants, and shoes with a white dress shirt on his upper body and a top hat sitting on his head.

"May I help you, mademoiselle?" he asked, his deep baritone voice bouncing off of the white opera house walls.

"Er, yes, please," I replied.

"In what, may I ask, do you need help with?"

"I just saw a sign outside of the opera house that said you needed someone that had cleaning capabilities. I was wondering if maybe you could let me speak to the manager, and maybe he (A/N: if you think that's sexist, I'm only trying to be historically accurate because there weren't many managers who were women back then, in about the 1850's or so. It is when Erik is 14.) could find a job for me."

There was a pause and the man looked me up and down, and of course he would. I was covered in dirt. There was dirt under my nails, on my cheeks, my arms, my legs.... so practically everywhere. My hair was tangled and I had no shoes on my feet. I looked like I hadn't taken a bath in a year, which wasn't true, and I was holding a sign made out of a piece of wood I grabbed from a broken box.

"Alright. Let me see what he can do," the man said. "Come with me."

From then on, I had a paying job, and in the first year, it was great! I got food that was in great quality and I received clear water, a room in a boarding house that was inside the Opera Populaire, and a reasonable wage. Though no one noticed me, I was glad to be paid and to have a place to live. Everything plummeted after people started noticing me. I got pushed around, I got whipped or punished for humming a tune or for day dreaming. It was awful.

One day,three years later, when I was seventeen, I was humming to myself a tune I had heard coming from the very bottom of the opera house. It was one of the most beautiful tunes that I have ever heard, and the voice that somehow I heard and that went along with the large sound the pipe organ produced put me into a trance. It calmed me though it was aggressive, though it wasn't the tune that calmed me. It was the voice that went along with it and obeyed the tunes commands for which note to play next. I was humming this tune while I was sweeping the floor. I was standing in front of the Prima Donna room after the closing hours of the opera house when I suddenly opened my mouth and started singing the lyrics that I heard accompanying the soft voice.

'In sleep he sang to me
In dreams he came
That voice which calls to me
And speaks my name
And do I dream again, for now I find'
It was then that I started rambling off into words of my own, but I still kept the consistent tune.
'That I am in big trouble
If I sing again'
It was then, when I was bending down to pick up an unneeded box from the floor, when I saw a shadow standing over me. I suddenly sunk to the floor. I was in trouble for sure.

My back was hunched over, and I held one arm in front of me to protect myself. My head was turned away from the shadow and I was clutching the broom so tightly, I thought it would break.

"Please don't hurt me," I whimpered.

The shadow came closer and tears flooded my eyes. My arm was still standing between this person and I. There was a silence in which I felt most uncomfortable. Was this man or woman going to beat me? What punishment were they going to present me with?

"I'm not going to hurt you," said a man's deep voice.

I lowered my arm and turned to face the shadow because I would look like a fool trying to look at a face which was hidden in the shadows.

"Y-You're not?" I asked.

"No. In fact, I was just walking about this area when I heard a sweet voice singing. It was a very amazing voice, a voice which has potential, and I was immediately eager to learn who it belonged to, so I followed it here," he stated simply, as if it were obvious. Then, I heard him mumble something under his breath. "It almost beats Christine's," I thought I heard him say. My eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and one serious question came to my mind.

"Who are you?"

He chuckled, a sound which brought a smile to my face and warmed my heart. "Most people know me as The Phantom of the Opera or the Opera Ghost, but you can call me Master, for I am your teacher now, no questions asked. Your voice is one of the best I've heard, therefore it must be reenforced, perfected, and heard." This made my jaw drop, but I closed it, realising it wasn't polite. He then continued speaking. "Do you have a place to stay? Are your clothes decent?"

I laughed under my breath. "I have a place to stay, only it's been shrinking more and more with each employee that is hired. My space now is like a crack in between two walls. As for my clothes, they are decent, though ten out of the twelve of them are uniforms."

"Well, since your clothes and living space aren't very decent, I shall let you live where I do. I will let you sleep in your own room and have decent clothes. You will be fed and washed properly, and will have any accessories you could ever want, as long as it isn't too expensive. There is no pay required. The only form of payment I will be needing is hearing you sing."

I was in awe at this statement. "Really?" I asked.

"Really." He then held out a leather-covered hand to me. I hesitantly reached out and grabbed it. He pulled me onto my feet, and I dropped my broom. It fell with a loud clap on the hardwood floor. The noise echoed through the narrow hallway. The mysterious man with whom I have been conversing stepped out of the shadows in which he hid and presented his face.

The right half of his face was covered with a white porcelain mask, but the other half of his face looked young, and was, without a doubt, very handsome. He had thin, pink lips, and his skin was tinted to a tan color. He had black hair that was slicked back and he had a beautiful jaw line. Despite everything else that was perfect on his face, only one (well, two) thing(s) caught my attention: his beautiful, shining, greenish-blue eyes which I could never take my gaze off of. His voice suddenly awakened and his eyes lit up immediately. His voice sounded softly throughout the halls and it sang a tune which I recognized very clearly. It was the part of my favorite tune where the organ always began. I let his beautiful, soft voice serenade me until it was my turn to sing. He led me into darkness, yet he brought me into daylight.

It was then that I first felt it pulsing strongly in my heart:

My love for Erik.'

~
A/N: Sorry if this was too long and/or boring, and I'm sorry for all of the A/N's!!!!! I hope you liked this part of A Love Already Blossomed and thank you for reading!