Thats All That Matters

Ok, this is my first Phantom Fic, so please tell me what you think. It's set in around 1874, and the room described is an operating theatre, you know the round ones that in them days they used and people would watch? A big round room... anyhow, you'll get my gist hopefully. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

I lay on the wooden bed, looking absentmindedly at the ceiling. I could hear the footsteps of the spectators, doctors, medical students, artists and those with a thirst for blood enter the room, taking their seats before looking down at the stage in front of them. They couldn't fully see my face, only one half of the theatre was being used due to wood rot in the seats on the left side. My right side was normal, my soft ivory skin unmarked and unmarred and almost porcelain looking, no blemishes or scars. My deep blue eyes were protected by thick, dark eye lashes, full and obvious with a slight curl to them. The right side of my nose was slightly too small for my face, but not obviously so, and my lips were small and almost pouty, due to my oversized bottom lip. It had always been the thing I worried about, physically, my big bottom lip. Most people said that it was hardly noticeable, well, my dear mother did, but you can tell when somebody's lying to you to make you feel better.

The room was hot and stuffy, not really enough oxygen to go around the amount of people in the room. I could hear them complaining about the heat, and why the surgeon wouldn't open the windows. The sweat was dripping off me, it was the early afternoon of what felt like the hottest day in summer, and I was feeling it. The warm air was sticky as it entered my already dry throat, I was beginning to get nervous, just like I said I wouldn't.

It took about 10 minutes for the crowd to calm down, mumbled conversations could be heard from the stands if you listened closely, well dressed doctors with note pads and pens talking to other well dressed doctors about my… extensive burns and scarring, artists with their pencils making impressions of the room and of me as I laid there, members of the general public reciting to each other what they had read in the newspaper about the terrible accident, and how unfortunate I am to have suffered so badly. Pity makes me sick.

The surgeon walked in, the swinging doors bringing a warm wind for which I was extremely grateful. The room falls almost silent as the man, Doctor Christophe Chatal entered the round with 3 assistants, some lucky medical students. Dr Chatal was Paris's best up coming surgeon. He'd seen my story in the newspaper and heard it on the streets, and with his low reputation decided to offer to help me, for free, and boost his rep at the same time. Knowing that it was a publicity stunt, that he was young and rash, that the chances of survival were not too good, I accepted it. I had soon realised that I would do anything to save my face, or what was left of it. He strode into the middle of the room, next to where I was laid and addressed the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen. As you may know, my name is Doctor Chatal. You are here today to watch me work on a patient. For the medical students here today, I will be treating the patient, Miss Mirabella Bouchard for severe facial burns, lacerations, damage to her left eye and a torn eardrum, I will be doing this by…"

That was the boring part. I didn't listen to any of it, even though he told me to. The only part I heard was "cut open", and that's when my hands would have been sweating, if they weren't already.

He stepped slowly towards me and smiled. He was about to speak, but then turned back to the audience above him.

"Oh, and please let me take this opportunity to apologise for the heat. I'm sorry, but I will not open the windows whilst operating."

Chatal had been obsessed over the English Joseph Lister's invention of antiseptics. He truly believed in the new germ theory when a lot of other doctors didn't. He wouldn't let the window be open, the assistants and himself had to wash there hands and gloves with soap before they began, and all of his tools were sprayed with carbolic acid. Including the area which he was operating on.

He explained briefly what he was going to do to me, in simple terms. He was going to make me unconscious, then operate on my eye and try to do something with the burns, although he wasn't sure what. I agreed, and suddenly my heart rate quickened. He told me that he wanted everyone to see the side he was operating on, so turned the table around so that the audience could see my face. There were a few gasps of shocks, but other than that, a silence that told me that they hadn't expected it to be this bad. The good doctor turned to me and smiled and told me that they were to begin. I saw one of the assistants open a bottle of something and pour some onto a tissue. Chatal must have noticed my concern.

"Don't worry, Ma Cherie, that is only the chloroform. It will make you unconscious while I operate. You won't feel a thing." The assistant brought over the tissue and gave it to the doctor. "I will hold this over your mouth, and I want you to breathe normally." Breathe normally? I was practically hyperventilating! He held the tissue over my mouth; I didn't breathe it in at first. The vapours from it stung my eyes and made them water, it didn't smell of anything and that was the worst thing. Eventually I had to breathe, and what a breathe it was, long and desperate, the warm air and chloroform vapours filling my lungs, I began to feel tired, my eyes desperately trying to stay open, then suddenly, there was nothing.

