Phantom Thoughts pt. 29

{The next day, he saw her at the Opera. She was still wearing the plain gold ring. She was gentle and kind to him. She talked to him of the plans which he was forming, of his future, of his career.}

So they've reached some sort of unspoken truce- cool!

{He told her that the date of the Polar expedition had been put forward and that he would leave France in three weeks, or a month at latest. She suggested, almost gaily, that he must look upon the voyage with delight, as a stage toward his coming fame. And when he replied that fame without love was no attraction in his eyes, she treated him as a child whose sorrows were only short-lived.

"How can you speak so lightly of such serious things?" he asked. "Perhaps we shall never see each other again! I may die during that expedition."}

Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. First, I'm fairly sure this is one of the few if any instances of CHRISTINE treating Raoul like a child and not vice versa (the only other one that comes to mind is maaybe when she signs her note 'my dear little playfellow'??).

Also, Raoul, you didn't seem to make as big a deal out of you dying/wanting to die earlier?? I thought this expedition was something you WANTED to do... but now you're not sure you'd want to if Christine wouldn't miss you?

{"Or I," she said simply.}

Is this 'yeah, maybe the Phantom will kill me while you're gone?' or just 'yeah, you might die but SO COULD I- let's be real- there's plagues and danger IN PARIS, too.' or maybe something else?

{She no longer smiled or jested. She seemed to be thinking of some new thing that had entered her mind for the first time. Her eyes were all aglow with it.

"What are you thinking of, Christine?"

"I am thinking that we shall not see each other again ..."

"And does that make you so radiant?"}

It seems strange, if she's so excited about the fake engagement prospect, why she'd no longer seem happy but still be 'radiant'. Is she also realizing the impact of what Raoul just said, and contemplating their own imminent mortality?

(Also nice job giving her a compliment without technically phrasing it as a compliment, Raoul.)

{"And that, in a month, we shall have to say good-by for ever!"

"Unless, Christine, we pledge our faith and wait for each other for ever."

She put her hand on his mouth.

"Hush, Raoul! ... You know there is no question of that ... And we shall never be married: that is understood!"

She seemed suddenly almost unable to contain an overpowering gaiety. She clapped her hands with childish glee. Raoul stared at her in amazement.}

Yep, that's basically my reaction as well, Raoul. What even is going on in Christine's head right now??

{"But ... but," she continued, holding out her two hands to Raoul, or rather giving them to him, as though she had suddenly resolved to make him a present of them, "but if we can not be married, we can ... we can be engaged! Nobody will know but ourselves, Raoul. There have been plenty of secret marriages: why not a secret engagement? ... We are engaged, dear, for a month! In a month, you will go away, and I can be happy at the thought of that month all my life long!"}

Oh, think of it! A secret engagement!

(Side note- can it really be called an engagement without an intention to get married eventually? You can be engaged without getting married, but that's because someone decides to break off the engagement because they realize they don't want to be married to that person, not because they never wanted to get married in the first place. The term "fake dating" is actually more accurate to this situation than "secret engagement". In this essay I will-)

{She was enchanted with her inspiration. Then she became serious again.

"This," she said, "IS A HAPPINESS THAT WILL HARM NO ONE."}

Maybe toy with a certain vicomte's feelings a bit, though..

{Raoul jumped at the idea. He bowed to Christine and said:

"Mademoiselle, I have the honor to ask for your hand."

"Why, you have both of them already, my dear betrothed! ... Oh, Raoul, how happy we shall be! ... We must play at being engaged all day long."}

Awww they're adorable (I feel as if I'm slightly betraying my OTP of E/C by saying that, but they *are*!)

{It was the prettiest game in the world and they enjoyed it like the children that they were. Oh, the wonderful speeches they made to each other and the eternal vows they exchanged! They played at hearts as other children might play at ball; only, as it was really their two hearts that they flung to and fro, they had to be very, very handy to catch them, each time, without hurting them.}

Oh, hey, now LEROUX is infantilizing both of them- this is not exactly progress... (Nice metaphor, though.)

