Chapter5- The phantom of the opera mystery part 1

Monday the 21st August 1889 was the beginning of the grand opera week festival at the palais Galois opera house. And the graphic design department of the University of Red-Lanterns were invited to help set the preparations before the drama department of the university performs the play The Phantom of the Opera. The opera house is located on one of Leisenburg's remote islets known as Schwein which is a German word meaning Pig since the islet had many pigs in the past before they were all hunted down for leather, marketing and bone bracelets.

The students boarded the ship which was sailing to Schwein. "Ah look look, I can see the islet." exclaimed Judith in joy, she then went over to William and grabbed his hand then dragged him to the upper deck of the ship. "Look William, isn't the view breath taking? let's call the others." Said Judith all excited. Alexander, Hayden, Arthur, Lucas, Mathilda and Sophia all gathered to where Judith and William were. Feeling the breeze gently brushing against their coats and skirts, staring at the horizon Schwein could really be seen. It was a remote rocky islet with no sand or beach. Palais Galois opera house was designed by Charles Garnier; a famous French Architect who designed the master piece Palais Garnier Opera house of Paris. Palais Galois's design is similar however it has a hotel attached to it, we say hotel because it is massive but since it's found on a remote islet it does not have much visitors or occupants thus it's known as the guest house of the opera. The tenant of the guest house as well as the one who looks after and cleans the opera house is Madam Lafleur a distant aunt of the princes of Leisenburg who was chased out of the kingdom due to an accusation of the crime of burning down the Royal gardens while having tied the previous King's first wife on a pole and she was burnt alive like witches are burnt. Till this day nobody knows the truth about this case. The islet once was full of pigs but after the big hunting event that took place in 1875 it became full of crows, vultures and eagles. The islet's shape when viewed from above via a plane or a hot-air balloon was a human's head skull. "That's creepy.... now that I'm hearing the crows chant and reading about this islet's shape...." said Judith, "A perfect setting for weird and inexplicable incidents." said Mathilda, "Perfection....this atmosphere gets me excited, I wonder about the secrets of this place, secrets that should never be revealed, forbidden.... who knows what can happen while we're there for our one week stay." said Sophia all glimmered up. "Don't jinx it good lady. This islet ought to have been named as deathly sinner of sinner's cave though, what a gloomy atmosphere..." said Alexander, "This place might have once been a hiding place for the pirates before Leisenburg declared it to be it's territory. Apparently there was a territory fight between Leisenburg's navy and a massive fleet of pirates known as the Blue lotus pirates. Rumors also has it that they hid their treasures on the islet but digging and excavations have been banned by the previous king and that law still stands." said Hayden, "Oh my lord, really? Fascinating indeed." said Sophia with even more glimmer in her eyes.

As the ship reached the docks to anchor, Madam Lafleur and her attendants came to greet the young guests and their tutors. "Madam, your health is not so good anymore, why did you trouble yourself to come here?" asked professor Phantomhive, "Oya oya, it has been so long since our guest house had any visitors, young ones are the rarest and I heard that the king's sons are among them so how can I not come and greet your students?" said Madam Lafleur. "Heh, King's sons? My foot, that's only a rumor!" said Alexander suddenly walking across Madam Lafleur, tapping her shoulder and putting his forefinger on his lips to ask the madam to stay quiet. His movements was so fast that what the others could see was just him moving the luggage out of the ship at an unbelievable speed. "That's correct, now why would those imbecile and arrogant princes even attend University when they can hire private tutors or have high posts in royal military or royal navy or in political affairs easily?" said Hayden. "Oi oi imbecile and arrogant? Look who's talking..." said William. Sophia gave a suspicious look at Alexander all the while the walk uphill to the opera guest house, even Alexander felt a weird chill in his back.

The guest house could accommodate 1,997 guests, the opera house had the same number of seats therefore each student got their own rooms. "Oh no, I don't want to be separated from Sophia and Mathilda" cried Judith who fell to her knees, covered her face full of tears. "Raise fair lady for a maiden's tears are far more valuable than diamonds, only her precious husband is allowed to have the privilege to see her tears. Nothing to be discontent about for your rooms are next to each other's and ours are vis-s-vis." Said William who got on his knees like a gentleman, wiping Judith's tears away with his bare fingers. "Charmer much?!" said Arthur. Judith stopped crying and took the kind William's hand and stood back up, they stared into each other's eyes and smiled. "forbidden" thought both of them. "I'm gonna have nosebleed if I keep seeing this, it's dreamy like in tales." said Mathilda.

