The Phantom of The Phantom of the Opera

Chapter 19: Nothing's Left But Her Name

"Mari! Did you hear the news?" Catherine asked, running over to her friend.

"No. What's the news?" Mari asked with curiosity.

"Kate's returning tonight."

"Please," Mariah scoffed, "like your boyfriend would let that happen."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you, but she's coming back. I'm not going to be performing tonight," Catherine sighed.

"Just don't let him kill anybody," Mari said, raising a teasing eyebrow.

"He's not Erik," Catherine laughed.

"You've known him for a week, Cath," Mari noted. "There's still things you don't know about him."

"He's not capable of murder," Catherine said seriously.

"Matthew Collins?" Mari shrugged. "Maybe not. Not as I knew him, but he's a different man than he was seven years ago. I can see it in his eyes."

"Yeah, okay," Catherine sighed, rolling her eyes. "Nobody can change that much."

"Cath, I'm not implying anything," Mari said slowly. "I'm just saying...be careful. Keep an eye on him."

"I know. I will...by the way, I read an article earlier about Mel. Is it true? They think he plotted her car accident?"

Mari's eyes narrowed, her lip trembling ever so slightly. "What?!" She snapped quickly. "Where did you read that?!"

"It was an old newspaper article that I found online."

"Cath, what have you gotten yourself into?" Mari sighed, shaking her head.

"I don't know, but if anyone ever sees my search history, they'll think I'm a stalker," Catherine laughed.

Mari didn't laugh in return. She instead looked gravely at her friend and gestured for her to sit down. "Matt will kill me...he would die...You're sure he's not listening?"

"He's probably still bickering with Josh. We're safe here," Catherine replied, eager to hear what her friend had to say.

Mari bit her lip and took a deep breath. "It all started about a month after Matt's wedding. Melody was in charge of make up and costume. She sang more than ever, just above a whisper. They spent their time between acts reading in the foyer, whispering to each other. They had decided that they didn't have enough money for a honeymoon, so he'd take her for long walks in the gardens outside." Mari closed her eyes and gave a faint smile.  "I'd never seen him happier in my life. It seemed to transform his performance. He had been stellar before, but this was beyond what any of us could have imagined. Angelic, human, twisted. He lived and breathed like Erik, every glance was poetry. It was toward the middle of the performance, the rooftop scene. We had been experiencing some electrical black outs throughout the night, nothing major enough to cancel. Caleb had been on stage finishing All I Ask Of You, and Matt came out to sing his solo. The pyrotechnics they-" Mari shook her head and shuddered. "It was a night mare, Cath. How loud he screamed...I can't ever rid my mind of that awful cry."

"Poor Matt. Fire is not something to be messed with," Catherine shuddered as memories of her childhood resurfaced. "What about Mel? I only read to the part where it said that Matt was suspected of plotting the car crash. I couldn't read any further. He's not capable, Mari," Catherine insisted.

Mari looked as though she might have broken into tears at any second. "Well, he collapsed, on the stage floor. Melody tried to run up from the audience but some of the orchestra members stopped her. The red was everywhere, Cath. Everywhere. A horrid amount. There was five minutes where he just laid there. We weren't sure if he was alive or dead. I was sent to talk Melody down, keep her calm and out of the way. She kept telling me it wasn't an accident through sobs, but I thought she was hysterical. Who would want to hurt Matt?...The ambulance came, hurried him out, and before I could stop her, Melody was in her car following. She ran a red light and died in a car crash. But the driver of the big black car that hit her was never discovered. About a month later, the driver was found and confessed to being hired to run into her, that his children would be paid a large sum if he succeeded in killing her...They found some notes in her backpack, threats. The hand writing matched Matt's, as did the ink and timeline. We didn't know- we couldn't have- By the time I reached the hospital, Matt was intensive care. They said he was continuous, but-" Mari covered her mouth through tears and shook her head vigorously. "They said we couldn't see him, because he was screaming. He wouldn't stop, he was in so much pain. He couldn't even remember his own name. The doctor thought he'd lost his mind, Cath, and when I heard he killed himself, I had no doubt of it. How could a man live after something like that?"