Chapter Seven: Retributions

Lisa’s words were an understatement. Chaos ensued the moment the cleaning women stepped on the stage. She and Erik were standing off to the side, Lisa holding his hand and her invisibility power keeping them both out of sight. Keeping them both invisible would drain the power twice as fast as it would normally the longer she kept it on, so she hoped things would turn out that she wouldn’t have to cut it and not be able to use it again.

Lefevre came rushing in and began shouting orders to the workers. “Call the authorities! That monstrosity will not get away with this a second time!”

Erik’s hand tightened around Lisa’s and she cringed. “Erik, please ease up a little…you’re crushing my fingers.” He did, but only just.

“We’ll go below and flush him out! I do not care what Mme. Giry says or thinks! He’s a murderer and must be dealt with!”

Lefevre organized a party – Lisa noticed that Mme. Giry was absent this day – and they made their way down into the catacombs. Lisa and Erik had hid Cesar, to make sure he wouldn’t be harmed, and closed the gates. They, of course, could be opened from the outside, but, hopefully, no one would trip the switch as Erik’s assailant had before.

Erik and Lisa followed them down and watched as they tried to get through the iron gates separating them from Erik’s home. The 1860 Paris version of the police were also there. Lefevre had a group of at least seven or eight people, himself and the police included, and also one of the younger stagehands by the name of Joseph Buquet. All were armed with guns and torches.

“Try to find a switch!” ordered Lefevre. “This must be able to open from out here, otherwise, he’d be trapped.”

The group started searching and Erik and Lisa exchanged a look. She was wondering how to deal with them. If their kiss earlier had linked them, she could have spoken to him telepathically. But, alas, her love for him wasn’t mutually shared as of yet because of his experiences, and, so, they didn’t become linked. It only happened when Lisa and someone shared a mutual love.

Knowing full well they couldn’t take on eight people at once, Erik and Lisa bided their time, waiting for them to give up or something along those lines. Erik had his noose – he called it the Punjab Lasso – held tightly in his free hand.

Lefevre and his group poked around the gates, trying to find the switch that would open them. Lisa and Erik stood near the switch, Lisa giving anyone who came near it a telekinetic nudge to steer them away. Something simple like a short push with telekinesis while invisible she could pull off, but nothing any more complicated than that.

“Hmm,” Lisa murmured softly. “Maybe if they see you’re not here, they’ll go away.”

“Or they will destroy my possessions…”

Lisa pursed her lips. “Good point.”

“They can see well enough through the bars. Can I not just…” He held up the lasso.

“No,” said Lisa. “You need two hands to work it, I’m not strong enough, and if you let go of me, you will become visible and be shot.”

“It doesn’t look as if he’s here, Monsieur Lefevre,” said Buquet, peeking through the holes in the gate.

“Hrmph!” Lefevre grumped and turned to the policeman in charge. “I want two guards posted here, in case he comes back! And two more at the entrance to the tunnel.”

“Very well, monsieur,” he replied. He ordered two of his guards to stay, and he and the others left the gates.

“All right,” Lisa whispered. “I’ll distract them…but try not to kill them, okay?”

Erik didn’t answer. He, instead, wrapped the invisible noose around the neck of one of the guards. At the same time that she let go of Erik’s hand, Lisa shape-shifted into a form she knew could withstand being shot, if it happened: a winged unicorn.

Erik tightened the noose while the other guard was distracted by Lisa rearing up in a corner. Very tempted to crush the man’s windpipe, Erik only cut off his oxygen long enough for him to lose consciousness. Lisa herself gave a great kick to the other man’s chest, not hard enough to kill but to create a bruise, not to mention knock him out.

When the two guards fell into the shallow water, Erik looked at Lisa, standing there as a red-furred unicorn with dragon-like wings. Her ruby-red horn glowed in the torchlight.

“Lisa…”

She nickered to him and turned to allow him to climb onto her back. This would allow faster travel than walking. It also would save her from having to shift back and forth in forms and drain her energy.

As this form was created using the forms of the unicorns she knew and had grown up with, it could speak and understand the language of humans. Thanks to the translator already in effect from her previous travels, Erik would hear French.

Together, Erik and Lisa made their way up the tunnel. They eventually could see the two guards Lefevre had posted at the entrance.

Erik slipped off her back and readied his noose. She charged ahead and distracted the two guards. A couple of kicks to stun them, together with Erik’s lasso, and they were both down for the count. Lisa silently counted her blessing that neither one of them had been shot. Yet.

He jumped back onto her back and they trekked to find Lefevre. Lisa found that the slick floors and her hooves didn’t match up too well. She went no faster than a quick walk, lest she fall and hut herself or Erik or both of them.

Lefevre was in the main area of the Opera House along with the police chief, Buquet and some of the other male stage hands.

“We’ll get him yet, monsieurs,” Lefevre was saying. “He’ll be no match for your guards.”

Lisa snorted and Erik said, “Is that so?”

They all whirled around and gaped at the sight or the Opera Ghost riding a winged unicorn.

“Mon dieu!” shouted the police chief.

Lefevre recovered the quickest. “Don’t just stand there! Shoot him!”

They began to pull out their weapons, but Erik and Lisa were too fast for them. Seemingly all in one motion, Erik had slid off her back and she charged the group. Most of them dodged out of the way of her deadly horn. A few took shots at them.

It was chaos. Lisa ended up taking a bullet in her shoulder. Trumpeting her rage, she started taking kicks at whoever came too close.

At last, with both Erik and Lisa wounded along with Lefevre and his group, the couple had Lefevre pinned to the ground. His cronies were unconscious and Lisa had her horn pointed at his heart and Erik’s noose was around his neck.

“What is this? How did you get such a creature to protect you?” Lefevre demanded. “What are you?”

Erik, bleeding once again from his shoulder and this time also his arm, said, “I am the Opera Ghost. We will let you live if you agree to my demands.”

“Like hell I w – ” Lefevre choked as Lisa pushed her horn in further, almost but not quite breaking the skin, and Erik tightened the noose.

“All right…” he choked. “All right! What demands?”

“First of all,” said Erik, “leave me alone. Secondly, I want Box Five left open for my use. Thirdly, twenty-thousand francs a month and I will write operas for you.”

Lefevre glared at Erik. “Why would I want to take operas from y – ”

Erik and Lisa tightened their attack again, cutting him off. Panicking, for they were now breaking the skin above his heart and cutting off his oxygen supply, Lefevre quickly nodded and kept nodding until they loosened up.

“Very well,” he said, gasping for breath.

“Then call off your guards and make an announcement…” said Erik. “Tell them to leave me alone. We’ll be watching.”

Erik and Lisa let him loose and he scrambled away. Lisa shifted back to her normal form, the bullet she’d taken slipping out and falling to the ground. She then healed Erik’s wounds, but explained, “I won’t be able to make us invisible for a little while. Shape shifting and healing took away some of the energy I’d need.”

Erik nodded and took her hand. They hid where they could hear everything that was going on. Erik knew the Opera House well and knew all the nooks and crannies where one could hide and spy on the people above his catacombs. It came from exploring the place at night, when no one was around.

“Attention!” Lefevre was saying. “Attention, everyone…I’m calling off the hunt for the Opera Ghost.”

There were sounds of protests. Lefevre waited for them to quiet before continuing. “I have my reasons…please don’t ask me why.”

Erik and Lisa exchanged a look. Hopefully, what Lefevre was saying would stick after she was gone.

End chapter seven.

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