{One day, about a week after the game began, Raoul's heart was badly hurt and he stopped playing and uttered these wild words:

"I shan't go to the North Pole!"

Christine, who, in her innocence, had not dreamed of such a possibility, suddenly discovered the danger of the game and reproached herself bitterly. She did not say a word in reply to Raoul's remark and went straight home.}

How was this something you didn't consider?? You KNEW he had very strong feelings for you- feelings that wouldn't be satisfied by merely A MONTH of pretending at a future relationship that could never come to be... So you just noped right out of there.

{This happened in the afternoon, in the singer's dressing-room, where they met every day and where they amused themselves by dining on three biscuits, two glasses of port and a bunch of violets. In the evening, she did not sing; and he did not receive his usual letter, though they had arranged to write to each other daily during that month.}

Weird meal but okay. (Also- is this referring to British or American biscuits? Because that's kind of an important detail that might change the whole meal.)

Did she normally sing for him during the evening, or was this just referring to her usual practice for her job?

Awww they're writing love letters to each other- that's a really good decision since after the fake engagement is over they'll have keepsakes of that month to remember each other and their happiness by. (In nineteenth-century Paris we write letters... we write letters.. sorry, couldn't help myself!)

Phantom Thoughts pt. 30

{Christine returned on the following day. She returned in triumph. She renewed her extraordinary success of the gala performance. Since the adventure of the "toad," Carlotta had not been able to appear on the stage. The terror of a fresh "co-ack" filled her heart and deprived her of all her power of singing; and the theater that had witnessed her incomprehensible disgrace had become odious to her. She contrived to cancel her contract. Daae was offered the vacant place for the time. She received thunders of applause in the Juive.}

Poor Carlotta- her self-confidence is utterly wrecked due to one small mistake. Maybe, if you're going to cancel your contract and don't have the will to sing, try to find another career that's less ego-driven? You could take up knitting??

The Adventure of the Toad- hey, isn't that one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories? (Or maybe I'm thinking of the Giant Rat of Sumatra lol)

{The viscount, who, of course, was present, was the only one to suffer on hearing the thousand echoes of this fresh triumph; for Christine still wore her plain gold ring. A distant voice whispered in the young man's ear:

"She is wearing the ring again to-night; and you did not give it to her. She gave her soul again tonight and did not give it to you... If she will not tell you what she has been doing the past two days ... you must go and ask Erik!"}

Daroga (I'm assuming this is the daroga- it would be a weird way to express an inner monologue, and doesn't quite seem like Erik's style), you're not being that helpful.

I mean, she was wearing the ring all throughout the secret engagement (or at least at the very beginning of it), and NOW is when it upsets you?? You might've asked her to take it off earlier, or, you know, ACTUALLY MENTIONED YOUR CONCERNS TO HER.

Also, if she gave her soul away again, how many souls does Christine even have?? Where does she get them??

{Raoul at once threw himself on his knees before her. He swore to her that he would go and he entreated her never again to withhold a single hour of the ideal happiness which she had promised him. She let her tears flow. They kissed like a despairing brother and sister who have been smitten with a common loss and who meet to mourn a dead parent.

Suddenly, she snatched herself from the young man's soft and timid embrace, seemed to listen to something, and, with a quick gesture, pointed to the door. When he was on the threshold, she said, in so low a voice that the viscount guessed rather than heard her words:

"To-morrow, my dear betrothed! And be happy, Raoul: I sang for you to-night!"}

Sweet dramatic boy... (I SAID earlier that he should be on his knees begging her to associate with him, and now he does it! Yay! Character growth!)

Oh, hey, people crying while kissing... Wonder if that'll come up again. (#nospoilers)

Ewww "like brother and sister" GASTON LOUIS ALFRED LEROUX do you *want* me to root for their romance or not??

TAKE THAT DAROGA (or whoever that was)! She WAS singing for him! (I mean, ideally, I want her to sing for herself, but it's a sweet sentiment I guess??)

