Just Out For A Walk ((Blondie))

[Madam Leona]

Madam Leona floated over a gravel path that had rose bushes planted on both sides of the path. The garden was as far out from the manor she could go. And being out here was extremely difficult. Plus, there wasn't a great source of energy like from electronics out here as there was inside. However, she liked being outside anyways. It was a warm and sunny day, pleasant. Even if she couldn't feel the warmth of the sun. Or listen to the gravel shift underneath her feet.

When she had first went into the manor, she was not able to go out in the garden. This because she was still fairly new at being a ghost and had yet to improve herself on being able to pull energy. This took many years, many years that went by with a blink of an eye. After all, being a ghost was like being immortal. Except having to learn how to move physical and real objects and have to learn how to draw enough energy to make yourself visible to the everyday person's eyes. That took many many many years, but she had also been able to accomplish it. And truthfully, there wasn't much that Leona ever wanted to do other than practice and learn and such.

Madam Leona saw a stone bench, it had been cleaned of weeds and vines from it. She smiled, although invisible. She sat down on the bench, looking up at the sun. Leona might have been the only spirit on all of Earth that walked about in the day. There was always ghost stories of them walking about in the night and such, but she had yet to ever hear one of being out in the sun and daylight. Suppose Madam Leona was just the exception. Madam Leona slowly soaked in the energy from the beams of light. With that, she slowly started to take shape and she soon looked like a faded black and white photo. Her skin extremely pale and her eyes dark holes, slightly translucent with her feet still invisible. But she then realized that there was someone there, one of them nearby and she quickly faded and became invisible once more.

[Christine Daaé]

Trapped. That's exactly how Christine felt n that dreadful and tragic cold stone prison. She and Raoul could not leave until they figured out a way to transport both themselves and Mamma Valéruis far, far from here, and that would require time and money that they didn't have. Raoul had gone and had found a job in the nearby village to try to earn enough for them to leave, but until then they were bound to this dreadful place. She loathed the constant feeling of dread she'd had ever since her encounter with the faceless beast of a man and with the demon the very next evening.

She had grown to be quite paranoid around there. It was similar to how she had felt back at the Opéra when she and Raoul were only pretending to be engaged and she had begun to suspect that Érik was keeping closer eye on them than she had first expected him to... Her eyes chased imaginary shadows, she would feel like there were eyes beating down upon her, a cold damp breath down the back of her neck which caused her spine to shiver and she would suddenly start running as if there were someone pursuing her. Oh, it was terrible to always be running and trembling like that,

She couldn't stand it! It wasn't fair, living in a place where you could not feel safe no matter where you went. It was like that magnificent prison known as the Garnier all over again, and she hated it. She needed to escape, to have some time to attempt to regain what little sanity she had left before that left her as well.

She stepped outside, her eyes dark from sleep deprivation (she hadn't been able to sleep much in her constant paranoia). She recalled seeing a garden as she and Raoul had made their way to the village... if one could even really call it a village, that is. Perhaps that was all she needed – some air to clear her head. The heels of her shoes sunk a bit in the gravel path of the garden, making a light grating sound from the displacement. Her weary eyes scanned the garden for those imaginary shadows that followed her. There were o shadows there, but what she did see was a middle-aged woman, sitting on a stone bench. Or at least, she thought she had seen a woman there. She blinked and the image was gone. Perhaps she was just seeing things again, The girl didn't know what was happening here, but she was quite certain that this place was driving her to insanity.

Shaking her head a little and walking over to the beck, Christine sat down, closing her eyes and gently massaging her temples. “Oh, Christine, what have you managed to get yourself into this time?...” she questioned softly and rhetorically. Her head and eyes hurt and she was in desperate need of rest. Perhaps then these hallucinations would finally go away...

[Madam Leona]

Madam Leona quickly moved out of the way before the little blonde sat down. She listened quietly as the young girl began talking to herself. She suddenly felt quite bad for the girl, it would seem that she had gone through a great deal while being here... going through a very troublesome time. Leona watched her for a moment more then walked away from the little Christine girl and if she were alive, she would have moved out of sight.