After the students had settled down Afternoon tea was served along with some petit fours. After tea Chlorine; one of madam Lafleur's maids gave the students a tour of the guest house and the opera house, finally guided them on the set and explained the mechanisms to the graphic department students. Chlorine's father was Dr. Rosebolt; a mad scientist who named their children after the elements of the periodic table of chemistry. Her other siblings who also serve as attendants of this guest house and opera were also named after chemical elements, they were Argon a maid, Carbon a butler, Sodium a maid and finally Cobalt a butler. The mad scientist is rumored to have disappeared in the shipwreck of Claudia. It happened near Claudia island, but his body was never found so a burial ceremony couldn't be done and most people forgot about this scientist. "This mechanism... seems more like the design of Samizu Kichiemon who is better known for his elaborate and often dangerous mechanical contraptions used to guard jewels and other precious items." noticed Sophia, "Well this building was designed by the team work of Charles Garnier and Samizu Kichiemon, the building of our educational establishment was designed by their teamwork as well." said Professor Phantomhive. The students became mesmerised for a moment and admired the architecture and mechanism. "There's probably more to this place than what meets the eye." said Hayden with a smirk on his face. "Actually last year there was another theatre who came here to perform The phantom of the opera, it was a small private theatre and all of us here were part of it, an accident happened on the day of the big performance when the curtains were raised...." said a meek girl in glasses who was suddenly cut by a tall green-eyed coloured boy with shoulder length brown hair "Mari! Don't you ever dare talk about that again." he shouted.

"And you are?" asked Alexander. "Pardon my intrusion and rudeness graphic department students. We are from the drama department and here's our full cast. I am part of the cast as well, allow me to introduce ourselves. I am Frederick McKlair, this is Mari Yamamoto an exchange student from Japan, Lai Li an exchange student from China, Timothy Howell, Anthony Stonem, Elizabeth Chandler, Gray Rosemary, Gabriel Rosemary, Sara-Jane Druitt and finally Marianne Apricot." said Frederick, all of them bowed a little to the ghetto base who were talking to them as a sign of respect and common courtesy practice. The three cousins and their friends watched the drama casts rehearsals and found out that Elizabeth who wanted the lead female role; Christine got the role of Carlota and instead of her Mari got the lead female role and 'stole her starlight' as she kept mumbling. Frederick naturally got the role of Viscount Raoul, one of the main male leads and Gabriel was jealous of him as he was way more handsome and accomplished than him in many areas but instead got the role of the phantom Erick. The members of the drama department were not exactly soft with each other, rather they were full of anguish, jealousy and hatred towards each other. However there was something special about Frederick and the people he introduced to the cousins and their friends; some kind of deep connection that none of them can escape from, furthermore the accident that Mari was talking about, what was it? Why did Frederick stop her from talking?

After the rehearsal they all went back to the opera house guest house to have dinner. amidst all the chatter Frederick finally rose and asked "Hey where did Elizabeth go? it has been over thirty minutes since she went to the loos." "I don't know, maybe she felt tired and went back to her room?" said Mari casually. all of a sudden a strong wind blew, blowing out the candles of the dining room, leaving only three candles still lit. "Hey it's kind of chilly outside don't you think?" said Mathilda. Hayden took off his coat and wrapped it around Mathilda, grabbed her chin with his fingers and pulled her face to face his. He smiled gently and said "There, wear this to keep yourself warm." Mathilda flushed red at that moment and the others were staring; dumbfounded. "There's this aura of a field of flowers blooming around them...." said Sophia, "Yes, they certainly entered a different world at the moment...." said Judith. "Oh no, a storm is coming, the crows and other birds are flying and hurrying west, the sea is getting rough and the clouds got heavy." said Chlorine who was looking out the window. At that very moment there was a crash of lightning and thunder, it started raining heavily and bizarrely another crash sound was heard along with the scream of a woman. "Aaaahh" screamed Lai Li then and she fell to her knees, hands on her head, shivering in fear. "What was that woman's shriek? Are there ghosts or witches on this islet?" asked Gray, "Most certainly there are none." said Madam Lafleur. "Then could it be? Elizabeth?" said Gabriel. after hearing that Frederick ran to Elizabeth's room and knock the door but no answer, the others followed behind him and Hayden helped Frederick knock the door down. The windows were wide open, the wind blowing strong but there was no sign of Elizabeth. Everyone searched for her in every place they could think of but she was nowhere to be found and the storm was getting harsher. The search party all gathered in the outdoor corridor linking the opera house to the guest hose. "Any progress?" asked Alexander. "No" said Mari. "Wait, we haven't checked that one place." said Gabriel, "You couldn't possibly mean...?" asked William, Gabriel nodded and they all headed to the opera house along with Chlorine who had the key of the padlock.

It was dark inside, the only light that used electricity there was the massive chandelier made with glass and diamonds and gold. the rest were petrol lamps so it would take a while to light them all. Instead Arthur grabbed a candle off the walls near the entrance and lit it. They walked around, still no trace of Elizabeth. "Ey, what's this? Is the roof leaking? why is this part of the floor wet.....kyaaaaaaaaa!" screamed Sophia who fell on her bum at the horror. The others quickly rushed to her and asked her what happened, she slowly turned her head around to face them with a horrified and shocked look on her face. She lifted her hand and pointed to the wet floor under her. upon seeing that the others were horrified as well, it was not water but blood; crimson red blood. they quickly pointed the candle light to the stage and to their horror they found the Chandelier completely crashed on the stage and a body was found underneath, It was Elizabeth's corpse, her face and right hand were visible. her eyes and mouth were wide opened.