{But those two days of absence had broken the charm of their delightful make-believe. They looked at each other, in the dressing-room, with their sad eyes, without exchanging a word. Raoul had to restrain himself not to cry out:

"I am jealous! I am jealous! I am jealous!"}

You are overly dramatic! You are overly dramatic! You are overly dramatic!

{Raoul thought that she would propose a stroll in the country, far from that building which he detested as a prison whose jailer he could feel walking within the walls ... the jailer Erik ...}

Maybe YOU detest it, but have you considered that she might not? She does work there, after all.

{And she would drag him up above the clouds, in the magnificent disorder of the grid, where she loved to make him giddy by running in front of him along the frail bridges, among the thousands of ropes fastened to the pulleys, the windlasses, the rollers, in the midst of a regular forest of yards and masts. If he hesitated, she said, with an adorable pout of her lips:

"You, a sailor!"}

Awww cute! (Also, interesting date idea if you aren't incredibly scared of heights like I am.)

{And then they returned to terra firma, that is to say, to some passage that led them to the little girls' dancing-school, where brats between six and ten were practising their steps, in the hope of becoming great dancers one day, "covered with diamonds ..." Meanwhile, Christine gave them sweets instead.}

Not all the children are brats, surely. YAY CANDY AND BEING NICE TO PEOPLE

{She took him to the wardrobe and property-rooms, took him all over her empire, which was artificial, but immense, covering seventeen stories from the ground-floor to the roof and inhabited by an army of subjects. She moved among them like a popular queen, encouraging them in their labors, sitting down in the workshops, giving words of advice to the workmen whose hands hesitated to cut into the rich stuffs that were to clothe heroes. There were inhabitants of that country who practised every trade. There were cobblers, there were goldsmiths. All had learned to know her and to love her, for she always interested herself in all their troubles and all their little hobbies.}

There was a post going around in Phantom circles on tumblr about how Christine is unintentionally becoming the next Opera Ghost, and I would link to it here but I can't find it??

Christine is totally the queen of the Opera House, though. (Queen but isolated and alone, as it doesn't mention her introducing Raoul to anyone she considers a friend- just underlings and co-workers who she goes out of her way to be nice to.)

{She knew unsuspected corners that were secretly occupied by little old couples. She knocked at their door and introduced Raoul to them as a Prince Charming who had asked for her hand; and the two of them, sitting on some worm-eaten "property," would listen to the legends of the Opera, even as, in their childhood, they had listened to the old Breton tales. Those old people remembered nothing outside the Opera. They had lived there for years without number. Past managements had forgotten them; palace revolutions had taken no notice of them; the history of France had run its course unknown to them; and nobody recollected their existence.}

Ohhh childhood callbacks... (How cool would it be to secretly live in an opera house, though? Probably a lot less cool if you can't remember what it's like outside. Also, what does Erik think of these people? Does he secretly have a soft spot for them, recognizing the parallels in their circumstances? Does he merely tolerate them? Does he take an interest in their wellbeing?)

Phantom Thoughts pt. 31

{The precious days sped in this way; and Raoul and Christine, by affecting excessive interest in outside matters, strove awkwardly to hide from each other the one thought of their hearts. One fact was certain, that Christine, who until then had shown herself the stronger of the two, became suddenly inexpressibly nervous.}

Yep, I know that feeling of awkward. (Not so much the suddenly having a nervous disposition, since I've always been that way, but it must be disconcerting for Raoul.)

Oooh, she's 'the stronger of the two'- just wanted to point that out...

{When on their expeditions, she would start running without reason or else suddenly stop; and her hand, turning ice-cold in a moment, would hold the young man back. Sometimes her eyes seemed to pursue imaginary shadows. She cried, "This way," and "This way," and "This way," laughing a breathless laugh that often ended in tears. Then Raoul tried to speak, to question her, in spite of his promises. But, even before he had worded his question, she answered feverishly:

"Nothing ... I swear it is nothing."}

Poor Christine. This reminds me of the moment in the musical before All I Ask of You when Raoul is calling her name, but then you also hear the Phantom calling her name but don't know if it's Christine's imagination or he really is calling her, since Raoul doesn't seem to hear it.

