THE SONG OF THE OPERA GHOST
Chapter Thirteen Fear gripped Rose’s heart. “Doctor, what are we going to do?” she said, panicked. The Doctor hesitated a moment. Then, he caught sight of the door, stared at it and whipped his head back around. He gave Rose a triumphant grin, as he reached in his tuxedo pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. “We…are going out the front door.” Taking Rose’s sweaty hand, they ran to the door. The Doctor held the screwdriver to the lock and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the lock click. He grinned at Rose. “When I open the door, run like hell!” he said, softly. “You got it!” He hesitated a moment, threw open the door, and ran out. He chuckled when Erik swiveled around on the piano bench and stared at them, shocked. “Nice place, charming atmosphere, however, the concierge was a bit rude,” the Doctor called, as they ran past. “I give your flat two and a half stars.” They ran faster when they heard Erik let out an enraged scream and leap up, knocking over the bench in the process. They made a beeline for his bedroom. They ran inside and sprinted towards the back. The Doctor pulled aside the red curtain and froze. Where the door once was, there was now only a wall. The Doctor ran his hands frantically over it, trying to find a way to open it back up. “Having trouble finding the way out?” They spun around. Erik was leaning casually against the doorframe smirking at them. “I took the precaution of sealing off the exits while you were imprisoned. Just in case, you happened to find a means of escape. I’m so glad I did that. So you see, Doctor, all your efforts were for naught. Now, you have to go back into the torture chamber. Only this time, you won’t have your little silver toy with you.” The Doctor positioned himself in front of Rose. “I will do it, but Rose goes free,” he said. Erik burst out laughing. “Sorry, Doctor. I offered Rose the chance to escape the torture chamber, and she refused. There are no second chances here. Now, march!” “I thought you cared for her,” the Doctor said, angrily. “Well, I must admit she is charming and very beautiful, but the whole making her stay with me was mainly to torment you and make you suffer for what you did. She might have had some use as a plaything, but I would never consider her my equal, and I certainly wouldn’t fall in love with her like you have. Now, both of you come away from the wall and march back to your prison before I’m forced to get rough with you.” The Doctor looked at Rose. “Come on, Rose, do as he says,” he said, gently. He turned to her with the pretense of giving her a reassuring hug and kiss. He embraced her, kissed her cheek, and got in close to her ear. “I’m going to pass the screwdriver to you,” he said in a barely audible voice. “In a minute, I’m going to attack Erik. You run back here, and try to open the door. Don’t worry about me; just get back to the TARDIS as fast as you can.” “No, Doctor. I…” “Shhhh…Don’t argue, just do it. I’ll meet up with you later, I promise.” He gave her another kiss on the cheek, as he took her hands, He slipped the sonic screwdriver into her hands, and she quickly put it behind her back. “I love you, Doctor.” “I love you too, Rose.” “Okay, romance time is over,” Erik said, annoyed. “Get in there before I grab you both by the scruff of your necks and throw you in.” The Doctor gave her one more reassuring glance before turning around. “Come on, Rose,” he said, glancing back at her. Rose nodded and followed close behind him, holding the sonic screwdriver with both hands, trying to conceal it from view. They reached the door, and Erik put his hand on the Doctor’s chest. “Your toy,” he said, holding his hand out. The Doctor feigned anger while he reached into his pocket. He kept it there for a moment, pretending to look for the screwdriver, and then, suddenly, he brought it out and decked Erik square in the face. As Erik stumbled back, the Doctor pounced on top of him and began to pummel him with his fists. “Go, Rose, get out of here!” he yelled at her. Rose turned, ran back to the wall, and aimed the screwdriver at it. The Doctor and Erik’s grunts and yells rang in her ears while she desperately looked for a way to open the wall. She was so absorbed in her task, she didn’t realize that the yelling had stopped. She let out a surprised yelp when Erik suddenly grabbed her hand and wrenched the screwdriver out of it. Seizing her by the shoulders, he spun her around and rammed her into the wall, knocking the wind out of her. Rose stared at his enraged face. His mask had fallen off in the fight, and she could see his disfigured face was contorted with rage, as he snarled at her. “That was a very foolish move, my dear,” he said, gripping her shoulders so tightly, Rose winced at the pain. “Where is the Doctor?” Rose demanded, her heart racing inside her. Erik let out an insane laugh and pulled her away from the wall. Rose cried out in pain, as he spun her around, pressed her against his body, and dug his fingers into her arms. He pushed her out of the bedroom and walked her over to a pile of rope in the corner of the room. Grabbing it, he marched her to a chair and shoved her into it. Rose looked around, searching frantically for the Doctor while he tied her to it. She noticed the curtain was covering the plate glass window, and her breath caught in her throat when she suddenly realized where he was. She gritted her teeth when Erik tied the rope tightly, making it hard for her to breathe. He finished tying her to the chair, picked it up, and carried her over to the window. Rose grunted when he slammed the chair to the floor. “You want to know where your lover is?” he said, getting down into her face. “He’s back in the torture chamber where he belongs, and now, my Rose, you will have a ringside seat, as he slowly dies.” Rose let out an anguished cry while Erik walked to the edge of the curtain and pulled it open. Rose fought against the ropes when she looked through the window and saw the Doctor slowly getting to his knees inside it. “There you are, my dear, enjoy. The Doctor asked me to spare you from the torment of the torture chamber, and I have done so. However, I will not spare you the torment of watching him being broiled alive or driven to commit suicide. I wonder which he will pick. In the end, it doesn’t matter though, I will have my revenge either