Phantom (7 page)

The two boys exchanged one last hostile stare before Justyn turned back to Rebecca. He bent over, picked up her hand, and kissed her fingers with every bit as much grace and poise as any eighteenth century aristocrat. The whole restaurant faded away for a second as their eyes locked. When he finally let go, her hand still tingled.

“Goodnight, Becca,” he whispered.

Then he appeared to float out the door. It seemed that there should have been a swirling mist at his feet to complete the exit scene. Rebecca watched him go, and she could hardly breathe. She didn’t even realize she hadn’t replied. Tom took that lack of response as confirmation that she wasn’t interested in Justyn at all, which was probably for the best. Still, Rebecca had to admit to herself that she
was
interested, at least a little. Of the two, Tom seemed the far safer choice, and Rebecca had never been one to take unnecessary risks. And really, once Justyn was gone, she hardly thought about him anymore. Hardly.

When they were done eating, Tom insisted on paying her share of the bill, and insisted even more adamantly that he walk her to her car. She had to drive Debbie and Carmen home, but they lingered knowingly behind to give Tom and Rebecca a chance at some private time. Halfway through the parking lot, he reached out to take her hand. Rebecca hoped her nerves hadn’t made it clammy or sweaty.

“So . . . .” Tom said, and leaned back against the side of her little golden Suzuki.

“So?” Rebecca repeated awkwardly when after at least a full minute had passed in which he said nothing else.

“Next week is the Halloween Dance.”

“Yeah.”

“I was thinking maybe, you know—if you were planning on going, you might want to go with me.”

Might
want to go with him? This was the moment she had been dreaming of for four years. In those dreams, she had always swept him away with some brilliant, romantic response. Real life wasn’t usually quite that interesting.

“Sure, that sounds like fun.”

Tom smiled. He was really cute when he smiled, all boyish charm. “Great. Then I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Yeah, you bet.”

Tom leaned down over her, and very gently brushed her lips with his own. There were no electric currents or swooning, but it was definitely nice. It was sweet and gentle, and she thought it was cute that he was actually blushing just as much as she was. Popular surfer or not, Tom was still a little shy.

“Bye, Becca.”

“Bye, Tom.”

 Rebecca had to lean against her car to support her somewhat wobbly knees. Tom waved as he walked away and before he had even turned the corner, Carmen and Debbie were pouncing on her for details.

“I smell love in the air,” Debbie said. “Tell us all about it!”

“Tom just asked me to the dance next week.”

“He didn’t!” Carmen exclaimed. She was actually jumping up and down. “I don’t believe it! You
go
girl!”

“Believe it.” Debbie smiled. “Our quiet little Becca has become the belle of the ball.”

They all smiled as they climbed into her car. Rebecca was still feeling a little dreamy after she dropped her friends off and pulled into her driveway. Before she reached the door, her cell phone started ringing and vibrating simultaneously from somewhere deep inside her handbag. She dropped her keys in her haste to dig it out before the call went into voicemail, even though she knew it was probably just Carmen calling to gush about her and Tom and their possible couple status. Finally, she pulled the phone free, and flipped back the cover without even looking to see who was calling.

“Hello?”

The voice that responded was unfamiliar, and in fact, it didn’t even sound human. Distorted and garbled as it was, it was impossible to tell for certain whether it was a man or a woman. But it was threatening and terrifying, and the few lines it spoke made her blood run cold.

The words were meant as a threat in the play when the phantom spoke them to Christine as he yanked the engagement ring Raoul had given her from the chain around her neck. And those same words were certainly just as ominous to Rebecca as she listened to them in the dim light of the autumn moon.

“A chain cannot bind you,
Nor take you away.
Your soul I’ve taken captive.
Beside me you must always stay.”