Suddenly, I was back there. The Opera Populair. I was sat with my fiancé, Armand, and my sister, Carolina,watching the opera Don Juan. It was spectacular. The fiery reds and oranges mixed with the depth of the black made it sinful and almost erotic to watch. The dancers moved so perfectly it was mesmerizing, the plot of scheming and betrayal was disgusting yet enthralling, and the voice of the young Miss Diae was truly amazing. Her voice was just how they had told me it was, enchanting. The tones her voice reached with ease were of such pitch that it hurt my ears in a pleasurable way. Then, what was to be the final scene between them, Don Juan came back on the stage after enticing the poor girl into his trap, the snare was set, he made his move on her, she tried to fight it but couldn't. They made their way slowly towards each other, by now the whole audience wanted shamefully to see them touch, their steps slow until eventually they were facing each other. And before anyone had realised he had her in his grasp, touching her young innocent body with a way that, in hindsight, no actor could have achieved. So lustful he was for her, for everything she could offer him, so desperate. It was so… erotic. The lust that Don Juan held for that girl was overwhelming, there wasn't a single person who could say that they were not sexually aroused by that scene, however shameful it would be to admit.

I was so enthralled by the performance. I watched every single move that they made, watching the sparks that seemed to fly when they touched. That is why it was such a shock when the foolish Miss Diae took the Don's mask off, only to reveal the monster behind it. I, along with the rest of the audience, gasped in shock, even though I was not repulsed by his face, I could barely see it from where I was. I was in the middle on the bottom floor, the balconies were too expensive for him to buy, and he insisted on paying. After a moment of shock, the monster turned and cut a rope, falling into darkness, taking the lovely Miss Diae with him, leaving before he could see the damage he had caused.

The chandelier. Over 150 candles on it, dancing furiously in the wind as the chandelier came crashing down from the ceiling, at such a descent that when it fell to the floor, those underneath it were killed outright. Armand and I were sat in the middle, and it crashed to the left side of the theatre. The material on the chairs was instantly ignited, burning and destroying everything it touched, thick black smoke billowing from the small fires that it caused. It was chaos. Hysteria swept over the theatre. There was not a single person who was still or silent. Screams everywhere. Everyone. The strong climbed over the weak, pushing them down to the floor, trampling on them, bones snapping, ligaments tearing, more screams, more panic as they looked behind to see the whole of the left wall engulfed by flames, burning curtains falling, causing more fires. People who thought that they were safe from the fire soon found that they weren't when chairs began to spontaneously combust, a white smoke being released. I was one of the trampled ones. My face pushed into the carpet as people climbed over me, I wasn't a human, I was an obstacle blocking them from their way out. Armand tried to help me, but there were so many people, he soon lost me. I was alone, with others in my position, screaming in pain for people to let me up, I raised my head a few times, even brought up a knee, but I was soon pushed down. The noise from the screams was deafening. Eventually the different noises became one, just one mono sound. Then, suddenly, a pain. A pain so blinding I couldn't see straight. My ear. I heard nothing through it, but it hurt so badly. I instantly grabbed my ear, but nothing helped it. It was a pain like I had never felt before, searing through me, like a bolt of lightning it struck me everywhere.

I somehow managed to get up, my vision and hearing distorted from, what I thought was the pain. I screamed for help, anyone to help me, but no-one even noticed me. People were on fire, I saw them running around but none of it made sense. I was in so much pain that I knew of nothing else, until I fell on a chair.

I said before about the chairs spontaneously combusting? With a white smoke that comes off it before it sets alight? The reason I know that, is because I was leaning on a chair when that happened, the white smoke rising to sting my eyes and cause them to water. I lowered my head to get away from the smoke and wipe my eyes, and as I did, a flame that wasn't there before licked my dress, the lace disappearing before me as it tore up my body, licking the left side of my face as it ravaged my body. The heat hurt my eyes, I could smell burning hair and skin as I realised it was my own, a thick smoke rising to my nostrils as I tried desperately to stop it. It didn't take long before I passed out.

It was Armand who saved me. Throwing his jacket over me and putting out the flames, the silk sticking to my face. That's all I know happened. And I only know that from a nurse who treated him. Armand died that same night. They don't know why, smoke inhalation or even shock they put it down to. Carolina was never found. I assume that she's dead, although I don't want it to be true. I wanted so bad to find her body, to take it home to my mother and father so we could give her a real burial.

When I awoke it was dark. I couldn't see anything, my eyes wouldn't open. There was a nurse over me, sighing and talking to me. I didn't feel anything when she touched my face. It felt cold. My ear, however, was still a cause of a drilling pain that coursed through my body. She was talking to me, though I couldn't hear. I passed out again.

I awoke again when two nurses were pushing me out of the bed and on to my feet. I could hear them say that another needed my bed, one who could pay, but at the time I didn't understand. They gave me a glass of water and ushered me out of the hospital. The pain was unimaginable. I touched the side of my face, a burn. It was wrinkled and saw under my fingers, and my ear was still hurting though not as bad. My eyes were sore from the smoke and from the hat that nearly dried them out. Now what hurt me most was my face. I was kicked out of the hospital, almost falling down the steps as I stumbled to the bottom, looking for a mirror I could look at myself in. People were gasping and looking away from me as they passed. I was confused and disorientated, not knowing fully where I was or where I was going. I passed a window and caught a glance at my face.

I haven't looked at it again.

Ok, I don't normally ask for reviews, but seen as it is my first I really want to know what you all think. So please leave a review!