{"You have shown me over the upper part of your empire, Christine, but there are strange stories told of the lower part. Shall we go down?"

She caught him in her arms, as though she feared to see him disappear down the black hole, and, in a trembling voice, whispered:

"Never! ... I will not have you go there! ... Besides, it's not mine ... EVERYTHING THAT IS UNDERGROUND BELONGS TO HIM!"

Raoul looked her in the eyes and said roughly: "So he lives down there, does he?"

"I never said so ... Who told you a thing like that? Come away! I sometimes wonder if you are quite sane, Raoul ... You always take things in such an impossible way ... Come along! Come!"}

Raoul, sometimes I wonder if you're really thinking things through. You know the Phantom is down there, and that he hates you, but YOU STILL WANT TO GO DOWN THERE.

(Also, Christine dear, you're not really one to talk about being sane. I have my doubts as to whether anyone in this Opera House is sane. Good job follow ALW!Madame Giry's principle though! "Those who speak of what they know/May learn too late that prudent silence is wise")

{And she literally dragged him away, for he was obstinate and wanted to remain by the trap-door; that hole attracted him.}

Raoul, honey, you really need to learn to have a sense of self-preservation.

{"No, no, it was the 'trap-door-shutters.' They must do something, you know ... They open and shut the trap-doors without any particular reason ... It's like the 'door-shutters:' they must spend their time somehow."}

Is that a legit job??

{"But suppose it were HE, Christine?"

"No, no! He has shut himself up, he is working."

"Oh, really! He's working, is he?"

"Yes, he can't open and shut the trap-doors and work at the same time." She shivered.

"What is he working at?"

"Oh, something terrible! ... But it's all the better for us... When he's working at that, he sees nothing; he does not eat, drink, or breathe for days and nights at a time ... he becomes a living dead man and has no time to amuse himself with the trap-doors." She shivered again. She was still holding him in her arms.]

She has to be exaggerating. NO ONE CAN STOP BREATHING FOR DAYS AT A TIME, NOT EVEN A 'LIVING CORPSE'. (Interesting that *she's* holding him, though! 'Stronger of the two', indeed...)

{"Are you afraid of him?"

"No, no, of course not," she said.}

You're kind of sending mixed messages here; 'keep away from trap doors or else! the underground is HIS domain' than 'yeah, no way am I scared of him!'

{At last, one afternoon, she arrived very late, with her face so desperately pale and her eyes so desperately red, that Raoul resolved to go to all lengths, including that which he foreshadowed when he blurted out that he would not go on the North Pole expedition unless she first told him the secret of the man's voice.

"Hush! Hush, in Heaven's name! Suppose HE heard you, you unfortunate Raoul!"}

To the tune of Poor Unfortunate Souls from the Little Mermaid: Poor unfortunate Raoul! In love! Naive!

(It's a... work in progress.)

{"I will remove you from his power, Christine, I swear it. And you shall not think of him any more."

"Is it possible?" She allowed herself this doubt, which was an encouragernent, while dragging the young man up to the topmost floor of the theater, far, very far from the trap-doors.

"I shall hide you in some unknown corner of the world, where HE can not come to look for you. You will be safe; and then I shall go away ... as you have sworn never to marry."}

GOOD FOR YOU! WHO SAYS CHIVALRY IS DEAD! BRAVO MONSIEUR! WAY TO USE YOUR PRIVILEGE TO HELP OTHERS!

{And she dragged him up toward the summit. He had a difficulty in following her. They were soon under the very roof, in the maze of timber-work. They slipped through the buttresses, the rafters, the joists; they ran from beam to beam as they might have run from tree to tree in a forest.