Chapter Seven

The next day, the weather was every bit as threatening as the strange phone call had been the day before. Thunder crackled and rumbled, and lighting flashed across the skyline. It was so overcast that the morning sky could have passed for night. The wind was whipping at least sixty miles per hour, and the rain was coming down in torrents. It was hurricane season at the Jersey Shore. There was no question about it.

Rebecca’s hair was plastered to her head when she finally ran into the school. Her hooded raincoat did as much good as the inside-out umbrella she had discarded in her driveway. She was soaked, and freezing, and miserable. She wasn’t really paying attention to where she was going while she tried to shake the water off her clothes, and she collided with Wendy as she turned the corner. She dropped her book bag in the impact, and everything inside tumbled onto the floor.

“Watch where you’re going, moron!” Wendy snapped. As she walked away, she made sure to step on as many of Rebecca’s papers as possible.

Carmen came up beside her with her hands on her hips. “Someone should really take that pole out of her ass.”

Rebecca shrugged as she bent down to pick up her assignments, hoping she might be able to salvage at least half of her soggy homework. “She hates me. I guess I better get used to it.”

“She’s just jealous,” Debbie told her. “She’ll get over it eventually.”

“I sure hope so.” Rebecca shoved the last paper back into her bag, a little more roughly than was necessary. “If she’s the one trying to scare me away, she’s doing a pretty good job. I don’t know how much more of this my nerves can handle.”

Carmen narrowed her eyes. “Did something else happen?”

Rebecca told them about the phone call, and shuddered as she remembered the menacing voice. Someone was definitely out to get her. She was starting to feel a little afraid, and it wasn’t a good feeling.

“I still think it’s Justyn,” Debbie said adamantly. “He obviously has a thing for you. And I’m sure he doesn’t like it that you chose Tom over him.”

Rebecca was a little surprised by the statement. Had she chosen Tom over Justyn? She hadn’t really considered that she had a choice. Tom had asked her to the dance and she had said yes. She couldn’t even imagine Justyn attending something as commonplace as a high school dance. Besides, Tom was the man she had always wanted.

“Well,
I
think it was Wendy,” Carmen argued. “She’s still really pissed that she didn’t get the lead in the play.”

Rebecca shook out her raincoat before hanging it up in her locker. “No matter
who
did it, I guess I shouldn’t let it get to me so much. It’s just a joke, right? It’s not like anyone’s really going to hurt me.”

“Why would anyone want to hurt you?” Justyn was suddenly behind them, as silent in his movements as Rebecca was squeaky in her soggy sneakers.

“Someone’s been leaving Becca nasty notes and calling her and making threats,” Debbie said with narrowed eyes. “Do you know anything about it?”

Justyn looked surprised, and then concerned, but Rebecca was aware of his extraordinary acting ability. He could turn emotions off and on at will when he wanted to. The response wasn’t enough to eliminate him from the suspect list. He really was the most obvious choice. He was the only one, besides Rebecca herself, who knew the play inside and out. Yet, she just couldn’t imagine him wanting to scare her. She knew his black clothes and unusual style made her friends nervous, but she saw something in him that went deeper than his fashion sense. She didn’t think he would hurt her. But since when was she the best judge of character? There was a time that she thought Wendy was really nice.

“Do you think it’s connected to the curtain falling down?” Justyn asked. “I overheard the stagehands saying the curtain rod had been tampered with.”

“Tampered with? How?” Carmen asked.

 Justyn shrugged. “I don’t know exactly.”

 Rebecca gasped. Despite the strange warning from Mr. Russ, she had never seriously considered that someone might have sent the curtain crashing down on purpose. Miss King had made it sound like it had been threatening to crumple for years. It made the whole situation seem much more sinister. Was the person doing these things really dangerous? The thought made Rebecca feel a little dizzy. She reached out a hand to steady herself, intending to grab her locker, but found that it was Justyn’s arm she caught hold of instead.

“Are you all right, Becca?”

His melodious, almost unnatural voice made things even shakier. Realizing that she was making a complete fool of herself, Rebecca took a deep breath and shook her head.