Leona then came back into view, nearly human looking. She looked extremely tired, but her eyes were like the original brown and her skin pink, though still fairly pale. Her feet were visible, though not quite touching the ground. Other then her feet not touching the ground, and her whole body being slightly translucent, she looked fairly normal. However, keeping the energy to stay in such a normal form was extremely exhausting and even more difficult since being out here instead of inside. Madam Leona walked, though not making a single sound, to Christine and stood a few feet away from her.

"Oh my dear, are you quite alright?" She asked in a soft and semi-quiet tone. Leona showed concern through her eyes but also had a warm smile on her face. All around her was extremely cold and so while the sun and the air may have been summery warm, being anywhere near Leona would make it feel like being in a winter snow blizzard. "Oh and my dear, you may call me Madam Leona. I hope you don't mind my company any." She said, still standing a few feet away from Christine. She did not offer her a simple handshake, for Christine's hand would have gone through any how, so Madam Leona instead bowed her head slightly and bent her knees and lowered her body a little ways then stood back up strait once more.

[Christine Daaé]

Christine looked up before her to see a woman standing there before her. She did not seem very threatening to the girl, but one could never be too careful – especially not in this dreadfully tragic place full of such horrors which she had come to fear, and quite justifiably too! She dried a few tears from those red and heavy eyes.

“I.... I don't know any more...” the girl said, quite honestly. “My fiancé and I are trapped in heaven knows what this place is and for how long.... And eve worse, there are demons here! And madmen, and all sorts of other horrors.... Oh, I fear I am losing my mind... All I want is to go home...”

She shook her head a little. “No.... No, I do not mind the company.... if anything at all, I probably need it..” And then she let out another sigh before looking back up at the woman, not at all taking notice of her hovering feet. “My name is Christine Daaé. It is a pleasure to meet you, Madam Leona.”

[Madam Leona]

Leona listened to the poor girl. She listened as she told her that her and her loved one were trapped and that she knew about the demons and madmen there. Oh she dearly felt bad for the little Christine. She wished that the characters here were not tormented by the... original residents of the manor. Oh she wished that she could comfort her by placing a hand on her shoulder or sit down beside her however, she felt that her coldness around her might scare her more which was not something that would accomplish anything and she wanted to help the poor girl.

She smiled slightly when Christine introduced herself. "Pleasure to meet you do dear." She said and sat down beside the girl. At this range, it would almost feel like she could give Christine frost bite just by a touch of her hand. "I am afraid my dear girl... you are not at all losing your mind." She said a sadly. "There are demons here... and madmen... and so many other troubles. Believe me, I would know... I have lived here for quite a long while." Oh yes, she had been living here for nearly 100 years... never able to leave once she had entered. "But you are strong... I have seen you before though never having quite introduced myself then. And I know some of the things you had gone through... you are so strong to have lasted even this long."

[Christine Daaé]

Christine couldn't help but to heave a sigh of frustration mixed with despair when the woman confirmed that there were both demons and madmen there at the manor, as well as far worse things – things which Christine did not with to discover for her self. All she wanted was to leave there and to go home to Paris with her fiancé and with her adoptive mother as soon as possible.

She looked at Madam Leona with a bit of confusion though when she said that she had seen her before. Christine had certainly never seen the middle-age woman sitting beside her before in the manor... But honestly, with all of the strange occurrences here, she should not have been too surprised by it... “Madame, I don't understand. How do you know of what I have been through? Where have you seen me?”

[Madam Leona]

Madam Leona nodded a bit when Christine said that she didn't understand. No.. no you wouldn't understand my dear girl. She thought. When she asked her how Leona would know and where she had seen her. Oh how to get out of this without further scaring the poor girl. She sighed a little bit and looked away, loosing a bit of her color quite literally as she began to be very exhausted.

"Well my dear girl, with the few things I have seen and heard, I am surprised you could function at all, it would be no wonder that you didn't notice me. Most of the time I was just passing by, perhaps some of those times, I should have intervened though I don't suppose it would have actually helped any." Madam Leona said, smiling a bit pleasantly, though her skin looked nearly grey how and her dark brown eyes now nearly looked black. She knew that her energy was slowly fading but she didn't want to disappear and scare Christine, she was already so frightened.