And, despite the care which she took to look behind her at every moment, she failed to see a shadow which followed her like her own shadow, which stopped when she stopped, which started again when she did and which made no more noise than a well-conducted shadow should. As for Raoul, he saw nothing either; for, when he had Christine in front of him, nothing interested him that happened behind.}

Is Christine physically stronger than Raoul? She is *dragging* him, so...

*whispers* He's here, the Phantom of the Opera!

Phantom Thoughts pt. 32

{The shadow had followed behind them clinging to their steps; and the two children little suspected its presence when they at last sat down, trustingly, under the mighty protection of Apollo, who, with a great bronze gesture, lifted his huge lyre to the heart of a crimson sky.}

Wonderfully poetic, with an unfortunate side of infantilization.

{"Soon we shall go farther and faster than the clouds, to the end of the world, and then you will leave me, Raoul. But, if, when the moment comes for you to take me away, I refuse to go with you—well you must carry me off by force!"}

So, along with stalking, does Christine also think that kidnapping is really romantic? (Explains quite a bit.)

{"What compels you to go back, Christine?"

"If I do not go back to him, terrible misfortunes may happen! ... But I can't do it, I can't do it! ... I know one ought to be sorry for people who live underground ... But he is too horrible! And yet the time is at hand; I have only a day left; and, if I do not go, he will come and fetch me with his voice. And he will drag me with him, underground, and go on his knees before me, with his death's head. And he will tell me that he loves me! And he will cry! Oh, those tears, Raoul, those tears in the two black eye-sockets of the death's head! I can not see those tears flow again!" She wrung her hands in anguish, while Raoul pressed her to his heart.}

So are we supposed to feel sorry for moles now? And worms? And.. miners? And people who live in survivalist bunkers?

Umm... Christine, do you know who 'kneeling before you, crying, and telling you how much he loves you' also sounds like?? (*cough* Raoul, especially in the previous chapter *cough*) I can see why you'd want to be free of both of them.

{"No, no, you shall never again hear him tell you that he loves you! You shall not see his tears! Let us fly, Christine, let us fly at once!" And he tried to drag her away, then and there. But she stopped him.

"No, no," she said, shaking her head sadly. "Not now! ... It would be too cruel ... let him hear me sing to-morrow evening ... and then we will go away. You must come and fetch me in my dressing-room at midnight exactly. He will then be waiting for me in the dining-room by the lake ... we shall be free and you shall take me away ... You must promise me that, Raoul, even if I refuse; for I feel that, if I go back this time, I shall perhaps never return."}

Never return as in 'get murdered' or never return as in 'be stuck as a captive' or never return as in 'get married'??

(Out of context, someone waiting for you in a dining-room by a lake sounds like a really nice date. But who eats dinner at midnight???)

{And she gave a sigh to which it seemed to her that another sigh, behind her, replied.}

Probably an echo, right?? Totally. No Phantoms here.

{"There is some one in pain," said Raoul. "Perhaps some one has been hurt. Did you hear?"

"I can't say," Christine confessed. "Even when he is not there, my ears are full of his sighs. Still, if you heard ..."}

Yep. Just an echo. Nothing to see here.

Stopping short right here because next time we go into BACKSTORYYYY yay

Phantom Thoughts pt. 33

Buckle up for a long one, folks, because it's BACKSTORY TIME!

{"Tell me how you saw him first."

"I had heard him for three months without seeing him. The first time I heard it, I thought, as you did, that that adorable voice was singing in another room. I went out and looked everywhere; but, as you know, Raoul, my dressing-room is very much by itself; and I could not find the voice outside my room, whereas it went on steadily inside. And it not only sang, but it spoke to me and answered my questions, like a real man's voice, with this difference, that it was as beautiful as the voice of an angel. I had never got the Angel of Music whom my poor father had promised to send me as soon as he was dead. I really think that Mamma Valerius was a little bit to blame. I told her about it; and she at once said, 'It must be the Angel; at any rate, you can do no harm by asking him.' I did so; and the man's voice replied that, yes, it was the Angel's voice, the voice which I was expecting and which my father had promised me. From that time onward, the voice and I became great friends. It asked leave to give me lessons every day. I agreed and never failed to keep the appointment which it gave me in my dressing-room. You have no idea, though you have heard the voice, of what those lessons were like."}

Of all the words you could use to describe the Phantom's voice, the first one you pick is adorable??