 “I’m fine.” She forced a small laugh. “
This
Christine is a lot tougher than she looks. I’m not going to go around fainting whenever something out of the ordinary happens.”

She
was tough? Boy, was that a blatant lie.

“And
this
phantom isn’t really such a bad guy.” Justyn smiled and let go of her arm, just as the overhead bells started ringing. “Well, if you ever do decide to faint, Becca, I’d be more than happy to sweep you up and carry you away.”

“Don’t count on it.”

Rebecca tried to sound strong and full of feminist pride, but that smoldering look in his eyes made her wonder if she wouldn’t hit the ground at that very moment. And the light-headedness had nothing to do with her mysterious stalker. It was because once again Lord Justyn had her reeling with strange and unaccustomed emotions.

“Come on, Becca, we’re going to be late,” Debbie told her.

She was still giving Justyn dirty looks, and she didn’t even give them a chance to say goodbye before forcefully pulling her into homeroom. But Rebecca felt his eyes on her until the moment that she disappeared behind the doors, and even then she wondered if he had some kind of x-ray vision because she swore she could still feel his presence all around her. She thought about him all day as she flitted from one class to another in a kind of half daze. If nothing else, it made the dull, rainy day go by a little faster, and before long she found herself back in the auditorium preparing for rehearsal.

The first scenes went well, with no curtains crashing down. There were no accidents of
any
kind. Even the constant rumbles of thunder and the heavy rain pounding against the windows didn’t disturb the actors. Rebecca was starting to feel a little more comfortable on the stage, and her movements were a lot less rigid. When it came time for the scene where Christine meets the phantom for the first time, Miss King handed Justyn the signature white mask that was the opera ghost’s calling card, and told them they needed to start working on the drama of the unmasking.

Justyn slipped on the mask, and Rebecca had to catch her breath. His standard Gothic wardrobe only enhanced the effect. The black t-shirt with the grinning white skull emblazoned across the front would have been a fashion must for any self-respecting, twenty-first century phantom. And Justyn
was
a modern day phantom, a modern day Erik—a tortured musical genius if ever there was one.

The scene began and Justyn gently led Rebecca across the stage. The orchestra flared to life, with pipe organ blaring, and drums thumping. The constant booming thunder was just another instrument that blended perfectly with the intensity of the organ. She sang the famous, mystical duet with him,
for
him, and she realized that she was every bit as much a modern day Christine, drawn to the mysterious darkness and seduction of an unknown stranger who sang like an angel.

“He came to me, an angel in the night.
His voice is like a siren’s call.
Now I follow him though I know it’s not right.
His commands cannot be denied at all.”

The stage wasn’t decorated yet. They had no candles or swirling mists, no underwater stream or flashy gondola. But even if there were, Rebecca wouldn’t have seen them. She saw only Justyn’s face and heard only the music. His eyes held her transfixed, and with those eyes he weaved a labyrinth every bit as enchanting as the underground fortress of the phantom. And Rebecca wasn’t sure that she would ever be able to climb back up to the surface that was reality.

She couldn’t deny any longer that she was attracted to him. Her whole body was throbbing with the force of that attraction. Yet, somewhere in the back of her mind, there were still thoughts of Tom waiting for her in the real world. More than ever, she was like Christine. Torn between the handsome blond bearer of light and the dark lord of the night. In her heart, Rebecca had always believed Christine truly loved Erik, but was too weak to overcome her fear of his dark side. Looking at Justyn’s masked face, she had to wonder if she was letting fear hold her back from what she really wanted as well.

The duet ended and gracefully transcended into the slower, more passionate love ballad which Justyn sang solo. His voice was like a vocal massage, a gentle resonating whisper. Each word touched her, stroked her, embraced her, until her knees quivered and her breath caught in her throat. She had heard him sing the song before, more than once, but not since that first audition did his voice overwhelm her so completely.