And he loved her (Phantom of the Opera Fanfiction)

Chapter 8

It had already been late evening, just about the time when we were to meet each other. I looked at the mirror and combed the twirls of my hair into locks that drooped on my shoulders, then I ruffled the skirt in an attempt to roll it up neatly on my legs. I had tried my hardest to look the best I could, but with merely a plain white dress and some hairclips, there was almost nothing I could do to look more fine. Next, I waited anxiously by the door.

It was my birthday today. Eric had promised to celebrate it like a date, but when our appointed time of meeting had came, there was no one who had knocked the door.

That was peculiar, for Eric was never the kind to be late for anything. Usually he would be there earlier and also appearing when I least expected it would be him. I sat boredly on the chair by the door and started harming a melody to myself.

Suddenly, the candle lights blew out, and darkness had ascended across the room. I could see nothing now even if I strained my eyes, for everything was pitch-black. Quickly, I tried to grasp for the candlelight lamp, but as I groped blindly in the darkness, I felt an icy zephyr whipped across the room. Immediately I turned around.

And there in my room, I saw my mirror appeared from the swirling darkness into a glowing frame of silver. But inside the mirror… was Eric?! He was walking towards me according to the mirror, and immediately I turned around to try and feel for his presence. But what I felt instead was the brush of cold air, and I returned to face the glowing glass, only to see Eric's hand from the mirror emerging towards me. I flinched in surprise but as I do so, I could hear the lovely notes of music weaving in the air. The melody reverberated so finely in my ears, and suddenly I had just calmed down. My shock and surprise disappeared into the music, and I took Eric's hand.

And the next most amazing thing happened.

Suddenly I walked through the mirror as I followed Eric. I vanished from my bedroom into a dark pathway that I never knew existed. I was sure that even the servants did not know about this place either. The place was lit solely by the torches and candles hanging on the walls. We took each step down the stairs, and still I held his hand, for fear of getting lost in this newfound pathway. When we got down the steps, he led me to a finely brooded mare of a white horse, and helped me get up on it, followed by himself.

I squeezed Eric's waist tightly as it was my first time on a horse, and the horse galloped full speed, turning corners or speeding frontwards straight. But where were we going?

But soon my questions were answered as I soon saw light appearing from the shadows. The hard walls were soon replaced by glass walls, and the faint light grew stronger and stronger. And when we reached our destination, my breath was taken away as I stared at the sight before me.

There were buildings, almost like skyscrapers, all black and dark. There was no source of light that lit these buildings, only there were mirrors that reflected the moonlight from above towards all the skyscrapers. And there was glass that covered the most top part of the town. It was a special kind of glass, for the moonlight's intensity was increased definitely, and these moonlight alone lit up the whole place brilliantly and brightly. The glass was also special in the way that the people above could not see the city underground, for this glass could even camouflage. But above where the glass was, I could see the full moon hiding within the clouds and night stars that scattered across the dark sapphire sky.

And even all the buildings, stores and fountains were all furnished with tiny diamonds encased into their walls. And the people who travelled across the streets only used white horses to move about. There was not a single vehicle nor a car seen. Even so, I gasped at the sight of it all.

" Where is this place?" I asked. "By the looks of it, you have to pay a sum for entrance fee."

" It's 100,000 francs to come here," Eric said. "It's the Diamond City of France, known to few in the world."

"How could you even afford to come here?! It's too expensive! It's more suited for World Leaders, Presidents or if not secluded millionaires. This is just crazy!"

"What if I told you, my dear Christine, that I designed this place. That would make me the owner of every shop and building, not?" I stared unbelievably at Eric. Just who was he? This Diamond City would take centuries to build, if not loads of cash to supply its works. But even so, it was very beautiful. So very beautiful.

As I gazed and admired the City, Eric brought the horse down to the street and he halted by a store. I turned to look at him.

"Go on and see what you like." He said.

And so, I entered the store as Eric waited outside with his horse. As I gazed upon the masquerade dresses and masks that hanged on the walls, there was azure, sapphire, topaz, violet, emerald, even hot pink dresses and so on. But there was a dress that had looked so beautiful. It was fiery hot red with black frills and laces that depicted a lovely combination of darkness and fire. Even the mask itself was lovely, and I let my fingers feel the dress and the mask. It was smooth and soft as silk itself. But then I turned the dress and read the price tag. FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND FRANCS! Immediately I moved on to another costume and read the price tag, then to another dress and another dress. They all ranged from five hundred thousand francs to a million, and immediately I hurried out of the shop, and to Eric outside.

" Those costumes were nice… but I don't really like them. Let's get out of here." I mumbled under my breath. Eric looked at me with his golden eyes, as if piercing right through me. My fingers had started to tremble under his gaze. I just couldn't lie. I just couldn't. But those dresses were too expensive! What was Eric even thinking?

"Choose what dress you like, or I'll do it for you." Then Eric got down the horse, took my hand and we entered the shop again. I tried to wriggle my hand out of his grip, but his hand was firm as we reached the dress shop again.

"Miss, that red and black dress for my wife."

The shopkeeper immediately got up, took the dress and pulled me away into the dressing room.

"Eric! Hey-" I stared at him as the shopkeeper brought me into the dressing room and closed the curtains. I sighed as I took off my plain white dress and wore the elaborate red and black costume. Then I faced the mirror as I brought my hair to side locks and emerged out of the dressing room.

Eric was waiting for me in the shop and he was discussing about the payment for the dress with the shopkeeper. But when I appeared with my costume on, he had forgotten what he was saying to the shopkeeper and stared at me as if he had never seen me before. Pleasure bubbled within me, for Eric would never show this dumbfounded expression being that he could always hide his emotions well. He smiled gently at me and twirled a lock of my hair to the back of my ear, then he took my hand as we climbed the stairs up together.

"To the masquerade ball then, my Christine."