As much as I hate to blame a widowed old lady verging on senility, it is a little bit Mme. Valerius' fault. (Mostly Erik's fault for taking the Angel idea and running with it, though.)

(ohh now I want to read fanfics about Christine and Erik just hanging out as friends during the Angel days before it all went wrong...)

{"We were accompanied by a music which I do not know: it was behind the wall and wonderfully accurate. The voice seemed to understand mine exactly, to know precisely where my father had left off teaching me. In a few weeks' time, I hardly knew myself when I sang. I was even frightened. I seemed to dread a sort of witchcraft behind it; but Mamma Valerius reassured me. She said that she knew I was much too simple a girl to give the devil a hold on me ... }

So, was Erik also playing the accompaniment? Just standing there trying to hide a piano in the wall??

Dramatic change in oneself *is* very frightening, even if it is change for the better. Mme. Valerius is not exactly comforting, though. 'Oh, you're too straightforward and stupid for the devil to want to mess with you.'

{My progress, by the voice's own order, was kept a secret between the voice, Mamma Valerius and myself. It was a curious thing, but, outside the dressing-room, I sang with my ordinary, every-day voice and nobody noticed anything. I did all that the voice asked. It said, 'Wait and see: we shall astonish Paris!' And I waited and lived on in a sort of ecstatic dream. It was then that I saw you for the first time one evening, in the house. I was so glad that I never thought of concealing my delight when I reached my dressing-room. Unfortunately, the voice was there before me and soon noticed, by my air, that something had happened. It asked what was the matter and I saw no reason for keeping our story secret or concealing the place which you filled in my heart. Then the voice was silent. I called to it, but it did not reply; I begged and entreated, but in vain. I was terrified lest it had gone for good. I wish to Heaven it had, dear! ... That night, I went home in a desperate condition. I told Mamma Valerius, who said, 'Why, of course, the voice is jealous!' And that, dear, first revealed to me that I loved you."}

So did she have to try and make an effort to keep her voice concealed, or was she 'magically' back to her usual level of singing after the lessons?

That's.. strange. Realizing you love someone who you haven't seen in years because your boyfriend slash tutor got jealous of you talking about him.

{"I went back to my dressing-room in a very pensive frame of mind. The voice was there, spoke to me with great sadness and told me plainly that, if I must bestow my heart on earth, there was nothing for the voice to do but to go back to Heaven. And it said this with such an accent of HUMAN sorrow that I ought then and there to have suspected and begun to believe that I was the victim of my deluded senses. But my faith in the voice, with which the memory of my father was so closely intermingled, remained undisturbed.}

UNDERHANDED MANIPULATION TACTIC, ERIK. THAT'S VERY MUCH NOT A GOOD THING TO DO *AND* YOU JUST GAVE AWAY YOUR GAME. (Wait- DID she suspect at the time or was it just obvious in hindsight? The former would be very interesting.)

I'm... not touching that last sentence. There's a lot of ways you can interpret that if you want to, but I personally prefer the non-vaguely-incestuous version of 'my dad promised to send me the Angel of Music- if this isn't the Angel, then was my father lying to me or failing to keep his word? no, it MUST be the Angel. my father would never fail me.'

{I had thought about my love for you and realized all the useless danger of it; and I did not even know if you remembered me. Whatever happened, your position in society forbade me to contemplate the possibility of ever marrying you; and I swore to the voice that you were no more than a brother to me nor ever would be and that my heart was incapable of any earthly love.}

This needs to be emphasized more: R/C IS *ALSO* FORBIDDEN AND SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE LOVE. IT IS NOT THE EASY WAY OUT.