way. And now, I will play a little love song for you on my organ. Something to mark this glorious occasion. Something that will be fitting for a pair of doomed lovers. Laughing insanely, Erik strode over to the organ while Rose tried with all her might to break free. The Doctor crawled over to the window and put his hands on it watching, anguished, as Rose struggled to help him. She ached when she saw the sweat flowing off his forehead, down his neck and onto his white shirt, soaking it. As sinister organ music echoed in her ears, Rose watched while he tore off his tuxedo jacket, then his bow tie, and finally his shirt, revealing his bare, sweat-filled chest. By this point, the sweat was cascading off his face, plastering his hair to his forehead. Rose wept uncontrollably, nearly going out of her mind trying to get out of the ropes and get him to safety. The ropes chafed against her bare arms turning them bright red, but she ignored the pain. Only the Doctor mattered to her now. She let out a strangled cry when he slumped to the floor. His eyes were glazed over and his mouth was hanging open. Rose looked at Erik. “LET HIM GO, PLEASE!” she screamed. Erik ignored her and continued to play. “PLEASE, LET HIM GO!” she said, trying to make herself heard over the organ. Erik ignored her, and Rose wept harder knowing that any moment, the Doctor would die, regenerate, and then die all over again. She wished now that she had stayed at his side. She would give anything to be inside with him, at this moment. She grunted trying to make the chair move closer to the glass watching as the Doctor suddenly rose up and looked around the cell in a last attempt at escape. He looked her way, and Rose saw him focusing his eyes, as he tried to see her. “I LOVE YOU, DOCTOR. I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!” she screamed at him. Erik laughed at that, but Rose didn’t care. All that mattered was the loving look and the nod the Doctor gave her in return, before he looked away and tried to focus on his surroundings. As the Doctor looked around, he suddenly spied something. Rose stopped struggling and watched while he used the last of his strength to crawl across the room. He stopped near the chair and stared at the floor intently, trying to focus his eyes. Rose frowned, seeing the look of disbelief and joy on his face. She watched him put his fingers into a crack in the floor and press down. Her eyes widened in shock when a small section of the floor swung down like a trapdoor. Tears fell from Rose’s eyes when the Doctor gave her a triumphant grin, grabbed the edges of the hole, and pulled himself, head first, into it. Rose stared at the dark hole, waiting for something to happen. She swallowed hard. Was the Doctor all right? Had he gone from the frying pan into the fire? Or, was the trapdoor a means of escape? She stared intently at the hole, willing the Doctor to stick his head up through it and give her the thumbs up, but he never did. She closed her eyes in anguish, imagining him falling head first onto a bed of spikes, or into a lion’s den. She refused to believe that Erik had put that there without putting something deadly inside. Not after witnessing this. The minutes wore on and Rose nearly went mad with worry. The organ music seemed to be mocking her while she kept a close watch on the hole. He had gone through headfirst. What if he had fallen, smacked his head on the concrete floor and knocked himself out. She gasped, imagining him sprawled out under the trap door, unconscious, with a broken neck. Not knowing what had become of him tore at her heart, and she lowered her chin to her chest and wept. “NO, IT CANNOT BE!” Rose jerked her head up. Her anguish had consumed her to the point that she hadn’t noticed the organ music had stopped. She jerked her head around and looked up at Erik who was staring at the gaping hole with unbridled fury. Rose’s heart soared. If he was this furious, then it meant that the hole had been an escape hatch. The Doctor had gotten away. Rose wept again, but this time it was tears of joy. Her Doctor was safe now, she was sure of it. She no longer cared if he came back to rescue her, all that mattered was he had survived the hell of the mirrored torture chamber. She lowered her head to her chest and whispered, “My love, oh, my love, you’re safe.” to herself. She gasped when Erik suddenly grabbed the back of her hair and jerked her head back. His other hand grabbed underneath her chin, and she looked up into his coal-black eyes. “You may think the fool is safe, but he is far from that. He has merely fallen into my storage room. A room, I might add, that is filled with barrels of gunpowder.” A sinister smile spread over his face. “And, I also might add, the barrels are rigged to explode with a trigger mechanism located in this very room. An explosion that will not only kill him, but will bring the entire Opera House crashing down on us, burying us under tons of rubble. We will die also, but it will be worth it, if he dies in the process.” Rose flinched when he took out the dagger. For one heart stopping moment, she thought he was going to slit her throat, but with a fluid motion, he cut the ropes securing her to the chair. As they fell away, he jerked her to her feet. “I am a fair man, my dear, so I will give you a chance to save his miserable, worthless life.” He pulled her over to the wall beside the organ. He put his hand on it and slid open a little panel. He seized Rose by her shoulders, and forced her to stand in front of him. Rose looked into the hole and saw two small figurines. A silver scorpion, and a silver grasshopper, both mounted to the wall. Rose stared at them and looked at Erik. “Before you, are the Doctor’s salvation or his damnation. You, alone, decide his fate now. If you pick the Scorpion, he will be allowed to live, but you must exchange your freedom for his life. If you pick the grasshopper, well…” He chuckled. Rose flinched when he leaned down into her ear and yelled, “BOOM!” He leaned back up. “If you choose the grasshopper, we will all die, but you and he will spend eternity together. So, Rose, choose carefully. Will you allow the Doctor to live and spend the rest of your life with me, or will you bring the Opera House down around our heads and spend eternity with him? Your choice, Rose. What will it be?”
Back Home Doctor Who Main Page Next