[Christine Daaé]

Christine glanced down at the stone pathway, littered with a few old leaves and petals, as the woman spoke to her, explaining how she would not have seen her, and that it had really only been in passing. Perhaps it was a bit ruse not to look at her when she spoke, but the poor girl was exhausted, and she was having trouble keeping herself from dozing off.

“That is quite all right, madame. I'm not sure that there is much that you or anyone else could have done to help anyway. This place..... it frightens me so...” And with this, she let out a soft sigh. “I only wish that I knew how to get away from it all.... Then Raoul and I could be married and move far far away from where anyone would be able to impede upon our happiness...”

[Madam Leona]

Happiness....happily ever after. The words repeated in her head over and over again in Madam Leona's mind. She could have her happy ending... though if she remembered correctly, Raoul was the name of the man who hated the masked man, Erik. But still... they could have happiness... happiness is all that she wanted achieved. Leona sighed slightly and glanced at the ground before looking back at Christine.

"I know my dear girl... this place can be very frightening... but there is one thing I can promise you. Danger does not wait for you around every corner. There are times where you can be safe. If I know correctly, you have a lot of people who protect you and do their best to help you. You have people around you who you could turn to... because although they are not exactly going through what you are.. you all are living together and need each other. So don't be afraid to rest, you need it. You have angels watching over you Christine." Leona said warmly.

[Christine Daaé]

((suckish post is suckish but there. Sorry. Too many distractions >.<))

Frightening... Boy, was that an understatement. It was more like maddening. Yes, that was the exact word for it – maddening. This place had driven her mad since the moment she had first arrived, and it still did not fail to do so, even with Raoul and mamma Valérius here. Nothing was as it should be, nor was it as it seemed to be... And then....

You have angels watching over you, Christine...

She stopped and thought for a moment. She had already seen them watching over her once there, the night when that foul demon had leaned over her bed with his mouth all dripping with blood and his horrid eyes. They had protected her when she had called to them, but even then, they had not stopped him from finding her to begin with.

She let out a soft sigh. “I know, Madame, but... I miss when things were simpler than this... when they made sense and when Raoul and I could have been alone without anyone who may have thought poorly of our wanting to be married...”

[Madam Leona]

((Its fine, I love it! lol)

Madam Leona nodded. "Yes... if only anything were simple. However, nothing ever seems really simple, even if it ever did feel like it. But that is how we get stronger, living through our not so simple or easy trials. Though of course, you probably understand that already by now." She said chuckling a bit, and waving her hand slightly.

"Dearie me, it seems all of lately I have been spewing out lines of encouragement left and right. Come dear, lets walk. Perhaps for your sanity's sake, we should talk of some lighter subjects. I know that although it dose good to speak what is on your mind and heart, to dwell on problems for too long can cause problems in the present. I hope you do not mind if we were to try and talk of something that might make you a little more happy." She said, standing up. But her color flickered and her feet were still translucent. She wouldn't be able to hold her color for much longer.

[Christine Daaé]

Christine stared down at the ground for a moment. She knew that the woman was right. Trials and tribulations only made one stronger once they were able to overcome them... But that was the problem. Christine did not wish to overcome them. What she truly wanted was for them to be reversed altogether.

She let out a soft sigh, closing her eyes for a brief moment and missing the flicker of color in her ghastly companion. “Perhaps you are right,” she said. “Surely I will drive myself even more mad than I have already become, dwelling upon such subjects as these... A walk might do me some good..... Thank you.”

She stood and then turned back to the woman, forcing a small smile upon her lips. She doubted a simple walk would no very much for her, but it was far better than nothing she supposed...

[Madam Leona]

"Of course my dear, of course. You know, some say that if you take a walk outside when something is bothering you... sometimes you can sort it out in your head. Like when you daydream on a bench or sing softly to yourself while looking outside. Of course, that might just be other people, but who knows." Madam Leona said smiling.

Leona then for a moment silently walked with Christine, or rather for herself, silently gliding though looking like she was walking. They walked a little closer to the manor where Leona could keep her color a little longer then away from the manor where her color would flicker every now and again. Then Madam Leona decided to strike up the conversation again. "So what do you feel is so special about your... your Raoul? If you don't mind me asking." She asked, smiling sweetly.