{I don't know how it was that Carlotta did not come to the theater that night nor why I was called upon to sing in her stead; but I sang with a rapture I had never known before and I felt for a moment as if my soul were leaving my body!"

"Oh, Christine," said Raoul, "my heart quivered that night at every accent of your voice. I saw the tears stream down your cheeks and I wept with you. How could you sing, sing like that while crying?"}

Had you checked for Dementors? That would explain both the soul-sucking and the fainting.

(Also more crying together. Gee, I wonder if this will ever be important later?)

{"I felt myself fainting," said Christine, "I closed my eyes. When I opened them, you were by my side. But the voice was there also, Raoul! I was afraid for your sake and again I would not recognize you and began to laugh when you reminded me that you had picked up my scarf in the sea! ... Alas, there is no deceiving the voice! ... The voice recognized you and the voice was jealous! ... It said that, if I did not love you, I would not avoid you, but treat you like any other old friend. It made me scene upon scene. At last, I said to the voice, 'That will do! I am going to Perros to-morrow, to pray on my father's grave, and I shall ask M. Raoul de Chagny to go with me.' 'Do as you please,' replied the voice, 'but I shall be at Perros too, for I am wherever you are, Christine; and, if you are still worthy of me, if you have not lied to me, I will play you The Resurrection of Lazarus, on the stroke of midnight, on your father's tomb and on your father's violin.' That, dear, was how I came to write you the letter that brought you to Perros. How could I have been so beguiled? How was it, when I saw the personal, the selfish point of view of the voice, that I did not suspect some impostor? Alas, I was no longer mistress of myself: I had become his thing!"}

MORE MANIPULATION... At least she's become confident enough to reclaim herself as mistress of her own actions, unswayed by any man!

{Pity me, Raoul, pity me! ... You remember the terrible evening when Carlotta thought that she had been turned into a toad on the stage and when the house was suddenly plunged in darkness through the chandelier crashing to the floor? There were killed and wounded that night and the whole theater rang with terrified screams. My first thought was for you and the voice. I was at once easy, where you were concerned, for I had seen you in your brother's box and I knew that you were not in danger. But the voice had told me that it would be at the performance and I was really afraid for it, just as if it had been an ordinary person who was capable of dying. I thought to myself, 'The chandelier may have come down upon the voice.' I was then on the stage and was nearly running into the house, to look for the voice among the killed and wounded, when I thought that, if the voice was safe, it would be sure to be in my dressing-room and I rushed to my room. The voice was not there. I locked my door and, with tears in my eyes, besought it, if it were still alive, to manifest itself to me. The voice did not reply, but suddenly I heard a long, beautiful wail which I knew well. It is the plaint of Lazarus when, at the sound of the Redeemer's voice, he begins to open his eyes and see the light of day. It was the music which you and I, Raoul, heard at Perros. And then the voice began to sing the leading phrase, 'Come! And believe in me! Whoso believes in me shall live! Walk! Whoso hath believed in me shall never die! ...' I can not tell you the effect which that music had upon me. It seemed to command me, personally, to come, to stand up and come to it. It retreated and I followed. 'Come! And believe in me!' I believed in it, I came ... I came and—this was the extraordinary thing—my dressing-room, as I moved, seemed to lengthen out ... to lengthen out ... Evidently, it must have been an effect of mirrors ... for I had the mirror in front of me ... And, suddenly, I was outside the room without knowing how!"}

That's.. an uncomfortable appropriation of Christianity. Like I get that he's supposed to be an Angel, but yeesh... Just rubs me the wrong way.

