[The Phantom of the Opera] The Beast and the Canary

He was thrown back two steps by me, lowered his head, and looked at me in astonishment.

Thinking of meeting him for the first time in this life, pushing him against the wall and kissing him forcefully, he looked at me in such shock, as if being kissed by me was a very unexpected thing.He is so smart, there is almost nothing he can't learn, but he has never read my admiring eyes.

I don't want to misunderstand him anymore, and I don't want to see his indifferent and vigilant expression again.I grabbed his collar, forced him to bend down, stood on tiptoe, and kissed his lips heavily.It wasn't until then that he reacted, frowned and pushed me away, wiped his lips in embarrassment: "What are you doing..." Before he finished speaking, I kissed me again.

This time he didn't push me away, but stared at me blankly.I seem to have seen the same look somewhere.It took me a long time before I remembered that it was in the eyes of a child who took a breadstick from my hand when I was doing charity work with the ballet school in the slums.

In the dream, the figure of him sitting alone until dawn flashed in my mind, and suddenly I realized that although he was born as a human being, he never knew what the warmth of the world is, and he was alone until his death.

Some people may think that loneliness is not as good as loneliness, and loneliness is the emotion that can really break a person.But he was not alone for a while, but was abandoned by his mother since he was a child. He survived alone under the cold eyes of everyone, and was feared by his beloved when he grew up. , not as an artist.

I thought of the line he sang to me not long ago when he was back on stage in his Phantom costume, "You know, I wasn't born to live in the dark."At that time, I didn't think much about it because of my ups and downs. Now that I think about it, this is simply a heavy confession that is close to self-defeating.

He has been living like a ghost, so his love is as dark and terrifying as a ghost.

But does he know...

Whether he knows it or not, I love him no matter what he looks like, whether he's a Phantom or Eric.

I just hope that there will be no more barriers with him.

This kiss lasted for a long, long time, so long that my brain was dizzy due to lack of oxygen, and it was so long that I didn’t know whether it was I kissing him or him kissing me. I only remember that at the end, he clasped the back of my head hard, and his voice was hoarse and stiff. I said in my ear: "The more you are like this, the less likely I will let you leave me."

Then don't let me leave you.I leaned over and touched the corner of his mouth lightly.

His body froze, and the arms around me trembled a little. Before I could look up, his hot lips pressed down, and he kissed me almost madly.

After that day, the way I got along with him became strange. He no longer ordered me too forcefully, but he didn't say anything to me anymore.I live in his room.Just like in the dream, this room has no extra decorations, only a piano and a bed, and it is so empty that it doesn't look like a private room.

I looked at him questioningly.He explained succinctly: "I usually live in the musical instrument room." After a pause, he added, "If you feel empty, you can ask the servant to go to the ground to buy something to put in it. You can do anything, as long as you like."

He rarely talked to me so much.My heart was about to melt, and I couldn't help but walk up to him, shake his arm, and let him say more.Unexpectedly, his tone became cold: "It's useless to beg me, you are not allowed to go."

Ok, misunderstood me again.I twitched the corner of my mouth and dropped his arm.

He lowered his head and stared at his arm for a long time before saying, "If you are obedient, I will take you back to the ground, but not now."

After a while, I realized that he was coaxing me.It's just that he has gone far.

Because of this "coaxing", I was inexplicably happy all night, and the next day I appeared in front of him radiantly, eating breakfast with a relaxed expression.Maybe it was my reaction, which seemed too bizarre to him. He watched me all morning and hardly ate.

In the afternoon, I found the musical instrument room and knocked lightly on the door.His displeased voice came from the room: "Say it, the refreshments will be delivered to the bedroom. Don't bother me."

I might be hopeless, his impatient tone made his face feel hot.He knocked on the door twice more, but he ignored me. Before I knocked a third time, the door was suddenly opened, and Eric's masked face appeared in front of me, his eyes were as cold as ice: "Everyone said It's okay, don't come here—"

Seeing it was me, he was stunned for a moment, and the anger subsided a little, but he was still not very happy: "What are you doing here?" Probably because he realized that his tone was too cold, he paused for a few seconds before continuing bluntly. Said, "I'm composing."

He never likes to be interrupted when he composes, I know that.So I nodded, turned around and planned to leave, but he suddenly reached out and grabbed me: "What are you going, come in."

Different from the organ room I saw at the beginning, although the whole room was big enough, it seemed cramped inexplicably. I wonder if it was because there were too many musical instruments piled up on the floor.After a few steps, I kicked a small thing.Crouching down to pick it up, it was a wooden block the size of a palm, with more than a dozen long strips of iron embedded in it.I dialed it casually, and the iron plate made a dull metallic sound, which was not very pleasant.

"This is Mbila," Eric's voice came from behind, "the Negro's instrument."

Speaking of musical instruments, his tone is no longer as blunt as before.I took Mbila from my hand, and he played a few notes rhythmically. Although the sound quality has not changed, it is still so untouchable, but there is a rudimentary shape of the music, which makes people think of the bright red as blood. Sunset, vast grasslands.

I couldn't help but look at him with some admiration.He looked away expressionlessly, and the roots of his ears slowly turned red.

In the past two days, I have repeatedly rehearsed the situation with him many times in my mind, but none of them will be like this... Sweet, except for the tough and unreasonable body search at the beginning, now he is almost like a fledgling juvenile.

Before I knew it, my eyes were filled with a warm smile.

Picked up another one and handed it to him.But he laughed: "This is not a musical instrument, it's a set of utensils I bought on a merchant ship." Seeing my blank face, he thought for a while, put the set of utensils on the table, picked up the teapot and poured water into it one by one , each time it happened to be less than the last one. Then, he put his five fingers together and lightly touched the edge of the vessel.A miraculous thing happened, and the vessel actually hummed.I don't know if it's because of the addition of water, but I always feel that this kind of timbre is more delicate and moving than the finely tuned tones of orchestral instruments.

He seemed to see through my mind, shook his head and smiled and said: "There is no competition between instruments, everything is music."

I just realized that when he said these words, he was smiling all the time.This is the first time I have seen his smile other than sneer and sneer.As if he didn't notice it, he walked to the piano in the musical instrument room and played a piece of music with one hand. The sound of the piano was ethereal and melodious: "My new play, do you want to hear it?"

I nodded and pushed the piano bench behind him.

He glanced at me, sat down, and played the prelude of the new play for me. While playing, he told me that the prologue was about the death of the heroine's fiancé.

Me: "..." But, but this song is obviously very cheerful...

I couldn't help but look at his side face. He lowered his eyes and played concentratingly. He didn't seem to notice that the rhythm of the piece had changed drastically.With his sensitivity to music, it is impossible for such a low-level question to arise, so there is only one answer that can explain it, and that is...

Oh my goodness.

I silently covered my hot face, why did he suddenly become so cute.