A new ending - Déborah, Thaís and Júlia

9 The house on the lake

'Quick! Come with me, but be careful,' the Persian said.

'I know Erik. I understand his secrets. Put your right hand up near your head, like this, and keep it there all the time.'

When the lights came on, Raoul ran. He ran down stairs and along passages, through the Opera House to the back of the stage. In the passage outside Christine's dressing-

'But why?' Raoul asked.

'Remember Joseph Buquet, and the rope around his neck? Erik is a clever man with ropes in the dark.'

room, a hand took his arm.

'What's the matter, my young friend? Where are you running to, so quickly?'

Raoul turned and saw the long face of the Persian under his black hat.

'Christine!' Raoul said quickly. 'Erik's got her. Where is she? Help me! How do I get to his house on the lake?'

'Come with me,' said the Persian. They went quickly into Christine's dressing-room. The Persian closed the door and went to the big mirror on one wall.

'There's only one door into this room,' Raoul began.

'Wait,' the Persian said. He put his hands on the big mirror, first here, then there. For a minute nothing happened.

Then the mirror began to move and turn, and a big dark hole opened in it. Raoul stared.

The mirror began to move and turn, and a big dark bole opened in it.

The room was all mirrors - walls, floor, ceiling. There They went down, down, down, under the Opera House.

were pictures in the mirrors of trees and flowers and rivers.

They went through secret doors in the floors, then along

The pictures moved and danced in front of their eyes. And the

passages and down dark stairs. The Persian listened carefully

room was hot. It got hotter and hotter and hotter. Raoul was

all the time for strange noises.

thirsty, hot and thirsty, and the rivers in the pictures danced

'When do we get to the lake?' Raoul whispered.

and laughed at him. He closed his eyes, but the rivers still

'We're not going by the lake. Erik watches it all the time.

danced. Water, he needed water, but the mirrors laughed at

No, we go round the lake and get into Erik's house from the

him. Soon he could not move or speak, or open his eyes. He

back. I know some secret doors.'

Soon they were there. In the dark, the Persian felt the wall carefully with his hands. 'Ah, here it is,' he whispered. The wall moved under his hands and a small door opened. Very quietly, they went through, and then the door closed behind them. They could not get out.

Inside the room it was very dark. They waited and listened. The Persian put his hands on the wall.

'Oh no!' he whispered. 'It was the wrong door! This is Erik's torture room - the room of mirrors! We are dead men, Vicomte de Chagny, dead men!'

At first Raoul did not understand. But he soon learnt.

The lights came on, and they heard a man's laugh. Erik knew they were there.

The pictures moved and danced in front of their eyes.

was not thirsty now, just tired, so tired. 'Oh Christine, I'm

confused and perceived a harsh reality. There was no ghost

sorry,' he thought. 'I wanted to help you, and now I'm dying ...'

there. Christine had been alone the whole time.

Through a mirror in the wall Christine watched her lover in the torture room. Behind her Erik stood, with his hands on her arms.

10 Christine

'He's dying, Christine, dying. Watch him carefully. No, don't close your eyes. Watch him!'

Christine could not speak. She wanted to scream, but no words came. Then she found her voice again.

'How can you do this, Erik! Why don't you kill me?'

'Because I love you, Christine. Marry me, love me and stay with me forever. Then Raoul and the Persian can live.'

It was too late. Through the glass, Christine watched inside the hall of mirrors her beloved one and the Persian die slowly. Their brains gradually collapsing due to the strong temperature and confusion caused by the mirrors.

Desperate, Christine entered the room in tears, and ran to Raoul. She lowered herself beside his body and felt his last breath of life.

Crying and with great sadness, DaaĂŠ got up, looked around looking for the ghost and she got surprised by not found him. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she felt

A few years before, Christine had lost her father, and she felt her life was ruined, so she began her singing career at the Opera House. She had had so many problems, and so much bitterness that her mind was not well.

In an attempt to find herself again in life, Christine went deep into her musical career at the Opera House, and there she heard the rumors about the Phantom of the Opera.

The Persian, a man who had worked for many years at the Opera House, was the one who started the rumors. He was a lonely man who spent most of his time at the Opera House, and, little by little, he was discovering the mysteries of the place, like hidden passages, the lake on which the building was built, and even some rooms built very close to the lake, that the current directors of the opera did not use.

The immensity of the building, with its thousands of

dressing room. There were never any letters sent by the

rooms, corridors, stairs and passages, added to the fact that it

ghost, she sent them in his name. It wasn’t the ghost who

was a very old building, and especially the darkness that

sabotaged things when he couldn't get what he wanted; it was

prevailed on the place, made the Opera House a scary place.

her. It wasn’t the ghost who left flowers in box 5 for Madame

Therefore, amid the darkness and peculiarity of the place, the

Giry, and it wasn’t the ghost who killed Joseph Buquet, it was

Persian saw and heard strange things that he could not

her.

explain, so he attributed them to the ghost.

People really take what suits them for truth. Madame

Some accidents in the place helped spread the idea

Giry, for example, used to say that she talked to the ghost, but

that there was a ghost in the Opera House , and very quickly

Christine didn’t even open her mouth when she left the

everyone was talking about it. People commented on the

flowers. She left them to Madame Giry because she received

strange events in the place, they created assumptions and

her affectionately at her entrance to the Opera House.

claimed to have seen a man with a dead face.

Christine had accepted that idea. For some reason, it made her forget her problems.

It was during this period that Christine began to listen to

Raoul, after being ignored by Christine, said he heard the voices of a man in her dressing room when she had been left alone. His jealousy and ego made him imagine that there was another man in Christine's life.

the ghost and take music lessons with him. He became her

Joseph Buquet met Christine’s double personality, and

"angel of music" and encouraged her to be the best opera

he saw her writing the blackmailing letters that were delivered

singer in Paris and he said that he loved her.

to the directors of the opera, so he became a victim.

As she looked in the mirror and saw the bodies on the

The burden was heavy, and due to all the traumas, she

floor, Christine remembered everything that had happened,

had developed a second personality: the “Phantom of the

and realized then that it was her all along. There were never

Opera”. Christine, with her disturbed mind, had not realized

any music lessons with a ghost, it was her, alone in the

the things she was doing in Erick’s name. Dissociative identity

disorder (DID), which creates multiple personalities, had taken over her mind, and she was unaware of her actions.

The very moment she saw the bodies on the floor, she was consumed by guilt and she could not bear the weight of the acts she had committed. Thus, the Phantom’s personality took control of Christine as a form of defense, as she could not bear to live with the guilt of killing her beloved one.

She came back to near the stage and said she had been taken by the Phantom, but had managed to escape.

Raoul and the Persian were reported missing, and their bodies were never found. DaaĂŠ continued as a singer at the Opera House, and thanks to the tricks and loopholes of her new dominant personality, she became the best opera singer in Paris.

She became the best opera singer in Paris.