{ You, who saw me disappear from my room one evening, may be able to explain it; but I can not. I can only tell you that, suddenly, there was no mirror before me and no dressing-room. I was in a dark passage, I was frightened and I cried out. It was quite dark, but for a faint red glimmer at a distant corner of the wall. I tried out. My voice was the only sound, for the singing and the violin had stopped. And, suddenly, a hand was laid on mine ... or rather a stone-cold, bony thing that seized my wrist and did not let go. I cried out again. An arm took me round the waist and supported me. I struggled for a little while and then gave up the attempt. I was dragged toward the little red light and then I saw that I was in the hands of a man wrapped in a large cloak and wearing a mask that hid his whole face. I made one last effort; my limbs stiffened, my mouth opened to scream, but a hand closed it, a hand which I felt on my lips, on my skin ... a hand that smelt of death. Then I fainted away.}

Yay! No creepy mirror bride in this version! Just more fainting.

{"When I opened my eyes, we were still surrounded by darkness. A lantern, standing on the ground, showed a bubbling well. The water splashing from the well disappeared, almost at once, under the floor on which I was lying, with my head on the knee of the man in the black cloak and the black mask. He was bathing my temples and his hands smelt of death. I tried to push them away and asked, 'Who are you? Where is the voice?'}

I remember there was mist...

Well, that's certainly.. different than ALW.

{His only answer was a sigh. Suddenly, a hot breath passed over my face and I perceived a white shape, beside the man's black shape, in the darkness. The black shape lifted me on to the white shape, a glad neighing greeted my astounded ears and I murmured, 'Cesar!' The animal quivered. Raoul, I was lying half back on a saddle and I had recognized the white horse out of the PROFETA, which I had so often fed with sugar and sweets. I remembered that, one evening, there was a rumor in the theater that the horse had disappeared and that it had been stolen by the Opera ghost. I believed in the voice, but had never believed in the ghost.}

So he stole her favorite horsie? That's an impressive amount of attention to detail.

{Now, however, I began to wonder, with a shiver, whether I was the ghost's prisoner. I called upon the voice to help me, for I should never have imagined that the voice and the ghost were one.}

That is incredibly ironic. Also super awkward for Erik. 'Voice, save me from the terrifying opera ghost!' 'Umm... I am the terrifying opera ghost?' 'Oh' 'Oh indeed'

{But the figures of which I caught sight had made me run away. There are demons down there, quite black, standing in front of boilers, and they wield shovels and pitchforks and poke up fires and stir up flames and, if you come too near them, they frighten you by suddenly opening the red mouths of their furnaces}

Well, that's not a very nice thing to call the hardworking furnace tenders, even if they are creepy. (I assume that's what going on and not anything supernatural?? feels very Hades/Persephone though)

{I sprang to my feet. I was in the middle of a drawing-room that seemed to me to be decorated, adorned and furnished with nothing but flowers, flowers both magnificent and stupid, because of the silk ribbons that tied them to baskets, like those which they sell in the shops on the boulevards. They were much too civilized flowers, like those which I used to find in my dressing-room after a first night. And, in the midst of all these flowers, stood the black shape of the man in the mask, with arms crossed, and he said, 'Don't be afraid, Christine; you are in no danger.' IT WAS THE VOICE!}

Woah, easy does it with the sudden all caps announcement of who's in the room- you'll give me flashbacks to bad fanfic. (Also how dare you?? I have never yet met a flower which I would call stupid.)

{I had, no doubt, to do with a terrible, eccentric person, who, in some mysterious fashion, had succeeded in taking up his abode there, under the Opera house, five stories below the level of the ground. And the voice, the voice which I had recognized under the mask, was on its knees before me, WAS A MAN! And I began to cry... The man, still kneeling, must have understood the cause of my tears, for he said, 'It is true, Christine! ... I am not an Angel, nor a genius, nor a ghost ... I am Erik!}

I am FIRE! I am DEATH! I am ERIK! Doesn't quite have the same ring to it. (again with the sudden all caps, Leroux? seriously?)

{An echo behind them seemed to repeat the word after her. "Erik!"}

Yep. Still just an echo. No spying going on here.

{"We have nothing to fear except the trap-doors, dear, and here we are miles away from the trap-doors ... and I am not allowed to see you outside the theater. This is not the time to annoy him. We must not arouse his suspicion."}

Nothing to fear but fear itself (and also trap doors)!