My Forever and Always (The Phantom of The Opera)

Chapter 3 - sucks to be me

Cosplay.

That was my first thought. Some idiot must have thought its funny to dress around like Phantom and scare prying tourists in the passageways. Of course, there's no other explanation. Otherwise, I couldn't be the only one who found a passageway in a historic monument just like that. Archaeologists must have unravelled this too. Hah, got it. I flipped on my best French and started talking.

''Who are you, you seriously think this is funny?"

I felt the masked man stare down at me menacingly. Pfft, dude thinks he is scary.

"Alright Phantom, or should I say Erik Destler, you know I can easily defend myself and call for help in no time. You may as well spill up before I get the security here to throw you out."

The man perked up and lunged at me, I noticed his movement and swiftly locked his feet with mine. This made him lose balance, in that second I found the opportunity to slam him against the wall.

"No you can't.'' I smirked. The man was clearly shocked with my agility and strength. He stared blankly and said "How do you know my name?"

"I read the original novel's synopsis last night. And 'my name'? Wow, you got pretty deep into the role. I'll ask again, your reason of attack Monsieur?"

"You wandered in the wrong part of my Opera house and you know my real name. Tell me little miss, how can I let you go?" he said in a deep voice.

I sighed. This man either thinks keeping up with the act will save him from police, or he is a lunatic. Either way, I need to get out. I pushed the man away and ran for the mirror passage, I need to find someone. He can't do anything to me with the CCTV there. I walk in to the room and see it stashed with weird fancy makeup, Victorian dresses and bouquets of flowers. I looked around and everything looked new and shiny - like this was not a century old monument but a newly-built place. The lighting got replaced by candles and I looked back at the man in horror. He was still staring at me. I looked into the mirror, my pendant gleamed then faded. I half yelled my sentence – "What is the date today?!"

"18th August, 1870."

I fell to the ground on my knees and covered my mouth with a hand. This can not happen to me. I looked up and saw the tall figure of Erik walking towards me.  

His deep voice rumbled, "What is that you are wearing?"

"huh? Clothes."

Erik stared at my answer blankly. It was one of those pity stares like I was some kind of mental patient. He eyed me head to toe while I stopped the video recorder in my phone and now looked down at my clothes that he noticed. 

Damn, that's a cute outfit. Should've taken a selfie in front of that mirror and walk away, not walk through it.