Page 77 - Phantom of the Opera

He showed me a useful trick for breathing, and singing, under When I accused him of carrying off Christine Daae and
water. "It's a trick that nearly killed me!" I said. "And you know keeping her locked up in his house, he told me that he could
what you promised me, Erik? No more murders!" prove to me that she loved him. He said he would let her go, and
"Have I really committed murders?" he asked in a friendly I would see her return to him because she loved him and wanted
voice. to return. He told me that it would end in a marriage.
"Have you forgotten? But that is the past ... and you are I said that if I saw her do this, I would no longer bother him
responsible to me for the present because, if I had wished, you or follow him around. So he told me to watch that night when
would have died long ago. Remember that, Erik. I saved your life!" they went to the masked party. And, to my surprise, things
When I asked him about the chandelier, he laughed a most happened as he said they would. She left the house on the lake
terrible laugh and said, "The chandelier was old and needed and returned to it several times.
repairs, my dear daroga!* It just fell. Now go and dry yourself. I was very interested in this relationship with Christine Daae. I
And never get into my boat again. And do not try to get into my was worried by the terrible thought of what Erik would do if he
house!" Then he disappeared in the darkness of the lake. found that he was not loved for himself, as he imagined. Soon I
Ever since I discovered that Erik was living in the Opera, I learned the truth about the monster's love affair.
feared for everyone. When people said, "It's the ghost!", I He filled Christine's mind, but the girl's heart belonged to
thought, "I would not be surprised if it were Erik." I knew what Viscount Chagny. While they played around on the upper floors
this devil could do. His terrible ugliness put him outside the rest of the Opera to avoid the monster, they did not suspect that I was
of humanity. It seemed to me that for that reason he no longer watching them. I was prepared to do anything — to kill the
believed that he had any duty toward the human race. monster, if necessary.
When he told me that he was loved for himself, I hid in the I thought that the monster would be driven away from his
room next to Christine Daae's dressing room and listened to his house by jealousy, and this would allow me to enter it. It was
singing. I could not understand how she could love such a important that I knew what was inside. One day, tired of waiting
terribly ugly person until I learned that she had not yet seen him! for an opportunity, I discovered the stone in the wall that could
At this time I also discovered the trick that made the wall with be taken out and put back. I moved the stone and heard that
the mirror swing around, and how the walls were built of hollow devil, Erik, working on his piece of music — his Don Juan
bricks so that his voice easily carried into her room. And I Triumphant. I knew that this was the work of his life.
discovered the trap door that allowed him to go straight to the On the day that Christine Daae disappeared during her
cellars below. performance, I had read about her possible marriage to Viscount
One day, when he caught me spying on him, he said, "If Chagny and I feared what might happen. So I was certain that she
my secrets stop being my secrets, it will be a bad day for many had been taken away by Erik, prince of magicians. I wanted to tell
people!" everyone to leave the Opera because I was afraid of what might
happen next. But I stopped myself. That was when I decided that
* daroga: the Persian word for chief of police. I must go to his house, where he had certainly taken her. I

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