My Forever and Always (The Phantom of The Opera)

Chapter 2 - First Encounter

France is hands down the most breathtakingly gorgeous place I've ever been to. Everyday I took so many photos my phone and camera barely had any battery left by the end of the day. Even the supermarkets at France looked weirdly classy to me, maybe I'm too obsessed with this country. All my rom-com fantasies had a 'kissing under the Eiffel Tower' scene in it. Before visiting all tourist locations, we first went to a town in the outskirts of Paris. I've been to this place only four times, every time our dad made sure that we visited our ancestral mansion here in France. This mansion which was previously known as The Chagny House belonged to my great grandfather. Every visit we would have the place checked for any cleaning or repairing and spend a good week or half relaxing here. Anyone from my family who has business in France would come and live here for their stay. It's a beautiful mansion with huge white marble pillars and beige walls. It has a sprawling expanse of lawns with flower beds and coffee tables and couches near the porch for an ideal outdoor time. I sat down at the dining table with Clayton relishing our crème of mushroom soup with baguettes. Dad was busy with phone calls from work while mom went in and was looked through some drawers. "Ah! I was looking for this everywhere" my mom said while walking down the stairs. I noticed she had a gold chain with a sapphire pendant dangling from her hand as she walked to me and Clayton.

"Wear this Clary. It belonged to your great grandmother and was catching dust in her old dressing table. A beautiful jewellery like this shouldn't be lying around." Mom said.

"But mom is it ok to wear this now? It looks expensive what if I lose it somewhere"

"I believe that you have grown up enough to not just loose a chain that is hanging around your neck. You better take care not to misplace it or-"

"Or get your ass whooped for losing a precious family relic dumb-dumb" Clayton grinned while stuffing his mouth with another bite from the baguette. I scowled at him and then turned to mom "But who originally owned this pendant mom? It's so weird how I've lived in this mansion on 4 different occasions but I still don't know a thing about who built it or our French ancestry".

Mom sighed. "Ask your dad Clary. 20 years of marriage and I have no idea about this side of his family tree. The fact that we even kept in touch with this mansion is a big deal. We didn't have guests from France in our wedding either. Hopefully your dad can tell us more about this."

"There's totally a chance that our French side of the family has connections to Napoleon!" Clayton exclaimed. Me and mom burst into laughter.

Amongst the countless marvellous places we visited, one of them was the Paris Opera or The Opera Populaire. I remembered this is the place where Andy's movie was set in so I stayed up late at my hotel and researched everything there is about the Phantom. I went through Gaston Leroux's book, through the musicals, movies, plot analysis and even fanfics. Maybe the movie really had an effect on me and I never realised it.

I thought the city that was home to Opera Populaire was beautiful until I stepped inside the dais of this monument. I've never seen anything as splendid as this. The sweeping marble floors gleamed golden and the velvety crimson draped the room in state of luxurious glow. I found all the voices around me fade out as I walked alone around the Opera house in complete awe. The intricacy behind every aspect of the design blew my mind. It is a place that can give you an experience of the lifetime. There's not a place inside this Opera that I can't stop staring at, everything from the roof, sculptures, paintings, walls, seats, rooms everything knocked my breath away. I've lost my parents long ago but I didn't exactly worry, I had my phone with me and decent French speaking skills to find my way through. I ventured into corners and hallways with no tourists or guides, but I wasn't really unnerved because I noticed there are cctv cameras around.

I walk into a room and weird nostalgia hits me. Wait, nostalgia? In a place I've never seen before? I scan the room from floor to roof. It looked like a dressing room with an extended closet on one side and an embellished couch on the other. The room was long out of use. What caught my attention was huge standing mirror on the wall with a gold frame. It hit me then, this is THE PRIMADONNA ROOM, just like in the movies, musicals and the novel. If that's true, then the path to the underground passages must be right behind that mirror.

I couldn't hear any tourists along the corridor. The suspense built up in me and I wanted to see this for myself. I quickly whipped out my phone and started a video. If I really do discover a secret passageway in the historic Paris Opera, I may as well get popular on youtube for it. My bag strapped behind me, phone in one hand, I paced towards the mirror and pried along its frame with my free hand. My finger slipped above a creak barely a few centimetres wide. I placed my palm over the gap and to my greatest shock I felt wind run gush from the other side. It took all of my strength to move the rusty frame towards the right and reveal an opening to unending dark. I looked in the mirror and the sapphire pendant I wore started glowing. It seemed to catch all the light in this world and almost illuminated. With my hands steady on my phone I switched on the flash and walked in.

The place was damp, murky and pitch-black. I obviously wasn't an idiot to walk further into a place I can't even see. I took some steps back and forth to check the area. It was a long corridor identical in length and width like the one outside, only with no light, flooring or fancy furnishing. I looked back through the mirror-opening to check the Primadonna room. I could have sworn some of the LED lighting were moving or flickering, as if they were flames. I looked into my phone screen and thought I can shoot the inside of the passage in one swift shot. The moment I turned around I felt a rope around my neck. F*ck.

I slid my phone into my front pocket with one hand and held the rope around my neck with other. The person soon started tightening it but they didn't know I was a black belt. I ducked below and with a swift movement threw the rope over my head and held on to it tight. I landed a kick on the back of the person's knee and elbowed them in the stomach. The man was quite tall but I've sparred before with guys tall enough to be in NBA. As the person faltered due with the impact of my blow I landed a high kick under the person's chin and flipped the rope around them tying their hands in position. I quickly grab my phone which still must be recording and flashed it on the person's face.

The person, he, is The Phantom of The Opera. In flesh.

Oh, shit.