[Christine Daaé]

Christine was mostly lost in thought as she strolled along the Manor grounds with Madame Leona. She only vaguely heard what Leona was saying to her. She had far too many things on her mind. Surely it was not healthy for one to be so worried… so afraid all of the time. There were so many things about this place, and about the current situations of everyone who was dear to her, that she could not possibly hope to understand. Why? Why was all of this happening as it was happening?

Her eyes were somewhat downcast, as if she were only vaguely aware of her companion’s presence, until Leona broke the silence, asking her what she felt was so special about her fiancé. Christine wasn’t sure whether she should be happy that the woman was interested, or feel insulted that she felt she needed to tell her a reason… or whether Leona was simply trying to break the ice. She was too upset to cause a ruckus over it and simply stopped walking for a moment, standing there by a rather large tree that was growing along the path.

Where did she begin? How did you explain love to someone else?... After a few seconds of silence, which felt more like an eternity, Christine finally spoke. “Raoul and I… well… we’ve known one another since we were no more than children… Of course we… grew very fond of one another as playmates, but we were so young… Anyway, we’d only seen each other for the summer before my father’s Patron brought us back to Paris, and I didn’t see him again for a few years until one summer I was back in Perros-Guirec where we had first met… We went there every summer, to get away from the city for a while, but this time…” Christine gave a soft, sort of reminiscent chuckle. “I’ll never forget the day… I was in the kitchen, making tea for my father and for Mamma Valérius… and I came into the sitting room to bring it to them and there, standing in the room, was Raoul…”

Christine paused for a moment, her blue eyes distant as she recalled the memory. “I could feel my heart leap seeing him again, and I nearly dropped the tray of tea… I offered to bring him something as well, and showed him around the little house… and then we went into the garden… Other than the size, it was not so very different from where we are now… We… we sat and… we talked about thing… any little thing that came to mind, really. What we’d done since the last time we saw one another, how our studies were coming along… He told me that he had joined the navy and would be leaving to begin his training very soon and at that moment, though I didn’t realize it at the time, I could feel my heart breaking…” At this point, the girl pressed a hand to her chest, almost as if she could feel her heart beginning to break yet again.

“I didn’t know what to make of it… I was so young at the time, that I hadn’t known truly what it felt like when one was in love… Or at least, I didn’t know I knew what it felt like… We… We talked a bit longer until it began to get dark and he told me that he had to leave… I walked with him to the roadside to see him off and… as he was leaving… Oh dear Lord, bless his soul. He was too good to me… He gently pressed a kiss to my lips and I felt as if, somehow my soul had left my body and was ready to go along with him… And he told me these words which shall never forget, even if I live to be a hundred… He told me,’Mademoiselle, I shall never forget you’…”

Christine had to turn away at this point, resting her hand against the tree’s trunk in order to support herself. She could feel tears beginning to sting at her eyes, and was trying to prevent them from falling. Heaven knew that if she started crying now, she would never be able to finish her story… She took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself, before looking back at Leona to whom she had been telling her story.

“Soon after Raoul left, my father passed away and… well… I felt dead… I didn’t want anything to do with Perros, or with music, or stories, or trips to the beach, or flowers, or gardens, or anything, really… I didn’t want to remember any of it because it made me far too upset. I tried as hard as I could to forget about Raoul, but I found it to be rather difficult… Our parting by the roadside, and the times we played together kept coming back, no matter how hard I tried to push them away… They came in my dreams, in random conversation with Mamma, in my day-to-day thoughts, I would find myself sometimes wondering what it was like for him now, in the navy… I thought that I could make it all go away my joining a nunnery, but Mamma Valérius would have nothing of the sort… She made me go to the Conservatory, to study voice, insisting that it was what my father would have wanted for me, but I did not think so…”

She shook her head a little, thinking about all of the things that had changed with that. “Once I’d graduated from the Conservatory, I wasn’t sure what to do next. I still thought that the nunnery seemed a rather inviting option, but Mamma urged me toward opera… I don’t know if you are familiar with theatre and music in Paris, but there are quite a few opera companies there… There was one though… one that I thought I might at least consider…It was the Opéra Garnier. It was fairly new, the hew house for the Opéra de Paris, and quite a beautiful building, not far from home, but that wasn’t why it interested me… Among its principle patrons was Comte Philippe Georges-Marie de Chagny – Raoul’s older brother… It was a silly thought at the time really, when I look back on it now, but… I thought to myself that… perhaps if Raoul were on leave ever from his duties at the navy then…” Here, her voice caught a little, and she had to swallow before continuing. “Then maybe he would come visit…”

She took another few moments to try to keep her composure before starting back up the tale. “I wasn’t sure why the thought had occurred to me, but I knew… I knew that I wanted something. I wanted to feel complete again, like I’d found myself unable to be since my father had died… I thought that maybe if I could sit there and talk to him… like we had before… that he would be able to help me reconcile with my father’s death… He’d gone through the same thing when we were children, just before we met, in fact, but… I didn’t understand how he’d been able to… Perhaps his relationship with his father was different than that of me with mine, I know that sometimes noble families are a bit distant during childhood”

Christine let out a soft sigh. She was getting sidetracked. It must have been rather dull for Leona to listen to, but it did help her to have the change to collect herself a bit more. “Anyway, I auditioned for the company and was hired to do mostly chorus work as well as some rather minor supporting roles, and it turned out that there were… many other things at the opera, which at least served to heighten my attitude a bit…” She was trying to refrain from telling about Érik, lest this woman think she were insane, but it was difficult to complete one half of the story without including at least a small portion of the other. “There was… a strange man who hid behind the walls of my dressing room and spoke to me, and taught me – he claimed that he was the Angel of Music my father had sent to me from heaven.”

Here, Christine forced herself to laugh a little. She knew that, to her, it was no funny situation at all, but she really did not wish to ruin the sentiment of her narrative. “And for a while, I believed him. He gave me lessons every single day… It was the first time I’d really found any sort of taste in the art my father had originally taught me in such a long time, and for a while… I was happy again. It wasn’t too terribly long before, one night, I looked up at Comte Philippe’s box and saw another man sitting there with him, whom I recognized instantly as Raoul. All at once, I felt my heart leap again, as it had the time I’d entered the sitting room with the tea tray, and I was so happy, that I never thought to conceal my delight when I went back into my dressing room – why should I have had to, after all?”

A small, almost sickly-looking smile appeared on the girls face as she continued to speak. “The ‘Angel’ was already there in my room and asked me what had happened to cause my suddenly-so-pleasant mood, and so I told him the whole story about how Raoul and I had met one another as children, and how he had run into the sea to fetch my scarf when it had blown off… And then the voice became silent. I was… confused, to say the least. I called out to it, but there was no reply whatsoever, and so, when I went home I told Mamma Valérius all about Raoul, and then about what had happened with the voice, explaining my confusion to her… But she only snickered at me and told me ‘Why of course! The voice is jealous!’…. And that was what made me first realize what that strange feeling I’d felt before, and now after seeing him again, was… It was the first time I truly realized that I was in love…”

“I’m terribly sorry for this. You must think me a terrible bore for taking so long with my… my silly little story…” she said, shaking her head. “I tend to go on and on when I tell tales like this…”

((1762))

[Madam Leona]

Leona listened to Christine intently. My... a lot had indeed happened to her. It was clear enough alright. She waited a moment after Christine finished speaking then replied gently. "My dear, I think the least I may be able to tell you is that everything happens for a reason. And I am sure you have heard that there is a silver lining behind every storm cloud." She said, her color slowly fading as she grew more and more tired.

"Raoul does sound like a very special man and I think you are very lucky to find him... or have him find you. I wish I had that sort of luck." Madam Leona chuckle sadly. "I am afraid I am feeling quite tired. I am usually quite energetic you must understand... being away from the manor does its toll I suppose. I hope you wont find me rude..." Her eyes closed and she walked a few paces ahead then sighed heavily and faded away. There was a sudden slight wind but it was then gone and all was silent.